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“I thought I’m your only breakfast buddy.”
Kate looked up from the mountain of paperworks in front of her to the direction of the voice at her opened cabin door.
“Are you sulking?” she raised her eyebrows at her bosun who leaned casually to her door frame with his folded arms in front of his chest.
“Me, sulking?” Dylan smirked, “nah….”
She shrugged, “you sounded like it.” She then pointed her pink pen at him. “And for the record, I can have breakfast with anyone. You, mister, do not have monopoly of my breakfast time.”
His smirk only got wider before he took a quick look outside the cabin for any foot traffic and then sat at the spare chair next to her desk, “so, how did breakfast go with the boss?”
She sighed and finally put her pen down. “Are men that dense?”
“What did he do?” He frowned.
“He said that it’s so obvious that I should go for promotion instead of transferring out. He’s confident I will get the job.”
“It sounded like he believes that you could do the job and deserves the promotion. And I think the Hammersley crews will agree with him.” He stared at her troubled face, “but obviously you don’t find this reassuring?”
“Not really.” She shook her head, “do you know how big the list is? 11 people, 5 already a Lieutenant Commander, the rest Lieutenant. And only 2 females, including me and another Lieutenant Commander.” She then looked at him pointedly, “how do you think of my chances now?”
He grimaced in sympathy, “you’re not out of the race completely because you’re currently the XO of the boat and a good one at that. But I see your points….”
“And he doesn’t see that.” She huffed, “he just kept looking at me with his puppy eyes and telling me that he’d take care of it, that he’d vouch for me as Hammersley’s current CO and I shouldn’t worry too much about it. He said that there is no need for me to transfer out and seek more experience elsewhere. I should just focus on doing a good job here.”
He could see her frustration as she ranted at him, but he couldn’t blame Mike Flynn either for not wanting to lose her presence in the ship. She’s the glue of the ship, the big sister figure for the juniors and frankly the backbone of the senior leadership team. She organised them, problem-solved for them, disciplined them. Honestly, he dreaded the day another XO would try to replace her. But she deserved that promotion and a chance to climb that ladder if she so wished. And Hammersley should have been only a stepping-stone for her, not the final destination of her career.
“Look at the other female candidate. She had a stint as acting XO in the frigate during her gulf deployment and she’s currently the acting deputy head of Cerberus.” She pointed the profile on her laptop screen before showing him another open tab of her browser. “And this other Lieutenant, he was the XO of Darwin’s patrol boat for a couple of years and currently a warfare officer for HMAS Warramunga….”
“And you are the current XO of the ship that they are trying to fill the CO vacancy for.” He replied patiently, “if Fleet Command gave you the job, they wouldn’t have to spend any money on relocation cost, no additional training except mandatory refresher and zero risk of mutiny from Hammersley’s crews because everyone would just roll with it; you practically run this ship anyway.”
“You are so biased….” she scowled at him.
“OK, maybe,” he nodded, “but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re not without a chance. And what’s with this crisis of confidence now?”
She sighed, “no crisis, just being realistic…”
“Look, I think you’re focusing too much on winning the prize, but do you actually want the prize?” He raised his eyebrows, “is CO of a patrol boat what you really want to be doing, say for the next 5 years?”
She went quiet at his question. The more she thought about it, the more she realised that she had never even considered applying for CO position in Hammersley. Up until 5 months ago, she had been waiting for Mike to get off the boat, so that they could rekindle their relationship, but the thought of taking the CO responsibility herself had never crossed her mind. And now, she was apparently in the running for the position, all because Mike decided that her name should be on the list.
“Let’s get out of here.” She suddenly decided that she needed some air. “We still have 4 hours until we’re sailing again.”
“Walk to the esplanade?” He stood up and checked his watch to make a mental note for the time he should start to make his way back to deal with the provisions.
“Sure, I feel like Ice Coffee, should we stop at that café near the cruise terminal?” she asked as she was closing her programs and shutting down her laptop.
He nodded, “yeah, that’ll be good. The weather is so sticky today.”
“The bureau says there’ll be storm tonight.”
“Fantastic,” he sighed, “just in time for us to sail back out again.”
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“You know what else he said today?”
Dylan only hummed in reply as they were walking past the artificial lagoon while sipping their Ice Coffees.
“That he knows for sure that I would take great care of Hammersley. He doesn’t trust other candidates to do the same. That’s why he’s putting my name forward in addition to those that Commander White had helped him picked.”
He frowned as the words sounded nice to him, but he could see sign of sadness on her face as she repeated what the boss had said, which confused him, “why the long face, X?”
“I just realised that once again he put Hammersley as his first priority. He just put my name on there for Hammersley’s benefit without consulting me or asking me what I want to do for my own career. I have enjoyed my time in Hammersley, but being a CO of a patrol boat has never been what I aspire to be.”
“What do you want to do then?” He asked, “at the end of the day, it’s your choice.”
She went quiet again and kept walking until she saw an empty bench on the esplanade and took a seat on it. She inhaled the sea air deeply before turning to her bosun once more.
“I’m sick of always being someone’s 2nd priority and I’m sick of people deciding what my life supposed to look like.”
He could only raise his eyebrows at her outburst and stayed quiet lest he became the subject of her ire. Her silence stretched for the next 15 minutes or so and he didn’t know how to help her.
“Sorry….” she looked at him sheepishly, “I shouldn’t drag you out here and dump my stuff on you.”
He huffed, “my choices were laundry, playing poker with 2Dads, watching cricket replay or out here with you. It’s a no brainer really.”
She rolled her eyes at him, “you really know how to flatter a lady.”
He laughed, “trust me, spending time with you is far from a hardship. I’ve said that I want you to be my breakfast buddy for life, remember?”
“Well, you’re my coffee buddy too now.” Her lips curved up a little, “what’s next? Lunch buddy?”
“If that’s the next step before graduating to dinner buddy, then I’ll take it,” he grinned.
“Don’t push your luck….” She nudged his bicep playfully. “Let’s make our way back, provisions should be delivered soon.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
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