Chapter 4
As excited as he was about the dolphin excursion, Mark felt like he should find other activities to fill his time instead of lying by one of the pools, as tempting as that was.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been able to relax and read a book or take a nap without feeling the need to check his phone for important emails and texts so he could handle any problems as soon as they popped up.
“They’re all important according to you,” Felicia had said during one of the many conversations they’d had about his need to take some time off.
As if Fate itself had intervened on her behalf, Mark’s email notification had gone off on his phone, and he'd instinctively reached for his pocket until Felicia gave him a long, hard stare, her normally warm brown eyes boring into him.
“I dare you to ignore it for five minutes,” she’d said. “I double-dog dare you.”
Mark had failed the challenge.
Today, however, he didn’t even have his phone with him, but that was less due to his own willpower and more due to it being an expensive brick that he could take photos with because Felicia had deliberately not included a Wi-Fi package with his booking, which she failed to mention until the morning of his departure.
What if a problem arose that only he could fix?
What if all his clients abandoned him because they couldn’t get in touch with him?
What if he returned from the cruise to find his employees had fled, the business had gone bankrupt, and the office building had burned down?
He’d made the mistake of voicing those concerns to Felicia, who said she’d have a list of recommended therapists who specialized in helping people with anxiety issues for him when he got back.
But just because he couldn’t do anything productive for work didn’t mean he had to waste his time doing nothing either.
He’d allowed himself some time to lollygag around the pool on the first day because there wasn’t much else going on yet, but now they were out to sea, heading for the first port of call, and everything was in full swing.
This was his first cruise, after all, so he ought to take advantage of all the entertainment opportunities at his disposal.
He decided to start with the charity drag show being held in one of the lounges.
The ticket price was extra, but all the proceeds from all the ticket sales would be donated to the Trevor Project, so he didn’t mind paying to attend.
Mark hadn’t heard of any of the performers, but that wasn’t surprising; he didn’t go out much unless it was a networking event or a dinner meeting with a client, and he rarely watched anything other than the occasional movie on some streaming platform or other.
(Deep down, he was starting to wonder if perhaps Felicia had a point about his life revolving too much around work, but he wasn’t ready to examine that yet.)
The show was a mix of stand-up comedy and lip-syncing performances, and Mark laughed harder than he had in ages at all the sharp-witted commentary on current events. After finishing a potent mojito, he even indulged in a little grooving in his seat during the musical numbers.
At one point, he spotted the silver fox who’d flirted with him at the pool, and he gave a quiet snort when he saw the cute pink-haired twink snuggled up against Silver Fox’s side.
Mark caught Silver Fox’s eye and raised his glass in a silent toast. Silver Fox smiled and raised his glass in return before returning his attention to his companion.
Should I be insulted that he found someone else so fast? Mark shook his head. Silver Fox’s priorities were different, and he knew what he wanted out of his cruise experience. Mark was the one sitting alone.
After the show, Mark wasn’t ready to return to his cabin, so he headed up to the deck, gravitating towards the rail to look out at the ocean.
The ship was brightly lit, but beyond the aura of the lights, the water looked like black glass, unbroken by anything aside from the wake of the ship as it glided toward its destination.
The waxing moon reflected on the water’s surface, and Mark could see the stars more clearly here than he ever had at home.
Yet despite all the natural and artificial illumination, the ocean seemed dark and dangerous, and Mark felt quite small, standing there with only the ship’s railing between himself and whatever lurked below.
He wasn’t accustomed to feeling insignificant.
In his world, he was well-known and respected as one of the bigger fish in the cybersecurity tech pond.
But he wasn’t in his world right now, and he wasn’t sure if he liked feeling this humbled by nature.
He preferred being in a safer, more contained environment where he knew the risks and had plenty of safeguards in place to navigate them successfully.
He drew in a deep breath and pushed himself away from the rail, feeling quite ready to be in his cabin where he could pick up a book or turn on the TV and chase away this unsettling feeling with some mindless entertainment.
Despite the lingering unease from his encounter with the vastness of the sea, Mark didn’t have any trouble falling asleep, and he felt much more at ease once the sun had risen, dispelling all darkness, both internal and external.
He’d already decided to spend his morning at a book fair, which wasn’t something he’d expected to find on a cruise.
But some cruisegoers were also writers who specialized in LGBTQ+ romance novels, and they were hosting a book fair to sign and sell their books and have informal meet-and-greets with their readers.
Mark hadn’t even realized LGBTQ+ romance novels were a thing, but now he was curious to see what was available.
He thought there might be three or four tables at most, but no, the event was held in one of the larger conference rooms, with tables lining the walls and set up in the middle of the room.
Most had colorful banners featuring hot men in various states of undress to advertise the author’s name and logo, and they were also piled high with stacks of books and all kinds of bits and bobs scattered around in between, which he assumed was free swag designed to lure in browsers.
And there were a lot of browsers. People were everywhere: lined up at the tables, milling around, chatting with each other, chatting with the authors, collecting swag.
Some of them had a few books cradled in the crook of one arm while others hoisted tote bags over their shoulders that were in various degrees of fullness, ranging from “almost empty” to “about to pop the seams.”
Judging from the signs and banners, Mark could tell he’d be able to find any genre he was interested in.
A cursory glance around showed advertising for cowboy romance, corporate romance, sports romance–hockey seemed popular–and paranormal romance, with hints of thriller novels, horror novels, and historical fiction novels being available.
Mark could almost feel his credit card vibrating with the need for him to pull it out and start swiping it, but he didn’t even have a tote bag.
“First time?”
He glanced around to see one of the seated authors, who was giving him a welcoming smile.
She had long, dark hair worn in a braid, and the banner proclaimed she was “TL Travis — Erotic Author”.
She had a lot of swag, pride flags, stickers, and at least two dozen different books displayed on her table, most of the covers seeming to sport either rock stars or silver foxes.
“It’s that obvious?” Mark gave her a wry smile. “I had no idea the book fair was going to be this big.”
Her smile grew wry. “Oh this is nothing. You should have seen Dirty Daddies Do Vegas. Now that was a crowd. Of course, there were about a hundred authors there, so.” She waved towards the crowd.
“The only thing you need to know is that everyone is friendly, and authors love talking about their books. No one bites. Well, some will, but you have to ask.”
“Noted,” Mark said with a chuckle. “Any recommendations on where to start? I’m a complete newbie to all this.”
“A good starting place is thinking about what you like to read. You’ll find everything under the sun, but if you like a certain type of story, say mysteries, or fantasies, or paranormal, look at the author’s sign to see if they've listed what they write, and start there.
Or you can do what a lot of us do and choose by the cover of the book.
Or if you already know you like a certain kink or you're curious about it, those are easy to find. I write Daddies, as you can see, but Anne over there,” she pointed to another woman across the aisle, who was talking with a leather-clad man who towered over her, “is really into BDSM, which is obvious from all the Doms and subs on her covers.”
Mark moved closer to TL’s table and looked over the array of books in front of her.
He didn’t consider himself that much into Daddies, but one cover in particular drew his attention.
It featured an older man with silver hair and a neatly trimmed beard, wearing a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned just enough to offer a tantalizing peek of chest hair, and he picked up the top copy.
“I think I’ll start here,” he said. “You don’t have any tote bags, do you?”