Irresistible by Andrew J. Peters

Author:Andrew J. Peters [Peters, Andrew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, LGBT, contemporary, humorous, romantic comedy, rich man/poor man, action/adventure, abduction/kidnapping, criminals, Greece
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2018-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

CAL SAT SLUMPED in the lifeboat with a tarp drawn over his head, wallowing on an endless plain of seawater as thick and lustrous as latex paint. The ancient Greeks had called the Aegean “the Great Green,” though that seemed like a misnomer to Cal. The water was much more of a rich, almost Technicolor blue, darker in its troughs, aquamarine when the sun glowed through its frothy peaks. Meanwhile, he was Odysseus, abandoned by mankind and the gods, condemned to drift eternally on the deserted sea. This, he realized was a touch histrionic, but for a young man who had never ventured out on his own for longer than an afternoon’s bike ride through the sturdy and predictable Central New York State countryside, the circumstances evoked a rather extreme grade of despair.

Against his hopes, he’d found no emergency radio in the dinghy, and then the outboard motor had conked out early in the evening, run out of gas. Cal had proceeded to shoot off every round from the flare gun, hoping to arouse a rescue from whatever naval force held purview in his location, but to no effect. To temper his panic, Cal had eaten all twelve noisome packets of doughy rations in the dinghy’s survival kit and slugged down all but one can of water. He was a lousy survivalist.

The sky was just brightening. Based on the dusky conditions when he escaped from the capsizing tugboat, he’d only been lost at sea for ten, maybe eleven hours at the most, and he’d already run through all of his supplies. The dinghy was equipped with oars, but Cal saw no point in using them when he had no idea which way led to land.

His solitude provided generous time for self-reflection. How had his life come to this? Marooned in a boundless body of water when he was supposed to be enjoying the crowning moment in his twenty-four-year lifetime? Cal had never been prone to self-pitying, and he continued to resist it, even then. He could not lose himself to hopelessness. His family would never give up looking for him. As for Brendan, Cal didn’t know what to think. But more than anything, he wished he would awaken from his nightmare to the sight of Brendan helming a motorboat, racing to his rescue, to scoop him out of the sea, and then he’d take him in his arms, apologizing for how wrong he’d been, how wrecked with grief he was since Cal had disappeared.

Cal searched the horizon. He searched the sky. He had to believe in miracles—a passing boat or a low-flying plane spotting him out on the water. The world was vast. He’d never realized how many voids of emptiness it contained, how easily a person could be lost forever. How long could a man live without food? How long could he live without water?

His glance landed on a speck on the horizon. Cal blinked, rubbed his eyes, and focused sharply on it, praying it was not some trick of sunlight against the glassy sea, a mirage.

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