Page 158 of Love Overboard
“Did you ever consider breaking up?”
“Not for a second,” Finn said instantly. “We already wasted too much time apart because we were young and stubborn, full of pride.” He looked at me then. “Once we made our way back to each other?” A shrug. “There was no tearing us apart, no matter how the world has tried to.”
Graham tried to drive the wedge deeper. “Finn, do you regret it? What happened with Gisella, the crew tension, the fallout?”
“I regret hurting people,” he said, and then his eyes found mine. “But I’ll never regret loving her.”
The room fell quiet, the audience was waiting for the big, dramatic moment while Graham tried to create it. But we weren’t biting.
Then, Graham shocked us all when he said, “Well, that’s very sweet. But it’s quite a shortened version of the speech you gave that last dinner out with the crew, isn’t it?”
The crowd began to murmur. Gisella’s eyes popped wide. Cameron and Eli shared a look of annoyance while Palmer looked a bit smug holding back a grin.
“Let’s roll that footage!” Graham declared with a smile.
And they did.
Finally, after months of hell, the truth played out on a screen in the studio and on televisions all over the world. Emotion surged in my chest as I watched it play out, as I watched everyone react to it in real time. Gisella was throwing a fit, threatening to leave if they didn’t stop playing it. When the part played where Palmer called her out for her infidelity, she stormed off stage.
The room was buzzing when the clip stopped, and Graham cocked a brow at me, as if to say,See? I’m not so bad.
I still didn’t trust him.
“Bernard,” he said, whipping his head toward my stew. “Care to tell us the dirty details about that night?”
Bernard looked like a kid in a candy store as he regaled the crowd with his version of it all. I mostly blocked it out, ready to be done and out of here. More questions were tossed around to the rest of the crew while I stayed silent except to answer with brief statements when necessary.
When we were nearing the end of the show, Graham went around and asked everyone if there was anything they wished to say.
I used my time to apologize to Eli as sincerely as I could. I told him I didn’t expect nor deserve his forgiveness, but I wanted him to know I was sorry for leading him on and using him as a pawn in a game he didn’t sign up to play. I’d expected him to tell me to go fuck myself, but he’d surprised me with an, “Ag, don’t fret, Em. It’s all good.” And then he’d hugged me to the crowd cheering, and a piece of my broken heart was mended.
Palmer told his side of the whole Gisella situation. Cameron expressed his regrets with Leah. Captain Gary kept it professional, saying that he was still proud of us as a crew despite the drama.
When it came to Leah, I was surprised to find her already crying, sniffling as she dabbed at the corner of her eyes with a tissue. Her eyes slammed into mine, and she cried harder.
“I’m so sorry for how harshly I judged you, Em,” she said, shaking her head. “I was hurt, but not just by you. I was… I wasn’t myself. And I just wished you’d have told me, but I understand now why that might have been hard to do. And you would have told me, had things not gone down the way they did.”
“I would have told you thatmorning, I swear,” I told her.
“I know,” she nodded. “I know. I’m sorry I was such aBLEEP.”
“I deserved it.”
“No,” she said, standing and shaking her head. “You didn’t. You didn’t deserve any of it. Can I have a hug?”
I met her in the middle of the stage, squeezing her tight as the crowdaww’d. I whispered a promise to her that we’d catch up soon, and she nodded, squeezing my arm before she went back to her seat.
Then, it was Finn’s turn.
And the surprises kept coming.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d announce this here,” he said, standing and slipping one hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. It was the first time he’d released the grip on my hand all night. “But it feels right.”
He pulled out a glossy photo and handed it to me first, his eyes locked on mine. The moment our fingers brushed, my pulse kicked up, time slowing around the two of us. The photo felt heavier than paper should — like it was weighted with meaning I hadn’t yet uncovered.
“What is it?” I asked, even as I stared down at the image.
It looked like a print from a real estate listing — a small storefront tucked between a Pilates studio and a bakery. The windows were covered in newspaper, but there was something charming about the white brick and abandoned flower beds framing the door.
