tour?’ Of what? she wondered. Surely there wasn’t much to see?
He opened a small gate at the rear of the boat and Luci stepped off the back ledge. There was a steering wheel with a driver’s seat and a small bench seat ran perpendicular to that along the left-hand side of the boat. Luci knew that left and right weren’t called that on a boat but she didn’t know much else.
Seb put her bag on the seat. ‘Follow me,’ he said as he ducked his head and made his way down three small steps into the front of the boat.
Luci hadn’t noticed the steps until Seb showed her but she did as she was told, finding herself in a compact cabin. A kitchen bench complete with a sink ran along the wall to her right and a small table surrounded by a bench seat sat to her left. In front of her, at waist height, raised above a bank of cupboards, was a large flat wooden surface. But all of that barely registered. Seb was still shirtless and the small confines of the cabin meant he was standing only inches from her. She realised that he must have swum out to the boat to retrieve the tender before rowing back to shore to collect her. His chest was smooth and almost hairless and she could see the white spots where the salt had dried on his skin.
‘This is it.’ Seb’s head was almost brushing the ceiling and his left hand almost brushed against her as he gestured to the space around them. ‘I have to install new kitchen cabinets and appliances, these have seen better days, and...’ he slapped his palm a couple of times on the flat wooden platform ‘...get a decent mattress for my nautical futon and then I’ll be able to take her out for more than just day trips.’
‘You’ll be able to sleep on the boat?’
‘I already have but only in my swag. But if I’m going to live on her I want something a little more comfortable and permanent than that.’
‘Live on it?’
‘That’s my plan. There’s a bathroom in here, the toilet is working,’ he said as he opened a narrow door next to the bed, ‘and once the shower is operational and the new kitchen is installed I’m good to go.’
‘But it’s so small!’ Luci looked around. It possibly had everything a man might need but there was no getting away from the fact that it was at the compact end of the scale spectrum.
‘Haven’t you ever had a holiday in a caravan?’
Luci laughed. ‘A holiday, yes, but I’m not sure I’d want to live in a caravan.’ Or on a boat.
‘I’ve spent plenty of nights in my swag under the stars with just my bike and a camp fire for company. This will be five-star compared to that. And whenever I get tired of one place I can just haul up the anchor and be off.’
Luci didn’t want to rain on his parade. It wasn’t her place to comment on his choice of accommodation and she supposed it did sound romantic—for a while.
She wondered what it would be like to be so free. She was busy trying to pay off the mortgage on her house and it would be years until she was free of that commitment. But while she could see the appeal of being debt-free, she knew that deep down she would still want a home. She needed that security.
‘It sounds like fun,’ she said, determined not to be a naysayer.
She looked around. It didn’t take long. The boat was only big enough for one person to live on—just. It looked like Seb wasn’t planning on sharing it with anyone on a permanent basis and she wondered why. He was a smart, attractive man; he must have women lining up at his door. Why would he choose to hide away on a boat built for one? A boat that for all intents and purposes seemed very much like a bachelor pad?
The tour over, she followed him back up the steps.
‘Have a seat,’ Seb said, indicating the bench seat to the left of the wheel. ‘There are cold drinks in the ice box and life jackets and a bucket under your seat. Fire extinguisher here.’ He pointed to a small red cylinder attached to the side of the steering mechanism. ‘And that concludes the safety briefing.’
‘You’re making me nervous.’
‘I may not have finished the cosmetic side of things but I promise she’s seaworthy,’ he said as he pushed a button and the engine roared to life. He released the boat from her mooring, put it into gear and headed out of the cove.
The boat’s engine rumbled under her feet and the noise made conversation difficult but Luci didn’t care. She stowed her bag beneath her seat and stretched out, enamoured with the view of both scenery and the driver. North Head and South Head jutted out into the ocean to their left. Luci could see a lighthouse on top of South Head and whitecaps on the water of the Pacific Ocean through the rocky outcrops, but Seb veered to the right, staying within the harbour, and followed the Manly ferry on its way to Circular Quay.
Seb pointed out the Prime Minister’s house and Taronga Park Zoo as they motored further into the harbour. It was incredibly beautiful. And busy. It seemed like half of Sydney must be out on the harbour but that didn’t detract from the experience.
The Opera House blossomed on the foreshore to their left and Seb slowed the boat down as they approached the iconic building. The drop in speed was accompanied by a decrease in engine noise, allowing them to talk normally.
‘This is just brilliant. Thank you so much,’ she said as Seb took them under the Harbour Bridge. She looked up at the massive steel structure that spanned the harbour. ‘Have you walked across it?’ she asked.
Seb laughed. ‘You know you can drive across it? Or catch a train? Walking across is the sort of thing tourists do.’
‘Well, I’m a tourist.’
‘Add it to your list. But you might prefer to climb it or the south pylon. You get a pretty good view of the harbour from up there.’
She was disappointed. It didn’t sound like Seb would offer to keep her company if she did want to walk across the bridge.
She rummaged in her bag for her phone to take some pictures. She might not get this view again.
‘What, no selfie?’
She turned to find he was grinning at her.
‘I’m not that photogenic,’ she said, but she suspected that he was. It was a good excuse to capture a picture of him. She stepped beside him and held the phone at arm’s length. He put his arm around her and she leaned in and snapped a photo of the two of them.
She checked the photo. Still shirtless, Seb was lean, muscular, gorgeous and definitely highly photogenic. She’d managed to capture the bridge in the background but she doubted anyone could look past Seb. Not that she planned on showing that photo to anybody, it was strictly for her eyes only.
He circled the boat, turning in front of Luna Park and the clown over the entrance gate grinned manically at them as they passed the jetty. Luci could hear kids screaming on the roller-coasters and she hoped he wasn’t planning on taking her to the sideshows. She wasn’t keen to spend the afternoon surrounded by a bunch of kids. She needed something less stressful than that but thankfully Seb kept going, steering the boat back towards the Opera House.
‘Hand me your phone and I’ll take a photo of you,’ he said as he put the boat into neutral and idled in front of the Opera House.
Luci passed
