“He said he was leaving.”
“He’ll stay,” he said. “You got his phone. He won’t leave without it.”
“He hasn’t checked to see if it was still there. I was trying to stall him.”
“Avery said to come get you,” he said. “And to take you to the spa.”
“I don’t want to go to the spa.”
“Marc’s waiting for you. With Blake. And one of the guys from Nightingale. Not Mr. Smith. The other one.”
It wasn’t Colt, so it had to be one of the other two coming onboard. I sighed, dropping my shoulders. I gave up. Colt was either going to leave or look for his phone. Hopefully Raven was right and he’d stay. I couldn’t just go chase him down and sit on him at this point. “What are we doing? Why am I going? I’m hopping from one to another.”
“There’s a hot spring bath. It’s a Japanese...I don’t know the word. I don’t know Japanese. Hot bath.”
“Like a hot tub?”
Raven shrugged. “Marc is there.”
I realized Raven might not really know, and was just told to fetch me. “Okay, fine,” I said. I waved a hand, indicating we should go.
Raven stayed by the door. He pulled the ear bud out of his ear and put it in his palm, making a fist around it. He was cutting himself off so whoever was talking to him wouldn’t hear. “I want to say something first.”
“What?”
He pressed his lips together, his dark eyes steady on me. “Corey told me about what happened with Axel.”
“What?”
“He tried to come onto you. You turned him down.”
My lips parted, jaw slackened. I struggled to recall what had happened with Axel in the children’s play room and everything I’d said. We had been arguing. If they weren’t watching what we were doing, how much did they hear and assume what was going on?
Had my earpiece still worked then, too? Where had I put mine? Did Blake hear what happened with Axel?
Was he listening now?
I didn’t know what to say to Raven. My pulse quickened, until my heartbeats were loud in my ears. My face burned, really embarrassed. Maybe they’d all know that Axel and I had been more than just friends, something they all tried to do with me. For some reason, I couldn’t recall anything I’d said, and worried I’d reveal everything I was really feeling.
I wanted to run. Maybe even off of the boat. My heart hurt. Raven just looked at me, not saying anything. Had I hurt him? Did he hate me? If Corey knew...is that why Brandon was mad? Because they knew? Did he feel rejected and worried he couldn’t talk to me about it?
“Raven,” I said, my heart crumpling into a thousand pieces. I didn’t want to beg but my lip trembled and I was scared to death of losing him.
“I love Axel,” he said quietly. “It’s the only reason he isn’t dead right now.”
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Don’t say that.”
“Has he pressured you before?”
My head shot up, surprised. “Huh?”
“I didn’t hear what he said, but Corey told me it sounded like Axel was over...over-bear-ning.”
“Overbearing?”
“Same. He said you cried.”
Axel probably did sound pretty aggressive. And if they thought he’d made me cry, then...oh god. Maybe that’s why Axel had to get away from me. The boys had overheard. They ganged up on him to leave me alone.
What a mess. What had I done?
I breathed out slowly, folding my arms across my stomach, simply trying to hold myself together. “Raven...”
Raven marched forward, away from the door. His arms went around my waist, hugging me to him. He ignored the juice and coffee mess and simply held on. “You turned him down, but you didn’t say anything about me. I understand. Too soon. I knew Marc liked you. I didn’t know about Axel. But Axel shouldn’t use his position to put you in a relationship with him.”
I didn’t have an answer for him. I don’t know what the boys talked about and what they thought had happened. I needed to fix this but I didn’t know what Corey said to them about what he heard. “Don’t blame Axel. Please. It’s really a misunderstanding. Where is Axel now?”
“He’s doing his job. Brandon’s going to follow him for now since we switched.”
“We can’t just avoid Axel. I can’t. He’s my boyfriend for this trip.” I didn’t know what to do. Raven had isolated us to talk about it. I needed to talk to Corey and clear things up with him. I didn’t want to make things worse by talking about Axel before I had that chance.
“Right now you need to go help Marc.” He hugged me tighter and then released me, kissed my cheek and then guided me to the door. “I have to cover Kevin.”
I sighed, letting him show me the way. I didn’t want to leave anyone alone. I couldn’t believe what they were thinking and how they all must have been in crazy turmoil over it. There was nothing I or Axel could do to explain it yet.
I should have said I’d stay at home instead of going on this trip. The problems were piling up around me. The boat hadn’t even taken off yet.
HOT BATH
Raven guided me to the spa. It had a frosted glass front door, with a single line of Japanese characters etched into the middle. There was nothing else on that side of the hallway. Whatever this spa was, it took up a lot of space. It was oddly cut off from the rest of the ship, and seemed isolated even just in the hallway.
When Raven opened the door, we were immediately greeted by a woman who had been standing just inside, as if expecting us. She wore a blue kimono, the print had pink cranes and a water lily garden. She held on to a woven sweetgrass basket, like the ones they sold in downtown Charleston. She was Asian, and her dark hair was combed back and pinned with hair sticks. She bowed. “Yes? May I help you?”
“Kitty Lane,” Raven said. “She has an appointment for a hot bath.”
“Kitty Lane,” the woman said and bowed her head again, holding out the basket. Inside was a selection of gold wrapped candies. I took one, mostly to be polite. “Please,” she said. “Women to the right.”
The room had a large rock face fountain built into the floor, looking like a pond. There was a man-made brook that trickled down the rocks in the wall. The large feature divided the space. The rest of the walls and floor were the same pale wood, making the pond the one and only focal point. There were open hallways to the left and right. No desk. There were short benches near the door on either side, and near those were racks of shoe shelves. Three pairs on the men’s side. None on the women’s.
I went to the women’s side, taking off my shoes and
then removing my socks, too, since those were wet and I didn’t want to mess up the floor. I balled them up, with the tape still inside them, and put them in the shoes. I passed them to Raven. “I can’t wear these,” I said. “Will you let Fancy know that I am in need of more clothes?”
He nodded and took the shoes. “I’ll have some brought up for you.”
I shared a look with Raven: I’m so sorry for this mess. I wish I could talk.
He didn’t say anything, and gave no indication as to his mood.
“Would you like to follow me?” The woman in the kimono said. She made sweeping hand movements. “Please?”
I did, looking back longingly to Raven. I was totally not wanting a bath right now. I needed one and was a mess, but whatever this was, I suspected there was more to it than a tub for washing my body.
Raven stood by the door, looking solemn. We both had jobs to do, though. We didn’t have the time. He couldn’t escort me through the women’s side, and Marc was probably already in this hot bath.
The Asian woman escorted me, motioning with her hand over and over again to continue. She had me walk ahead of her and we and ended up in locker room. The woman then jumped ahead of me and stopped me before I stepped on the white tiles. Everything in the room was white and tiled, if it wasn’t a bench or locker. The walls were tiled, which was weird. Maybe it was easier to clean.
I didn’t know why she stopped me until she pointed down. There was a bucket filled with flip flops, all the same size right near the entryway. She selected a pair and held them at my feet for me to step into. “We wear these in the shower room,” she said.
I stepped into the shoes, and she adjusted them on my feet. Awkward. They were flimsy and pink, a disposable, one size fits all type. Why did they have me take off my shoes just to put on new ones?
The lockers were painted white. There were low benches near the lockers. Nothing fancy. Where was this bath?
“Wear these everywhere in here,” she said. She pointed to the far side of the locker room to a basket by the door. Deposit them over there.” She motioned to a row of showers. “Get undressed, wash and shower and then there are towels to wrap yourself in before you go outside. I’ll get you kimono if you like.”