Edge of the Water

Deep within her pocket, Zoey’s phone began buzzing wildly, alerting her attention to a text message. She quickly pulled it from its place as she walked back towards her and Belle’s room.

Before she could read the text message that lit up across her screen, a hand wrapped around hers, pulling her through a doorway.

She recognized the hand immediately, and even though the room she had been pulled into was dark, she knew it was Patrick who had pulled her into it.

“What are you doing?” She laughed, as he pulled her head into his chest. Her cheek pressed against his muscles, and she smiled against it.

“You weren’t in class.” Patrick whispered into her hair, with his soft, deep voice. “I just wanted to see you.”

His words sent chills through her body, nearly making the hair stand up on her neck. After spending the entire night chatting with her at the bar, Zoey was worried that Patrick would be sick of her, but she was thankful that he wasn’t.

“Where are we?” Zoey chuckled, her words falling against his cotton shirt.

Patrick moved his arms from her neck, and held them out in front of him. “Lovely, isn’t it? I think it’s a broom closet.”

Zoey’s eyes were only beginning to adjust to the lack of light, but she could just barely make out the smile on his face.

“Very lovely,” Zoey said, laughing as she did so. “As much as I’d love to stay in this closet all day, and trust me, I would love to, Belle and I have another class in half an hour, and I’ve still got to get changed. She’d kill me if I was late again.”

Zoey’s hand moved slowly to the door knob, so slowly she was practically begging him to tell her not to go. Just as her hand hit the metal, he pulled her back towards him.

“There’s karaoke tonight. Will I see you there?”

Zoey knew of the karaoke out on the upper deck. It was one of the guests’ favorite events, and it was sure to be a wild one. Unfortunately, that event wasn’t meant for staff. But Zoey, being Zoey, was determined to find a way to make it to the karaoke night, if only to see Patrick for a moment.

***

Tucking her hair behind her ear, Zoey gave herself one last look over in the mirror. The large, dark sunglasses she adorned did little to mask her face, and would look ridiculous at night, but it was the only thing she could think of to use as a reasonable disguise. With any luck, it would fool the other employees, but it wasn’t likely.

It was nearing 11pm and Belle still hadn’t gotten back from her late night work out, and Zoey hoped to slip out of their room before she did. The less questions Belle asked, the better.

Pulling her keys from the top of her dresser, Zoey hopped out of the dimly lit room, locking the door behind her. Even though it was probably unnecessary, she tiptoed down the employee hall, just so she could avoid attracting any amount of attention to her.

After a few feet of stepping on her toes, she pushed through the door that separated the employee area from the rest of the ship. The wind that hit her face signaled she had entered free territory, and a smile fell to her lips.

Her ears were immediately met with the sound of someone singing grossly off key. The foul noise was like music to her ears; terrible, loud, high-pitched music, but music nonetheless.

Tugging at the ends of her hair, Zoey moved towards the noise, until the small stage was within her sights. On the far end of the crowd, closer to the bar, she spotted the familiar forms of the hockey players, who were watching the performer and laughing wildly.

The moment her eyes landed on Patrick’s blonde hair, she felt her lips turn up in an involuntary smile. The man was laughing, occasionally taking sips of his thick beer.

If Zoey didn’t know any better, she’d say Patrick had a sixth sense for knowing when she was near him, because at that moment, he turned to her. Their eyes met in a sweet hello, and Zoey began moving towards him.

Stepping away from his friends, Patrick met Zoey in the middle. He immediately wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her into the air.

With his lips pressed against her ear, Patrick whispered to her. “Nice glasses.”

Zoey took his words as a sign that her brilliant disguise was going to fail her horribly, but she left the thick frames on her face.

When Patrick set her back to the ground, he smiled at her. “It’s night time. The sun’s not out. You know that, right?”

Zoey gave him a soft roll of her eyes, and was thankful that he couldn’t see it. The smile across his face was worth listening to his playful words.

“So, am I going to get to hear you sing tonight?” Zoey raised her eyebrows at him.

Rolling his eyes, Patrick laid his arm across her shoulder, pulling her to walk with him. “You wish you were that lucky.”

With Patricks’ arm around her, she followed the man to where his team stood, laughing and drinking their beers. For reasons unknown to her, the sight was suddenly more intimidating than usual. She could get up in front of the boys and teach them how to stretch, but this was something different.

It may have been Patrick’s arm wrapped around her that gave a sudden nervous feeling to chatting with the boys, or it may have been the suggestive grins they were giving Patrick. Either way, this situation was so much different than any of the others she experienced with the boys.

The beer Patrick had left on the bar top had already been drunk by one of the other players Zoey didn’t recognize. The man appeared to be the drunkest one of the group, at least twice as drunk as the next closest player.

The man stood up immediately, heading straight for Zoey. He placed one hand on Patrick’s which was still wrapped around Zoey, and the other on her opposite shoulder.

“So, you’re the pretty little blonde lass Kaner’s been going on about?”

Zoey had no idea how to respond to the man’s half question, half statement. Luckily Patrick did it for her.

“This is Zoey,” Patrick said, smiling at his teammate. “Our yoga instructor.”

A light bulb suddenly went off in the man’s head, and he nodded knowingly. “She’s going to sing, right? You’re both going to sing.”

Each one of Patrick’s teammates looked between the two of them, their smiles clearly an attempt to egg the pair on. As reckless as Zoey tended to be, she did not have plans to perform karaoke in front of all of the people who could potentially get her fired.

Shaking her head, Zoey laughed. “Oh, no. I don’t sing. I’m terrible.”

“So is everyone else,” Patrick said, a large smile on her face.

Zoey was shocked. Since when was Patrick for the Douglas/Kane singing duet? Just a few moments ago, he had told her she wouldn’t get to see him sing in her wildest dreams, but it appeared as though one look from his teammates sent his thoughts in another direction entirely.

“I can’t, really.” Zoey bit her lip, as she let out a nervous laugh. Patrick’s eyes were meeting hers in such a way that she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold off for long.

With a sigh, she spoke. “Fine, but only one song.”

The moment she finished speaking, Patrick’s arm left her shoulder, as his hand wrapped around hers. He pulled her to the stage, just as the previous singer stepped off of it. Patrick whispered to the DJ the name of a song she didn’t quite catch. She could only hope that she knew it.

Until Zoey stepped onto the stage, with Patrick standing beside her, she didn’t realize just how many people were watching the cruise’s version of an off-beat American Idol. Butterflies suddenly began fluttering deep in her stomach, as her palms began to sweat.

Patrick seemed to notice how nervous Zoey had suddenly become, and he turned to her, just as the music began playing. His eyes met hers, and he whispered to her. “Just look at me. Not anyone else, just me.”

Zoey vowed to follow his instructions, not even taking her eyes away from him to look at the prompter. The screen lit up with words that Zoey hadn’t read, and Patrick began singing them in front of her. His voice was so deep and so broken that it caused Zoey to laugh, and with it, a few of the butterflies left her stomach.

“You’ve got to sing with me,” Patrick whispered, as he missed another line of the song.

From within the crowd, people began cheering for them, shouting for the blonde girl to sing. She knew they were only trying to be encouraging, but it somehow made her more nervous.

“You can do this.” Patrick smiled at her, and she took a deep breath, before softly singing the only line of Kelly Clarkson’s Since You Been Gone that she actually knew.

With Patrick’s hand wrapped around hers, the pair blew through the chorus, successfully missing half the notes and singing three octaves off key.

Holding his arms out in the air, in a dramatic finish, Patrick belted out the last line. He held the note for a little too long, and his voice cracked at the end, but it was so perfect, and he looked so happy. The entire crowd clapped more wildly for him than they had any of the other performers, and Zoey was sure it was his good looks that made him a hit.

Zoey’s cheeks were still red with embarrassment, and she was desperate to get off the stage, even if it meant she would have to go back to standing with the intimidating boys at the bar.

Before she could turn away, Patrick ran his hands through her hair, wrapping his fingers in the soft locks. Her eyes searched his frantically, as if waiting for him to make the next move. She wanted to so badly, but her body was frozen in its place. A smile fell to his face, as his teeth grazed his bottom lip. With a deep breath, he leaned into her.

Her body went wild, as his lips met hers for the first time since they met. It had taken them far too long to get to that place. Patrick knew he should have kissed her the first time he saw her, but it was worth the wait. Everything about Zoey was worth waiting for.

The way her lips moved against his was worth suffering through hours of yoga to see her. Her fingers running through his short hair was worth pushing her away when she was drunk to have her do it when she was sober. This moment, in front of all of these clapping people, was worth the wait.