Below Deck || C. Leclerc

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Liliana swung the door of the bathroom open, and she stepped in front of the sink to splash some water on her face. It was her first day being... unemployed. She scrunched her nose at the thought. It was weird, especially because she never wanted to leave in the way she did. After all, the start of the charter and her personally knowing her old friends were already supposed to ring an alarm that she had to take a step back or at least be open to her colleagues. Liliana sighed deeply, met with the reflection of her tired face. She had bawled her eyes out last night after Charles left, she didn't want him to see her cry. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, so she pressed a cool cloth onto them for a couple of minutes before she washed her face and applied some moisturizer. She adjusted the already messy bun on her head, making her way to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast for herself. She went to look for her phone, which had been charging in the living room. Charles had probably put it there before he left last night.

She took it into her hand while walking to the fridge, scrolling through some notifications and considering whether they were important or not. There were some texts from her colleagues that she didn't want to answer yet. Liliana placed her phone on the table, got a bowl with some yoghurt and cornflakes, and a cup of coffee, and made her way back to the table. She moved her spoon to her mouth while scrolling through the other notifications, she had two emails, apparently. Her eyebrows rose as she read that it was a document added to her dossier. While the yacht industry didn't really have an HR or anything alike, as they usually filed complaints about colleagues to the captain, and the captain decided what he'd do with it. Filing things to her dossier was next level, it would be visible to all the agencies if she applied for a new charter season anywhere. Liliana felt the headache already pounding in the back of her head. She sighed deeply, and she was sure she could guess who filed the complaint and who sent it in. Liliana read through the accusations that Sophie directed towards her in the mail, she said a lot, but at the same time, her words were empty.

Liliana couldn't be bothered to reply to it, or to grab her phone and call captain Sam. She knew she worked hard, and she didn't deserve to be let go like this. Liliana shook her head at it and put her phone away. Her coffee had nearly turned cold, and she swirled her spoon around in her breakfast as her appetite had left her too. She looked up as she seemed to hear the door, and soon after, she saw Charles coming into the living room. 

"Hey, good morning," he smiled at her. 

"Hey," Liliana replied, closing her eyes as he pressed a kiss to her temple before pulling a chair back on the other side of the table. 

"How are you doing?" Charles asked. 

Liliana shrugged, letting her eyes wander over his appearance as he wore a baby blue shirt, the tan he had gotten during the charter on the yacht making the colour look even better on him. His hair was a little messy, his cheeks still slightly flushed. He had probably trained this morning, and then went to check on her. She wanted to bury her head in his chest and leave it there the whole day.

"I'm okay, I guess," Liliana said eventually. "Sophie filed a complaint about me, so I will probably never get a job in yachting again," she added, getting up from the table to throw the leftover of her breakfast away and get a glass of water. Charles followed her into the kitchen. "Charles, why are you here? Don't you have a race to prepare for?" Liliana asked. 

Charles leaned against the counter as he looked at her. "I do, but I care about you, and I want to make time for you," he said. "I'm going to Spa in two days, do you want to come?" Charles blurted out. 

"What?" Liliana asked. 

"Just a change of scenery, to get your thoughts off everything that happened, figure things out between us," Charles said.