“Fuck you, asshole. I’m going to think of you next time I do it.”
I cringed back against the booth’s seating at the thought before I shot back. “Whatever floats your boat.”
An hour later, while I was scrubbing the deck clean, O’s voice came through my earpiece. “Remy, Remy, Ophelia. Can you please meet me in the salon?”
Placing the mop back into the bucket, I sighed. It was about to begin.
“Remy, here. I’ll be there in five.” I walked as slowly as possible to put my cleaning gear away and then to the salon, where I found O with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping. She was pissed, and I secretly loved it.
“Captain Dan said you were to help us with the guests today and do whatever they want. I’m not sure how you got so lucky, but whatever.” The last word was said with so much disdain in it I had to chuckle.
“I wouldn’t call us lucky. He basically fed us to the sharks. And you know it wouldn’t be this way if we weren’t docked. In fact, you should be grateful we’re taking some of the load off of you guys. It’s not like we’re going to be enjoying ourselves.”
“Oh, I think you will,” O laughed humorlessly. “I saw the way you were looking at Stella. What were you thinking? Do you want to lose your job?”
She was jealous because I wasn’t looking at her the way I had looked at Stella even though I’d tried to hide it. “Jealous?” I taunted.
“You…” Her cheeks turned a bright shade of red as she stomped in place. For a moment there, I thought steam might actually come out of her ears; O was so pissed off.
“I’m what? I’m a warm-blooded male who can’t help but notice a beautiful woman. I haven’t acted on it, so what does it matter?” I lied.
“It’s unprofessional to look at paying customers that way. It could affect our tip. That’s money you’re taking away from all of us.”
Or it could give us more of a tip. I didn’t say it, though, because I didn’t want to argue with O. She could do it until the end of time if she wanted to.
“Have the guests requested one of the other crew or me?” I asked instead of fighting.
“They want you without your shirt serving them drinks upstairs in the sky lounge. Later I think they’re planning on having lunch in town and then shopping if it stops raining.”
I hoped they weren’t planning on me making said drinks because all I could do was pull the cap off a beer.
Turning on my heel, I made it to the stairs before I looked over my shoulder at O. “I’ll be upstairs for the foreseeable future if you need me.”
O narrowed her eyes but didn’t utter a word before I walked up the circular staircase to the sky lounge, where I found the women all doing exactly what the name said, lounging around with their phones and chatting amongst themselves.
Walking to the middle of the room, I lifted my shirt over my head. “I heard you’d like for me to serve you drinks this morning.”
“Oh yes,” Zelda said with a clap. “I’m thinking now that we’ve got you in front of us with all that skin showing, we should oil you up.”
I looked at Stella to see her reaction, but there was none. Last night, I never told her I couldn’t make it to her room or meet her anywhere else, and she had every right to be mad. She probably thought I stood her up.
“I’m sure I can find some oil around here,” Kylie said with a giggle from behind the bar.
“That would be perfect,” Stella exclaimed. “Do that after you make my Bloody Mary.”
“Of course,” Kylie tipped her head.
I was happy to see it wasn’t O making their drinks today. Otherwise, they’d be drunk and unruly before lunch.
Making my way to the bar, I rested my arms on it and leaned toward Kylie. “I hope you have a light hand.”
Her cheeks pinked up, and she ducked her head. What was this? I’d talked to her plenty of times over the course of the season and never once had Kylie blushed around me.
“Very light. Especially this morning. While a couple of them are more laid back, there are a few of them that are a lot to handle after they’ve been drinking.”
I knew exactly who she was talking about: Zelda and Reagan. They were a handful without drinking, so I didn’t want to imagine having to deal with them drunk for the day. Especially if I couldn’t be drinking.
“They’ve been coming up with all kinds of things for you to do today.” Kylie leaned closer and dropped her voice. “Did the Captain say you were to be their manservant?”
“Not in those exact words, but yeah, we’re to do anything they want today.”
“I bet you’re hoping this weather system moves through quickly then, huh?”
She had no idea. If we were docked, I could spend time with Stella if O wasn’t trying to prevent it from happening. Now I only needed to get Stella alone for a few minutes, so I could explain to her what happened.
Kylie set two drinks on the bar. “For Reagan and Zelda. I’ll be back after I find that oil.”
“Thanks,” I said in a tone that let her know I wasn’t thankful at all. I didn’t mind the ladies having fun, but lubing me up wasn’t my idea of fun. The water pressure in our cabins wasn’t the greatest, and it would take me forever to get it off, but I’d do whatever they wanted with the hope it would bring us a bigger tip.
It wasn’t until then that I realized I was basically whoring myself out for money.
“Here’s your drink.” I handed Zelda hers first since she was the primary and then Reagan’s.
“Did Kylie go
