If you haven’t read March 1 yet, you can do so here.

If you stumbled onto this post by accident and haven’t read any of the other stories, head over to this post to find out more about this project.

“Poppy, I need you to arrange for a bottle of gin to be brought to my room on Wednesday, I’ll need you to chill it ready for the evening.”

Poppy abandoned her cleaning task momentarily to note the request down. 

“Anything else Ms. McCoy?” Adrienne looked up from her laptop. 

“Yes, I’ll need some tonic to go along with it, a few bottles I suppose, also chilled. And some limes as well.”

“Not a problem Ms. McCoy,” Poppy paused, suddenly concerned there was about to be a change to her schedule. “Are you planning a party?”

“Hmm?” Adrienne had already returned to her work but looked back up at Poppy’s question. “Oh, not exactly. A date. Kind of. Maybe. I don’t really know.”

Poppy’s stomach lurched uncomfortably so she turned back to the bookshelf she had been dusting. 

“Actually, maybe you could help me. You like women?”

“Naturally. Continue.” Poppy made an effort to keep her gaze on the bookshelf reading the titles of each book as she tried not to think about who Adrienne was talking about. 

“There is this woman. A passenger. I really like her. But, I screwed things up. We had a lovely date then this quarantine hit and I didn’t call her.”

Poppy nodded. “And the gin is for her?”

“A peace offering. She agreed to a casual dinner. In her room.”

Poppy made a show of picking up a tiny ship in a bottle and dusting it. If Cleo was already inviting Adrienne to her room, Poppy might as well give up. Not that she’d had any chance to begin with. 

“So, what’s the problem?” Poppy kept her attention on the bookshelf, not daring to look Adrienne in the eye. 

“Well, she said she wants to keep it simple. I don’t know how to do simple.”

Poppy laughed. She hadn’t meant to, but it slipped out. Adrienne glared at her. 

“Why are you laughing?”

“It’s just, you, Adrienne McCoy are asking me for dating advice?”

Adrienne shrugged. “Well, if she asked for simple. Just do that. The gin is a good start. Assuming you know she likes gin?” Poppy questioned.

Adrienne nodded. “Pretty sure. I thought I should take something else too. Flowers maybe?”

“Do you think she’d like that? What does this woman like?” Adrienne thought a moment.

“Books. She’s always reading.”

“Perfect. Take her a book.” Adrienne nodded. 

“Yeah. I could take her a book.”

“And just, be honest with her. Don’t do any of that bravado stuff.”

“I don’t do bravado.”

“Sure boss.” Poppy smiled mischievously and slipped onto the deck, determined to the continue cleaning in peace as she processed this new development. 

You can read March 3 here.

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