Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
I add some milk to the cup of coffee before walking to the door and opening the shades then sliding the door open. I step outside at the same time as Mr. Grumpy next door. I raise my head and our eyes meet. He is wearing joggers with a sweater, the baseball cap on his head again. “Morning,” I mumble and want to kick myself for even acknowledging him. I don’t wait for him to answer me before walking up the steps to the upper deck. I unzip the door and step in, grabbing the throw blanket I bought for up here. I walk over to the little door in the middle of the wall and open it, walking down the four steps, leading me to the two sun pads on each side of the window that is in my bedroom. I sit down in the middle of one of the sun pads and cross my legs. The breeze on the water makes it cooler than it is. Putting my coffee and my phone down in front of me, I wrap the blanket around my shoulders. I get up and put up the sun pad so I can sit with my back on it. When I finally have everything done, I sit down, grabbing my coffee and taking a sip. “Magical,” I say as I hear the water hitting the boats. I look at the bridge in the distance. The dock is so quiet at this time of the morning, and when I look over to the right side, I notice a clock tower. “That is so pretty.” I take my phone and snap a picture.
I sit here enjoying my coffee as the sky goes from a black to a blue/orange tint. The reflection on the water is even prettier than I imagined it. I snap another picture of it as I watch it then turn the sky almost a pink as the sun starts to lift higher into the sky. Finally turning the sky a gorgeous blue. “Sunrise number one complete,” I murmur to myself as I pull up the text thread that the girls and I use. It’s called Fam Jam Girls. The guys got so jealous of our chat that we had to make one with the guys, but it’s called Fam Jam with Dicks.
I put the picture in the text with the message.
Vivienne:
Good morning from the boat.
I smile and start to get up, taking one more look at the sky before turning around. I take a step to the middle walkway and notice the front of my boat is really close to Mr. Grumpy’s. I look back to the other side and see I have moved way over. I walk over to the side and look down at the dock and see the line in the front is off and so is the middle one. “Oh my God,” I say, as I reach for the line and pull it up, the line coming out of the water. I wait to have it in my hand before I throw it on the dock. It lands there with a thud and then slowly, like a snail, falls back into the water. “What the fuck?” I say, looking over my shoulder and seeing that any second, I’m going to be kissing his boat and then it’ll be even worse.
I scramble to get the rope up again, and this time, I turn it into a circle like when you see cowboys herding their cattle. I toss it on the dock and it lands. I hold my breath to see if it’s going to slip again. I wait a whole two seconds, maybe even less, before I run up the stairs and then down the stairs, jumping off the boat and onto the dock. I run down the side of the dock, grabbing the wet rope and pulling the boat back to its side. I’m huffing out at this point, and my shirt and pants are wet from the rope. I look down at the silver T thing as I start to wrap the rope around it, and then try to knot it together. I stand, looking down at the rope and see it becomes untied again. “Motherfucker,” I swear to myself as I grab my phone. “YouTube is going to have the answer,” I say as I pull out the phone and open Safari. I’m about to type in how to secure a boat when I hear him from the side.
I inwardly cringe when he asks me, “What the hell are you doing?”
CHAPTER 6
XAVIER
I open the gate and wait for Beatrice to walk in ahead of me. “Don’t forget what I said,” I remind her as we walk down the ramp. “Rule number two, don’t go to the neighbor.” She looks up at me. “It’s the same as rule number one, don’t talk to strangers.” We walk down the dock. Empty cup of coffee in my hand, the pit of my stomach is now starting to burn again as I get closer to my boat.