Below Deck || C. Leclerc

xi

"Do you have the chairs and stuff?" Liliana asked Collin, who was dragging the parasols to the tender, to move them to the viewpoint.

Today they would organise the picnic for the charter guests, and while the guests came to the table when everything was ready for them, they never noticed the hours of godawful work that was put into it. Liliana hated picnics with her whole being, because there was nothing worse than putting up tables and sun loungers under the scorching hot French sun after carrying them uphill for a long time. The food had to be organised precisely to prevent it from going bad so quickly in the heat. They had to manage to get the guests in time to the beach. Everything had to be perfect in order for the picnic to be somewhat good.

Liliana wiped the sweat from her forehead as she threw some towels into the tender.

"I don't have the chairs yet, can you give them to me from the storage?" Collin asked, making her groan.

"Ask one of your deckies for this, please. Where are they?" Liliana complained. She went down to the place in the yacht where they had all the water toys and thus also the chairs they needed for the picnic. They were folded together, but they were heavy, causing Liliana to be out of breath when she tried to hoist them up the stairs. Suddenly, the chair felt much lighter, and it caused her to look up in confusion. "I can do it myself, Collin," she replied, not wanting the bosun's help.

"It didn't really look like it, Lili," Charles' voice filled her ears, and she looked up when he pulled the chair up the stairs and put it against the balustrade.

"Oh," she breathed. "Well, the guests shouldn't do any work, so, please don't," Liliana replied.

"It's fine," Charles chuckled. "The next one?" he asked, holding out his hand to reach for the next chair.

Liliana decided to not go into discussion with him, knowing if he once put his mind to something, he wouldn't be able to steer anywhere else. And that's for everything he does in life. Charles helped her to get all the five deckchairs up, and then she came back upstairs.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," he replied.

Liliana wondered if he wanted to continue the conversation they had last night, but he just gave her a small smile and made his way back to the deck.

Charles had taken his cup of coffee and looked out over the sunny sea that spread out in front of the yacht. Carlos and Pierre went back to their cabins after breakfast and after some water sports. Charles had been awake for a long time after the conversation with Liliana last night. He wasn't sure if there was hope sparkling in him because she had admitted that she missed him too. But that could mean all sorts of things, right? Did she miss him as a person, as a friend, as the Formula 1 driver, or as a lover? Charles shook his head at himself. He shouldn't be ridiculous. He won't try to push his luck, either. Liliana said she didn't want to talk about it with her colleagues around, so, he respected her boundaries in that. There were two more days of the charter left, and if there was an after, was a question she couldn't answer.

"You were quick," Charles overheard the voice of Collin as he spoke to Liliana.

"I got some help from one of the guests," Liliana replied.

"Really? Let me guess, Charles?" Charles didn't mean to eavesdrop on the conversation, but now his name was mentioned, he got curious.

"Yeah, he helped me. What about it?" Liliana asked.

"Nothing special, it just looks like he fancies you," the bosun replied, causing Charles to scoff. He didn't like the guy from the deck crew from the start.