I believe I still owe you one. Meet me at my suite after breakfast. It's the last one at the end of the corridor, right across from the staircase.
J
Alice's hand tightened around the note as the continued down the second-class corridor, toward the elevator. It had been delivered to her by a steward just as she was finishing up her toast that morning, causing her to nearly choke as she quickly tried to swallow the last bite.
"Up, please," she said to the attendant at the lift, closing the gate herself before he could do it for her.
"Certainly, miss," he said, pulling on a gilded lever. Alice studied his face, and soon recognized him as the man she and Jasper had seen asleep at his post the night before.
"Sleep well?" she said innocently as the second-class floor disappeared from before her. The man turned red in embarrassment.
Alice laughed. "Nothing to be ashamed of," she said. "It must get awfully boring having to sit and wait for people to come and order you about."
"Honestly, it does get rather tiring," the man said, the redness fading from his cheeks and a grin spreading across his face as he opened the lift door. "First-class corridor. Out you go, miss."
"Thank you, sir," Alice said with a polite smile. "And don't worry. I would have fallen asleep, too."
She curtseyed quickly and turned on her heel down the hall, the sound of the elevator going back down to second-class behind her.
Alice's eyes fell to the ground in front of her, where she noticed a small mouse scurrying just to the side of her feet. She cocked her head in amusement and continued to walk, being careful not to step on the small creature.
She was so entranced by the white mouse with its pink tail and black eyes that she failed to notice a man walking toward her and, consequently, walked right into him.
"Whoa, there," he chuckled in a deep voice. The mouse scurried along and disappeared into a crack in the wall. "Careful, there, young lady."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Alice cried, hurrying to straighten herself. "I seem to be making most of my acquaintances this way. I haven't caused you to drop anything, have I?"
"Certainly not, miss, don't you worry. Now, allow me to introduce myself," he said, extending his hand. "Father Thomas Byles, miss."
"Mary Alice Cullen, sir," she said, briefly taking his outstretched hand. "Although most simply call me Alice."
"Well, Alice, it's been a pleasure meeting you," said Father Byles, tipping his hat. "Where are you off to this afternoon?"
"Oh, I'm just headed to a friend's suite to borrow some reading material," Alice responded.
"Reading material?" He raised an eyebrow. "I have to say I'm impressed. You don't get a lot of young ladies interested in much more than gowns and finery of the like."
"Well, it doesn't seem to take much to entertain that sort of young lady, sir," Alice laughed. "Now if you'll excuse me. It was a pleasure meeting you, Father Byles."
"The pleasure was all mine, miss," he said. He bowed low to her and then, with a wave of his hand, continued on his way, allowing Alice to do the same.
Alice reached the end of the corridor and raised her hand to knock on the door directly across from the stairwell. Not long after did the door swing open to reveal Rosalie, sporting a green, feathered ensemble even shorter than the one Alice had seen her wearing the day before.
"Alice!" Rose exclaimed, immediately putting her cigarette aside and pulling Alice in for a hug. "There you are, darlin'. My brother's been pacing in his room for the past half hour. Thought you were gonna be a no show!"
"Good afternoon, Rose," Alice said, a laugh touching her voice in response to her friend's words.
"I'll go get Jasper," said Rosalie, heading for a door at the far end of the room. "Help yourself to smokes or wine in the meantime, sugar. I won't be long." She disappeared behind the door before Alice could say that she didn't care much for either amenity.
The Hales' common room wasn't as large as her family's, but it certainly was much more lavishly decorated. Alice stared in wonder at the paintings adoring the walls. She recognized a few from an exhibit she'd attended just months before. Her favorite, the Garden in Flower, hung above the mantel. The artist's full name escaped her.
Something Monet, Alice thought to herself. I'm fairly positive.
Her eyes scanned the walls, admiring the various color uses and textures of the different paintings. She stood back to admire an original Picasso, the back of her leg bumping into and knocking over a mahogany bench.
"Oh!" Alice exclaimed softly, bending to pick it up. As she straightened, she noticed the bench was the counterpart to a large, ornately carved piano.
She suddenly regretted never learning to play. Edward had tried to teach her when they were kids, but he was a natural musician, and was always frustrated easily when others didn't catch on immediately. Alice had spent too many nights playing the wrong notes and causing impatient beads of sweat to coat Edward's brow.
Her fingers traced the keys, playing notes she didn't recognize that echoed silently throughout the room.
"You play?"
Alice smiled, pressed down a final key, and turned on her heel, bringing her face to face with Jasper.
"Not exactly," she said. "I was never very talented when it came to music. Do you?"
"I suppose I do." He shrugged. "Rose thinks I'm good, but I find it hard to agree with her."
He reached around Alice and, with one hand, began to play. It was like rain on a hot summer day; like walking into a store where they carried peppermint flavored ice cream all year round. Refreshing.
Jasper's fingers pressed down on the final key. Alice looked up him through her lashes, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach at the sight of his expectant grin.
"I've never heard anything quite like that before," she said. "What's it called?"
"As of now, Untitled," said Jasper, sitting on the bench and motioning for her to do the same. "I'll give it a proper name once it's finished."
"You wrote that?" Alice asked, her eyes widening in appreciation.
"Always the tone of surprise," Jasper muttered sheepishly.
"That's amazing, Jasper," said Alice, her eyes fluttering back to the keys. "It's like making magic. Incredible. How do you do it?"
"Hardly," he chuckled. "I don't know. I'm not sure I've ever really described the process even to myself. It's just… feeling. The feeling of the keys, the feeling of the sound vibrating throughout the piano, the feeling it gives to the listener. I just feel, and the music practically creates itself."
"You have a knack for feelings," Alice said, her hand subconsciously moving to cover his. "I can see that."
Alice hadn't noticed just how close they were until she felt his warm, sweet breath on her cheek. His heartbeat was dangerously close to hers. If she tilted her head up just a bit –
"I do believe I owe you a book," said Jasper, pulling away from Alice and offering her his hand. "Shall we?"
Stifling her longing for closeness, Alice followed him to the door through which Rose had passed to find him earlier.
"I'm afraid I don't have my entire collection with me," said Jasper, shutting the door behind them. "Rosalie had many of them sent ahead a couple of weeks ago. I managed to save a few of my favorites for the trip, though."
He knelt down beside a wooden case and opened the glass door behind which resided at least a dozen books.
"Help yourself," he said, motioning for Alice to look through the small collection. He stood back and took a seat on a nearby trunk.
The spines of each book were worn from various rereads and the pages yellowed. Alice took one from the shelf, opened it to a random page, and inhaled.
"I always love the smell of a good book," she said, mostly to herself than to Jasper. "The scent has a way of distinguishing it from the boring novels of the nineteenth century, so I've found. They're notably sweeter."
She closed the book and, after a moment's deliberation, placed it beside her on the floor. After repeating the process several times, she closed the door of the case and stood with four books resting on her hip.
"That should be enough to keep me distracted," she said, smiling in thanks at Jasper.
"Distracted from what, exactly?" Jasper asked. "I do hope you're not still worrying, Alice."
"No, of course not," she lied, turning her face away from him. "I'm hoping a good read will keep the seasickness at bay, is all."
She closed her eyes for a moment, and all she saw behind her lids was a ship falling beneath the ocean.
Startled by her own vision, Alice's eyes shot open. The room around her seemed to spin for a moment before settling back into place.
"You really are a horrid liar, Alice," Jasper teased halfheartedly. He stood from his seat and took the books out of her hands. "What do you say we go leave these in your common room, then go on out to the deck? There's something I want to show you."
…
"If I fall and hurt myself, you're going to be entirely at fault. I hope you realize that."
Jasper chuckled behind Alice, gently pushing her forward. "Don't be so dramatic. I'm not going to let you fall. Just a few more steps."
Determined to remain stern, Alice bit at the insides of her cheeks to keep herself from smiling.
"Alright, now, reach out and grab the railing."
Alice's arms stretched out, her hands fluttering until they grabbed hold of the rail.
"Okay…"
"Now, lean over just a little bit."
"If this is some kind of plan to throw me overboard, Jasper Hale –"
"Just do it," he laughed.
Unable to contain herself, a grin spread across Alice's face as her stomach pressed into the rail and she leaned forward.
"Ready?" Jasper whispered into her ear.
"I – um – yes?"
"Open."
The sea air hit Alice's eyes as she looked down at the ocean. The majestically blue waves crashed against the ship, looking more like one of the fantastic paintings back at the Hales' common room than real life. Dolphins jumped alongside the ship, each flipping higher than the last, as though trying to outdo one another. Her eyes lifted for a moment to see the sun, orange and bright, against a pink and blue sky.
"It's beautiful," she gasped. "There can't be anything else like it in the world."
"There isn't," Jasper said. "There really isn't. And that's coming from someone who has seen more than their fair share of the world."
A light breeze brought ocean mist to Alice's face, and washed away every bit of negativity from her mind. There was no more worry about the ship, no more questioning if she was good enough to be where she was. There was only the ocean, the sky, the crisp air, Jasper's hands on her hips…
She turned around to face him. The wind tousled his already untidy blonde hair.
"What comes next?" he asked, tucking a strand of hair behind Alice's ear. "The ship is ours to do what we want with it. Any requests?"
Alice's arms found their way around his neck, pulling him closer to her.
"For now," she said, "I like this. Just this; us, here, with hardly a care in the world."
"I'm okay with that," he responded. "Just this. We can leave all the gimmicks this ship has to offer for later."
"Well…" Alice hesitated. "There is one thing I'd like to do..."
Her face tilted upward, and no more than a second passed before their lips met.
It was an explosion. It was waves crashing against rocks, fire and ice battling for dominance.
It was his fingers in her hair, their hearts beating as one, her hands pressing into his chest.
Fall in love, Alice had thought only a few days before. How terribly boring.
And for once in her life, Alice happily accepted that she'd been wrong about something. Boring? Not in the slightest.