Gina giggled as she took her seat next to the other two girls. The captain looked down at his plate and saw just what he was hoping for the meal was at a completely different level than Tug had made before. Just the smell alone was enough to make his mouth water.
Filmore looked up at Tug and gave him an approving nod and a huge smile.
Gina said, "This is an extremely complicated dish and I believe that Tug has it down, but it is so complicated that he is going to start needing help in there unless you are going to have him make you special meals different from the crew."
Filmore thought about that for a moment. He knew that even though he could technically have him do that he would lose too much. He has always treated himself as one of the men sharing equally with them and had a strong bond with them because of it. He had not really thought of getting Tug any real help. He had thought of replacing him at times, but the crew was so small that it was not like he was doing all that much work just cooking the meals for them.
Filmore realized at that point how much the crew had changed and grown. The thoughts of having even better food if he just got Tug some permanent help, he knew that he could almost guarantee that he would at least double the number of passengers that he would be taking. Even though he didn't like catering to the really wealthy people that he had to deal with. He knew that the profits that came from them were worth going after.
As he sat there eating, he thought about how they could rearrange the ship. Clearing away all the cargo from that level would triple the revenue from each trip. Filmore knew that it was going to present him with more challenges. Moving cargo was easy, all you had to worry about was spoilage if you wound up running too late. But with passengers, he had already experienced some of the complaints that they made. They were easy enough to smooth out all he had to do was make sure that Tug made something special for them. Filmore realized that it was not going to be the answer to every problem but at least for now, it was working.
Snow saw that Filmore was enjoying the food, but that he was thinking about a lot of things. Having Gina bring up the fact that Tug was going to need help fit right along with what she had been thinking already. She knew that sooner or later the captain would be asking them to stay onboard as a permanent part of his crew. He would be willing to pay them about anything that they wanted if they stayed. Knowing that no matter what he paid them they would easily be able to charge enough to make more off of them. Snow knew that no matter where the girls started cooking someone would make all kinds of profit from it.
She knew that if they were on the ship, they would eventually stop delivering cargo altogether, and turn into some kind of passenger's vessel. But even that would be a waste of their talents, between the two of them they could teach anyone to cook. She knew that they would be best at opening some kind of school teaching others to cook like they did for Tug. Although she was unsure if that was what the girls were going to want to do. Just because that is the thing that you would be best at doesn't mean that you would be happy doing it or even if you did you would want to do it for the rest of your life.
Snow could see the profits in both trains of thought that she was thinking, but she was not sure where the girl's heads were at. She did not think that they were going to want to spend the rest of their lives onboard the ship. As she thought about the two of them. She knew that there were some major differences between the girls. Even though they looked alike there were things that were standing out in Snow's mind that they were going to have to face and deal with. Even though they were like sisters and best friends she knew that at some time they were going to separate and go their own ways. Snow was not sure if they were ready to face those facts yet. So, she was just going to give them time to figure things out for themselves.
Will noticed that the room fell silent once everyone was eating. He had seen the look on the captain's face before and he knew that he was thinking of a way to turn a bigger profit. Will was not going to interrupt him or Snow. She looked just as engrossed in thoughts as the captain was. The rest of the men at the table were too busy looking at the girls and enjoying the food to notice anything else. Will knew that the captain had to be considering asking the girls to stay onboard for a while once the trial was over. But Will could tell that was not going to be a great idea. Not that he didn't love the two of them already. He could see by the looks of the men that they were going to become a distraction. At this point, he knew that most of the men saw them as little sisters or daughters. They were something to protect but he knew that it was not going to stay that way. They saw them as girls still at this point but soon they would be women and something to fight over.
As Will looked around the table he knew that he wouldn't have to worry too much about the older guys that were part of the crew. Because they would see the girls as daughters, or simply because the guys knew that the girls would not be interested in them. So, they would not be trying to fight for them, but they had gotten a lot of new crew that was younger. They had not been totally tested to prove that their loyalty was to the ship and its captain, putting aside their own self-interests. Will knew that no one would try anything at this point but if they were onboard for years there would be some point that one of them might try something.
Will's attention was brought back to the table when he heard the girls giggling and he saw that Gina was blushing hard. He wished that he had been paying closer attention to them, it looked like Gina was really embarrassed about something. He couldn't tell if she was the one that triggered it, or if it was one of the others that had, and she was just reacting to it.
Gina was glad that the captain was taking her seriously. She remembered how easy it was to feed all the men before, even when the thing that they made was hard, and took extra time to cook. She hadn't realized how many men they would be feeding, or she might have picked something a little easier to make, or that would not take so much work and time. The biggest part was that Katie was not there, and she had to rely on Tug. He wound up taking a lot of time making notes as she showed and explained everything.
Filmore said, "I see that you three are dressed alike again. Has anyone ever mistaken you for one another before?"
Gina's mind jumped to the passionate kiss that Jake gave her when he thought that she was Katie. Gina could not help but turn bright red. She had not even had time to tell Katie let alone trying to explain just what happened and that she was not trying to get with him. As Gina sat there everyone could not help but look at her as the red color enveloped her making it stand out more. The bad thing was that the only ones who knew why she was blushing so badly were Jake and Tug.
Katie didn't know why she was blushing so badly. As far as she could remember they had never been confused for each other before. Unless there was something that Gina knew that she had not told her about. By the looks of her, it was something serious. Katie could not believe that Gina was holding something so major from her. She knew that it had to deal with her she wondered just who could have mistaken Gina for her. Katie whispered to Gina, "Just who thought you were me?"
At this point, Gina could feel the heat radiating from her face. She knew how it had to be looking to everyone. Then she heard Katie's question, and she really didn't want to answer it. She had done nothing wrong, and she had been planning on talking to her about it once they were alone. Telling her about everything, but she just had not had time to do it. Gina knew that she couldn't say anything here. Because all it would do was upset Katie, and she knew that she would never be able to explain what and how it happened.
Gina looked around the room and now everyone was staring at her wondering what was going on. The captain had not realized what he asked them was going to start this.
Gina was finally able to mutter out that she needed to be excused for a bit. Snow saw what was going on and said, "You are excused but hurry back so that we can finish breakfast."
Both Gina and Katie stood, and Gina thought just great she is going to hound me to find out what is going on. She wanted to tell her, but she was hoping that she was going to have more time to do it.
Katie followed her back to the room and didn't say a word, she knew that Gina had heard her question, and she knew that what she had to say must be important if it was affecting her this badly.
Gina went into the room with Katie following right behind her. Gina sat on the edge of the hammock and then looked up at her then looked back at her hands. Katie didn't have a clue as to what was going on with Gina, but she did not like it. Gina was looking really guilty about something it was like she was ashamed of something that she had done. With the question that was asked Katie started to wonder if she had pretended to be her to do something that she wasn't supposed to, or if she had gotten blamed for something that Gina had done in the past.
It was now killing Katie because all she could do was try and think of all the things that she had gotten in trouble for. But she never remembered a time that she had gotten in trouble for anything that someone else did. Especially Gina, if anything Gina was willing to take the blame to keep her out of trouble.
Katie was so nervous at this point not knowing what was going to happen. She went over and sat next to Gina and started looking down at her hands as well, not knowing just what else she was supposed to do. She knew that she was just going to have to give her time so that she would tell her what was going on.
Gina looked up from her hands and decided that she was just going to have to tell her no matter what happened. Gina said, "Please don't get mad and wait till I am done so that I can explain everything."
Katie thought that this really was serious, but she knew that she was just going to have to trust Gina. She had never done anything to hurt her before. Katie started crying and she didn't know why she was, but it felt like Gina was going to tell her something that was going to ruin everything that they had together. Gina had never hurt her before, and Katie didn't know why it felt like Gina was getting ready to hurt her worse than anyone else had before.