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The small smile he gives me makes my blood boil. “If you’d like to report me for doing what you deem to be an inadequate job, please be my guest, but believe it or not, Iamtrying. I am doing everything I can to help you. For now, though, I need you to leave my office.” He holds out an arm, showing me to the door. “I have another meeting in fifteen minutes, and I need to prepare.”
With that, he stalks past me and opens the door.
Florence slips a hand under my arm, pulling me to stand. I want to argue, to say or do something, but I can see this is going to be left up to me. No one is going to help us here. If Mae is to be saved, I’ll be doing the saving.
He leads us down the hallway and swipes his key card at the elevator before pressing the button to send us back to the fourth floor. Without a word, he turns and walks away. I watch him disappear as the two metal sides of the door pull closed.
“We’re going to find her,” Florence says, more to fill the silence than anything. “At least now we have a piece of the puzzle.”
“Why would she have gone back to the bar? It doesn’t make sense,” I mumble under my breath. “Did she tell you she was going back? Did you know she knew the man?”
“No,” she says quickly, but I can’t tell if she’s lying. Would she have helped Mae escape? Run away with another man? Leave me? Would she be able to stand in front of me and lie so easily?
I hate to admit it, even to myself, but I think the answer is yes. If Mae wanted to leave, Florence would’ve helped her. If she needed her to lie to me, she would.
As far as friends go, I’ve always known Florence was Mae’s first, but I’ve considered her to be mine too, since we met five years ago. Now? Now, I have no idea whom to trust.
“She didn’t tell me anything, Blake. I swear to you. She said she was going to bed. I’m not sure why she came back to the bar or why she was talking to that man. I’m not sure who he is. Whatever’s going on, I promise I’m just as in the dark as you are… I just want her to come back. I want to know she’s okay.”
If she’s lying, she’s a damn good actor.
She glances down at her phone. “I’ve… I’m sorry. I need to go to the room to meet Patton for just a second. Do you want to come with me?”
“No. I want to do another walk around the boat. There has to be something we missed. Something small. A hair tie. An earring. Something the crew wouldn’t have noticed, something we may have passed over this morning.”
“Good idea.” She twists a piece of hair behind her ear. “You shouldn’t do that alone. I’ll text Patton to tell him where to find me.”
“No, it’s fine. Go get Patton. You can join me when you’re done.” I can’t tell her that I just really need to be alone right now. I feel ready to combust and deflate all at once, and being around her, knowing what she kept from me—no matter how small—only makes it worse.
“Okay. Are you sure?”
“Positive. I’ll just start out on the top deck and work my way down. Text me when you’re back and we’ll find each other.”
“Fine. But promise me you’ll get something else to drink. Water, I mean. Something to eat would be good, too.” She gives me a sad smile. “Mae will never forgive me if she finds out I let you dehydrate yourself.”
I nod but make no promises.
When she’s gone, I head for the stairs. My mind is racing in every direction.
In theory, maybe I should be relieved to finally have some sort of clue about what happened to her. Instead, I feel angrier and more lost than ever. As if I’m the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on. As if Mae, Florence, Diego, and this mystery man are all in on something I’m not allowed to be told. As if secret conversations are happening behind my back.
I thought I wasn’t alone with Florence here. I thought that no matter what happened, at least I had her to help me get through it—had her to understand how lost I feel without Mae—but ever since she told me about the man, ever since she revealed her lie, I can’t help wondering what else she’s hiding.
Does she know who the man is?
Does she know where Mae is?
Why would she lie to me in the first place?
Did Mae ask her to?
I think about those things because if I don’t, I find myself focusing on the harder questions. Why would Mae dance with the man? Why would she lie to me about knowing him? Why would she come back and have a drink with him? Was she having an affair? Did they plan to run away together?
But how? She had no idea we were going on the cruise, did she? Had she seen the credit card charges, after all?
My mind is a tidal wave of questions crashing into me, forcing me to face what everyone seems to think is the truth: Mae might’ve left me. Right now, it seems like the most obvious answer. The most obvious answer is usually the correct one, isn’t it?
I think back over the past months since our wedding. Almost a year. She’s been happy, hasn’t she? I’ve made her happy…
