Chapter 6
I was stunned as I watched them disappear down the hall.
I don’t know why I felt so crushed. Veronica and I just met.
And yet I felt a connection with her. I sat on the foot of my bed for quite some time.
Quite a fucked up week. First, my fiancé dumped me for some college stud.
And now I probably ruined any chance to get closer with Veronica after what happened this afternoon.
Roni made that pretty clear going with that rich looking older man.
“Shu haf lotz of fun wiff yer new boyfriend,” I slurred. “Oh Jack! You are so drunk,” Veronica gasped. “Shu haf no right to jugz me,” I raised my voice. Suddenly, my knees buckled. On my way down, I struck the door handle just above my right eye. After that, all went black.
anything to my right. “How you feeling baby?” I heard Veronica ask from somewhere to my right. “I don’t know. Did you catch the guy who beat me with a baseball bat?” I questioned. My memory is a bit sketchy at this time.
“Great. One more fucked up thing to add to my fucked up week. Shouldn’t you be out in Juneau touring with your new boyfriend?” I asked in a snarky voice. “Damn, my head is killing me,” I groaned.
“I have no new boyfriend Jack. That man last night was an old friend of mine named Archie who is on this cruise with his wife. But she wasn’t feeling well last night so he invited me to spend the evening dining and dancing with him,” Roni advised me.
“At least one of us had a good night,” I hissed tersely. “You really shouldn’t let me hold you up from exploring Juneau,” I suggested. “Just because my week is a fucked up mess doesn’t mean that yours should be,” I added. “You sure don’t owe me anything,” I told her.
“Look Jack. What I did last night was just plain mean and wrong. I should have talked things out with you instead of running off and leaving you alone to stew.
“What were you thinking last night drinking that much?” Roni asked curiously. “I never drank that much before ever. I just wanted the hurt to go away. The hurt of Jane dumping me. The hurt of what I did to Todd with his wife and the hurt of how that affected you,” I answered.
“Dang Jack, is your life always this chaotic?” Veronica chuckled. “NO! NEVER!” I blurted out. “This has just been the week from hell ever since I was at the boarding ramp and Jane called to dump me,” I told Roni.
“Everything has just been hellish since then,” I added. “Well, I thought that we had a pretty good time yesterday afternoon and the evening before,” Roni pointed out. “Yeah, but even that I fucked up…twice,” I answered.
“I’ll tell you what Jack. Why don’t we forget Jane and Angie and my husband and just enjoy ourselves together for the rest of the cruise. “Okay, but I don’t know how much fun I’ll be with my face beat to hell,” I replied.
“First, we need to get some food into you and a pain pill that the doctor gave me to give to you,” Veronica told me in a sweet tone. “I’ll have you feeling good enough to go ashore when we get to Victoria BC,” she
suggested.
“Oh my gawd! I gasped when I went into the bathroom and saw myself in the mirror. There is a couple of strips over where the stitches are. My eye is so swollen that I am just looking through a tiny slit. The black and blue bruising even extends to underneath my eye into my cheek.
“You should have seen the other guy,” I joked while I gazed at my battered face. It felt good to hear Veronica giggle softly. “I promise! My life is usually ordered and sedate,” I told Roni. “This is the first time I have ever had any problems like this,” I added.
“I want us to go and do some tanning after lunch,” Roni told me. “But people will stare at me,” I gasped. “So what? You’ll be with me. They will all probably think that something happened last night and you protected me,” Roni suggested.