My GOD, the water was rough...Nigel thought, and he turned to Karen. She’d been nothing but a great big chatterbox for the entire five hours in the air, including the cab ride to the ferry terminal and that had been nothing less than sheer torture. His ears were still ringing at all of her ohs and ahs and hey-look-at-that’s, and he wished desperately that he’d been a little firmer with her when she first asked to accompany him. Grudgingly shoving his hands back into his pockets he groused to himself, politely nodding and smiling every so often for her benefit. After all, he was still a proper English gentleman.
"They say there’s a snack bar and cocktail lounge on board, want to check it out?" Karen asked her esteemed travelling companion, her nose buried in the ship’s brochure. "I’m famished," she freely admitted, "airline food is the worst!"
Great, she wants to eat, but now? Nigel carefully contemplated her suggestion, feeling a little nibbly himself, but wasn’t sure that this was such a good idea, for two reasons. The first being his tendency to get seasick, and the other was that he had already paid for both of their fares. He was now out the $63.00 for the ferry, and he doubted very much that he would ever see her half! How she did it to him was beyond his comprehension, but he wasn’t about to let her trick him again, surely. "Uh, well Karen...I don’t know..." The wheels turned fast and furious behind his suspicious hazel eyes.
"I’ll buy." She smiled at him and winked her eye. "My treat."
Sure, you’ll buy... It only took about a half an hour for Karen to finally run out of gas, just after he brought a light lunch of pasta salad and soup to their table, which he ended up paying for after her bank card wouldn’t scan in the machine. It had been demagnetised somehow, and unless there was a bank of her particular branch on Catalina, Nigel knew he was going to be footing the bill until they got back to L.A. for their flight home.
"I’ll head back to the mainland in the morning Nigel, I promise. I can get a new card there and pay you back." She insisted, trying to hide the colour rising high on her cheeks.
Karen was truly embarrassed, he could tell, humiliated even, and she looked like if he said one little thing the wrong way she was going to cry. "Look, that’s hardly necessary..." He let go of a defeated sigh. She did it to him...again. "I have more than enough to cover our expenses for the week. Going back there tomorrow would only be a gross waste of our time and money."
"Look, I wanted to come on this stupid trip, and I’ll darn well pay my own way!"
"Yes, of course you will. But Karen, don’t worry about it right now. We can settle up when we get back to L.A. next Saturday, all right?" He watched her bottom lip start to quiver. God no, he thought, please don’t let her do that...anything but that!
She somehow managed to miraculously control her emotions, and took a deep breath before answering. "Okay, that’s a deal. But I want you to keep a running tab, you got that?"
Nigel smiled, situation averted, for now. "I got it." Yes, he was going to get her for it all right, he promised himself.
Lunch was fabulous, but he knew better than to finish it all in these swells. Karen, on the other hand, cleaned her plate, and while Nigel enjoyed a nice hot cup of tea, she started to appear quite pale. Not long after that she got a very peculiar look on her pretty round face. He definitely recognised that look. His mouth curled into the most mischievous smirk ever, and he put down his cup.
"So, let’s go out on the observation deck Karen, I read that you can sometimes see dolphins and whales on this crossing." He suggested, and tossing his napkin on the table rose from his seat.
"I, I think I’ll just stay here for a while, if that’s okay by you." She closed her eyes and took a deep, medicating breath. "I'll pass."
"Oh come on, you’ll love it! Where's you're sense of adventure?" Nigel’s sense of devilry was overtaking his good judgement, unusually so, and he continued to pester her. "Let’s go Karen, I want some company." He absolutely insisted on going up to that observation deck despite Karen’s stanch protests.
"NO! I, I can’t go out there, I can’t!"
"Nonsense, it’s beautiful up there, don’t you want to see?"
She pouted and dragged her feet, but to no avail. Nigel just grabbed her hand and started up the stairs. "Come on, you begged me to tag along, this is MY vacation, remember?"
"You can, can’t you just, just leave me downstairs, please?" Her stomach was doing the bloody flamenco now.
The channel winds were cool and strong, but Nigel paid no never mind to that. He pulled Karen through the crowd and practically propelled them against the railing. Karen’s long, blonde locks were all askew and in her face, and she braced her body a little over the edge, just in case... The boat was rocking pretty badly, and Karen sucked in her breath, steadying herself for the worst. She now knew how Nigel felt when he would get back from being dragged all over the world with Sydney...three different shades of plaid.
Nigel stood beside her, feeling mighty darn proud of himself. He knew she had probably spent most of her money on the plane ticket, and wouldn’t be getting paid until Thursday. Sneaky devil, he thought. If she had just explained it to him in the first place, he probably wouldn’t have been as ticked off, but this was well worth any price to see... Then strangely, he felt something oddly familiar deep in his gut. Oh no... While Karen had managed to pull herself together, Nigel came quite literally, undone...
Go to Part Four.