“Wow. It must be wonderful, being able to afford all that stuff.”
“Sadly, you get used to it and don’t appreciate it nearly as much as you should.” She motioned to the two massage tables in front of us and indicated I should take the one on the left. “I’m glad I met you. You can help me get back some perspective.”
“I…I’ll try my best.”
It felt weird stripping down in front of a virtual stranger, but Jamila seemed to not care. I wondered if that was a side-effect of being an actress—you disassociated from your body while you pretended to be someone else.
Two male masseuses entered the room after we had positioned ourselves face-down on the tables. “Hi, ladies. I’m Kai, and this is Brandon. We hope you enjoy your massage.”
I wanted to laugh. This all felt so surreal.
Jamila, however, took it all in her stride. Without even waiting for a few minutes to enjoy the relaxation, she jumped straight back into business. “We need to work on your backstory,” she said.
“Do you think it’s wise to do that, you know, in front of other people?” I asked.
“Oh, the staff are fine. Gentlemen, you signed a non-disclosure agreement as part of your employment, didn’t you?”
“That’s right,” Kai said.
“I checked beforehand,” Jamila explained. “This cruise line is all about discretion. I didn’t want to risk being outed the second I stepped aboard.”
“Ah.”
“Obviously, I didn’t count on someone like Zara finding out.”
“Why does she think you got her fired?”
“She used to be on Legal Lies too, but she slept with Lars, the director. Zara and I had been pretty close up until then, but I really liked Lars’ wife and told Zara she should end things. She got a bit weird about it, and said if I told anyone, she’d never forgive me. Well, I didn’t tell anyone, but someone else must have found out, because a few weeks later, the shit hit the fan. Lars’ wife demanded that Zara be let go, or she’d seek a divorce. Lars didn’t want to have to deal with a costly settlement, so he obliged, and Zara was written off the show.”
“What? And she didn’t give you the benefit of the doubt when you said you didn’t say anything?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said gloomily. “I really liked Zara too.”
“I think you need to work on clearing your name, both with the drug thing, and with Zara. And before she finds any proof that will ruin your career.”
“Yeah, but at least we bought a little time with you helping me. Anyway, let’s figure out who you’re going to be. I already called you Nina, so we’ll have to stick with that. But we could keep your last name if that makes it easier. What is it?”
“Turner.”
“Nina Turner.” She snickered. “I guess you could create a story about people always making fun of your name rhyming with a certain pop-star.”
“If you like.” The gravity of the situation was finally sinking in. I was going to have to stay switched on twenty-four-seven for the next week. That was a lot of pressure.
“And the accent. You already started with that ridiculous southern abomination, so we’ll have to work with that. I had to play a southern character in a Broadway show once. You need to speak a lot slower. Drop the g at the end of words like fishing. And draw out your vowels.”
“Like this?” I thought up something to say. “Ah want to thank you for a lovely afternoon fishin’.”
“Hmm…that’s a little better than your first attempt, but it still needs a lot of work. And also, you do realize this means you were born somewhere like Tennessee. Or Louisiana. Do you know anything about those places?”
“Not really. Wait! Is Louisiana where True Blood was set?”
“Yes. Try and channel Sookie Stackhouse and you’ll be fine. Anna Paquin, who plays Sookie, is from your part of the world, so if she can get away with it, so can you.”
“Okay.”
We talked through my upbringing, and decided to stick with the same family members, only relocating them to Shreveport in Louisiana. Jamila then filled me in on the role of a rehab nurse, and the training one of the nurses she befriended at the center had to undertake to work in such a position.
The massage was relaxing, but my brain was busy trying to assimilate all this new information. Time would tell if I could pull it off.
When the treatments were complete, we were encouraged to go and enjoy a cup of herbal tea out on the terrace. Jamila put her wig back on. “This is going to get old very quickly,” she said, sighing. “But I suppose if it stops anyone else recognizing me, it will be worth it.”
“Yeah, and I think with your acting experience, you’ll manage this a lot better than me.”
“We’ll see. It’s a bit different when you’re in a studio and only have to be ‘on’ for short periods of time.”
I sipped my tea and enjoyed the sun on my face. “That massage was great. I feel like I could just melt into a puddle on the floor.”
“Me too. I really needed that. And I know most people would think I was irresponsible for skipping the country and jumping on a cruise, but like you said earlier, even if I really was in rehab, it would be quite a sensible way to detox.”
“Yeah, maybe. Although, I can’t imagine the withdrawal would be particularly pleasant if there was a storm.”
“Liv?”
I spun around. “Wells!”
Jamila frowned. “You know this guy?” she whispered out of the side of her mouth.
I nodded.
“I’m sorry, but did you just call my rehab nurse Liv?” Jamila asked him.
He wrinkled his brow. “Yes?”
“Nina, have you been doing that whole roleplay thing again?” she scolded me.
“I…”
“Nina sometimes likes to pretend she’s an Australian called Olivia. But she’s actually a nurse from Louisiana.”
Wells looked at me, confused. “Okaaayyy…why?”
“Ah don’t know. Ah guess for fun?” I said, internally cringing. The guy was gorgeous, and he was basically a saint if his job was anything to go by, and here I was lying to him.
“Which part of Louisiana are you from? I must say, you did a very convincing Australian accent earlier. I heard those are really hard to do.”
“Ahm from Shreveport.”
“Oh. Cool.” He looked unsettled. “Well, I guess I should let you get back to work.”
He walked off, muttering something to himself. When he was out of sight, Jamila slapped my arm. “You almost blew it before we’d even started!”
“Sorry! I didn’t know. He was seriously the only person I met on the ship before you!”
“Well, you can’t see him again. We have to be super careful.”
“That’s fine. If I see him, I’ll run in the opposite direction.”
“Make sure you do. I think we should go back to the room now. It will be safer there.”
“Okay.” I looked in the direction Wells had just gone.
I’d barely spoken two words to the guy, but for some reason, the idea of not being able to talk to him again made me sad.
I wondered what that was all about.
Chapter Five
Staying in a luxury suite was beautiful, but I felt kind of weird about it. Like I was taking advantage of Jamila, even though she was technically using me.
I also didn’t like that I was trapped on the ship and unable to confront Damien about stealing all that money from my bank account. In the future, I would be very strict with who I let into my life. Not only was Damien a bad boyfriend from a financial perspective, he also wasn’t very loyal. We had only been broken up for five minutes when he hooked up with a woman I worked with. We’d had an end-of-summer party at the office, and I’d invited Damien along. I knew our time as a couple was nearing its end, but I wasn’t quite ready to break up with him at that point. However, I still wasn’t cool with him flirting with Catherine all night. To her credit, she didn’t respo
nd, at least until we broke up—which ended up being later that evening. And then I literally saw them together the next day.
I had no idea what their relationship status was now, but I hoped she hadn’t played any part in draining my bank account.
I was starting to feel a little tense, so I took a few deep breaths. It was okay. Damien could no longer access my stuff, and if I could handle a few days of pretending to be Nina, I would be much better off. (It had occurred to me that I would be well on my way to saving a decent house deposit if I still had the money Damien took, in addition to the money Jamila was paying, but I had to let that thought go. That kind of anger could make you sick.)
Jamila saw I was a little jumpy and ordered a bottle of champagne to be delivered to the room.
“What if Zara is spying?” I asked.
“I’ll get them to hide the bottle under one of those room service plate covers,” she explained. “God knows, I could use a glass of wine myself. It’s so damn frustrating not being able to drink when there’s no real reason why I can’t.”
“I’m so sorry you had such a crappy boyfriend,” I said sincerely.
“It sounds like you haven’t had it much better. You want to talk about it?”
“Not right now. But thank you for asking.”
“I can offer some good advice. All the counselling sessions they made me participate in as a supposed addict actually gave me some good tips on how to deal with uncomfortable emotions.”
“I’m glad you at least gained one positive thing from it all.”
“I guess I did.”
Jamila had asked for a bottle of Dom Pérignon to be sent over, along with some fries—so when they arrived, we sat on the suite’s private deck and looked out at the sunset. The ocean was calm, and the sky was turning a pretty gradient of orange and red.
The first glass of champagne went a long way to making me feel better. I’d always been like that with bubbles, and the two mojitos from earlier were also still floating around in my bloodstream. Jamila seemed to relax quite quickly too. I started to wonder if maybe she did have an addictive personality when she downed the first glass in a few seconds flat and quickly refilled it. She saw my look of concern and laughed. “I promise I’ll go easy from here on in. I’ve been telling you the truth.”
I smiled. “Sorry. I did say I believed you.”
“I know.” She studied me for a moment. “Tell me stuff.”
“Like what?”
“What’s your real life like?”
I shrugged self-consciously. “It’s not very exciting.”
“Try me.”
“All right.” I went on to explain how I worked in the communications department at a bank in Brisbane, and how I took the position because I wanted something stable that earned decent money. But then how I realized it didn’t make any difference, because the rebellious part of my personality found a way to sabotage that by making me fall for Damien, who ended up helping me go broke anyway. I stopped short from telling her just how broke, though.
She laughed. “Honey, it’s not weird to be attracted to an arrogant or unsuitable guy. At least you don’t have to see him on TV every night, acting all smug and superior.”
That was true, I conceded. And then a vision of Wells flashed across my mind. He was definitely not unsuitable. Unless you counted the fact he thought I was a rehab nurse, and I was banned from seeing him on this ship.
Okay. Yeah, he was kind of unsuitable too.
Jamila combed her fingers through her hair. “What’s your relationship like with your brother?”
“I think it’s normal. We used to hang out once a fortnight when he lived in Brisbane, but now he’s always at sea and spends half his time in the US, so we only catch up once or twice a year. You know, I always thought he’d make a good actor, but he never seemed to follow through with anything.”
“You have to be persistent. And you need a thick skin. It’s definitely not for everyone.” She raised an eyebrow at me. “What about you? Have you ever wanted to do that kind of thing?”
Actually, I had. But I’d never said it aloud.
“There really wasn’t room for two big personalities in our family. Patrick was the one who got offered all the roles in the school plays, and who everybody knew was going to do something big with his life.”
She scoffed. “Yet he’s working at a cruise ship casino?”
“Yeah, it’s weird. Every time he was chosen to play the lead, or be in charge of an event, something always happened that meant he didn’t have to do it.”
“Do you think maybe he was scared? Or that he didn’t actually want the life that everyone else wanted for him?”
I’d never considered that as a possibility.
“I wonder…” I said.
Jamila yawned. “Sorry, I hope you don’t think I’m bored. I want to find out more about you, but I hardly slept at all last night. I think I’m going to have a bath and go lie down. Is that okay with you?”
“Of course.”
“I’d rather you didn’t leave the suite, but if you do, be really careful.”
“I will.” I wasn’t sure if I was ready to turn in for the night yet, but I was nervous about leaving the room. If I ran into a certain cute charity worker, would I be able to convince him I was Nina? And would I want to?
Jamila got up and disappeared, leaving the champagne with me. I poured myself another glass and stared out at the ocean.
I think this is what they called living in a gilded cage.
After half an hour of sitting out on the deck on my own, I was bored out of my brain. I had to do something. I didn’t want to disturb Jamila by watching TV, so I snuck out of the room and quietly closed the door behind me.
Okay. It was time to put my new persona to the test. On the upside, I could still be me around my brother. Jamila said I should wait before telling him anything, but he was family AND staff. If I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anybody. I suddenly had a crazy urge to go see him.
The ship was huge. When I was researching before my arrival, I read that it could sleep over one-thousand guests and eight-hundred crew. I figured the chances of running into Zara or Wells would be quite low, unless they were actively seeking me out.
To be on the safe side, I took a convoluted route to the casino, including down a few quiet corridors to make sure I wasn’t being followed.
The casino was obviously a popular evening destination for many cruise-goers. My brother was working on the roulette table at the back, so I went over and stood nearby, watching him weave his magic.
Patrick had always been a showman. When we were younger, he liked to put on magic shows for my parents and the neighborhood kids. He also excelled in drama classes at school. I considered what Jamila said about him being scared to take on lead roles. Or wanting something different to what was expected of him. As I observed him now, gently teasing the customers betting and bantering with everyone at his table, I found it hard to believe he would have been scared of that life.
I ordered a drink and stood closer to the game so he could see me. I wasn’t in the mood to bet, and thought it probably wouldn’t be a good idea anyway. I wondered if even just being in the casino would be enough for Zara to get suspicious if she saw me.
But I couldn’t spend the whole week being paranoid. I had to have some fun.
Patrick looked over and winked. I smiled back. He nodded his head at the roulette wheel. I shook my head.
I watched, mesmerized at the dizzying amount of money exchanging hands. And Patrick was on top of it the entire time, swishing chips away and loading up new piles.
After about fifteen minutes, another croupier came to take over. Patrick thanked the people at his table and excused himself.
“You were great!” I said.
“Aw, thanks, sis. It’s a pretty easy job to master.”
“Yeah, but you play your role so well!”
“I guess I kind of adopt an extreme version of my o
wn personality to make it more fun for the guests. If I admitted I was just a regular guy who used to live in a crappy studio apartment in Brisbane, do you think anyone would tip me? Here, I’m the mysterious Aussie who wrestles crocodiles in his spare time and regularly hangs out with Hugh Jackman.”
I cackled. “You told them that?”
“I didn’t explicitly say it, but I didn’t correct their assumptions.”
I shook my head. “Sell-out.”
“Hey, you do what you can to survive.”
“Speaking of playing roles, you would not believe what I agreed to.”
He raised a curious eyebrow. “Do tell.”
“You have to keep this to yourself. I mean, I know you have to anyway because you’re staff…”
“Liv, just spit it out.”
“You know Jamila Castro, the actress?”
“Yes?”
“She hired me to be her rehab nurse on this cruise.”
He looked as if he hadn’t heard me correctly. “She what?”
“She has this old co-star following her around on the ship, and she wants to bust her for leaving rehab—even though she was set up by her deadbeat ex—so I’m pretending to be her rehab nurse so she won’t suspect anything.”
He shook his head in wonder. “Sis, I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Well, she’s paying me twenty grand and I get to stay in her suite. And since I found out Damien emptied my bank account, I kind of need the money.”
Patrick’s eyes widened. “He what?”
“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, from now on, my name is Nina and I’m from Shreveport, Louisiana.” I changed my accent halfway through the sentence in an attempt to show Patrick my act.
He burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Don’t tell me you’ve already been speaking to people like that.”
“I have, actually. And they didn’t suspect a thing.”
“If you say so.” He looked off into the distance for a moment. “I can’t believe you’re hanging out with Jamila Castro. She’s great.”
“She asked if you were good-looking,” I said, giving him a cheeky smile.
I Thought It Was You (Oceanic Dreams #4) Page 3