“Dane,” Jessa fills in, distracting me. “That’s my fiancé’s name. Ex-fiancé, rather.”
I push the white dress aside and opt for another, less practical option. One that doesn’t trigger an unwanted rush of things I’ve spent a long time suppressing.
The blue slip dress in my hand will do just fine for this little kotyonok.
“I walked in on him with my maid of honor.”
I shake my head in disgust. “Could he get any more cliché?”
“Right? It would be laughable if it wasn’t so devastating.”
“Is it devastating, though?”
She seems confused by the question. “What do you mean? Of course it is. I was supposed to marry the man.”
“And now, you don’t have to spend the rest of your life tied to a cheater,” I point out. “Or with a shitty friend.”
“Yeah, but there’s an alternative scenario I thought I had locked up,” she says, her piercing eyes fixed on me now. “One where my fiancé isn’t a cheating bastard and my best friend isn’t a backstabbing bitch.”
“That’s not the reality you’re living, though. No matter how much you try to fight it.”
She sighs. “No, I suppose not.”
I hand her the blue dress. She accepts it mutely, but the moment she actually studies it, her eyebrows knit together.
“This is beautiful.”
Yeah. That was probably her one redeeming quality. The woman who bought this had good taste.
“It should fit. It’s just something to wear underneath your chef’s whites,” I tell her.
She eyes the dress skeptically. “Is it really okay if I wear this?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Doesn’t it belong to someone?”
I turn towards the door so that she won’t see the black expression that flickers across my face. “Not anymore.”
Then, without bothering to wait for an answer, I stride out of the room, leaving Jessa stranded behind me.
* * *
The moment I get above deck, Yulian is in my face, a shit-eating grin on his face. “She’s pretty.”
“Did you take care of Anatoly?” I ask.
Yulian smiles. “He just disembarked. He wasn’t too thrilled, but when I handed him the paycheck he didn’t earn, he got over it.”
“Money usually has that effect.”
“I’ve informed the kitchen staff of the change in command, too,” Yulian adds.
“Good.”
I walk towards the cockpit. Yulian trails behind me. “Can she even cook?”
“We’ll find out, won’t we?”