“Let me take it, hon. I'll carry it for Lloyd, his hands are full with the umbrella.”

Ivy lifted the coat out of my hands.

One of the crewmen called for them to board, and Lloyd took Ivy by the hand, the two of them hurrying off.

My fingers closed around the ring in my pocket, the one he'd forgotten.

I didn't want to remind him anymore.

I pulled it out and dropped it into the trash can beside me without a second thought.

He'd never forgotten it before. Even if he left it at home, he'd rush back in time to grab it.

Once he'd nearly missed setting sail because of it.

“It's just a ring, it's not that important. You can leave it.”

“No way. I want everyone to know I'm taken.”

Now, it seemed, he didn't need the ring anymore.

He didn't need me anymore, either.

Once I got home, I set about clearing out the apartment.

Every corner of the place carried the traces of the life we'd built together.

His worn-out old sailor's uniforms, his fishing gear, I piled it all in a corner, ready to throw out.

My phone kept buzzing, but I didn't stop.

I only looked once everything was packed away.

A few photos. Lloyd's usual way of checking in.

One of them caught my eye.

He was standing in the lounge, and behind him a pair of pale, slender bare feet stood out sharply. I didn't need to think twice about whose they were.

Below it was the explanation he'd sent.

“Don't read into it. Ivy had never seen the crew lounge, so I showed her around.”

Back on the ship he'd been rigid about the rules. When I brought him fresh clothes, I could only leave them outside the door.

He said it wouldn't look good if his coworkers saw.

Yet now he could bend the rules for Ivy.

I typed and deleted, typed and deleted.

In the end all I sent was one line. “So making captain means the rules don't apply to you anymore?”

His reply came back almost instantly, every word dripping with impatience.

“Can you stop fixating on every little thing? Ivy was the one who asked me to explain myself to you. Clearly I wasted my breath.”

I didn't answer. I just locked the screen.

For the next few days there was nothing from him.

Until a call came through.

The noise of a foreign street filled the receiver, threaded with Ivy's sweet, soft voice, coming through clear against my ear.

“Lloyd, just talk to her nicely. Tell her we came out today just to pick a gift for her. She'll come around, I promise.”

The two of them were so close together their breaths tangled.

“Lloyd, we've been together this long. You really need someone to teach you how to smooth things over with me?”

“I'm sorry, hon. It's my fault for dragging Lloyd out shopping. He said it isn't safe for a girl to walk around alone in a foreign country.”

“Ivy, it's a small thing. There's nothing to apologize for. Rosamund won't mind.”

With one airy sentence, Lloyd had cast me in the role of the gracious, understanding one.

I hung up the phone.

The fish in the tank were the ones Lloyd hated most. Back then I'd wheedled and pleaded for ages before he finally agreed to keep them.

That same day I arranged for an aquarium to come take them away.

Just as I'd finished packing up the tank, the lock at the door rattled.

Lloyd was home.

But he wasn't alone. Ivy had come back with him.

“So you finally got rid of those stinking fish? Here, brought you a gift.”

Lloyd held out a cheap, mass-produced necklace, the kind you saw everywhere.

“This isn't the necklace I wanted.”

“Hon, I picked this out just for you. Here, let me put it on you.”

Ivy took the necklace and stepped toward me.

It was only then that I noticed the one around her own neck, a custom piece from Barcelona.

She must have caught me looking.

Ivy unclasped it at once. “Lloyd bought this for me. He said it suited me. But if you like it, hon, you can have it.”

“That style's too delicate. Something like this suits Rosamund better. Easier to work in.”

He took the necklace and tenderly fastened it around Ivy's throat.

His gaze was soft, the corners of his mouth curving up.

In that moment, I was the one who didn't belong here.

"Then I shouldn't stay any longer."

I picked up the suitcase I'd packed long ago.

And turned and walked out the door.

Lloyd didn't come after me.

He only called.

"Ivy's a guest in our home and she wanted to taste your cooking. How could you be so rude?"

"If you know what's polite, then go cook for your precious Ivy yourself."

Then I blocked and deleted him.

Once I reached my new place, every knot in me loosened.

For days, Lloyd didn't come looking for me.

It was only on my birthday that a bouquet of roses arrived.

Tucked inside was a cruise ticket.

A ticket to the Aegean Sea, the one I'd longed for so long.

But Lloyd had always claimed he didn't have time.

"Rosamund, don't be angry. You've always wanted to go, haven't you? Once I get through these busy few days, I'll take you."

Lloyd appeared behind me and wrapped his arms around me from the back.

"What? No more keeping your precious Ivy company?"

At my words, Lloyd abruptly let go.

"I already apologized. Why are you still so jealous?"

"This route was supposed to be a promo shoot for Ivy and me. For your sake, I canceled the whole thing."

"What more do you have to complain about?"

The motion-sensor lights in the stairwell flickered on at the volume of his voice.

In our first year together on the ship, back when the two of us started from the very bottom as ordinary deckhands.

Lloyd had promised he'd take me to Greece to watch the sun set.

Now that promise had become a handout from him.

"Ivy will be there too. She said she'll take a set of photos of us, as a way to apologize to you."

But I caught the flaw in his words.

"I'll use the ticket. What about her? If I remember right, a captain gets one family guest slot, doesn't he?"

Lloyd didn't even bother to hide it. He admitted it freely.

"It's just one slot. Don't make such a fuss over nothing."

Listening to him, I suddenly felt that the wind today was unusually cold.

"Then go with her."

"Rosamund, I'm already exhausted from work. Stop acting up."

I pulled my hand free of his.

My tone turned distant.

"Mr. Harding, hold on to your own ticket. Off you go, I won't see you out."

I stood in the doorway and made a sweeping gesture toward it.

"Rosamund! I've spoiled you far too much!"

His face went ashen as he slammed the door hard and walked off without looking back.

My hand happened to be right at the door's edge, and my fingers were crushed so painfully that a cold sweat broke out on my forehead at once.

Lloyd glanced back once, but he didn't stop walking.

After my hand healed, my start date arrived.

I deliberately avoided the Greece route and chose the opposite direction, Norway.

Once I boarded and stowed my luggage, I went up to wander around the deck.

A crowd had gathered around a young couple in the center.

I edged closer to look, and the scene before me tore my heart apart.

Lloyd and Ivy were in matching outfits, posing for photos.

Yet I had checked, clearly, this route wasn't on his work schedule.

"Ivy's so lucky. She gets to shoot a promo film for the ferry company and reels in a handsome captain on top of it."

"I heard Captain Harding came along just to keep Ivy company. 'This ship belongs to a rival company, you know.'"

"Romance on the company's dime. Isn't this supposed to be scenery shots? Ivy used the scenery shoot to turn it straight into couple photos."

The lighting crew around them chatted on and off, half-interested.

Lloyd awkwardly made a heart shape with Ivy, mimicking the way young people posed for pictures.

The onlookers gushed, "So sweet, now I want to fall in love too."

I had never seen this side of Lloyd before.

But now I had.

I didn't keep watching. I just faced into the wind, swallowed my tears, and went back to the lounge.

I put on the uniform I'd had ready for days.

Four gold bars gleamed on each shoulder, and they made me look sharp, alive.

I wasn't supposed to start until the day after tomorrow, but now I wanted to start early.