Chapter Five #2
Her sons alone had reputations that leaked into conversations. They used their accents to turn heads. That was before they married. It didn’t make her love or think of them any less. And Chloe . . . well, her daughter was . . .
Mari took a closer look at the girls as they chatted away.
It didn’t matter. Chloe and Dante were happily married, and whatever was before . . . wasn’t any longer.
The waiter arrived and collected the last of their dishes.
“What’s next?” Amanda asked as they stood to leave the dining room.
“The dating game starts at eight,” Rosa announced.
“That gives us an hour.”
The younger women said their goodbyes while Mari, Rosa, Amanda, and Jill stayed together.
The ship was a floating city. It had everything anyone could possibly want or need and several of each.
Bars were everywhere. As an owner of a restaurant, Mari was well acquainted with the profit margin of alcohol sales. There were cozy piano lounge bars. Bars with live music. Dance clubs with bars. Bars in all the entertainment venues and casino.
The ship was making a killing on booze.
Plenty of space was set aside for children. They had an arcade, laser tag, and kid club space where parents dropped the kids off so they could have some adult time.
And restaurants.
The main dining room and buffet were included, but that didn’t stop the ship from offering everything from sushi to steak and, of course, Italian cuisine.
Mari held out hope that the Italian food in the specialty location wouldn’t disappoint, considering the international diversity of the staff. She knew taking the main dining room’s offering of pasta was a quick and decisive “no.”
Buffet-style lasagna never hit the spot.
She had to admit that the thought of seeing the kitchens aboard the ship gave the chef in her a little kick. Maybe a behind-the-scenes tour was in order.
While the four of them explored the floating city they would call home for the better part of two weeks, they passed an Irish pub where several women from their group sat drinking shots with other ladies their age.
The scene wasn’t surprising, but the age of the women who had the emptiest shot glasses in front of them was.
The women north of sixty-five were reliving their twenties.
“Join us,” one of them said as Mari’s group walked by.
“We’re on our way to the dating game,” Amanda told them.
“Maybe we’ll see you there,” Rosa said.
The lounge where the singles gathered was a mix of all ages. Much more diverse than what Mari witnessed by the pool earlier that day.
And for Rosa’s sake, there were many more men floating around the room than expected.
The room was packed, and seats were filling in fast.
They found a small table to the left of the stage with space for the four of them if they didn’t mind sitting close together.
The low ceiling seemed to muffle some of the sound of the people, but the sheer number made it hard to hear what the person next to you was saying.
“This is nuts,” Jill pointed out.
The three of them agreed.
The stage had an arch constructed with pink and white heart-shaped balloons. On it were the words Breaking the Ice.
Percy took the stage and jumped behind the microphone. “Welcome. Everyone, make yourselves comfortable. We will be starting in a few minutes. I hope you’re ready to have a great time.”
Several groups of people clapped and yelled their approval.
Jill looked around and behind them. “It’s going to take a while for bar service.”
There were at least a dozen servers running around. And they were running.
“Do either of you know what to expect?” Mari asked their new friends.
“Other than asking for volunteers, I have no idea,” Amanda said.
Mari pointed at Rosa. “You dragged me on this boat. I’ll drag you on that stage.”
Rosa’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”
“Calciando e urlando!” Kicking and screaming, she said in Italian.
Rosa laughed with genuine excitement in her eyes.
Mari stood. “I’ll get us something from the bar.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jill said.
Mari shook her head. “I’ll make two trips if I have to. Just make sure this one raises her hand. She needs a reason to lie to our children when we get home.”
Weaving in and out of people, Mari found the end of what looked like a line.
“I wonder if OSHA would approve of this many people in the room.”
An older gentleman standing behind Mari asked the question to anyone listening.
“I doubt it,” Mari replied.
The man looked directly at her and smiled.
“The main ports of these ships never reside in a country with laws as strict as ours,” he told her.
“I’m sure the ocean has its own set of rules.”
Mari inched forward.
The older man smelled a little bit like a minty arthritis cream. “Looks like it’s going to be fun.”
Mari smiled, not sure what to say to that but not willing to ignore him. “Yes.”
“Have you . . . before?”
The people in the room upped the volume, causing Mari to miss half of the man’s question.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I said . . . have you been on a cruise before?”
She shook her head. “My first.”
“I come all . . .”
The last of his words were lost on her. She assumed what he said and simply nodded with a smile. “That’s nice.”
“My late wife loved . . .”
Mari leaned forward. “What?”
“She loved to cruise!” This time, he yelled.
The man moved closer, causing her to take a step back. “That’s lovely.”
Mari’s gaze drifted to where Rosa and the other women sat.
More of the cruise director’s staff started to arrive on the stage, and the noise just kept elevating.
“It’s awfully loud in here. Can I convince you to skip this and find a quiet place for a drink?”
Mari’s smile dropped, her eyes snapped back to the man old enough to be her father, and her jaw slacked.
She swore she heard someone nearby chuckle.
“No . . . that, ah . . .” What? She needed to shut this down quickly. “I’m not . . .”
“Single?”
“Yes. I’m . . .” Single sounded like something Rosa would say. Widowed invited more explanation and conversation. “I’m not interested in . . .” You! A quiet bar. When had she forgotten how to speak?
The man lifted his chin, his smile forgotten. “Well, you don’t have to be rude.”
Mari opened her mouth to reply but didn’t get a chance.
The stranger turned on his heel and headed for the door leading out of the room.
“What just happened?” It was her turn to talk to no one.
The chuckle she thought she heard earlier returned.
Mari rotated her head to the side to find the amused smile of a man who was close enough to hear her question. “Did you see that?” she asked.
“I did.”
“Was I rude?” The Italian in her said no. She didn’t raise her voice once. Except to be heard. A necessity in the room.
“Some men can’t take rejection,” her observer said.
“I didn’t think he was . . . he couldn’t be serious. My father is younger than him.”
“Age doesn’t seem to matter on this ship.”
No truer words had been said. First the boy at the pool, now this. “I’m not cut out for this,” she said.
The bar line moved, putting Mari up next.
“If you don’t want to get hit on, you might avoid the singles parties.”
The man talking with her . . . and maybe even laughing at her, let mischief dance in his smile.
“I don’t get hit on. This is not my . . .” She seriously needed to remember how to speak.
He chuckled again.
When she glared at him, he tried hard to stop.
Channeling Chloe, Mari rolled her eyes and smiled as she turned to the bartender.
“What can I get you?”
Good question. “Wine, what are your reds?”
Instead of answering, the bartender turned, picked up two bottles, and showed her the labels.
She winced. Her sommelier son would remind her that wine behind a bar at a club was good for only one thing. A headache.
“How about a martini?”
“Apple, lemon drop . . . dirty?”
Another chuckle from the stranger.
Without looking, she lifted a hand to her side in the man’s general direction. “Enough from you.”
He laughed harder.
The bartender glanced between them.
“Lemon, and two of them, please.”
He left to make the drinks. Mari stood tall and waited.
Out of the corner of her eye, the observer acted as if he wasn’t watching her. “Lemon was safe.”
She bit her lip so she wouldn’t smile. “No, you can’t buy them for me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of asking.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
The cruise director took the spotlight and started warming up the crowd.
People who weren’t sitting found a seat, except for those in the line at the bar.
Mari looked over the heads of all the people and noticed a waitress talking with Rosa and the others. Thankfully, it looked like they were ordering.
Her martinis showed up, she gave the man her room key with a quick signature, and she lifted the drinks to return to her seat.
Mari faced her unnamed observer, lifted her chin.
“Be careful out there,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s me that has to be careful. It’s them.” In addition to finding her voice, Mari had learned the game. If she was going to be accused of being rude, it wouldn’t be for no reason at all.
“I hope I’m around to witness the wreckage.”
Was that a wink?
No.
No.
Ignoring the strange stirring in her chest, Mari nodded to her stranger and returned to her seat.
“We need four female volunteers,” Percy announced.
The room erupted in shouts of women offering up themselves or their friends.
Mari hung back long enough to not get roped into going onstage.
As requested, Amanda and Jill both grabbed Rosa’s hands and yelled for Percy to pick her friend.
Percy singled out two young women, picked a third slightly older lady, and then zeroed in on Rosa.
Mari sipped her drink as she took her seat right as Rosa was stepping under the lights of the stage.
Her friend was blushing already.
“Now for the men.”
Again, yells and calls were shouted out.
Percy turned toward the women. “Ladies’ choice. Pick wisely. It will be up to you and your partner to work together to win this competition.”
Rosa stared over Mari’s way.
Mari lifted her cocktail in the air as if to say . . . “This is what you wanted.”
One by one, the women before Rosa singled out a stranger in the room to partner up with.
When it was her turn, the room grew even louder, knowing it was their last chance to take part.
Mari took in Rosa’s options. There were several men close to their age to pick from, but the most noise came from men slightly younger.
Finally, she made her choice.
Close in age, maybe a bit younger. Thin hair on top with a huge grin on his face.
He jumped onstage and took his place to Rosa’s side.
Percy walked in front of the participants, asking their names and where they were from.
Julio from Spain spoke perfect English and quickly linked his arm with Rosa’s.
Mari leaned over to Amanda.
“Please take a couple of pictures.”
She didn’t have to be asked twice.
“Here are the rules. We have three relays. Whichever team completes them first wins. Simple, right?”
The participants agreed.
“First relay we call Pucker Up.” Percy stood back as his crew brought out four tall, narrow benches, then proceeded to place four tennis balls on individual pedestals.
On the far end of that same table was the canister the tennis balls fit in.
“You and your partner need to place the tennis balls into the container using only your lips.”
Laughter erupted.
Two members of the crew demonstrated. With hands behind their backs and facing each other, they leaned over and pressed their lips against the ball, one on each side. They lifted the ball together and quickly, yet carefully, shuffled down the table, hovered the ball over the tube, and let it loose.
Basically, it looked like two people were kissing with a tennis ball between them.
“If you drop a ball, you have to start over. Next, you move on to the hula hoops. Holding hands, you must pass the hula hoop from one person to the other.”
A crew member stood in the center of one hula hoop while holding hands with their partner.
The crew member then kicked at the hula hoop until they brought it up to their waist, catching it with their elbow but not their hands.
Wiggling their bodies and contorting their limbs, eventually, the hula hoop passed from one person to the next until it hit the floor around the feet of their partner.
Rosa’s mouth opened wider and wider as the examples played out.
“Last but not least . . . we have Push the Box. You and your partner both put this on like so.” Percy tied a strap around his waist. The strap extended down to the floor, and on the end was a long plastic eggplant.
By now, the crowd had clued in, and everyone was laughing.
Percy moved in front of a small box and shifted his hips until the eggplant hit the box and moved it to the other end of the stage, where the other partner would be waiting to push it back to the other side.
“This is fantastic,” Jill said, laughing.
Mari almost felt sorry for her friend.
Almost.
While the contestants moved around onstage to get ready to go, Mari lifted her drink to her lips and felt her neck tingling.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw laughing eyes smiling her way.
From across the room, her observer met her gaze.
He lifted his drink in the air before turning his attention back to the show.
Mari swallowed hard and stiffened her spine.
Her drink went down quickly.
The whistle blew, and Rosa and Julio, complete strangers, were working together, kissing a tennis ball and shuffling down a bench.
What was happening?
Less than twenty-four hours on the ship, and Mari hardly recognized the laughter coming out of her lungs, or the feeling in the pit of her stomach.