Max:Balestrino. Ghost town in Italy. Some of it was destroyed by an earthquake, rubble everywhere. It will be perfect.
Vincenzo:Googling while we speak.
Vincenzo:YES! Perfect.
Vincenzo:Naked models, in diamonds, climbing over rubble in a ghostly town.
Max:My thoughts exactly. I’ll figure out who to speak to and get back to you.
Vincenzo:Genius. Always a genius.
Max:Speak later.
I lowered my phone and Ash was standing on the deck tracking the sun with an app on her phone and taking some notes.
“Are you finished?” I asked, and she seemed to angle herself away from me.
“No, have to figure out a drone shot still.”
“You look hot and thirsty. I was going to get myself a water. You want one?”
“No, thanks. I’m perfectly fine.”
I smiled to myself as I walked away and grabbed two waters anyway.
“The weather app says it is thirty-eight degrees today. I hope you’re wearing sun cream.” I returned with the waters and walked straight up to her. She swung round as if she’d gotten a fright.
“Here.” I held the water out and she stared down at it.
“It’s just a bottle of water, Ash. Nothing else.” I was amused by what had clearly been a very deliberate attempt to avoid me at all costs today. There had been a few moments when she’d seen me and then darted in the opposite direction.
“Thanks.” She took the water, and within seconds had removed the lid and was gulping it down. As I’d suspected, she’d forgotten to drink while working. Probably forgotten to eat too. She always did this when she got caught up in something. When we were studying for exams, I used to make sure I brought her bags of snacks so she didn’t fall over. I wondered who brought her snacks and water now. My stomach tightened. I shouldn’t have gone away. I should have stayed to bring her snacks while she studied at film school and then ran around in the sun like this.
“The staff is setting up dinner for us tonight. And I have to warn you: it is going to have candles. It’ll be under the stars, on a deck at one of their lodges.”
“A lodge?”
“Yes, I wanted to see one of their sister lodges as well, so they suggested a dinner there, before we get back onto the boat. Is that okay?”
“That’s actually perfect. I’m sure the lodge will have better WiFi than this boat and I need to send Sebastian a lot of footage today,” she said, turning her head away from me.
“Great, but I do just want to remind you it will be romantic, because I know how allergic you are to anything romantic, especially with me and your detox.” I couldn’t help the small breathy chuckle as I said that.
She turned and looked at me. “Just what exactly are you trying to imply there, Max?”
“Nothing, just thinking that your detox is not going as well as you would have liked it to. Perhaps there are some things that are proving a little too hard to resist.”
“Hardly,” she said, rolling her eyes.What a blatant lie!She knew it and I knew it. She looked away again and started chugging back more water.
“You should have a dip in the plunge pool when you’ve finished working. You look pretty hot.”
She gave me the side-eye as she drank.
“And I mean that in a purely weather-based sense, by the way, not the other hot, which you do too, also, by the way.”
She lowered the bottle. “When did you become such a flirt?”
“A flirt?” I took a step closer to her and she stiffened immediately. “That was not flirting. I’m not flirting.”
