Chapter 36
The first night of the cruise—aboard Empress of the Seas
“Daniel, it’s fine. Please, go see the show, I can get back to the room on my own.”
He’d thought Leanne was looking a little off even before dinner. The escargots surely hadn’t helped.
“I’ll walk you back. Let’s go down to the sickbay first, though—when you were in the bathroom, I asked the waiter and he said they keep seasickness pills out for people to take. We’ll go get some and then get you comfortable.”
“I think it’s more the snails than the seasickness. And you warned me, I should have listened.”
All he’d said was, “Are you really sure you want to eat snails?” And then when she’d affirmed that, yes, she was going to try them, because if she was ever going to, this was the place to do it, he’d eaten one as well.
It was exactly as gross as he’d expected.
“Well, like you said, a vacation is the time to try new things. Now we know we don’t like snails, we can check that off the list.”
They went down to deck one, and, sure enough, even though the sickbay was closed, there was a rack on the wall with seasickness pills in little paper pouches. Daniel grabbed a handful, and escorted Leanne up to Room 4548.
He got her into bed, poured her a glass of water, gave her the remote control for the TV.
“You can stop fussing over me, Daniel.” She reached out, pulled his head down, kissed him quickly.
“Actually, it is kind of nice. You can keep doing it. But after the show. You said you wanted to see the comedy act, so go. I’ll be okay by myself. ”
She didn’t really look okay, but resting in bed was the best thing for her. He could leave her for a little while, and, anyway, she’d probably be asleep in ten minutes. The show would only be an hour, and he could come straight back here as soon as it was over.
Everything would be fine.
Nora , the same time
“I’m fine,” Greg said. “It’s just food coma. That was a very heavy meal. I’ll pace myself better tomorrow.”
They were heading back to the cabin. Nora had been trying to convince Greg to explore the ship by night, but he wasn’t up for anything except an early bedtime.
“Would you be okay if I went back up to the Atrium for a little while, after I drop my purse off? There’s supposed to be a live band.
” She felt a little guilty—but only a little.
There was so much to see and do aboard the ship, and she wanted to experience it all, not go to bed before ten o’clock.
She could—and too often did—do that at home.
“Of course,” he said. “I’ll be more lively tomorrow, I promise.”
He had his SeaPass card out, ready to insert in the door, but he stopped when he saw the message on the door, stuck there with magnets.
“Did you put that up, Nora?”
“Isn’t it great?” She’d debated writing a message that included their names, but she decided against it, thinking that Greg might feel self-conscious. But what was wrong with Caution: Unsupervised Couple on Vacation ?
“It’s cute, I guess,” he said, not sounding very sure. Maybe she should have asked him first.
He opened the door and headed immediately to the bed, only stopping to take his shoes off.
A good night’s sleep would do wonders for him, like he said.
Tomorrow he’d be ready to explore with her—and she could downshift to a lower gear, and not make him feel like they were in some kind of race to do everything as quickly as possible.
In the meantime, though, he looked comfortable, and she wanted to see the band. “I’ll just be an hour or so. I only want to hear a few songs, maybe dance a little depending on what they play. Okay?”
“Have fun,” he told her.
She blew him a kiss as she left the room. He didn’t look up, but that was okay. There was music waiting for her.
Daniel , ten minutes later
Daniel checked his watch as he got off the elevator on deck five. A quarter to ten, so he still had fifteen minutes before the show started. And there was music coming from deck four, the lowest level of the atrium. Familiar music.
Bon Jovi. It was a cover band, playing a decent rendition of Living on a Prayer.
He walked over to the railing, looking down at the band, and the little crowd dancing—as much as you could dance to a song like that.
Really they were mostly shuffling around and waving their arms a beat or two behind the music.
Exactly like he’d danced to it with Nora, on a Halloween night in his dorm room nine years ago.
And then he looked up, and on the other side of the atrium, standing at the railing just like him and maybe a hundred feet away… A green dress, and hair a little bit longer than she’d had in college.
But it was her all the same.
No. What was wrong with him? He’d been thinking about her all the time yesterday and today, when he should be thinking only about Leanne. His girlfriend, who had been nothing but sweet to him for nearly nine months, who was lying in bed right now feeling sick.
What kind of jerk was he, to be obsessing about someone else, no matter how much that someone had meant to him once upon a time?
He looked back, and the woman he’d thought was Nora was gone. Maybe she hadn’t been there at all; maybe she was just a mirage.
That’s all she was. Obviously.
Nora , the same time
The band was playing Living on a Prayer , and Nora didn’t even realize she was dancing to it until she looked down and saw her feet moving of their own accord.
She’d danced with Daniel to this song once.
Why couldn’t she get him out of her mind? Nora had been thinking about him more these last two days than she had in months.
Since July, the first time she’d gone to bed with Greg, after making him wait six months, offering up excuses that sounded pathetic to her own ears but which he’d accepted without question.
She hadn’t talked to Greg for three days afterwards; that’s how long it had taken her to convince herself she hadn’t cheated on Daniel, that it was impossible to cheat on someone who you’d been broken up with for eight years. And he hadn’t begrudged her that time, or even asked why she’d needed it.
And now, from the moment she’d woken up yesterday, she’d been comparing him unfavorably to Daniel. Greg wasn’t Daniel. That was true. But he was himself—kind, and patient, and steady—and that should have been enough.
She kept telling herself that, over and over, as her feet tapped along to the music, right up until the moment she saw him.
Daniel.
Not a hundred feet away, across the atrium from her, watching the band just like her.
Same dark hair, same impossibly pretty eyes—clear even from across the room.
She looked down, closed her eyes, looked up—and he was still there.
It couldn’t be him, though. It was just some other random dark-haired man with pretty eyes. Of course that’s all it was.
But she had to be sure. She started walking—jogging, really—around the atrium. She was only a few feet away now, and the pretty-eyed man who wasn’t Daniel wasn’t looking in her direction. He was staring intently at the spot where she’d just been.
And then he turned, and she saw. It was him.
It was impossible. He couldn’t be here, but he was, and he was walking the last few steps towards her, and pulling her into an embrace, and kissing her and she was kissing him back.
It was impossible, and it was wrong and she wouldn’t—couldn’t—let him go.
Daniel , a moment later
What had just happened? How was she here? How was Nora Langley in his arms?
Why was he kissing her when Leanne was one deck downstairs and maybe two hundred feet away?
He didn’t know. All he did know was that he couldn’t let Nora go, couldn’t look away from her, couldn’t take his hands off her.
“Nora… how?”
She didn’t know either. She just smiled— that smile—and kissed him again, and he responded. He was dimly aware that there were dozens of people on this deck, watching the show he and Nora were putting on instead of watching the band down below. He didn’t care.
He knew he should have—but he didn’t.
Nora , a few minutes later
They were sitting in what was generously called the “Library.” It was two half-filled bookshelves and four comfortable chairs.
Thankfully, none of their fellow passengers were in a reading mood, so they had a little privacy.
“What are you doing here?” She shook her head, laughing. “I mean, obviously you decided to go on a cruise. But how did we—what are the odds we’d pick the same cruise?”
It was one thing when they’d run into each other at the conference four years ago.
They were both working in the same field; it really wasn’t so bizarre that they’d had that night together.
But this? There were dozens of cruise lines, and hundreds of different ships which sailed all year long.
How did they end up on the same ship at the same time?
“Either the universe has a sense of humor,” he said, “or it’s trying to tell us something, I guess.” It was so good—so comforting, far more than it should have been, to hear his voice.
But if this was a joke the universe was playing on them, it wouldn’t be very funny to Greg, would it? Or to whoever Daniel was with.
That thought should have been enough to make her say goodbye to Daniel and go back to her room where her boyfriend was… probably already asleep.
It wasn’t.
She wasn’t going anywhere.
Daniel , a few minutes later
The comedy show was starting right about now. That’s where Leanne thought he was.
That’s where he should be.
But he wasn’t getting up. He wasn’t saying goodbye to Nora and telling her they had to pretend the last few minutes hadn’t happened, and then avoid each other the rest of the cruise.
That’s what a good boyfriend would do; the kind of boyfriend he thought he was.
But a good boyfriend also wouldn’t still be wearing the necklace his college girlfriend had custom made, right over his heart, and Daniel had been doing that to Leanne for nearly nine months.
His hand was on top of it now; when had that happened?