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Zoe
CHAPTER ONE
Eleven Years Later
BARCELONA
Oh God,this is so uncomfortable!
Pauline, I must really love you, ‘cause this idea of traveling the world is turning out to be more difficult than I imagined.
A cruise on the Mediterranean Sea might be the dream of every girl my age, but right now I’d give anything to get out of this sticky uniform and throw myself into the Boston snow. The thing is, even if I were in my homeland, that wouldn’t be possible, of course, since it’s summer there too.
I try to check the time on the clock inside the ship, but it’s very difficult from where I stand. Because we’re forbidden to check our phones during working hours, all I can do is hope I can get back to the air-conditioning very quickly.
I push those thoughts away, thinking how my best friend would give anything to be living this terrible experience during a humid summer day, trapped in a uniform that would leave anyone feeling uncomfortable. Like a banana, we’re covered up all the way to the neck. I hateturtlenecks and would love to have a little chat with the stylist—do they really have one?—who designed this outfit for the employees.
“When will I be able to take a selfie with the handsome captain, honey?” a very pretty lady approaches me and asks.
“Good evening. Welcome to Dream Cruise!” I reply with what I had to memorize. “The captain will be available half an hour before the gala dinner today and will spare fifteen minutes to take pictures with the passengers.”
“Only fifteen? I need at least an hour next to that hottie!”
I repress a laugh. She must be eighty or older, and the captain is fifty, but who said love sees age?
Well, I don’t like him at all. The single time we were in the same room together, I concluded that he looked at women as if he were a gift from heaven to humankind.
I met a girl who was also hired to work on this week-long cruise but had previous experience. She told me he usually ends each trip with the female employees fighting for his attention. Also, most of them get tovisithis cabin.
When the lady says goodbye, I take the opportunity to check if the photographer’s material is all set up.
When I saw on the internet a few months ago thatDolphin Cruises, the largest cruise company in the world, was hiring young people with no previous experience needed to work on a trip across the Mediterranean Sea, I thought,this is it.
We went through two weeks of training, and since I had just graduated from high school, it was the perfect graduation gift to myself. I passed the training easily, and the company provided my passport.
My foster parents, a kind couple who finally took me out of the orphanage for good when I was eleven, could never provide me with anything like this. On the other hand, they gave me a lot of love, and even though they couldn’t glue all the broken pieces of my heart back together, they made me feel wanted after so many temporary homes.
It was only about a year ago that I met my birth mother’s distant cousin, but while I enjoyed meeting blood relatives, they never attempted to get close, really.
They have a lot of money, and when they invited me to familyparties, I felt left out and looked down upon. Only one girl was kind to me: Madeline. She’s my mother’s cousin’s daughter, terribly shy, and has dyslexia.
I tried very hard to get along with them, but I reached my limit when her mother asked me if I could help the maid serve the meal at dinner because one of the employees was absent. I agreed, but at the time, I didn’t quite understand what that meant. When my adoptive parents welcomed people into their house, everyone helped set the table or washed the dishes afterwards, so I didn’t think it was a big deal.
It wasn’t until she handed me the uniform her employees were wearing that it hit me.
I gave her some excuse about how my mother needed me and never got in touch again.
Too late I realized that Aunt Adley saw me as an inconvenience, someone who wanted to enjoy the privileges of her wealth. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. I just wanted to be part of a big family, as my adoptive parents have no other relatives.
I watch people start to walk around the ship in their fancy clothes. The women are all dressed up in long, shiny dresses, and the men are in tuxedos, like the ones we see in movies.
Sometimes, I daydream, thinking I want to live this life for at least one night, like Cinderella at the ball with the prince.
But it’s basically impossible for that wish to come true, so I really need to stay focused and replace the water bottle that the photographer warned me from day one not to forget.
The good thing is that after I finish my shift, I’m free for the rest of the evening. I usually hang around the ship, but tomorrow morning is my day off, so I’ve decided to take a tour of Barcelona. Nothing too spectacular. Just a stroll around the city’s streets and a visit toLa Sagrada Familia, the most famous church in Spain. My mom never had the opportunity to leave the US, but she recommended I don’t miss it, because it’s one of the world’s most famous buildings.
I pick up a box of paper napkins and place it near the water. The photographer sweats like a pig, and I always leave tissues or napkins close by. My mother used to say that a lady should never look sweaty in public. I think that goes for gentlemen as well.
