Fifth Anniversary Honeymoon Cruise Ch. 04

Then the boom was lowered. "Mr. Johnstone, I'm sorry but your credit card was declined!"

"What! That's impossible! What the hell! Here, use this one instead." Unhappily - for Henry, not Mark - all of his cards were denied. Fortunately, Julie calmed Henry's attack on the messenger, the poor clerk, for, as they started to return to the ship, he offered some advice.

"With your credit cards not working, there is no way you are going to be able to pay the prices we charge. These are cruise port prices! Obviously I am not going to be able to sell you anything so my honest advice to you is for you to go back to your ship and get whatever cash you have. In addition, the ship will give you a limited amount of cash charged to your account with them. Then go to a cheaper place. There are plenty of regular clothing stores in town, but there's a Walmart Supercenter on the Avenida de la Constitucion near here. It's almost walking distance, but a taxi will get you there in less than five minutes."

Julie and a very disgruntled and angry Henry thanked him for his advice and returned to the ship. One thing that she had found out about Henry was that he did not handle crises and setbacks well. This imperturbable man was anything but. "Come on, Henry, calm down. You can figure out what happened to your credit cards later. Let's see how much cash we have and get ourselves to that Walmart store. Damn it, they sell everything we actually need. They won't be fancy brand names but you can get underwear, socks and shirts that will be fine for this trip. Pants too. I probably can get a decent bathing suit - you too for that matter."

Ultimately Henry cooled off and, as the store clerk had said, the large Walmart store was a very short cab ride away. Sometime later they returned with three very large bags, with, humiliatingly, 'Walmart" prominently printed on them. When they got to their suite, Julie joked, "Well, now I can have my Walmart flip flops and my Walmart bikini to go with my Walmart panties and my Walmart bras! Very chic!" She paused, and, as an afterthought, she said, "Henry, we're in Porto Rico, part of the United States! Your phone should work and you can check on your credit cards!"

"My god, you're right! Why the hell didn't I think of that?" He quickly got his phone out and hit the number of his office. While he talked, Julie sat out on the deck and looked over the cruise port at the city of San Juan, thinking, "There's a nice city to tour right over there and here I am just looking instead of visiting! So far all I've seen is a Walmart Supercenter - Wow! I wonder what marvelous thing I'll see next?

It was close to an hour later when Henry appeared at the doorway, his face livid. "Somebody is going to pay for this! I called the office and got Jenny, the secretary. She had two credit cards for me in her desk. It turns out that all my credit card issuers, business and personal, received calls, supposedly from me, indicating that my cards had been lost or stolen. Of course they immediately cancelled the cards and issued new ones - sent to my home or the office! Somebody had all my card numbers!

"Finally, I called the Visa card issued by our own damn bank and, after going through all that question and answer security, they offered to send a replacement card to the ship at our next port of call! Our next port of call is Labadee, Haiti which is nothing but a place owned by Royal Caribbean, not a city. So, they will deliver a replacement card to Charlotte Amalie, St, Thomas! That's better than nothing, but after St. Thomas, we're at sea until we get home so it won't be of much use.

"The big deal, however, is that somebody is fucking with me! My suitcase disappears despite being delivered to the ship, these bulletins and pictures showing us together with their suggestive comments, someone apparently hacking into my records to get my card numbers - this is far more than a joke, far more than a jealous husband! I have no idea about what's going on, but when I find out, somebody's going to suffer!"

"I don't know if this is aimed at you, me or both of us, but it certainly is creepy! It feels like a camera must be aimed at us even there is no one near us. It's really intimidating. Still, I don't know what we can do except ignore it and hope they'll stop if we don't react. Let's look at the bright side. You have regular shirts to wear, plain khaki pants instead of those logo things and, most important, you can quit washing your shorts and socks every night - you have new ones! And I have a bikini which isn't as pretty as I would like, but at least my tits will stay in the top and my pussy hair will stay in my pants!"

She paused, thinking of their purchases and, despite her concerns about being watched, she suddenly laughed. "We bought all this stuff, but one thing we didn't get that you have to have is a suitcase! I can see you putting all these clothes back into those Walmart bags and carrying them through customs! There's something you can use the credit card for in St. Thomas!"

The pleasure they received from finally being able to buy some of the clothing items they, particularly Henry, needed was somewhat diminished by another EB & T Bulletin stuck on their door when returning from dinner. This one drove Henry into another rage-filled tirade for a different reason - he was embarrassed and, in his own mind, humiliated! There was a picture of him and Julie returning from their shopping trip as they made their way through security, those Walmart bags prominently displayed.

THE EB & T BULLETIN

WE HAVE A PICTURE OF OUR TWO INTREPID TOURISTS RETURNING FROM AN OBVIOUSLY SUCCESSFUL SHOPPING TRIP TO THAT EXCLUSIVE HABERDASHERY, WALMART! WE WILL LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING THE ELEGANT AND STYLISH OUTFITS THE ALWAYS WELL-DRESSED MR. JOHNSTONE WILL BE WEARING WHEN HE RETURNS! WE HAVE WONDERED WHERE HE GETS THOSE SUITS, ETC. THAT HE WEARS WITH SUCH PANACHE. NOW WE KNOW AND WE'RE SURE THAT HIS COLLEAGUES HERE AT THE BANK WILL BE DELIGHTED TO SHARE THAT INFORMATION. IT APPEARS THAT MRS. SCHAFFER SHOPS AT THE SAME FASHIONABLE STORES!

This time it was Julie who had to calm Henry down. He was raving as he stomped up and down the room, swearing to inflict serious damage on, first, the person who took the picture, and second, on anyone who responsible for that slander. Julie was upset because the message revealed, once again, that they were under continual surveillance, but this message was far less personal than previous ones. She actually was amused at Henry's behavior at first for he was reacting like a popinjay, but the amusement quickly faded. For some reason that she did not understand fully, he seemed to be extraordinarily concerned about his image - Henry Johnstone just didn't shop at Walmart!! This was pure ego and showed a very shallow, self-centered mentality and further eroded her respect for him.

He finally cooled down and the following two days were largely uneventful. Julie and Henry got off the ship at Labadee and found nothing there to keep them ashore. There really was no beach and, while there were water sports, neither were interested in jet skis, etc. The most interesting thing was watching people zoom down zip lines, four across, from a distant peak. Back on board Julie was able to relax while swimming in a more discreet bikini.

The following day, in St. Thomas, Henry's credit card arrived by courier to his complete satisfaction and his good spirits returned. There was a large mall near the port, but when he offered to look for a cocktail dress or gown for the next, and last, formal attire dinner, Julie declined. Frankly, while attending that dinner in a beautiful gown had its appeal, she just didn't want him to buy it for her. Him doing so the first day of the cruise would have delighted her, but that was no longer the case. Instead of shopping they took a tour up a winding road to a peak from which there was a beautiful view from a thousand feet of the entire harbor. That day there was no bulletin, making the two of them hopeful that the surveillance of them was over.

Actually, Mark spent those two days relaxing, himself. He had watched Julie and Henry moving throughout the ship and knew that there was nothing new to report on. They used the pool, ate and drank, went to shows and, in general, acted like regular passengers - which, of course, they really were. He had studied their behavior in public and found it boring. Still, he learned things. When they rode the glass-walled elevators, they stood separately, almost as if they were not together. Other passengers stood together, often with the man's arm around the woman.

When strolling through the Promenade, they rarely, touched, rarely talked. There always were big sale events - watches, jewelry, logo items, tax free liquor - but not once did he see Julie find something interesting and call Henry over. Actually they walked along together but separate like, for example, an uncle and a niece. Bluntly, no one would ever have taken them for lovers - or, more to the point, two people sharing a stateroom while engaged in an adulterous affair. In fact, other than that very unusual situation in the whirlpool, they had no personal contact outside of their suite.

Inside the suite, however, things were very different in a way, but the same in others. Every day Mark downloaded the recordings of his wife engaged either in sucking or fucking, sometimes both, but he either fast-forwarded through them or else looked for specific behavior. The physical penetration was of far less importance to him than seeing whether his wife was being emotionally involved with that other man. What would have crushed him would have been seeing her in a true love-making situation.

Now five full days and into the sixth, this one an "at sea" or "cruising" day, Mark sat in his cabin contemplating a last Bulletin which he had prepared. Should he put it out for them and, tomorrow do what he had planned before embarking on the cruise from Cape Liberty - i.e. send her the divorce papers. Things had change drastically since he had made his plans for vengeance. Ever since that day when Julie cruelly clicked "send" to cancel their fifth anniversary honeymoon cruise he had assumed that their marriage was over because she had rejected him over Henry and her career.

As he sat there he reviewed the things that had changed his perspective about that assumption. Two things had completely altered that perspective. The first came that second day, of course, when he had been verbally attacked by Henry who, accurately, of course, blamed him for the bulletins, using vulgar language. When Julie erupted and attacked Henry it showed Mark something that he had thought was gone - her respect and her deep and very sincere love for him. This was not grand-standing to impress him. She had no knowledge that she was on camera. She had been seduced by Henry in part by his personal appeal, but also by his role in her career prospects, something that was very important to her. Antagonizing her boss by a vicious verbal attack on him was not likely to improve those prospects, but her reaction was instantaneous and heartfelt.

That visceral, instinctive defense of him caused Mark to sit back, mentally, and reconsider his and Julie's whole relationship - she had put him first without thinking. Later, even when she did have time to think of possible repercussions, she would not permit any derogatory language from Henry. Her clear and deeply felt remorse removed much of the sting of what he had seen as a complete betrayal. Again, this was not a woman caught in adultery by her husband attempting to limit the damage and retribution. It became obvious to him that she honestly did love him and that her relationship with Henry most certainly was not a love affair.

That was the second thing that had altered his view of everything pertaining to this cruise. As said before, Mark watched the recordings looking for specific behavior, specifically emotional behavior, and he didn't find it. It was real love making - the intimate gestures, the lingering kisses, the spontaneous touching, the soulful glances - that he expected and feared, and it wasn't there! Julie never turned down Henry when it came to sex, but she never initiated it. If he wanted oral sex, i.e., to be sucked, she accommodated him and performed fellatio with expert skill but with seemingly no emotional involvement at all.

For practical purposes, the same thing was true in fucking. There was a routine procedure. She would come out of the bathroom completely nude, prepared for bed. Henry would pull her to him, kiss her while fondling and squeezing her breasts and say things about her "lovely tits." He would move down and kiss and nip her nipples while running his hands through her curly pubic hair. After this moderate amount of foreplay, he would move between her legs and, with expertise, use his tongue to arouse her. He would mount her with her hand putting him in and he would fuck her.

When aroused and entered, it wouldn't take long to have her actively participating. Knowing her, Mark expected to see her humping up and down, writhing around as her excitement mounted. He also expected to see her have an orgasm since she was a very passionate woman when engaged in sex. Oddly enough, that didn't particularly disturb him. What he really dreaded never happened! Not once during all the times they had sex did Julie say anything that even hinted as emotional closeness. Henry occasionally addressed her as "honey" or "dear," and once as "sweetheart," but she never called him anything but Henry.

Other telling evidence came from the only two times he tried to enter her without cunnilingus first. In both cases he had kissed her and played with and fondled her breasts but he was so eager to fuck her that he omitted licking her. On neither occasion was he able to penetrate her because she was almost completely dry. Neither he nor his tit fondling had done anything for her. He had to pull back and use his tongue to lubricate her cunt sufficiently to get into her.

The same lack of emotional connection was shown after having intercourse. There was no afterplay other than a few brief kisses and a few routine, pro forma comments - was it good for you, yes, I loved it, etc. In every case it was obvious that, despite having an orgasm, Julie's reaction was more of relief that it was over than recalling the pleasure. There were several occasions in which it appeared to Mark that she had actually faked the orgasm. Even after that first fucking he had seen that Julie's smile afterwards was clearly forced, almost a grimace!

This question of orgasms became more important when Mark began going through the sex scenes for the purpose of grabbing still pictures from the recordings to make prints to show adultery. Usually he fast forwarded through those recordings so there was no sound, but now, as he selected separate scenes, he became aware of something unexpected. "What the hell!" was his reaction? He went to other scenes, listening to Julie as the climax was reached, and then jumping ahead to the next passion point. Finally, after going through five days and nights of watching his wife being fucked, he sat back and thought, "I'll be damned!

"I counted ten times when he screwed her and she didn't have a real orgasm with any of them!" As recounted before, whenever Julie reached orgasm she emitted a shrill melodic exclamation of pleasure. The sound that Mark always teased her about "hurting his ears," just wasn't there! "She undoubtedly went off at some level while they were fucking, but she never had her usual powerful explosive orgasm! Even more, as I said, I really believe that she faked it a couple of times! Man, this is not what I would have expected! He certainly doesn't do it for her!"

So, the emotional connection was not there nor was there the excitement of a great sexual experience. What was there? Well one thing that Mark did discover as he watched them closely those first two days - and nights - was the grip Henry had on her. She wasn't exactly obsequious in dealing with him but she showed a submissive side to her personality that Mark had never seen before.

He didn't order her around, but any suggestion was virtually a command and any statement was seen as gospel. Their relationship that first day was still mentor-novice. She obviously had great respect for him and by the time they boarded the ship, her mind had been thoroughly seduced and her body was ready. The biggest surprise that first day was just how completely subservient she was to him and it explained better than words how she had been conned into forsaking her marriage and her husband.

If that situation had continued, things undoubtedly would have ended as Mark had expected when he embarked on creating the "cruise from hell," but changes began almost immediately with Henry's missing clothes. It was Henry's ranting and raving, with invective, that revealed a side of him that she had never seen. His ultimate mistake, of course, was attacking her husband and bringing out the totally unexpected "momma bear protecting her cubs" reaction. Not only did that reaction cause Mark to reassess his feelings about Julie, it changed the relationship between Julie and Henry. It broke the thrall he had over her and, suddenly he wasn't the dominant figure he had been.

The suitcase rant and his attack on Mark began the complete disillusioning of Julie vis-à-vis Henry. It was partly familiarity - instead of seeing Henry as that formal, impeccably dressed handsome man, she now saw him either in pick-up clothes or, frequently, naked. She heard his irascible complaints instead of carefully thought out, carefully modulated comments. In other words she was spending a week with a real person instead of an icon! She became an iconoclast! She had been seduced, but reality eroded what it was based on. In many ways she was a very different person as the cruise approached its end than she had been they boarded.

Mark was certain that she really loved him and he knew that he loved her. He still had questions about what their relationship could be. What did he want? That was the real question. Could he get past what she had done before the cruise as well as her physical intimacy with Henry on the ship? He was pondering a question that Dear Abby (or was it her sister, Ann Landers) told betrayed wives to ask themselves when deciding to go or stay, "Are you better off with him or without him!"

Obviously, it's the same question that husbands, like Mark, should ask. He knew he preferred to be with her, but not with the queen bitch. What would she be like when she returned home - still with her obsessive commitment to her career? What would her relationship be with Henry when he was back in his normal surroundings? He decided to wait and see. Meantime, he would go ahead with a current bulletin he had prepared and to his preset plans for the last day.

Consequently, when Julie and Henry returned from dinner with plans to attend a musical revue in the Palace Theatre later, they found the usual white envelope taped to their door. Julie was almost in tears as she pulled it off and carried it into the room. "Dear god, I thought that we were finished with these! Whoever is doing this has kept it up the entire cruise and I've dreaded seeing one on the door every time we come down the passageway. I had finally thought it was over. What does the damn thing sat this time?"

Henry opened, looked at it and, without comment, passed it to her. The tears did come this time as she read:

THE EB & T BULLETIN:

OUR READERS BACK HOME HAVE BEEN INQUIRING ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MRS. JULIE SCHAFER AND HER HUSBAND SINCE SHE APPEARS TO BE QUITE INTIMATE WITH OUR MR. HENRY JOHNSTONE. WITH BETTER INTERNET CONNECTIONS AVAILABLE IN ST. THOMAS, WE FINALLY WERE ABLE TO GET IN CONTACT WITH THE HUSBAND, ONE MR. MARCUS SCHAFER. MR. SCHAFER ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE IS WELL AWARE OF HIS WIFE'S ADULTEROUS RELATIONSHIP WITH MR. JOHNSTONE AND IS IN THE PROCESS OF TAKING THE OBVIOUS STEPS TO REMEDY THE SITUATION.