He got up and brushed the dog hair away from his shirt before looking at Jae. What was he expecting? That Jae turned into some ugly leprechaun over the past three years? Maybe not...but it would have helped.
"Equals. I'm not sure that can work. I know us, this boat is big but knowing we'll be stuck on it for 100 days means it will feel way too small for the both of us in ....like two hours top.", he joked before feeling watched. He looked down and saw Santos glare at him.
Waving madly at him to piss him off, he then looked back at Jae.
"Listen, I'm kidding. You got yourself a nice boat. But this boat is just nice unless you catch sharks and make it awesome. That's my part of the deal.", he answered. "But you're right. We need to make this work. So here's my offer. You're in charge of the paperwork, the babysitting of the crew, the long speeches about discipline, routine and all that jazz. All I ask is to be in charge of the shark part. From the moment we throw a long line in the water to the moment we release the shark, I make the calls. I got that this is your study and I'm all for making it be a success but I think we shouldn't lie to ourselves and act like we can stay in the same room for too long before either killing or fucking each other.", he stated.
"And I kinda have someone who swore to throw me overboard if I even considered the second option.", he chuckled.
"Anyhow...". He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.
"It looks like my.... YouTube fans as you put it are the ones who made your investors willing to pay for this entire project. They came to me and asked me how much I wanted to work with you. I mentioned an insane amount of cash and they asked me if that was all. So I doubled it, added I wanted all costs on them, and they just held me a pen and told me where to sign. So I'm thinking... I can put my weight wherever I want since they want me to be the face of that little adventure. Remember that when you'll start thinking about punching said face.", he grinned before rolling his shoulders to ease the tension in them.
Then he held his hands up. "I'm not saying I'm gonna make things difficult. On the contrary. I just want to enjoy this trip and get to catch big sharks. I have my own study running and the sooner we'll be done here with satisfying results, the sooner my crew and I can go back to it. Thanks to this, I get the opportunity to continue and I'm grateful for it. I don't plan on ruining it. You can relax.", he promised before walking to him.
"Besides, I'm not the kind to cut and run. It's more your thing, I recall.", he added, patting Jae's back.
"I promised my crew they'd get to choose their cabin first. As soon as they did, your team is free to come on board.", he called out as he walked to the door, not without caressing Bo's head before he did.
"What's that?", he asked as he sat down, leaning back to rest his feet on the big conference table. This boat was nice but the hallways under the deck were made for midgets and his back was already killing him. Thankfully, he found a large cabin on the upper deck, with a ceiling high enough for him. The bed was a joke so he just called for the maintenance crew to get rid of it, replacing it with two mattresses on the floor. The guy who showed up for the job opened his mouth to ask why then looked up at Jack before nodding. Yeah, the problem was obvious.
Now, he joined the rest of the team for their first briefing and everyone in the room was clearly excited to start.
Billy came to sit next to him and Santos and Jolene were standing next to the windows behind him. At his right, a guy from the production crew proudly pushed the camera Jack just asked about toward him.
"My design. For footage under the water. Took me some time to figure out how to get the right resolution and to place an underwater transmitter strong enough to send the feed live back to the monitor.", he beamed. Billy laughed and the guy glared at him.
"Yeah, sorry, it's cute.", Billy precised, not getting the time to speak about his own design as Jack slapped the back of his head gently.
"Play nice. You'll get to brag about your toys soon enough. Let the guy have his moment.", he chuckled. The guy, utterly confused, looked between them before Jae's entrance distracted him.
A golden ball of happy fur jumped on Jack's legs only one minute after that. The dog laid down on them, paws crossed over Jack's ankles, his head turned toward Jae, ready to listen.
Everyone looked at the dog, then at Jack who was just smiling and stroking the dog's back.
Someone from the production crew elbowed the cameraman in charge of following Jack everywhere to have him turn on his camera.
"What? Dogs love me almost as much as sharks do.", Jack explained, knowing Jae would probably choke if he said that dog used to sleep between the two of them in the past. He was impressed though. He hadn't seen Bo in three years and it took three minutes for the dog to ease back into his old habits.
He wondered how long it would take him to do the same. As if he knew what Jack was thinking, Santos growled low behind him.
That was disturbing.
It was just a briefing about the basic schedule and safety rules but it was mandatory. Jack focused on petting Bo as he listened to Jae tell them all about it and he even managed not to yawn. It was important after all. Not all of the people here knew about life on a boat. Not for such a long period of time at least.
Billy nudged him and pushed a sheet of paper his way. Jack snickered at the sight of the drawing his friend made. Them all in the briefing room just like they were now and a shark standing on its tail, knocking at the window behind Jae and saying "Can we get started? I'm missing Shark Week for this!".
"Mr Keller, would you like to add something?", Jae suddenly said.
Jack's first thought was to retort something in the line of 'Yes, I like it when you call me Mr Keller', but chances were he'd get strangled for this.
So he looked around before speaking and nodded.
"Yeah, actually. Don't touch my stuff, don't get in my way and no, I won't crouch for you to take selfies with me.". His words made everyone laugh and he waited for them to stop before continuing.
"More seriously, I'm used to work exclusively with my crew when it comes to bring sharks in and on the platform I will give a demonstration about it as I found out by reading my... erm...schedule. The more you know. Anyway, I'm aware I'm gonna need more hands since we're here to catch bigger sharks. So I'll run tryouts before choosing the ones I want. And I'll train them before I let them even dream of getting close to a shark. It's not gonna be easy but I'm sure /Mister/ Olson only hired the best to join us here. But right now, tonight is our last night before we sail far away from any decent pizza places. That's why I took the liberty to order enough pizzas for everyone tonight. To celebrate our adventure. And because the production crew is buying.", he grinned. The entire team cheered, except for the head of said production crew who seemed to try and remember when he offered to pay for anything.
But considering the news made everyone happy, he knew he would have to comply.
"That's all I wanted to say, Mister Olson", he smiled at Jae, his hands still ruffling the dog's hair as he did.
"Are we free to go now? I have a YouTube page to update.".
YOU ARE READING
Love Bites
RomanceJack's made a career out of his love of sharks and the conservation of the species, but he lives for the danger and the portability. His life is his boat and his work, and he's fine with that...sometimes. Jae has a dream: find the prehistoric shark...
