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I saw the silver lock staring at me as I neared it and wondered if it was truly going to be as easy as opening the door and heading down the stairs. I wondered too if I might get caught, and, if so, what the punishment would be.
Surely they couldn’t do much to me. We were miles and miles out at sea. They couldn’t kick me off the boat. They couldn’t imprison me in my room or withhold any of the amenities of the ship that had already been paid for. Even if they did try to keep me locked up in my room, would it matter? I kind of enjoyed the solitude anyway.
I looked both ways, up and down the corridor to make sure the coast was clear. Then I took a deep breath and pushed on the door.
It popped open easily. Quietly. No resistance.
I hurried up and scurried through it, finding myself at the top landing of a set of rickety metal stairs. I slowly made my way down them into a hallway that was much less impressively decorated than the one I had been traversing.
The lower deck had not been redecorated with the rest of the boat. It was still very retro, throwing back to the era in which the boat had originally been built. I walked down the hallway a short distance and found door number two.
Another deep breath, then a knock.
And I waited.
Chapter 14
I wasn’t prepared to see Matteo when he opened the door. He looked disheveled. He hadn’t shaved, and his facial hair was scraggly and stubbly. His eyes were bloodshot. He wasn’t dressed in his usual, neat way. In fact, he was hardly dressed, except for a pair of gray sweatpants he had obviously thrown on to answer the door. The pockets hung loose, inside out as if he had only just pulled them from the laundry basket.
“Veloce!” he said, just as shocked to see me. He looked up and down the hallway before grabbing my arm to pull me into the cabin, gently but sternly. “You should not be down here!” he said. “The lower deck is for only staff. You are not meant to come down that staircase!”
“I know,” I said. “I heard you weren’t working tonight, and I really wanted to talk to you. One of the others told me where you might be.”
“Which of the others?” he asked.
I grinned, sheepishly. “I promised not to tell,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
He looked at me and shook his head at first, then started to chuckle.
“Oh, you’re a sly one,” he said. “We will have to be careful sneaking you back out.”
I started laughing too, suddenly taken by how ridiculous the situation was. “I was worried about you,” I said through a fit of giggles. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
He looked at me and smiled. His tired face still glowed friendly despite the circumstances.
“It’s been a hard time without you,” he admitted. “And things since we last spoke have become hard in the kitchen, too.”
I reached for his hand, giving it a gentle and caring squeeze. “What is happening in the kitchen?” I asked.
He sighed, heavily, and groaned. “I shouldn’t be discussing it with you,” he said. “But Esme has decided this is her last trip. She told me yesterday she is quitting. She cannot handle the way the customers behave toward her any longer.”
Immediately, Jessie’s interaction with Esme on our first day replayed in my mind—the argument about the champagne and how Jessie had spoken to Esme so harshly.
“Did she tell you anything specific?” I asked. “Was there an incident that led her to this?”
“She hasn’t said,” Matteo shrugged. “She was just very upset and told me she could not do this anymore.”
A familiar pang in my stomach told me I already knew what happened and who was to blame for Esme’s departure. It was the same kind I had felt when Jessie came to my room to talk about Matteo after the scuba diving incident.
“It was Jessie,” I said. “Our first night on the boat, she was very cruel to Esme. Esme had offered champagne, and Jessie ridiculed her. She embarrassed her in front of everyone. I am so sorry.”
Matteo nodded. “Perhaps that is it,” he said. “Perhaps it was something else. We cannot really know if Esme will not say, can we? Besides, you are not to blame for the behavior of another person. You have no reason to apologize to me.”
He sat down on the small sofa in his room and patted the seat beside him, gesturing for me to have a seat with him.
“Mi manche,” he said. “I miss you. Sit with me, and let’s talk a while.”
I smiled and made myself comfortable beside him. “I miss you, too,” I said. “I’ve hardly left my room. I’ve been kind of enjoying it, though. Being alone in the quiet has been good for me. It’s given me plenty of time to think.”
