“I don’t know,” he said, staring down at his glass. “Maybe.”
“That didn’t sound very positive.”
“No,” he said, “it’s not that. It’s just there’s been a lot of time under the bridge. You can never go backward.”
“You don’t have to,” she said gently. “Life isn’t about going backward. It’s about making today happen the way you want it to, based on the new set of ground rules that you have for yourself.”
“You have done a lot of thinking about this, haven’t you?” he asked with a laugh.
Just then Diesel joined them. “Aren’t you guys nice and cozy,” he said. “What’s all this heavy conversation? Wanna give me a clue? A little bit about it, not everything?”
She looked up and smiled and said, “We’re discussing Jerricho’s love life.”
He looked at Jerricho, looked at her, and said, “Wow, now that’s a great conversation.” He added, “I didn’t even know Jerricho had one.”
“That’s because his heart’s still stuck with his ex-wife.”
He looked over at Jerricho and said, “Really, man?”
Jerricho just smiled and said, “Eva’s just taking it a little further than I would.” He shrugged. “Basically my first love was my wife, but we’ve been divorced a long time now.” He murmured, “At least twelve years.”
“And is that something you want to go back to?”
“I wouldn’t say that, but Eva’s the one who keeps harping on it.” And, at that, he said, “Here. Have a glass of wine, and let’s eat.”
Diesel said, “I’m starved.”
Eva watched as Diesel took his place beside her. She sniffed the air and said, “Wow, is that what a clean male smells like?”
He burst out laughing. “Absolutely,” he said. “Didn’t have a chance to shower earlier.”
“Oh, I know,” she said. “I’m the one who was tucked up against you all day.”
He wrinkled his face. “Was it that bad?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, I’m just kidding.”
He said, “You’re just a big tease.”
“No,” she said, “I’m just letting Jerricho off the hook from a conversation that he doesn’t want to continue anymore.”
At that, Jerricho looked at her and grinned. “You are very astute,” he said. “And you’ve given me lots to think about.”
“Good enough,” she said. Then she turned to Diesel and said, “Now to you.”
“To me for what?” Diesel asked. He lifted his glass, held it up to clink against hers, and said, “I thought we already decided that we would see each other when this was over.”
At that, Jerricho laughed. “Wow,” he said, “nice and fast.”
“Well, yes, on both cases,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting back to normal.”
“What is normal for you?” Jerricho asked curiously.
She smiled, shrugged, and said, “Not a whole lot. Work, home, work, home. The occasional visit with my father. Even fewer with my brother.”
“That doesn’t sound very awe-inspiring.”
“Well, I made my work my life,” she said quietly. “And I’m only just now realizing that, as I did that, I was losing out on other aspects of life,” she added with a smile.
“Sometimes it takes something like this to shake us up, to give us a chance to reevaluate, and to see what we want to do differently.”
“And that appears to be exactly what’s happened,” she said. “So we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
“Good enough,” Diesel said. They ate their way through a wonderful dinner, provided by their host, who none of them had nor would meet. One staff member took care of their needs. And, when dinner was over, Diesel looked over at her and said, “Needs to be bedtime.”
“Already?” she said. She looked around at the massive yacht amid a softly churning ocean. “It’s such a beautiful ship.”
“It is, and we are guests, but we’re not necessarily welcome to wander.”
“Aha,” she said. “So no sitting on the top deck to watch the sunset, right?”
He tilted his head to the side and said, “You know that I can ask, but we’ve been more or less requested to stay confined to our quarters.”
“In that case,” she said, “that’s what we’ll do.”
As the staff member removed her plate, she looked up, smiled, and said, “Thank you. It was delicious.” He inclined his head but didn’t say a word.
Diesel watched him as he carted everything onto a trolley and pushed the trolley from the room. He already knew the drill, but she hadn’t been in this situation before. Not that he had been exactly in one like this either though. He looked over at Jerricho. “Four-hour watches?”
“Yes,” Jerricho said. “Can you take the first one?”
“Sure. I’ve had more sleep than you.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jerricho said, “but I could use some, being in the face of that wind all day. While piloting the ship is amazing, that wind just tuckers you out.”
“I know,” he said, as he looked over at Eva. “Come on. We’ll go down to our quarters.”
She stood, tossed back the last of her red wine, and said, “That should help me sleep.”
“Good,” Diesel said, “you need it too.”
“Just seems like everything’s a bit disjointed,” she noted.
“And we’re not done yet,” he said.
“Too bad,” she said. “But, if we’re confined on this ship, and we can’t move around, then maybe that’s just for the best.”
“They don’t want anybody to be seen. They’ve done a big favor for us,” he explained, “and we don’t want to put them in any danger by somebody who might happen to be looking for us.”
“I get it,” she said, “believe me I do.”
“Good,” he said. “Come on then.” And they went down a hallway and on to their quarters.
As they walked in, she sat down on the bed with a thunk. Diesel came in with her and sat down beside her. She looked at him in surprise. “Are you staying here with me?”
“One of us always will be,” he said. “Jerricho’s sleeping right now, so I’m here.”
“Wow,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“We want to make sure
