The Love Boat

"Uhm, Sky," I said.

"Yes," she answered breathlessly.

"I almost caught you. If you hadn't stopped, I would have," I said.

"Yep, you almost did," she said. "But it took you a mile. What was I supposed to do, wait all day for you to catch me?"

"But," I started.

"But, you lost," she smiled. "Accept it gracefully. Kiss me." I no longer cared about winning and losing. I did just what she wanted.

"Remember," she said. "You have to do that whenever I ask you to."

"All you have to do is ask," I said. "But you should probably be careful where we are when you ask. Some of the passengers already think I should be locked up and I'm sure that everyone here knows that I'm still technically married to Danielle."

"For the first time in my life, I really don't care what anyone thinks," she said.

"So am I going to have to tickle you to get it out of you," I asked.

"What?" she asked.

"You were supposed to tell me what you'd mumbled, remember," I told her. "I asked you why you got up so early to run and you mumbled something. Did you call me a name or something?"

"I said that I really wanted to see you," she said. "I set my alarm clock to make sure I'd be up. When it went off, I was tired and energized at the same time. I went to bed still thinking about the way you kissed me last night. I was dying to see if that was real or just one of those one-time, magic of the moment things."

"Kiss me," I said. She pressed her lips against mine and then started laughing. "You don't get to do that," she laughed. "I'm the director of kissing around here. I'm the winner. Only I get to do that."

"Sorry," I said.

"Kiss me," she said.

We showered separately, of course, and met up a few minutes later for breakfast. Instead of a quick snack as we'd had the first day or whatever she could bring to me in the security room as we'd had the previous morning, this was a nice long leisurely breakfast. The ship was supposed to dock at another of those small islands that dotted the region this morning. Actually this would be the second island we'd visited but we both missed the one from yesterday. We decided that we'd go ashore and visit some of the shops and spend some time on the beach.

Sky was feeding me bits of her toast when Emma came over to our table. "Good Morning Cal," she said. "Uhm Hi," she threw at Sky.

"Good Morning Emma," I said. I guess there was a bit too much enthusiasm in my greeting because Emma looked shocked.

"Cal, you didn't forget that you agreed to talk to Danielle, this morning did you?" she asked.

Before I could answer her one of the ship's officers came over to me. "Mr. Storm, the Captain would like to speak to you at your earliest convenience," he said.

"Should I come now?" I asked.

"No sir," he said. "Finish your breakfast. Anytime this morning should be okay."

As the man walked away I wondered what was going on. "I guess I should go and see him," I said. "Technically I'm still under house...err... ship arrest. So I should probably find out if it's okay for me to go ashore."

Emma pursed her lips.

"If I can't go ashore, I still want you to go," I said to Sky. "Emma have you been ashore yet?"

"Tim has to work," said Emma.

"Damn the two of you seem to be moving pretty quickly," I said.

"We're not the only ones," she said snarkily. "Cal, when are you going to see Danielle?"

"Crap, Emma," I said. "I haven't had a chance to do anything fun since I got on this boat until yesterday. And for most of that, I was locked in a God damned security room. Yes, I'll go and see Danielle. I promised you that I'd do it for you. I owe you one. I'll go and see her right after I see the Captain. But don't expect a miracle."

As I got up to leave, I told Sky that I'd see her in a few minutes. She told me to take my time.

I headed up to the Captain's office and as I walked, I heard the ship's huge horn or whatever you call it blowing. It scared the shit out of me to the point where I almost lost my balance. I'd heard it the day before but then I was far below decks in the security room and it wasn't nearly as loud. Out in the open on deck it was nearly deafening.

As I looked around, I noticed that we'd pulled in near a small island. The ship was too big to dock here so passengers going ashore would be transported in small ferries that came from the island.

For the first time in a couple of days, I realized again that I was on a ship. I guess with everything else that had been going on, I'd gotten used to it.

I knocked on the door to the Captain's office. The door opened immediately. The captain and one of his officers greeted me as I walked in.

"Mr. Storm, I want to apologize to you," said the Captain. "This has all been one huge misunderstanding."

"Captain, I'm fine. I totally understand everything that happened. You did what you had to do for the benefit of the passengers and your staff," I said.

He looked at me strangely. "Then why are you suing both me and the company?" he asked.

I started laughing. "My attorney is kind of aggressive," I laughed.

"You think it's funny," he said. "Look at this. We're being sued for everything he could think of including unlawful imprisonment. Did you know that most of the time that you were there the door wasn't even locked?"

"Captain, I'll take care of it immediately," I said.

"There's something else," he said. "The men you had the fight with will be imprisoned as soon as they recover from their injuries. They've been identified as part of a group who've been preying on passengers on cruise ships for about a year. They've been implicated in the beatings of several passengers, but also in a few thefts. There are also rumors about them blackmailing several passengers and extorting money from them but we don't have very much information about that."

"What about the other guy?" I asked.

"What other guy?" asked the Captain.

"The first two guys were trying to keep me away from the guy who was feeling my wife up," I said. "If you watch your security footage you can see him."

"The guy who was giving you that shit eating grin while he grabbed your wife's ass?" asked one of the officers. I nodded.

"We haven't seen him since the incident," said the Captain. "Do you think he's connected somehow?"

"He came to visit me, yesterday," I said. "He was talking about some kind of business deal that we needed to work out. I guess he's supposed to come back and speak to me after I talk to Danielle."

"I'll have someone bring him in," said the Captain.

"Oh, am I cleared to go ashore?" I asked.

"Of course," said the Captain. "All charges against you have been dropped. But I'd really appreciate it if you could call off your lawyer."

A few minutes later I was several decks lower, standing in front of the cabin I shared with Danielle. I knocked on the door. After a few moments, Emma opened it.

I followed her into the room. "You don't have to knock on the door, Cal," said Emma. "This is your cabin too."

"Cal, I'm so sorry," whined Danielle when she saw me. "I never planned any of this. It just kept snowballing and it got out of hand. Now I'm really in trouble."

"So how does any of that affect me?" I asked. "I've been locked away for most of the cruise. I'm no longer in trouble."

"But we're married," she said. "So when one of us is in trouble, we're both in trouble. We're supposed to face the tough times together."

"Danielle, let's review," I said. "First, why did I go to jail?" I paused and looked at her. She didn't seem to want to say anything.

"I was locked up on our fucking honeymoon cruise because you chose to act like a whore in front of the whole ship. You let someone paw you in public while I was there. It was insulting to me and it didn't do your reputation any good either. When I went after the guy doing it, you stood there beside him. You didn't rush to my aid like a wife should Danielle, you stood next to HIM." Her head dropped.

"Cal, I'm sorry," she said.

"While I got locked up that night, you never came to see me or asked about me at all, Danielle. You were out in the clubs on the ship drinking and spending my money on the guy who had his hands all over your ass. Emma came to see me that night and several times the following day. Emma and I barely know each other, but she came. I didn't hear from you at all Danielle until you spent all of the money in the account that you had access to."

"But Cal, I was angry at you," she said. "This isn't the way things are supposed to be."

"Danielle, this goes far beyond you being angry," I said. I was still trying to keep my cards close to the vest.

"By the time you decided to come and visit me, I already knew who my real friends were. You were all over the ship with that asshole doing things that no married woman should do, especially not while her husband is locked up because of her actions."

"But you hurt my feelings, Cal," she said. "I was just trying to get back at you and it got out of hand. And then I was just so embarrassed and everyone was looking down at me like I was some whore. The only one who made me feel good was Eduardo and he turned out to be worse than all of them," she said.

"This isn't what I wanted," she said. "I love you Cal. This was supposed to be the beginning of our life together. Coming on this fucking boat was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I just want us to get back to the way that we were before all of this started; when it was just the two of us planning our lives together. This is the worst honeymoon ever. Can't we just start over?"

"Sometimes things happen for a reason," I said. "Maybe this was what we needed to show us that we just don't belong together. Danielle, you seem to believe that a married couple should be together and help each other through troubles, right."

"Absolutely," she said very quickly.

"Then where were you when I was in trouble?" I asked. I waited for a while and she just started crying.

"So why would you expect me to drop everything because you've done something stupid," I asked.

Again I was bombarded by silence.

"Danielle, what kind of trouble are you in?" I asked.

"You spoke to Eduardo, yesterday, right?" she asked.

"Yep, It was all I could do to keep myself from kicking his fucking ass," I said.

"So didn't he tell you?" she said.

"Nope, we barely spoke," I said. "I guess he wants to talk to me again today, but all he gave me yesterday was the idea that he and I needed to discuss something financial. So I guess you'd better tell me."

"I can't," she said. "You'll be angry."

"Okay fine." I said. "See you later, I'm going ashore."

"But Cal, what about my problem?" she whined.

"It's your problem," I snapped. "Neither you or Eduardo want to tell me what the fuck is going on. It isn't anything that affects me, so why should I care?"

"Cal, it's not my fault," she began. "I wanted our honeymoon to be perfect. It started out so beautifully. Then you got sick. So we didn't make love that first night. I wanted us to make a baby while we were on this cruise. I figured that we could do it in five days easily because we'd just never leave the fucking stateroom, except to eat and to shop. So, okay, the first night didn't go as planned. I just figured we'd double up the next day. I'd have you come back and fuck me before we went to dinner and then we'd drain each other when we got back again." I nodded remembering how all of this shit started.

"But Cal, you didn't come back to the room when I called you. I sat here waiting for you for over an hour in my nastiest, sexiest lingerie and you never came back to our room. By the time you did get here, it was too late. I tried to swallow my anger but you know I can't do that. I guess I should have spoken to you, but I didn't, so sue me. Everyone at our table had trouble taking their eyes off of me. Everyone noticed how beautiful I am except for you," she said. Her face seemed to be twisting itself.

"You even danced with that ugly old lady and left me sitting there at the table. Then Eduardo came over and asked me to dance. At first I wasn't paying him any attention, I kept looking for you. I guess he noticed it and he asked me if I really wanted to get your attention. He told me that he could help me get you really worked up and jealous. So I said, "Okay."

"He started dancing a lot closer with me and he positioned us so that we were right in front of you. I saw the look on your face and thought it was working. Not only you but everyone in the room was looking at us. Then he grabbed my ass. I saw you heading for us and I expected you to come and get me and tell me that I was your woman, not his."

"But then those two men moved in front of you and you...well I don't think anyone will try to stand between you and something you want on this cruise ever again. Then the security people grabbed you and everyone was looking at me again. But this time they were looking at me like I was some cheap whore who had caused all of it. Eduardo pulled me out of there and told me that I needed to get away from those people. They all blamed me for something that was really something you caused."

"We went to a club and had a few drinks. After a few drinks, we were dancing again. Eduardo convinced me to have a few dances. He said that they'd let you go back to our cabin and that you were very angry. He thought that I should wait awhile to let you calm down before I tried to explain it all to you. I don't know how many drinks we had. He kept dragging me from place to place. Finally, I woke up and it was the next morning. I was in his room and I'd had sex. I didn't know where my clothes were so I grabbed a sheet and came back to our room."

"The next day I went out on deck and most of the people I ran into wouldn't speak to me. Even the people on the crew were polite to me but cold. Eduardo tried to talk to me but I wouldn't talk to him. I'd spent a lot of money that night. And I remember him getting me to make a few withdrawals but when I tried to use our bank card yesterday it was empty. Eduardo asked me for some money. I tried to tell him that I didn't have any. So he started trying to convince me to ask you for more money."

"When I refused, Cal, he showed me a video file on his laptop. It was me having sex with a lot of men. One after another, they had me. I swear to you that I was drunk, but it doesn't look like it. Cal, he says that if I don't get him twenty thousand dollars he'll release the video all over the internet. All of my friends will see it. While I was asleep he went through my phone and got my entire contact list. Everyone including my parents is on that list. He says he'll send the video to all of them."

"Cal, we have to do something. If that video gets out it'll embarrass both of us. We ARE married you know. Then I did a really dumb thing. I told him that you could get more than twenty thousand dollars easily. It would be like nothing. So he decided to go and talk to you since you wouldn't talk to me. Now he wants fifty thousand dollars. Cal, please give him the money. I swear to you, I'll never let anything like this happen again. I've never cheated on you in all the time that we've been dating. I really need to go to anger management classes or something to get a handle on this anger thing. I'm so sorry Cal."

I just stood there looking at her. I was trying my ass off to keep the smile off of my face. Just like the conversation with Emma that told me about her cheating on me before the cruise and during our entire relationship, I'd had the foresight to record this one on my iPhone.

I knew that she was probably lying again but I just didn't care. This was even more evidence to use against her if I needed a divorce. I was sure that Eduardo would claim that the events were different, but it would be interesting to see what he had to say.

"Danielle, I have a question for you," I said, as she sat sniffling on the bed. She looked up at me and I realized several things with just a glance. The first was that Danielle had all of the attributes that made her attractive to a certain set of men. But it was all artifice. Her beauty was mostly combinations of makeup and even some surgery. As I mentioned before, she'd had her nose fixed, her lips redone and even after all of that, as she sat there on the bed, she wasn't nearly as attractive as Sky was just rolling out of bed first thing in the morning.

The second thing I realized was that Danielle, sitting there in front of me sniffling and miserable, barely affected me. Whatever love I once felt for her, if there ever had been any at all, was gone.

"Actually I have two questions," I said.

"The first one is whether or not I still love you," she said. "And the answer is yes, Cal. I've never loved anyone else. The second question is whether or not I'm sorry for getting angry at you and flying off the handle. The answer to that one is yes, as well."

"Those weren't my questions," I said. "My first question was, since you did absolutely nothing for me the past two days while I was in trouble, why you'd expect me to lift a finger for you now?" Her mouth opened in shock. She was having trouble believing that I wouldn't drop everything and do whatever she wanted like I had always done in the past.

She didn't say anything, but I could tell her mind was trying to come up with either a convenient lie or a way to make all of this my fault somehow.

"My second question," I said, while she was still trying to process the first one. "My second question is whether or not we should even be married to each other. Since we came aboard the ship you've had sex with I don't know how many men, but none of them were me. This happened less than two days after we got married. Why would I want to even consider spending the rest of my life with someone like that?"

"But Cal, we can get past this. I know we can. And we can have sex right now. Those guys just fucked me. There wasn't anything special in it. I don't even remember them or who they were," she whined.

"So now you want me to risk getting a disease just to make you feel better?" I asked. "I don't think so. Who knows what you're carrying around between your legs right now? I have a lot of thinking to do. Maybe I'll see you later."

As I left the cabin, I heard Danielle asking me where I was going. Emma was waiting for me outside of the cabin.

"Cal, where ARE you going?" Emma asked. "She knows she fucked up. Can't you cut her a little slack? She's really sorry. She can see now what she might lose. That's why she's crying her eyes out. She loves you just as much as she ever did."

"Wow, Emma," I said. "You really did phrase that correctly."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean you said that in a way that not only stood up for what your friend wants, but you also didn't lie to me. Both of us know how Danielle really feels about me. We both know how she's really always felt don't we?"

Emma looked at her feet.

"So is it wrong that I've moved on and found someone who really does care for me?" I asked her.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Danni..." Her voice dropped off as she said it.

"See you later, Emma," I said.

I headed back to the security room to change clothes. As I got there, I noticed someone lurking in the hallway a few corridors over. It was Eduardo. He saw me and looked around as if he was hiding from something or someone.

"Have you reached a decision?" he said. "When can you have the money?"

"I already have it," I said. "All I'd need to do would be to transfer money from one account to the other."

"Well hurry up and do it," he said. "I have pressing issues elsewhere." He acted as if he was doing me a favor.

"Look, don't let me keep you," I said. "I'm not giving you a fucking dime."

He looked shocked. "What do you mean?" he asked. "You really don't want to have your wife plastered all over the internet for anyone to see, do you?"