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“Nice to meet you!” she said in a rich, pronounced accent. “My name is Esme, and I will be happy to serve you on this cruise! Can I offer you a celebratory glass of chilled champagne to toast our departure?”
“Yes, please!” I said, sitting up and accepting a glass.
Jessie wrinkled her nose.
“What kind is it?” she asked. “Is it something good or cheap stuff?”
Esme gave her a warm smile. “Moet & Chandon Grand Vintage,” she replied. “It is a favorite of both Rufus, our bartender, and Chef Matteo.”
Jessie groaned. “My mom drinks that stuff,” she sighed. “It’s only like $80 bucks a bottle. It’s not that big of a deal.”
I couldn’t believe how rude she was behaving, but Esme’s smile did not break.
“Well, would you still like some?” Esme asked again, politely.
“Do I look like I want any?” Jessie snapped.
“Apologies,” Esme said. “Did not mean to bother.” She turned and walked away quickly to another table.
“You don’t have to be so rude to people,” I remarked.
“It’s annoying,” Jessie said. “I didn’t come here because I wanted to be harassed with a tray of cheap booze.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just being rude because she’s beautiful?” I asked, realizing too late I was speaking my thoughts without sugaring them up for her first.
“What do you mean by that?” she hissed.
I paused, almost afraid to continue, but decided there was no point in holding back. I gestured toward the hot bartender, who we now knew was named Rufus, smiling and engaging patrons at the bar.
“If he had carried that tray over, would you have even asked what kind it was?” I questioned.
“Of course, I would have,” she fired back, defensively.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “And if you did and he answered, you would have responded differently. You would have played up how charming it is that that’s your mom’s favorite. You wouldn’t have scoffed at the price and sent him away.”
Jessie went silent. Her face turned red with anger as she glared at me. Then, she snapped closed the cover on her kindle and started gathering her things to leave.
“Where are you going, Jess?” I asked with a heavy sigh. “We can’t even talk about stuff?”
She didn’t say another word. She slung her bag over her shoulder and stormed away angrily. I would have almost felt bad, except it was the first truly peaceful moment of the vacation thus far.
I leaned back into my chair and let myself smile. I decided right then that I was not going to let Jessie’s attitude ruin another trip for me. I was not going to chase after her. I was not going to apologize.
The time had come in my friendship with Jess to worry only about myself—after all, she’d been putting herself first for years.
Chapter 3
“Can you believe that?!” Jessie asked, storming in through my cabin door. We were now on the second day of our cruise, and the other girls had all just declared their targets—including Lissa, who had selected the captain, despite Jessie’s shared interest in him.
The decision of which of the two of them would get to pursue the captain had come up to a group vote with Jessie losing out in the end for two major reasons: Lissa already knew the captain—he was the best friend of her father, making their triste even more scandalous if she could get it off the ground—and the fact that Lissa had never played the game until now.
“She has never even wanted to play, and now she wants to just so she can run interference on my pick!” Jessie huffed, throwing herself back onto my bed. “I thought we made a rule about running interference, anyway? Are the rules just all out the window now that Lissa wants to join in?”
I sighed.
“She can’t be running interference if you haven’t declared your pick yet,” I clarified. “The game doesn’t start until everyone’s picked their man. You know this.”
“But I had already picked my man!” Jessie argued. “Just because she doesn’t want me to have him, now she wants in the game, and she wants to claim him? How is that fair at all?”
