Nadine Book 7

49. Almost A Catastrophe

Tobias is sitting in the bar reading with a drink.

"I want a drink too."

"You'll fall off the boat."

"I want to swim."

He nods. "You should really pick 1 or the other."

"Why can't I drink and swim?"

"Your cup would never go empty, and you would end up drinking a lot of salt water."

"Do you speak from experience?"

"Yes."

We both laugh.

"What are you reading?"

"This thing is about the Mayan people. I guess we're going close to them to look for the treasure. I always find other civilizations fascinating."

"Me too." I jump on the couch beside him. "Egypt is amazing if you get away from the tourist stuff. I found a real village with a festival. It's all so different. The women don't wear clothes and the men and women don't touch until they are married."

"What else have you seen?"

"We got put against gladiators in the coliseum. Paris is so slow and loving. It's full of art and artists. I always wanted to see somewhere cold. Like a village that is just cold and frozen year round. I want to see how they live."

"How come you haven't yet?"

"I don't think any of my boys are a fan of living in the cold."

"Yea, that would be different." He relaxes and sits back. "I'm sorry for what I said before. I shouldn't have said that. Your black eyes were messing with me. I wanted to get rid of them for you. But you are too young to be talking to like that. I should have stayed out of your office like you said."

"It's alright. I've heard worse."

"I bet you have heard worse. That doesn't mean it was right for me to say anything or go in your office after you said not too. I am sorry for that."

I smile and wrap my arms around him. "I forgive you." I give him a big hug.

Elek and Dipak walk in. "Woman. Get off him."

Elek glares at Tobias.

"Sorry." I sit right.

Dipak rubs his eyes. "What the hell was that woman?"

"I gave him a hug."

Elek looks at me. "What were you doing in here?"

"It's my boat, Elek."

"No I mean..."

"I was trying to decide if I wanted to drink or swim. So I came here. Then Tobias was reading about the Mayan people. He likes other civilizations too. I told him I want to see a village that stays cold. But no one will move there with me... And he agreed. But the Mayan people... we're already looking for treasure near them. Can we stop? Even for a few hours would be neat."

Dipak takes the book. "Where are they exactly?"

Tobias stands up, and they look at the map. "Over here. It's the whole area. And there's an ocean inlet here. We could take the boat in and check it out."

"I'm taking this. I'll talk about it with Kane and see how close we will be. Then I'll let you know."

"THANK YOU." I jump up and give him a hug.

He kisses my head. "And about this drinking or swimming... You can not drink and swim or drink and be a pirate. You can not mix that. You could get hurt."

"Tobias already told me I would drink a bunch of salt water if I tried to drink and swim. He speaks from experience."

They crack up laughing.

Dipak nods. "Yea, that happens. Also, tomorrow we will hit the open ocean. But for tonight, if we see a place, you could be a pirate again. But only if you're not drinking. Once we hit the open ocean, there won't be any islands. I would wait to drink until we get there."

"I'll wait to drink. Can we stop later to swim?"

"We sure can. You want to stop before or after dinner?"

"Before. Like an hour before. Then after dinner I can get cleaned up and be a pirate."

He kisses my head and hugs me. "That is a good plan sweetheart. I'll go talk to Kane and see if we can stop to see the Mayan's."

"I love you."

"I love you woman. What were you and Nikolas looking at earlier?" He opens the door for me.

"The China resort spa. He is going to make spa rooms. And I get to help with designing the rooms and help make them relaxing. I'm putting my spa towels in it."

Elek smiles. "That sounds interesting."

"He didn't want to make the spa as big as the 1 on the island. So he had extra room. He's calling them spa suites."

"Nice. He should put a pool with your salts and oils on the balcony. Like mini pools."

Dipak looks at Elek. "You should tell him that. It is a good idea. It would be a private outdoor soaking pool."

Thora comes out of another room. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to swim before dinner. Then be pirates tonight. But we can't drink. We can drink tomorrow after we hit the open ocean."

"I hope we find more kids stuff." She walks off.

"I don't know what to do."

"It's only about 2 hours before we stop and swim. You can read if you want. Or come with me and talk to Kane. I think Omar is going to do a magic lesson on the deck. You could watch that."

Elek nods. "We're going to throw orbs in the water."

"THORA."

"WHAT?" She screams from the other end of the ship.

"MAGIC ON THE DECK. GOING TO BLOW UP FISH."

"ON MY WAY." She takes off running up the steps at that end. I run for the steps on my end.

We end up throwing orbs into the ocean for a long time. Then swim for half an hour. The boys throw us all over. Then we get cleaned up and dressed as pirates for dinner. Tye helps me and we end up marked. I have his mark on my neck. I think he did it, so everyone could see it. He still gets territorial when other boys are around.

I snuggle into him, and he puts his arm around me."I love you."

"I love you babydoll."

"What? He don't like her? That's ridiculous." Everyone stares at Coral.

"I know. I told her to think about what she said. She refuses to think."

Coral looks at Dipak. "How do you keep up with the teenage drama?"

"I don't. I try to manage it before it explodes."

Then she smiles at me. "Do you... Never mind. I'm sure tomorrow, he'll like you again. You liked him yesterday, maybe tomorrow is his day to like you."

The boys lose it.

Thora shakes her head. "No, I asked him. He likes her today."

Coral looks at me again. "Why in the world would you wake up and think he doesn't like you?"

"CAUSE HE DOESN'T."

"YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT IT."

"NO YOU THINK ABOUT IT."

Coral puts her hands up. "EVERYONE STOP. WE CAN ALL THINK ABOUT IT LATER. OVER A DRINK OR SOMETHING. Why is there so much drama?"

Dipak smirks. "Elek used to like drama. He would feed into it. He's young. A lot of kids are like that. Tye likes drama. Nadine and Tye have had a lot of drama in the past. But now, other than him getting stabbed with a fork occasionally, the relationship is pretty well drama free. And you can tell they are both doing well with that. Johen loves drama. But never around Nadine. He does not like drama in their relationship. So that relationship really never has any. They belong to each other and that's the way it is."

"OH SHIT." Tre jumps up. "I forgot to tell them not to put rice on her plate. I'll be back." He walks out.

Dipak nods. "That's about the amount of drama Tre likes anywhere."

Tye snuggles me. "It's true though."

Dipak nods. "Her and Nikolas are working everything out. But he's done with the drama with her. I can tell that. Marcus and I are old enough. We don't look for drama. It looks for us. But again, no drama inside the relationship with Nadine. That's not anything we're going to tolerate."

Marcus looks at her. "Both of us would stop everything we're doing and deal with it on the spot. I don't want her wondering about me. No drama with her. Any other drama is fine. But nothing between the 2 of us. If there are any issues, we sit down and talk them out right away."

Dipak looks at Elek. "You always liked the drama. And some people do. There's nothing wrong with it. But this is what you get when you like drama. Someone so confused they don't know if you like them or not." Then he looks back at Coral. "I've always said, Elek could be her mate, but not yet."

Coral nods. "I remember. Not right now."

Marcus looks at her. "I think Elek is done with the drama now. Around her anyway. Now we get to see how he deals with this whole mess."

Tre sits down. "That was almost a catastrophe."

"Yea, that could have been bad. Good thinking."

Tre winks at me. I smile so big. "I love you."

"I love you baby. Are you hungry now?"

I nod.

All my mates signal for food.

Thora laughs. "They really aren't going to let you go hungry."

I snuggle with Tye. "They like me."

"We love you, babydoll." He kisses my head. I hug him while they bring the food in.

Dipak motions at Nikolas. "Elek has an idea for your spa suites."

Coral falls out of her chair. "Did I hear spa suite? I need that. Book that for me. Who's making those?"

"China."

"I'm going to China. That's fine. I need that room." She stares at Nikolas.

"I'll let you test it before let people rent it."

She runs over and hugs him.

Samson stands up. "Coral get back over here and sit down. We're trying to eat dinner."

"Sorry everyone. I got a little excited."

"You can't be naked on the balcony."

"I WANT TO BE NAKED."

Elek nods. "You know that big soaking pool on the balcony at Tye's island?"

"Yes."

"Put a little 1 for 2 people on the balconies of the spa suites."

Johen looks at him. "And one of the swings I got for the Paris rooms. How many spa suites do you have?"

"6."

"I don't know if I got that many extra. But the servants could probably make them anyway."

Thora stands up. "I want to be naked too."

I look at her. "Maybe you can."

Tye shakes his head. "No you can't. And a hanging bed is just that. I got a bunch at the last place we pirated. I got too many. I'm sure I can give you 6 if you want them."

"I NEED TO BE NAKED TYE."

Tye rubs his eyes. "Honestly, I've never had a problem with people being naked on the balcony. Most people don't want to be seen like that. If they do go on the balcony naked, they are sneaky about it. I don't think you'll have a problem. Put up a sign, don't be naked here. If you are caught naked here, you will be removed from the property with no refunds given."

Omar nods. "No jumping off the balcony naked either."

All my boys turn to Elek with red eyes.

"I wasn't naked."

Dipak looks at me.

"He wasn't naked, Dipak. Tye would have heard about it, if that was the case."

"That's true. I didn't hear anything about a strange naked man falling out of the sky or roaming around naked."

Tre puts an eyebrow up. "So he put his clothes on before he jumped out the window?"

"No, he jumped straight out the window and over the edge of the balcony. I've never seen him naked."

Tye looks at me. "So have you ever touched his d**k?"

"YES. WHEN I KICKED HIM WITH MY FOOT. DO YOU WANT ME TO DO THAT TO YOU NEXT?"

"No. Sorry."

Dipak cracks up laughing. "I gave everyone the day off for that. In the spirit of keeping things fair, if you kick Tye in the balls. I'll give everyone the day off for that too."

"Thank you. I'll remember that for a day I don't want to sit in your office sir."

Tye gives him the dirtiest look.

Thora looks at him. "Can we get in on that deal too?"

Elek shakes his head. "That really f*****g hurt, and you made it a holiday."

"I am sorry. But I would still like to blame your brother. He grabbed me and I had no idea where my feet and knees were."

"I know. It wasn't on purpose. I was happy to have my brother back. That's what mattered."

Coral stands up. "I'm taking Nadine. We're going to go think about things."

Thora stands up. "Oh, this will be fun."

Elek stands up. "I have an idea." He runs out the door.

"Those are always the best ideas."