Below Deck || C. Leclerc

xiii

Liliana woke up a little after nine the next morning, looking at her phone and knowing she had a little more than seven hours of sleep, which was pretty decent for a charter. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, slowly sliding down and stepping to the floor. The bed beneath her was empty, as Marion got up earlier. She was on breakfast service, after all. Liliana reached for a clean top and her skirt, taking them to the bathroom as she quickly slipped into the shower to wash herself before starting her working day. She brushed her teeth and braided her hair down her back, getting into her clothes and making her way out of her cabin. 

"Good morning," Marion chirped when they met in the pantry as Liliana was about to prepare some coffee. "The guests are at the table having breakfast now, they were a little behind schedule, but they have something to discuss with you, the French one said," Marion informed her.

"Oh, okay. Did he say anything about it?" Liliana asked, pulling her espresso from the coffee machine. 

"No, it was something he wanted to discuss with the 'chief stew' and I was like, 'of course, I'll just go down and steam your Prada shirt'," Marion mocked, causing Liliana to laugh. 

She knew Pierre probably didn't mean it that way, and that it was just simply a plan he'd rather not include the other stewardesses in. "I'll head out and talk to them," Liliana said, finishing her coffee and rinsing the cup before putting it in the dishwasher. Liliana got upstairs and headed out to the bridge deck, where the guys were seated at the table. They had their sunglasses on their faces, passing through the bowl of freshly baked croissants. "Good morning," Liliana greeted. "I heard one of you had a request?" she spoke, looking around, briefly holding Charles' look. She had been awake for a long time last night, thinking about the kiss they shared on the yacht. She shouldn't be thinking about it too much, but it boosted her ego that he didn't like Sophie.

"Not just someone," Pierre scoffed, but a grin broke onto his face, telling her he was just kidding. "We came up with a somewhat spontaneous plan," Pierre continued. "We'd like to go to Cannes to spend the day at the beach, and we wanted to run that plan by you first. We won't be much work, we just need some snacks and drinks, we can pour them ourselves," Pierre explained.

"Cannes is a good 140 kilometres away from here, you know that, right? I'll have to ask the Captain to anchor there, and then we can get you on the tender to the beach," Liliana said, making them aware that it couldn't all happen within fifteen minutes. 

"We're well aware," Pierre nodded. "Can you make it happen?" He asked next, taking a bite of his apple then. 

"Of course I can," Liliana said, whatever the guests wanted, they were very, very likely to get. "I'll run it by the team and the Captain right now," she smiled. 

"Thanks, Lili," they said, smiling back at her.

Liliana went upstairs and knocked on the Captain's door, and he was behind the wheel already, checking up on the weather and the swells of the sea. 

"Liliana, good morning. How's your ankle?" Captain Sam asked, and it took all of her might to keep a straight face. 

Of course, Pierre blamed it on her twisting her ankle when he yelped as he came across his kissing friends last night. "It's fine, luckily it doesn't hurt," Liliana said, giving her captain a small smile to reassure him. 

"Perfect," Sam replied. 

"The guests just asked me if they can get anywhere near Cannes. They would like to spend the day on the beach," she explained. 

"Obviously we can. If we haul the anchor now, we can be there around noon," Sam nodded. "Let's call the group together for a small update," he continued, making him grab for his radio, asking for the crew to gather in the crewmess for a brief meeting. Liliana and Sam went downstairs, finding nearly all the crew already, and Collin was just coming down too. "Alright, we have a quick change of plans. The guests asked to go to Cannes, which is about four hours away from our location now. I suggest we haul the anchor and get there around noon, it's still early," Sam said. "I also suggest Sophie and Liliana join them to organise it all and make sure they are provided with everything they need," he continued.