Jaws of Love

Chapter 10

"Ten thousand dollars, two thousand dollars a day, either I catch him or not." Quint said.

Martin, Samantha, And Hooper were all in Quints shop. Samantha was leaned back in a chair, drink in hand as she made herself at home.

The other two men were clearly not as comfortable in the shop. Or around Quint for that matter.

"You got it." Martin nodded.

Quint turned to Samantha. "Get the Mayor off my back! So I don't have no more of this zoning crap."

"You got that." Samantha chuckled.

Quint sat something down on the table. "One case of apricot brandy, you buy the lunch." He laughed.

"Two cases. You get dinner when you get back." Martin said.

Samantha honestly did have a clue what they were talking about. She just shared a look with Hooper.

"Hey Chief! You try this, made it myself. Pretty good stuff." She grinned, watching her brother take a shoot glass from Quint. She knew of his weird drinks all too well.

"Thanks." Martin grimaced.

"Here's to swimming with bow legged women!" Quint cheered.

Samantha stood up, messing with different objects in the shop. She walked behind a desk, looking through his notes and paperwork. It was definitely an invasion of personal space.

"I haven't had to pass basic seamanship in a long time." Hooper muttered to Samantha, she laughed watching him tie the sheep shank. "You didn't say how short you wanted it! How's that?"

Quint walked up to Hooper. "Give me your hands. Dogfish? When you got a 5000 dollars net, you got 2000 dollars worth of fisherman. And along comes Mr. Whitey, by the time he's
finished with that net, it looks like a kiddy scissor class has cut it up for a paper doll! You got city hands lol, Mr. Hooper. You've been counting money
all your life."

Hooper jerked away. "All right! All right! Hey! I, I don't need this! I don't need this working class hero crap!" He yelled.

"Quint..." Samantha warned, shooting him a look.

"You... you're not gonna do this aboard the ship are you, Mr. Quint?" Martin looked worried.

"Maybe I should go alone." Quint sighed.

"Like hell." She snapped.

"Well it's my party, it's my charter." Martin said. Samantha rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, it's your charter, it's your party, it's my vessel! You're on board my vessel, mate, master, pilot and I'm captain. Take him for ballast chief." Quint grinned to Samantha.

"You got him."

The next day was hectic, everyone was loading onto the boat, Martin and Ellen shared a tearful goodbye, Quint had made fun of Hooper all morning, and Samantha had almost killed Quint at least twice.

So... all was well.

Quint and Samantha now stood on the bridge together, looking out over the ocean. "I can't believe that's lover boy." Quint shot a look down at Hooper.

"Was." Samantha corrected. "He was lover boy. He's just a friend now."

Quint laughed. "Sure he is, Sam."

She scoffed, lightly hitting his arm. "I'm gonna go help my brother before he ends up overboard."

"Send my love to Hoopey while you're down there." Quint grinned. Samantha shook her head, flipping him off as she climbed down to the deck.

"He's colorful." Martin chuckled.

"Oh yeah." She agreed, sitting down. "How's chumming?"

He glared at her. "Fan-fucking-tastic."

"Glad to hear it Marty." She patted his back.

After a little while, Quint came down and sat in his deck chair. "Keep that chum line going Chief, we got five good miles on him."

"Who's driving the boat?" Martin asked.

"Nobody. We're tied." Samantha answered.

"One time I caught a sixteen footer off Montog.
Had to stick two barrels in him. Two to wear him down and bring him up. Now a days, these kids, they bring everything. Radar, sonar, electric toothbrushes. Jesus-H Christ. Hey chief! Best drop another chum marker." Quint rambled on.

Martin stood up to go get another marker. Samantha looked down and then shot her head immediately back up as she heard a clanging noise.

"Damn it!" She yelped, one of the air tanks falling hard on her arm. "Martin what the hell!?"

"Martin that's compressed air!" Hooper yelled, picking the tanks back up.

"Well what the hell kind of a knot was that?!" Martin fired back.

"You pulled the wrong one! You screw around with these tanks and they're going to blow up!" He spat.

Hooper ignored Quint as he helped Samantha up. "Cmon let's get that cleaned up." He sighed.

One of the valves on the tank had hit her arm, slicing it a good way down her forearm. "I know where the first aid kit is." She nodded.

They walked into cabin, Samantha pointing out the first aid kit to Hooper. They sat in silence as she watched him clean and bandage her arm.

"Sorry." Hooper sighed after a minute.

Samantha furrowed her brows. "What?"

"I'm sorry for what I said on the boat the other night. I've been trying to apologize for that." He looked up, meeting her eyes.

She shrugged, trying her hardest not to think anything of his apology. It was just him being a good friend.

"Well you were right." She said. "I'm not your girlfriend and I can't tell you what you can and can't do."

Hooper forced a smile. "Yeah."