Rocking the Boat

Ash

My vacation was going fine until I walked into the gym and saw Matthew Dale standing there.

Ten years. He still had that look, like every room he walked into already belonged to him. I had a plan. Keep my distance, three months, come home in one piece.

The ship had other ideas. Three months of sun and nowhere to go and him, always him, in every gym, at every dinner, on every deck I tried to use to breathe. We argued. We pushed. And then one night somewhere in the middle of the ocean we stopped pushing and I understood why I'd never been able to stay angry at him for long.

I don't know what to do with a man who makes me want more when I've spent my whole life getting by on less.

Matthew

Ash hated me in high school. Never explained it. Never gave me a chance to fix it.

Finding him on the same ship felt like a bad joke. I should have left it alone.

I didn't. Something about the way he looked at me like I was the problem made me want to prove I wasn't. He made it as hard as he possibly could. Three months later I was still trying. By then it had stopped being about proving anything.

He wasn't easy to know. He was worth it anyway.