Second Day of Charter
"Ow, fuck." Franky half-fell from her top bunk as a wave tossed the yacht to the side just as she was getting out of her bed. She rubbed her elbow where she had hit it against the wall.
"It's a little rough out there this morning," Allie said as she emerged from their small shared bathroom.
"Yeah, just a little," the brunette murmured as she searched for her uniform.
"Don't be grumpy. You need to put a smile on for the guests." Allie used her most fake cheerful stew voice, knowing how much this annoyed her friend, especially first thing in the morning.
"Fuck off." Franky squeezed past her into the bathroom and closed the door.
"Love you too." Allie said with a small laugh as she left the cabin. She and Franky were both on the early shift, and there was lots to do before the guests woke up.
Franky stood on the swim platform at the back of the boat, looking out over the water. It hadn't calmed down much since she'd woken up.
"You might as well not bother putting any of the toys out yet." Will walked down the few stairs to join her. "It's too choppy to stay here. I'm going to move the boat as soon as the weather clears over there." He nodded towards a small cove off to their left.
"How long do you think that will be?" The brunette hated waiting around with nothing to do.
"Hopefully within the next hour or so." He looked over at the dark clouds once again. "Just go help Allie with breakfast for now. I'll let Jake know where you are when he gets up."
"Aye aye, Captain." Franky grinned as she ascended the stairs. She didn't even have to glance behind her to know that she was getting an annoyed look from Will. They mostly got along, but her use of that phrase was his pet peeve, and she took advantage of it whenever she could.
Franky decided to make a quick trip around the aft decks on her way to the galley to make sure nothing had gotten out of place during the night.
"Hey!"
The brunette heard someone call out to her. She looked around, and saw Audrey sitting on one of the lounge chairs
"Hey, good morning. Can I get you anything?" 'Like a slap in the face?' Franky added in her head. She hadn't forgotten how she'd been treated yesterday.
"I already spoke to the blonde one, can you get her to hurry up with my coffee? I've been waiting for almost five minutes." Audrey barely glanced over at her while she spoke.
"Allie." Franky wasn't questioning who she'd talked to, she was reminding her that people had names, and it was rude not to use them.
"Whoever." Audrey dismissed her with a wave of her hand.
Franky clenched her jaw, and walked through the interior of the boat until she found Allie in the galley.
"I see your morning is still going well." Allie could hear the brunette's footsteps coming from all the way across the lounge area. She was a heavy walker when she was irritated.
"Audrey would like you to defy the laws of physics and make the water for her coffee boil just a tad bit faster." Franky's bad mood cracked a bit when she saw Allie roll her eyes. At least they could complain to each other, even if they had to act properly in front of the guests.
"It's almost ready, would you like to take it out to her?" She saw the look she was getting from the brunette. "Or not. Why aren't you out on deck anyway?"
"Weather's too shit to put anything out. Plus, Will said we're moving as soon as it clears over there." Franky pointed out through the window. "So he sent me to help you for now."
"Alright, I'll be back in a minute." Allie placed the cup of coffee on a small tray along with a dish of fruit.
"I've got something for you to do." Allie said as she returned to the galley. "They're all up except for Bridget, who is apparently not feeling well. Can you go check on her, and see if she needs anything while I get breakfast started for the others?"
"Sure." Franky turned, and headed down the staircase that led to the guest cabins. She remembered from the day before which one belonged to Bridget. She knocked softly on the door. "Hello? Can I come in?" She heard a faint reply that she couldn't quite make out, but she was going to assume the blonde had said 'yes'.
She looked first to the bed, and saw that it was empty. Then she heard a dry heave in the bathroom.
"I'm in here." Bridget's voice sounded hoarse.
"Your friends said you weren't feeling well, so Allie sent me to check on you." Franky still stood awkwardly at the door. She wasn't sure of the protocol for this situation.
"It's just a bit of seasickness." The blonde was now standing in the doorway, and stumbled slightly when the boat rocked to one side as she took a step towards the bed.
"Hey, I got you." Franky did know that under no circumstance do you let the guest get hurt, so she hurried over and put a steadying arm around the other woman. "We're going to be moving the boat to calmer water soon, so maybe just lie down until then. Or I can help you up to one of the main decks. Sometimes it helps to look at the horizon."
"I think I'd just like to stay in bed a bit longer." Bridget covered the few steps back to the bed with the brunette by her side, then reached out, and pushed back the sheets so that she could lay down again.
"Sure." Franky waited as the blonde got settled back in. "I think we have some ginger tea if you'd like."
"I'll try that, if it's not too much trouble." Bridget gave a small nod as she closed her eyes.
"Not at all." Franky couldn't believe the contrast between the blonde, and her friend up on the deck. "Allie, Franky," she called over her radio.
"Go ahead." The reply came through her earpiece.
"Can you make some ginger tea, and toast for our guest? I'll be right up to get it." Franky knew that Bridget hadn't asked for toast, but she thought it might help.
"Copy."
"I'll be right back." The brunette saw a small nod of acknowledgement, and then headed for the door.
When Franky arrived at the galley, Allie had made up a small tray for her to take back to Bridget's room.
"How's she doing?" Allie grabbed the toast as it popped up out of the toaster, and put it on the plate.
"Just seasick." Franky felt bad for Bridget, but she knew it would pass.
"I figured, so I got some dramamine from the med kit." She pointed to the small packet of pills she'd placed on the tray. "Might make her a bit drowsy, but it should help her feel better otherwise."
"Great, thanks. I'll let her know." Franky picked up the tray, and started back towards Bridget's cabin.
When she returned, the blonde was once again in the bathroom.
"It's just me," she said as she placed the tray on the bedside table. She heard the toilet flush.
"Sorry about that," Bridget said as she made her way back to the bed.
"No problem." Franky gave her a small smile. "I had her make you some toast in case, and there's butter and jam in the little dishes on the side. She found some dramamine too."
Before Franky could say anything else, Bridget took the small packet from the tray, tore it open, and took both pills with a mouthful of water from the bottle she had beside the bed.
"Uh, she wanted me to tell you that those might make you a bit drowsy." Franky gave her an apologetic look.
"I've taken them before. Anything is better than this." She arranged the pillows so that she could sit up a bit in the bed, and drink.
"Right. I'll leave you to it then. I can have someone come back and check on you in a bit, or you can just call on the intercom if you need us." Franky was already on her way to the door.
"Can you stay for a bit?" Bridget picked up the look of hesitation on the brunette's face. "I just feel a bit better when we talk; it takes my mind off it. If you have somewhere else to be though, I understand."
"Uh, yeah, I can be a distraction for a bit." Franky couldn't help the smile that played at the corners of her mouth.
"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. That makes it sound bad." Bridget gave her an apologetic smile.
"No worries." Franky reached for the button to activate her radio mic. "Allie, Franky. Guest has requested that I stay and keep her company for a while. If you need me, you know where I am."
"Copy that."
Franky knew that Allie couldn't say much because the whole crew could hear everything that was said over the radios, but she could hear the smile in her friend's voice, and she knew she'd be getting a hard time for this later.
"Thanks," Bridget gave her a genuine smile.
"Not a problem. We get asked to do stuff all the time." Franky was trying to play it off as 'no big deal' and 'all a part of the job', but in reality, she wasn't complaining at all about spending some time with the blonde.
"I heard a rumor that you're not allowed to say no to guest requests. Is that true?" Bridget grinned as she sipped her tea.
"To a point." The brunette studied the other woman. She liked a bit of playful banter.
"Like what are you allowed to say no to?" Bridget was actually curious about this.
"Anything that would be considered abuse, or that would get us fired." Franky was going to stop there, but the blonde remained silent, waiting for more of an explanation. "Like if a guest tried to touch us inappropriately, we could stop that, asking for sexual favors, asking us to drink with them, or get drugs for them. Stuff like that."
"Hmm." Bridget took another sip of her tea. She could feel the medication starting to take effect. "Is that usually much of a problem?"
"Not really. Most of the time it's harmless flirting, and maybe even a bit of a mutual thing, and once we explain we can't drink or anything on charter they usually understand. We did have a guy this season though who would not leave Allie alone to the point that Will had to step in and set him straight." Franky was glad that Will had been there because she'd been about five seconds away from punching the guy in the face and accepting losing her job. "Starting to feel better?" She could tell that the blonde was relaxing a bit.
"Yeah, I am." Bridget glanced over at the tray. "I think I'll try the toast."
"Franky, Jake.'
Franky silently cursed the sound of her boss's voice in her earpiece. She knew it meant that her time with Bridget was probably over.
"Go ahead, Jake." She could feel the blonde's eyes on her.
'We're ready to move. I need you on deck to help with the anchor."
"On my way." Franky sighed. "I'm sorry, but I have to go help on deck now."
"It's okay. I'll see you around later." Bridget gave her a small smile. She was starting to feel better, and would probably join her friends soon on the deck.
"These beach days are always a pain in the ass," Allie ranted while she set up the refreshment table. "We spend hours setting it up, then the guests are here for like an hour and we spend another couple hours lugging everything back to the boat."
"At least it gets us off the boat." Franky was perfectly happy smoothing out the rocky areas on the beach if it meant that someone wasn't snapping their fingers at her to get them a drink. "Besides, it'll be good for Bridget to be on land for a bit."
"Hm." A smile played at the corners of Allie's mouth.
"What?" The brunette shrugged. "It'll help her seasickness."
"Since when do you care about the guests so much?" She'd never really known Franky to care beyond keeping the guests safe.
"I don't." She shook her head, and went back to raking. "But she's been nice to us, and she wasn't feeling well, and…" Franky noticed that Allie was still watching her, now with a smirk on her face. "Fuck off. Don't you have some silverware to polish or something?"
Allie dropped the topic for now; they both had work to do, but she definitely wasn't done giving her friend a hard time about this.
Franky was sitting on a rock off to the side of the beach. The guests were enjoying the food, and drinks, and laying out in the lounge chairs they'd brought over from the boat. She scanned the beach, then the shoreline, looking for nothing in particular. A small boat sailing along the horizon caught her attention, and she watched it glide through the water.
"Penny for your thoughts." Bridget saw the brunette jump slightly as she sat down on the rock beside her; she'd startled her.
Franky shook her head slightly.
"Just watching that boat." She nodded out towards the water. She glanced over, and saw that Bridget had opted for a bikini with a pretty floral-printed wrap. "Feeling better?"
"I am." Bridget wanted to add that Franky's company earlier had probably had more to do with that than the medication, but she kept that to herself.
'Franky, Allie. Just a friendly reminder that her eyes are a few inches higher.'
The corner of Franky's mouth twitched slightly but she managed to maintain her composure. She glanced over at Allie who smiled, and gave her a small wave.
"Are your friends giving you a hard time?" Bridget asked with a small grin.
"Apparently they've got nothing better to do." Franky heard the blonde laugh quietly. She looked over at the other woman. Bridget's blue eyes sparkled even more in the sun.
"You don't mind me keeping you company, do you?" Bridget asked with a small grin.
"Not at all, but are you sure you wouldn't rather be with your friends?" Franky knew that they'd paid a lot of money to be on the yacht and enjoy being waited on.
"I'm having much more fun over here." Bridget couldn't explain it, but she felt an attraction to Franky, which was something she hadn't experienced in a while.
"Alright." Franky nodded slowly as she scanned the water again.
The formal dinner the group had requested went off without a hitch. Franky had caught a glimpse of Bridget in her fancy dress while she was on her way to the table, and was glad that she wasn't helping with service that night. Bridget was stunning, and Franky was sure that if she'd had to be around her, her attraction would have been obvious. If they hadn't been on the boat, Franky would have probably already tried to get her into bed, but she prided herself on doing good work, and she couldn't afford to lose her job.
Franky was in the crew mess winding down for the night when Allie entered.
"Done for the night?" Franky asked as she ate a spoonful of her cereal.
"Yeah I think so. They've all gone to bed. Liz is on the late shift tonight so she'll finish up." Allie yawned.
"Did they like the dinner?" Franky leaned back and stretched before returning to her food.
"Yeah." Allie paused for a moment. "Bridget didn't eat much though."
"Is she not feeling well again?" Franky realized by the look she got from Allie that she may have sounded a bit too concerned.
"She seemed okay." Allie gave her a small, knowing smile. "Maybe she just didn't care for the food. Her friend chose the menu."
"Hm." Franky kept her eyes on her food.
"Anyway, I'm going to take a walk around the deck then go to bed." Allie gave her a playful punch in the shoulder as she made her way out of the mess and up the stairs.
It wasn't long before Franky heard footsteps on the staircase again.
"That wasn't a very long walk." Franky assumed it was Allie returning.
"My room is just at the top of the stairs." Bridget smiled when she saw Franky's head whip around.
"Sorry, I thought you were Allie coming back already." She stood. "Can I get anything for you?"
"No, uh," Bridget paused for a moment. She didn't really have an excuse for being down there, other than she was hoping to run into Franky. "I was just curious and wanted to see the rest of the boat."
"Oh. Sure." Franky wiped her hands on her shorts. It wasn't uncommon for guests to want to see the crew quarters. "This is the crew mess, it's where we hang out and have our meals. Down this hallway is the laundry area, and storage for the crew's luggage and all the extra cases of drinks and dry goods." She waited a minute while Bridget looked around. "And down this other hallway are all the crew cabins."
"You all sleep down here?" Bridget had counted only 4 rooms, and she knew there were more crew members than that.
"Captain has his own room upstairs next to the bridge, but yeah, the rest of us are down here." Franky felt a second of awkwardness, as if she thought Bridget was judging how little space they had.
"Can I see your room?" Bridget smiled slightly. She knew she might be pushing the boundaries with this request, but she never was one to play by many rules.
"Yeah, it's right here." Franky took a couple of steps, and opened the door. She watched Bridget take in the room. "I share it with Allie."
"Are you on the top or bottom?" Bridget looked up at her with a mischievous grin playing at the corners of her mouth.
"Top." Franky tried to be as serious as she could, but she knew Bridget was playing with her, and she liked it.
"Not much room up there." Bridget stood on her tiptoes so that she could see into the bunk more.
At that moment, the boat rocked slightly, and she lost her balance, stumbling into Franky.. The brunette was quick to brace one hand against the door frame, and placed her other one on Bridget's back to keep her from falling.
"You alright?" Franky asked. It had come out more softly than she'd intended, and she was acutely aware that Bridget was still pressed against her and was making no effort to move.
"Yeah. I'm in good hands." Bridget gazed up at Franky for a moment until the silence was broken but the sound of her stomach growling.
"You're hungry." Franky brushed her thumb back and forth against the blonde's back. It was a subconscious gesture, and she froze for a second, unsure of what Bridget's reaction would be.
"A bit, yeah." Bridget had felt the brush on her back, and the flutter in her stomach. Her eyes flicked down to Franky's lips.
"I can fix that." Franky let the comment hang in the air for a few seconds. "We have snacks."
"Oh, right." Bridget shook her head slightly, and smiled.
"After you." Franky waved her hand down the hallway, allowing Bridget to lead the way back to the crew mess.
When they got to the mess, Franky opened the cupboards and began listing what they had.
"There's popcorn, cereal, granola bars, some weird protein bar thing that Jake eats." She closed the cupboard, and opened the fridge. "There's left over pizza too. I can try to cook something in the galley if you have something else in mind."
"Pizza is fine. Cold." Bridget had seen that Franky was reaching up to open the microwave door. "I'm easy to please."
Franky sat the plate down in front of the blonde with a slightly raised eyebrow.
"Alright Franky, I'm headed to…..bed." Allie hadn't noticed Bridget right away when she came down the stairs. "Oh hey, is everything alright?" She flipped quickly into stew mode.
"Yeah, I'm just bothering Franky for a tour of the crew space and a late night snack." Bridget pointed towards her plate.
"Oh, alright then. I'll see you guys in the morning." Allie gave Franky a subtle wink as she passed by her on the way to their cabin.
"I'm not going to get you in trouble, am I?" Bridget had had the idea to come down, and have a look around, hoping to find Franky. She hadn't considered the fact that Franky wasn't really allowed to be hanging out with her.
"Nah, I'm off duty and we're the only ones awake. Allie won't say anything." Franky would just tell anyone who asked that Bridget had gotten hungry, and wandered down to the crew mess. It wasn't even a lie.
"Okay." Bridget took a bite of the pizza. "Mm, yeah this hits the spot. I know the food is supposed to be a big part of the luxury appeal on the trip, and don't get me wrong, you have an excellent chef. But give me pizza and a beer over that fancy stuff any day."
"Did you want a beer? I can get you one from the bar." Franky pointed above them to where one of the bars on the boat was located.
"No." Bridget smiled, and shook her head slightly. She patted the seat beside her. "Just come sit with me. You said yourself that you're off duty."
"I am." Franky sat down next to her. She could feel the warmth coming off Bridget. "We're never really truly off duty while there are guests on board though."
"Don't let Audrey hear you say that." Bridget said with a roll of her eyes. "She'll have you waiting on her around the clock."
"Yeah, she's…." Franky trailed off. There was nothing she was allowed to say that wouldn't get her in trouble.
"A bitch?" Bridget finished the thought for her.
"I didn't say it." Franky pretended to zip her lips then broke out into a smile.
"No, I did. I'm sorry for how she treats you guys." Bridget had tried to gently correct her friend during the trip when she felt she was getting a bit too rude or demanding, but Audrey was Audrey, and Bridget didn't want to cause any drama in the group on their vacation.
Franky simply shrugged her shoulders, and left it at that. She appreciated Bridget's apology, and she didn't have the heart to tell her that the way Audrey acted wasn't a unique situation for her and the rest of the crew. They just kept their mouths shut, and smiled when they got their tips at the end of each charter.
"What?" Bridget gave Franky a suspicious look after she'd caught the brunette watching her with a small grin on her face.
"You've got some sauce here." Franky pointed to the corner of her own mouth. "No…other side…down a bit." She watched Bridget make a third attempt at swiping it away with her thumb before she reached over herself, and gently wiped it away. "Right here."
Bridget's eyes fluttered closed for a second as the tip of Franky's thumb brushed just barely over the bottom of her lower lip. She opened her eyes and held Franky's gaze for a moment.
"I should go." Bridget cleared her throat. "We both need to sleep." She really didn't want to do either of those things, but her urge to kiss Franky in that moment had been strong, and she needed to leave before she acted on anything they'd regret later.
"Okay." Franky's voice was an unintentional whisper as her heart wasn't in her response.
"Thanks again." Bridget reached over and squeezed her arm before she left.
Franky cleaned up their dishes, and made her way to her cabin.
"So when are you two going to fuck and get it over with?" Allie mumbled in a sleep-filled voice.
Franky's response was to smack Allie in the back with one of the pillows from her bunk.
"So clearly not yet, or you wouldn't be so cranky." Allie snuggled into her pillow.
"Go back to sleep." Franky got changed and climbed up into her bunk.
Through the small porthole, she could see the lights from the upper decks of the boat reflecting off the water. Most nights this was enough to lull her to sleep fairly quickly, but tonight her brain wouldn't shut off so easily. She'd wanted to kiss Bridget; and she almost had let herself. She let out a long sigh. She just needed to get through two more days.