my trip as soon as we said goodbye. Thankfully, I’d listened to him.
After a long, hot shower, I ran my fingers through my hair a bit before wrapping it up in a towel on top of my head. Then, I swiped the fog off the mirror with my palm, groaning a little at the reflection that found me.
I looked as tired as I felt.
Unfortunately, I was much less prepared for a nice dinner than the other girls on the boat. When I’d packed for this trip, I’d imagined being with Joel for a week and then on my own. I had five shirts, two tank tops, one pair of jeans and two pairs of shorts to get me through my entire time here. I knew I could do laundry or re-wear a lot of this stuff, and I wanted everything I needed to fit in a carry-on sized backpack. I’d succeeded in that quest.
But there was no room in there for makeup or curling wands, that was for sure.
I chuckled to myself as I pulled out the girliest thing I had — a small bottle of moisturizer — and swathed it over my cheeks. I acted as if I’d really have done more even if I knew there was going to be a nice dinner involved, but the truth of it was I didn’t know how to do a thing with makeup or my hair. That was my sister’s territory, and I let her play with me like one of her dolls whenever she wanted to because I had absolutely zero desire.
I wished she was here now.
With that thought, I pulled my phone out and connected to the yacht WiFi Joel had told me about during the tour. Then, I video-chatted Juniper.
“Hey, big sis! How’s life abroad?”
Juniper’s smile was like a million Broadway lights. She was sitting at the kitchen table at the house we grew up in, hands wrapped around a steaming mug of tea, the tendrils of her black hair falling here and there out of a messy bun on top of her head. It was six o’clock here in Barcelona, which meant it was ten in the morning in Boulder.
We looked so much alike, Juniper and I, except she was extraordinary in every way I was average. We both had long dark hair, but hers had beautiful, natural waves that she could curl into celebrity status, where mine was flat and straight no matter what I did to it. She had flawless, pale skin, where mine was peppered with freckles and sun spots. Her body was every man’s dream, curvy and soft and sexy, where mine resembled a stick of celery. She stood tall and proud and smiled like she had the world in her hands, while I cowered and hid in her shadows whenever I had the chance.
But we both had our father’s eyes, cerulean blue, and seeing those irises I knew so well on the screen filled my heart with warmth.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “I’m on the boat Joel’s going to work on for the summer.”
Juniper frowned. “In the shower?” Suddenly, her face went pale. “Ew, Aspen, if you just called me after you guys had shower sex, I’m going to throw up.”
I laughed, setting the phone against the mirror as I took my hair out of the towel on top of my head. “No, he’s across the hall getting ready, too.” I swallowed. “The owner of the boat asked me to join them for the crew dinner.”
“Ohhh,” Juniper said, sipping her tea. “You fancy. What’s it like?”
I told her as best I could, trying to remember everything on each deck and all the terms Joel had used. She seemed the most interested in the fact that it was Theo Whitman’s boat, which apparently was big news. When I was finished, she made me promise to fill her in on how the dinner went — and to try to convince Mr. Whitman that she should be his future bride.
“I’m serious,” she said, the background blurring behind her as she made her way upstairs to her bedroom. “That man is fine, with a capital F. I may only be nineteen now but give me a few years and I’ll be Trophy Wife material.”
I barked out a laugh. “How do you even know who he is?”
She scoffed. “How do you not know? Don’t you read Business Insider or Forbes?”
“Wait,” I said, pausing where I was taming my hair. “There’s no way you read either of those.”
“I do