by Mignon Mykel
“Hello?”
“Hey, Chief. You up yet?”
I flopped over to my back and threw my unoccupied arm over my eyes, fighting a smile at Caleb’s voice. “I am now.”
“I seem to recall being woken up by a phone call once. Thought I could return the favor. You missed a great sunrise. Maybe I’ll get you to see one before you leave. You up for breakfast?”
“I could eat.”
“Good. I studied a map,” he said and I could hear the grin in his voice. “We missed some cafés on the upper decks and figured we could eat breakfast there and watch as we ported.”
“Don’t be mean,” I jested back but then yawned. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready. What room were you in?” The phone numbers to the rooms were easy enough – a simple four followed by the room number. I could call him when I was ready to head out.
“Eighty-three twenty.”
He was literally two doors down from me. “I could just knock on your door, I guess, rather than call. Would that be ok?”
“Sure. See you in a few, Syd.”
It didn’t matter how much I reminded myself that I wasn’t his type, that he was a bit of a playboy, and was an easy flirt. I liked his company and I enjoyed talking with him. His calling this morning was a great wake up call, if I were going to be honest with myself.
I would have to work on wiping this disgusting grin off my face in the next five minutes. I couldn’t very well pull off the friend vibe if I was flirting and smiling like a goon. The queen of two minute showers, I jumped out of bed and grabbed my suitcase from the small couch – because who had time to put things in drawers and closets when you had a good looking male acquaintance to explore with?
I pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank top, as well as my toiletry bag, and headed to the little bathroom. I was a fan of dry shampoo so I quickly tossed my hair in its ever present knot after spraying the heck out of it.
Some Dark Kiss body wash later, I stepped out, dried off, and quickly lathered SPF 50 over my shoulders and other exposed skin, before literally hopping into my shorts. I pulled the tank over my head as I exited the bathroom, stepping back in briefly for my dry shampoo as I pulled my knot down. A quick spray and fingers running over my scalp later, I slid on my flip flops and gathered my hair into a knot. I wasn’t about to bother with makeup today, so I grabbed my clutch and walked out of the room – after double checking for my key card, of course.
The door closed behind me with a soft click and I walked the two doors down to Caleb’s room. I raised my fist to knock, but as my heart did its own knocking against my chest, I paused and took a breath. Finally, I knocked three times and chewed on my bottom lip.
When the door opened, I grinned wide. “Hey.” He was in another tee today, paired with khaki shorts, and he wore flip flops—wore them well, I’d have to add. Not many men did.
“Morning, Chief,” he said, stepping into the hall, crowding me a little – not that I would complain. I stepped back to allow him room, though, but as he reached to pull the door closed, I saw a huge window behind him.
“Oh my gosh, is that your room?” I slapped my hand against the closing door and pushed it back open, stepping around him.
He raised a brow at me, a laugh on his lips. “Considering I just came out of it, yeah, it’s my room.”
“It’s freaking gorgeous.” I moved into the suite where he was staying. There was a kitchenette immediately to my left and a sitting area to my right, but what grabbed my attention was the two story window wall directly in front of me.
He chuckled at my enthusiasm and followed me as I walked toward the windows. “Certainly not a bad gig.”
“Here you had me thinking you woke up and went somewhere to watch the sunrise, but you probably just sat on the couch.”
“Nah, the bed’s up there. Great view.”
I turned and saw him pointing toward an open loft area with its own glass half-walls. “Dang, Caleb. I would never want to leave this room.” I turned my attention back to the windows and walked toward his balcony, opening the sliding glass door to step out. Not only did he have the required two deck chairs, there was also a hot tub. “My goodness gracious, Caleb, you better keep this room under wraps. The girls will be flocking to you and your fancy digs, inviting themselves in and seducing you just for the view.”
And just like that, I realized I essentially did just that. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours my eyes widened, but this time, I paired it with a subconscious hand to mouth. “Oh my gosh, I totally just invited myself into your room. I am so sorry, Caleb. That was so completely rude of me.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. Hey, maybe tomorrow you can catch the sunrise with me,” he said, completely bypassing the fact. Surely he had privacy boundaries.
“Yeah, sure. We can scope out a place on one of the observation decks later today,” I said as I hurriedly walked past him toward the door. However, as I passed him he reached out and grabbed my arm, halting me.
“Really, Syd, this is ok. Don’t worry about it.” He let go of my arm and gave me his crooked smile. As his dimple flashed, I realized that the day-old scruff that typically adorned his goatee was gone, leaving a clean cut along his jaw line. Must have been cleaning up for the ladies.
I nodded once with a tight smile. “Ok. Now let’s go get breakfast; I’m starved.”
He allowed me to drop the conversation and followed me out into the hall. “So, there’s this bistro up on the fourteenth deck that serves typical American-style breakfast. I figured that would be better than the continental stuff on the pool deck.”
I nodded. “Sounds delicious.” I headed toward the stairs and heard him stifle a chuckle behind me. “You’re more than welcome to take the elevator and meet me there, Caleb.”
“Nah, it’s all good,” he said, the chuckle evident in his voice. When we reached our destination and found a vacant table, Caleb pulled out a chair for me.
“Thanks, friend,” I said as I sat down.
“Anything for a friend,” he mumbled but flashed a grin quickly as he sat.
I slid a menu in front of me and opened it, all while talking – multitasking at its finest. “Were you going to still want to hang out today?”
“Of course,” he said, a slight frown pulling his brows a moment before he looked at his own menu. “Any idea what you’d like to do?”
I glanced up briefly only to find his eyes in his own menu, so I went back to the words in front of me. “I was hoping to do a waterfall hike and of course, the luau tonight.”
When he chuckled, I looked up at him. “I’m on vacation, woman. My trainer expects me to come in to camp at five percent body fat, not three.”
He really was all muscle…
I tried to ignore the thought – friend zone, I reminded myself yet again – and shrugged nonchalantly. “You don’t have to come with. You would always chill at a beach with a beer or something. Work on that gut,” I added with a slight grin, putting my menu down and looking across to him.
His brows rose, his lips curled, and he nodded slightly. “My gut, hey?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “We can’t all have athletic physiques.”
Caleb chuckled and closed his menu, shaking his head. “I have nothing. I don’t have a comeback for that, but you better watch yourself.”
It was amazing to me how easily I could joke around with him. The first day I’d met him, I was a blundering mess of nerves, and here I was, essentially on vacation with him. I knew that the women I’d picked for him for the show would blow his socks off and I couldn’t help but be a bit envious.
As each hour passed in Caleb’s company, I found myself wanting a little bit more.
I would fancy myself having feelings for a guy totally out of my league, let alone a guy who literally told me his type and I clearly wasn’t it – that ridiculous ‘attractive’ comment yesterday aside.
I was going to have to put distance between us if these
feelings kept growing.
…I just didn’t want to.
Caleb
This week was going entirely too fast.
I glanced at the clock beside the bed and saw that I was meeting Sydney for our daily sunrise in about twenty minutes. With my hands behind my head, I closed my eyes and reflected on the last couple of days.
As Sydney wanted, she and I participated in the waterfall hike and the night luau – both of which were actually pretty fun. The hike wasn’t as strenuous as I had assumed. Apparently ‘hike’ held different meanings for different people. As it was, it was a simple walk through a rainforest more or less, with pretty awesome waterfalls.
The best part of that excursion had to be Sydney. Her sarcasm had come out more, and she smiled often. When she smiled, her eyes almost looked like fire, the browns and reds literally dancing. She was pretty, yes, but more than that, she was fun to be around and could make me laugh.
Maybe my dad was right – you could meet someone in a month’s time and fall for them.
I wasn’t really the relationship type. I liked meeting women, yes. I loved their bodies and enjoyed figuring out their likes and wants.
But I never really was a guy who kept one woman around for longer than a few weeks. It wasn’t exactly easy with the schedule I kept. Sure, athletes for decades had juggled families and the job, but there were just as many successful marriages as there were relationships doused in infidelity. With the positive example my parents had shown, I wasn’t about dragging a woman around and then cheating on her if something different or better came around. And then when you started adding kids to the mix…
I grew up with the lifestyle and while I’d definitely be the first to say my childhood wasn’t bad, that I loved pretty much every part of it, I wasn’t so sure that I’d want to subject kids to it. Not at the height of my career. Growing up, life definitely was more fun when dad was around to eat dinner, go to games, and do regular family things. Of that, I was envious of my youngest siblings.
The closer the end of the week came though, the more a sort of anxiousness settled in my chest.
After four days and pretty sights, a luau, dinners, parasailing, and movies on the upper deck at midnight, then reconvening four hours later for sunrises, I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to the pixie redhead.
I knew months ago at the coffee shop when she said it was likely the last time I’d see her, I didn’t want it to be the end. For whatever reason, I thought that a week on a boat with her would settle… I don’t know.
Everything.
I’m not sure what I was going for with this trip to be perfectly honest.
A friendship?
A hook up?
Well, the friendship was there – it kind of jabbed me a little every time she called me ‘friend’, as if she were reminding herself just as much as me. And while I didn’t think Sydney had a ‘hook up’ bone in her body, I found myself wanting more from her.
Which was the problem.
I signed the dotted line. I was doing this stupid dating show in a couple days’ time and would be saying goodbye to Sydney.
What was the protocol in trying to keep her friendship – with the ultimate idea that I wanted more? Wish her good luck; I’d see her in a month? I got the distinct feeling that she would feel like she failed her assignment if I didn’t find a woman on this show. I learned over the past few days that Sydney’s organization was a byproduct of her perfectionism.
Her colors matched always. Her cabin was always put together and the girly products in her bathroom were lined up with even spaces. She took notes and made plans and almost made me synchronize my watch to hers.
Ok, not so much on that last point, but I wouldn’t put it past her.
She was organized and a perfectionist, and she truly felt that she found a group of twenty ladies that would catch my eye. And I’m not saying that they wouldn’t catch my eye; I was just pretty sure there was already one that caught my attention more than any other woman had since Emily in high school. It probably said something about me that my most serious relationship in the last ten years was during my sophomore year of high school.
I had three days to figure this all out.
Three days before I could potentially lose out on the one person who made me question my
future.
“We can’t keep meeting like this.”
The smile on my face was automatic. I opened my eyes to find Sydney standing over me in the near dark.
About five minutes earlier, I made my way to the upper deck and found our lounge seats, the same ones we vacated only a few hours prior. After sitting down, I leaned back against the slight recline and closed my eyes while I waited. I must have fallen asleep because that was the fastest five minutes in the history of man.
“Aw, but I like it.” I reached for her hand and tugged her down on to the chair beside me. She laughed as she plopped down before sighing heavily, content, as she swung her legs around to lounge beside me.
“I honestly think I’m going to miss this. You don’t get sunrises like this in Utah.”
I looked at her from the corner of my eye and took her in. Unlike almost every other female, Sydney didn’t look like she tried with me and it was surprisingly refreshing.
She was dressed in flannel green plaid pajama bottoms with a thin white thermal, the sleeves pushed up. I could see the tie-dyed colors of a sport bra underneath. Her mess of wavy red hair was down and starting to grow with the early morning humidity.
This was my favorite look on her.
I liked her made up. I liked her sundresses and her dress pants, her heels and her bun thing. But like this, she was real and I wanted her a little bit more. It was when I imagined her face flush with pleasure and her eyes bright with want. Her red hair spanned out over a pillow and a smile on her face that I put there.
“We only have two more after this morning.” Maybe I was looking for it, but was that a melancholy note to her voice? “We should probably actually skip Monday morning.” I fully turned my face toward her when she looked at me. She still leaned against the back of her chair but she pulled her legs up to her chest. “You’re going to need to sleep before meeting everyone. Six nights of four hours of sleep certainly isn’t going to be wiped away with makeup.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t giving up my last few hours with her. Monday we would dock by seven with the next guests, or rather the contestants, starting to arrive around three. From brief look-overs of the itinerary, I knew that my filming day was going to start right away in the morning, which meant I wanted the early morning hours to say goodbye to Sydney.
Hell, I was going to need them.
Sydney’s smile was tight-lipped and a little sad. “Caleb.” She lifted her brows. “Don’t you want to be at your best for all those ladies? I’m sure they won’t truly care, you being who you are, but shouldn’t you put your best foot forward?”
There was the added reminder. The other girls and that they were going to want to spend time with me because of who I was. They may come onto the ship with no idea who their leading man was, but the moment my name was spoken, my career came out, my awards were mentioned… Someone was going to SalaryCap.com my ass and then it was no longer about me but what I could do for them.
If I wanted that, I could have stayed back in San Diego.
“I can take a nap.” When her frown deepened a little more, I tried winning her over with a half-grin, knowing it made the Prescott Dimple pop. I wasn’t above playing dirty. “Chief, honestly, I’ll be fine. Have you thought about what you wanted to do today?” I asked, changing the subject.
She turned back in her lounge chair so she was stretched out again, crossing her legs at her ankles. “No, not really. It’s another overnight dock, right?”
I nodded, tearing my eyes off her comfortable form and fixing my gaze in the direction of the horizon. “I was looking over the itinerary. We won’t dock in Kauai for another few hours and are there
until early afternoon tomorrow—”
“Did you sleep?” she interrupted suspiciously, turning toward me again, sitting up fully this time with her legs between our chairs.
I turned my eyes back to her. She was a better sight than the dark horizon anyway. “Maybe an hour or two.” I didn’t think admitting I’d been thinking about her was the best thing to say.
Her eyes widened and her brows raised. “Caleb!”
“Sydney!” I mirrored her expression and tone.
“I should lock you in your cabin and not let you participate in Kauai.”
“Too bad the doors don’t lock from the outside.”
“Caleb…” She tilted her head down this time. I got the distinct feeling of being a scolded child.
“Chief, really, I’ll be fine. We can skip tomorrow morning, how about that. You and me, we can explore Kauai on ATVs and ziplines and do some cliff jumping, maybe do a sunset thing,” I nodded a few times, my brows up. “Yeah, let’s watch the sun go down today. Then I can sleep in tomorrow. Just hang out on the ship. You and me. From whatever time we wake up to when they kick you off on Monday.” I’m pretty sure I was coming across as a needy girl, but I didn’t care. I needed to figure out a way to keep Sydney around. Barely a week in her company and I wasn’t ready to let her go.
I didn’t have friends that were women. I had close acquaintances, sure, but not since high school had I had a female friend, someone I did regular everyday things with. And while yes, I wanted to do more than just “hang out” with Sydney, if that was the extent of what she’d allow, I’d play by her rules.
For a little while, at least.
Sydney
If Caleb didn’t show up to the start of the show looking tired and hung over with the sleep schedule we’d been keeping, he was going to look sick.
Hell, he was going to be sick. Lack of sleep does that to a person.
I didn’t get why he was so adamant on these early morning sunrises. Yes, they were beautiful, but they didn’t really change from day to day. Did I enjoy spending the time with him? Abso-freaking-lutely.
