His Naughty Lessons

** 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."