I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
I was in my bedroom packing the last of my things in my suitcase for this 'singles' cruise that my best friend is dragging me on. My phone begun to ring, I reached over picking up the house phone hoping it was my friend when my son ran in carrying his two dinosaurs making 'roaring' noises.
"Stephanie, where are you?" I asked as I picked up the phone.
"I can't go this weekend, sorry Tara…" Stephanie said. Stephanie has been my best friend since kindergarten and she was the one that talked me into going on this 'single's' weekend cruise in hopes that I could pick up a guy.
"What do you mean you can't go?"
"I'm sick with the flu, you can still go…"
"No, its fine…feel better and call me if you need anything." I said a little upset because I was looking forward to a weekend with my best friend, a weekend without working or worrying about my son. I loved my son, but it would be nice to spend a weekend without constantly worrying about him. I hung up putting the phone back on its charger, my son climbed onto the bed beside the suitcase.
"When are you leaving mommy?" He asked.
"I'm not, aunt Stephanie is sick so mommy can't go." I said.
"Why can't you go? She's sick and you can go by yourself." He said when the doorbell rung, "Grandma is here!" He yelled jumping off my bed getting my heart skip a beat afraid he will fall and hurt himself, he ran out of the room and I was close behind him as he opened the door seeing my mom on the other side of the door. "Grandma!" He exclaimed, my mom bent down picking him up and giving him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Have you been good Xavier?" My mom asked.
"Yes, I got a new dinosaur set!" He said showing my mom the now one dinosaur he was holding, he always tends to leave ones laying around so it didn't surprise me that he now had one instead of two.
"I see that…why don't you go get your bags?" My mom asked setting Xavier down.
"Why do I need my bags?" Xavier asked.
"I'm not going, Stephanie is sick…"
"Just because she's sick doesn't mean you can't go…it's a cruise and it's already paid for, you worked so hard to pay for this cruise and it'll be a waste. I drove the two hours to be here to get Xavier, he'll be fine with me for the 4 days you will be on the cruise…" My mom said.
"It won't be fun going alone…" I said.
"That's why it's a single's cruise so you can meet other people…"
"I don't know…" I said turning around running my hands through my hair, my mom came into the house shutting the door behind her.
"Mom, you can take me." Xavier said as my mom and I chuckled.
"You're a little too young there buddy." I said.
"You should go mommy, it will be fun…grandma will watch me and we can play dinosaurs." Xavier said.
"Yeah Tara, just go, it can be fun and if it's not, then you can blame us and you don't have to go on another cruise." My mom said.
"Fine, I'll go…I got 30 minutes to get there…I should make it in time…" I said messing with my watch after checking it. I went into my room closing my suitcase, I zipped it up and grabbed my purse and keys heading out of my room. Seeing Xavier sitting on my moms lap telling her stories of his daycare with his best friend that he has made there, my mom loved Xavier as her own grandson even if he's not blood related to us.
"Do you want me to give you a ride that way you don't have to pay nor leave your car at the dock?" My mom asked.
"If you don't mind." I said as my mom set Xavier down as she grabbed her keys, we went out to her car putting Xavier in the booster car seat she had purchased to keep in her car. He is 4 years old, almost 5 and I keep him in a booster seat until he turns at least 6. My mom buckled him up and secured him as I was putting my suitcase into the trunk before I climbed into the front seat praying my mom can get me there on time. My mom drove us over to the dock where I was supposed to be at seeing the ship I was to get on and I begun to get nervous, I never really been on a ship much less by myself. I helped Xavier out of his seat while my mom grabbed my things, my mom and Xavier walked me down to the ramp that led up to the ship. "Behave Xavier…I love you." I said squatting down in front of him.
"I love you too mommy, have fun and buy me a souvenir." Xavier said before he hugged me and I gave him a kiss on the cheek before I stood up hugging my mom walking up onto the ship just in the knick of time before they begun the process of pulling the anchor up and detaching itself from the dock. I stood on the deck waving my good-byes to my mom and son while I was stuck on this giant ship. I took a deep breath and found a map of the ship finding where I was supposed to go to check in. As I went my way to the check-in area, I kept seeing giant posters that had half-naked men, there were very few women who had more clothes on, on these posters with 'Impact' written on it.
"I didn't know this ship would have strippers…" I thought to myself out loud, but it was soft enough for no one else to hear it then I saw a poster with a guy that had to be in his 50s or 60s, "Ew, I do NOT want to see that…" I said grossed out and kept walking finding the line to check in and got in line. I waited in line texting Stephanie that I went on the cruise without here and hoped she didn't mind, but I kept my phone on silent for most of the time and my mom knew not to call me unless it was an emergency. My mom is the same person that wanted me to go because she wants me to get married, but I was kind of iffy about this whole cruise. I looked around seeing a lot of men, not very many women and a lot more kids than I thought there would be which made me think this was a weird singles cruise, why bring kids on a singles cruise and how would you have kids if your single? I have no room to talk, but mine is a different story, maybe this is a gay and lesbian cruise for singles, explains why there is a lot more men strippers than female strippers and why there isn't a lot of females on this ship. "I'm going to kill Stephanie…" I said not believing I fell for this, but hey, some of those strippers were good looking and gay or not, I can still enjoy watching them do their thing. I tried to entertain myself as I went through the line and being called up to the counter to the only guy that was stressed out.
"How may I help you?" He asked.
"Are you okay? You seem kind of tense…" I said as he just now looked up at me from all the paper work he had in front of him.
"Well, we put someone in one room and he can't be in that room because he broke his leg previously and needs a handicap accessible room and we don't have any more left unless if we push out a family of four or two…" He said.
"Well, I was a party of two and it's now a party of one, if that helps you can move me about…" I said trying to be helpful and understand how that can be stressful.
"What name is it under?" He asked.
"It'll be under my friends name, Stephanie Ortiz." I said.
"You aren't Stephanie, your Tara…" He said.
"Yep…" I said.
"Let me see….okay, I can move you here and move this family here and move him here…" He said.
"Everything figured out?" I asked.
"Yep, your in room 4873." He said as he shuffled about giving me a key and printing out receipts for me to sign.
"Thanks." I said smiling before I grabbed my things following the map he gave trying to find my way to my room. I climbed onto an elevator going up the couple of floors to the 4th floor and walked down the hallway that looked out over the Lade level below that was the mall area with the food court seeing a suspicious man that was an inch or two taller than me wearing his jacket zipped up to his neck and his hood flipped up like he was trying to blend in, I kept glancing at him trying to make out what he looks like when we past each other and a few steps away I noticed his wallet laying on the ground. I bent down picking it up and turned around, "HEY!" I yelled, he turned around to look at me, "You dropped this…" I said showing his wallet running after him leaving my suitcase where it was.
"Thanks…" He said smiling finally making out his smile, his beautiful hazel eyes and the dark hair that was barely falling out from the hood that he started to fix.
"No problem…" I said smiling as I turned back around heading back to my suitcase in search of my room finding it and letting myself into my room. I walked in shutting the door behind me and locked it so others couldn't get in, I left my suitcase to the side of the door. "I have a connecting room, your being locked because I don't want whoever it is letting themselves in." I said as I locked the connecting door on my side as I looked at the one bed room and looked out the window seeing the ocean, "Ocean view, not bad…" I said shrugging as I went into the bathroom that came with the room checking everything to see how it is and made sure there was water pressure before I went back out and begun unpacking my things. I carried things into the bathroom when I heard someone banging on one of the two doors in my room.
"Open the door!" I heard a man yell, I walked out slightly afraid and nervous, I looked out the peep hole of the main door not seeing anyone so I knew it was the connecting door when I heard the man banging on the door again, "Just open the damn door Chris…" The man said as I unlocked the door and slowly opened the door seeing the same man from earlier that dropped his wallet facing me but this time he wasn't wearing his hood and his jacket wasn't zipped up. "Whoa, your not Chris…" He said.
"No, I'm not Chris…hi, I'm Tara, I guess we are going to be neighbors for this weekend." I said sticking my hand out to shake his hand, he went to grab my hand when the boat jerked causing both of us to stumble and I fell into his embrace, luckily he was stronger than I and caught me before I fell face first into the ground. "I'm so sorry…" I said embarrassed as he begun to help me to my feet.
"No problem sweetie…I'm Alex…" He said doing a half smile.
"Hi Alex…sorry about taking your friends room, there was issues at checking in, something about a man breaking his leg or something and this room not being handicap accessible…" I said shrugging.
"Yep, that would be Chris…" Alex said nodding.
"It was nice to meet you Alex…" I said turning to go back into my room and close the door behind me but he walked into the room with me.
"What is a girl like you doing on a cruise by themselves?" He asked.
"What makes you think I'm here by myself?"
"The fact you took a room with one bed, if you came with someone else you would have a spare bed….so I'm assuming your single considering the circumstances."
"Isn't everyone on this cruise single?" I asked turning to look at him with a dirty look as I begun pulling out things to put in the room for the next couple days but his phone begun to ring.
"Chris is calling, I got to go…nice meeting you Tara, will I catch you later?"
"You will see me around considering we are neighbors for the next 3-4 days." I said smiling.
"True…" He said as he walked through the connecting doors, I closed mine locking it before I finished unpacking my things and decided to go out and explore the boat when I was seeing more posters for these strippers seeing one that looks like Alex with another man on the same poster, at the bottom it said 'The Motor City Machine Guns.' I could have sworn that I knew the other man from my work but I couldn't be 100% certain because I didn't think he would be stripping. I grabbed some food finding my way back to my room, I sat on my bad eating my food watching some television and looking over the agenda for the weekend not understanding how any of this could be related to being single.