His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 176: Girls? What Girls?

** Eli **

Eli was still feeling grumpy about the last minute weekend schedule change. He’d had the next two days all planned out already — spend a short and easy Saturday’s cruise without ever letting Harper leave his line of sight, then enjoy the Sunday afterward having her all to himself. He had even planned out all the things he’d do to her while in the privacy of their room ... which, needless to say, was no longer nearly as feasible on this closely packed weekend ship.

Nevertheless, he was still going to give it a try. Starting with getting her back within his physical proximity first.

But for some reason, Harper didn’t seem to be on the same page with him about this. Her eyes darted toward the room to his left. "Oh ... Um, that sounds ... lovely ..." she said a bit hesitantly. "But ... Did you mean the rooms next door to your current one? Wouldn’t those already be taken by other guests?"

Eli raised an eyebrow. "There are still plenty of empty rooms around the ship, and I’m sure we can find a few to substitute. Maybe even larger ones with more windows ... Should be easy enough to find an alternate solution that makes everyone happy."

Harper’s lips parted, though she obviously bit back what she was going to say when her eyes darted once more to his left. The corner of her mouth twitched in a way that he had learned to mean "Ugh".

Hmm? Eli’s eyebrow rose higher as he finally followed her gaze, just in time to see the door to his left open and close, leaving only the flash of someone’s clothes behind the gap. From the bare glimpse, he could just about make out a bright shade of lemon yellow.

... Oh. He was beginning to get it now as to why Harper kept darting strange looks in that direction.

"Gosh, Eli!" Harper was rubbing her temple when he turned his eyes back to her. "I can’t believe you were seriously talking about rearranging rooms right in front of your neighbors! That’s so unfair to them! Didn’t you see the poor girls were almost close to tears?"

"... Um, no? Which girls?" Eli blinked in genuine innocence. His unlucky neighbors were getting upset? He honestly didn’t notice — heck, he hadn’t even noticed any neighbors’ existence until that last second glance! As soon as he came out of his room, all he saw was Harper, and he had absolutely no clue that their conversation had been overheard, let alone disliked, by someone else.

Harper stared at him in disbelief. Then she shook her head, and the expression on her face turned amused. "Well, never mind." She smiled and let out a light chuckle. "I’ll have to admit that although this is not my typical idea of getting public attention, I do occasionally enjoy a showing off of special treatment from special people ... So maybe I won’t mind too much this time even if I do get a temporarily bad reputation in front of my coworkers."

She gave him a wink as he debated how to respond to those words. "Anyway, I suppose it’s not an unsurpassable obstacle to stay in rooms a bit further down the hall for just one night, so there’s no need to bother rearranging. But I’ll certainly come visit either way ... maybe after brunch? I’ll see you soon in the dining hall when the ship sets sail?"

She slipped into her room then before he could protest, waving a teasing goodbye as the door slid shut and blocked his view of her.

~ ~

Brunch couldn’t come soon enough.

Heeding Harper’s opinion on the room arrangements, Eli didn’t insist on the guest swap. But every time when he heard the sound of a door opening and closing down the hall, his ears would perk up like a cat, hoping to pick up the rhythm of familiar footsteps coming his way. The disappointing results never thwarted him from trying again the next time ... and he was starting to miss even more intensely the previous nights when the warmth of her presence was so easily within reach.

The thought made him more and more eager for the cruise to kick off. When the ship captain’s announcement finally declared the beginning of their journey, Eli was one of the first to rush out the door toward the dining hall. Carefully avoiding the crowd of finance employees he spotted on his way — no point in recreating the scene last evening, even though Harper was truly and unfairly cute when jealous — he made a beeline to his destination and started scanning the crowd for his girl.

The dining hall was already filling up with guests, the whole space buzzing with excitement as people sipped their mimosas and glanced out the windows toward the open sea with curious interest. Eli nodded to a few familiar faces, his eyes quickly moving through the room and searching for the tables where Miracles employees gathered.

Much to his displeasure, it was the suitcase guy who he spotted first, along with the two girls that Harper liked to hang out around. They were chatting around a bar table, surrounded by a few others who he vaguely recognized to be from marketing, and the bright color of a lemon yellow sundress came into his sight while he glanced over the small group.

Ugh ... Was that his unfortunate neighbor who Harper said would now hold a bad opinion of her?

Eli shook his head, noting to himself that he would have to find a chance to salvage the damage at some point. Not now, though. He kept searching, sparing no wasted time over any other women meeting his eye.

He paused when he finally found the familiar figure he was looking for, leaning against a pillar far away from the tables and mostly hidden from the crowd.

... But wait, since when did Harper start hiding from her own people like that? Was it because of that offended coworker of hers ... already?