Chapter 2

There was a faint, barely detectable panic under her words.

"Darren, why would you suddenly want to come out here to me?"

"You get seasick, and the food and lodging on the ship are terrible. If you came, I'd have to take care of you on top of everything."

"Be good. If you like fireworks, how about I set off a show just for you on our wedding day, all right?"

But we aren't going to get married.

And I don't get seasick.

The year we graduated, she and I went out on the water, and the speedboat driver, showing off, started rocking the boat around on the waves. I threw up all over Augusta.

After that she stubbornly decided I got seasick, and she never took me to the coast again.

I gave a soft "Mm."

When the call ended, the tears I'd held back all night fell without my permission.

I scrolled back through our old messages. Every cabin photo Augusta had sent me was fake.

The Voyager had sixteen decks, bars and entertainment and everything else, a whole city moving across the sea. It had nothing in common with the grim, bare-bones cruise ship she'd always described.

I looked through the cruise line's official site too. As captain of the Voyager, she not only had her own large suite, her meals were held to the same standard as the passengers'.

For five years she'd been lying to me.

The sky was only just turning gray, most of the guests still deep in sleep, and only a few people were on deck as I walked from the first floor up to the sixteenth.

The sun came up, and the horizon turned orange-red.

Augusta knew I loved watching sunrises. She used to set up her camera and capture the most beautiful ones for me, five hundred and seventy-six of them, all saved in my album.

I don't know how long I stood there. The sun was already hanging high over the bow when I turned around and met two familiar faces.

"Darren?"

"Oh my, it really is you. I just told Howard it was you and he wouldn't believe me. What luck, running into you like this."

I stared blankly at the two of them as an absurd guess rose in my mind.

"Mr. and Mrs. Abbott, why are you here?"

Evan's mother smiled until her eyes narrowed to slits. "It's all thanks to Evan's girlfriend. She's the captain of this ship. She said family can ride free twice a year, otherwise how could we ever bring ourselves to spend that kind of money."

Huh.

Just as I thought.

After they retired, my parents' greatest wish was to go out on the sea and see it.

I remembered Augusta's company had a family perk, so I'd mentioned it to her, thinking she could look after them while they were aboard too.

What had she said back then?

Augusta had looked so troubled. "Darren, the company pours a lot into operations every year. I don't want to take up company resources over something personal of mine. Besides, the ship's crowded, too many eyes, there's nothing fun about it."

I hadn't said a word after that. I'd turned around and booked my parents a luxury cruise instead.

When it came to Evan, all those principles and limits of hers were forgotten clean.

Evan's mother was still chattering on.

"Augusta's such a thoughtful girl. She won't let us spend a cent, and she even arranged a guide for us, worried we wouldn't have a good time."

"If it weren't for her, Howard and I would never have had this kind of luck, coming out for a trip or two like this every year."

"Oh right, Darren, you and Evan are friends, so you must have met Augusta? Evan says plenty of boys were after her, and she picked our Evan out of all of them."

Her voice was full of a pride she couldn't hide.

I was about to say I didn't know her when she caught my wrist.

She seemed to see something, and before I could react, she was pulling me toward Augusta and Evan a little way off.

"Evan, Evan——"

They were surrounded by passengers taking photos. At the sound they both looked up.

And their faces changed all at once.