A/N The cover art for this story was created by midstorm as part of her 1500 tumblr follower celebration

Rumford Gold wasn't sure what "casual" was supposed to mean. He was reviewing the itinerary that had been left on his bed and it said that this evening's dress for dinner was to be "casual". He was in the master bedroom of the "Magic" suite on the "Enchanted Maiden" cruise ship. His business partner of one year, Moe French, had convinced him that they should reward their staff for the remarkable success they'd had this past year by treating them all to a Caribbean cruise. Gold had not been against rewarding everyone. What bothered him was that they were all embarking on this cruise together. Gold would be spending the next week with the seven young men and women who worked for them and a couple of their guests. The staff had been extremely excited about the whole idea of the trip. Gold had personally been dreading it. He'd even suggested to Moe that he skip it, arguing that the staff would feel more comfortable out of his presence. But Moe had insisted, claiming that they'd be able to share a suite which they could use to conduct business as needed.

Gold and Moe had arrived together. As promised, the suite was outfitted to accommodate them both personally and professionally. They would easily be able to deal with any business matters that arose. They'd decided that Gold would take the master bedroom which was located on the lower level of the suite. Moe and his daughter, Belle, who was Moe's guest, would take the 2 bedrooms located on the upper level. Gold had been a bit hesitant about sharing a suite with a young woman he'd never met, but Moe had assured him that Belle would be spending most of her time with the other young people from the office. She would not be spending much time in the common areas of the suite.

Gold walked out of his bedroom through the sliding glass door and onto the huge balcony. He was still dressed in his suit pants and a buttoned up blue shirt. He undid a couple of the buttons and looked out to the harbor. They were still docked and not scheduled to leave for several hours. He walked the length of the balcony and then reentered the suite through the living room door.

"Hello." A young woman with the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen greeted him. She walked toward him and extended her hand. "You must be Mr. Gold. I'm Belle French."

Gold took her hand in his. "Yes, I'm Rumford Gold. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss French." He couldn't take his eyes off hers.

"Please call me Belle." She smiled at him with the most enchanting smile he'd ever seen.

"Belle… How fitting." He felt like an idiot saying it, but it came out before he could stop himself.

"Belle!" Moe's voice rang down from the second level. Gold realized that he was still holding her hand and quickly released it. She smiled at him again before looking up to greet her father.

"I see you two have met." Moe was descending the stairs. "What do you think, old man? Isn't she a beauty?"

"She's enchanting." Gold caught her eye as he said it and he noticed her blushing slightly. Enchanting indeed.

"The young men on this cruise are going to be climbing over one another to get to know her." Moe was beaming. Belle's blush had become more pronounced.

"Dad, I told you I came on this cruise to get some rest. I'm not interested in romance." She reprimanded him.

"Yes, yes. Whatever you want, Belle."

"I'm glad you understand. Now maybe you can show me my room. I'd like to change and relax on the balcony for a while before we go to dinner."

"Of course, sweetheart. It's just up the stairs to the left."

"Thanks. I'll see you in a bit." She turned to Gold. "We'll have to get to know each other better later if we're going to be suitemates." She smiled her enchanting smile again and headed up to the second level.

Gold felt himself smiling after her. Moe let out a huge guffaw that jarred Gold. "You should see yourself, Gold. I think Belle has charmed you. Too bad you're old enough to be her father." Moe laughed again and slapped Gold on the back. "Not that I'd want you near her even if you were younger. She needs a handsome young man like Gaston. Someone who can draw her out of herself. There's a reason you're no longer married, old man."

Gold felt irritated by Moe's words. Granted, he was much too old for Belle, and he certainly wasn't now, nor had he ever been, handsome or outgoing. But Gaston? He didn't know Belle at all, but the one thing he did know was that Gaston was not good enough for her. He was Moe's protégé, but Gold didn't know what the man saw in him.

Gold smiled a sour smile at him. "I'm sure your daughter is quite capable of meeting young men without your interference. She's lovely and charming. Did it ever occur to you that maybe she just hasn't met the right person? You can't force these things to happen."

Moe looked at him thoughtfully and then burst out laughing again. "Is that what you did when you got married? Waited for the right woman to appear? That didn't work out so well now, did it?"

Gold glared at him before answering. "The problem was that I didn't wait for the right one. That's what went wrong. You don't want that for Belle, do you?"

Moe looked surprised. "Well, we'll just have to see. I'm not planning to force anything. I may just do some subtle encouraging. Belle won't even know I'm doing it."

Gold rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself. There was nothing subtle about Moe French.

Gold found himself glancing up to the second level several times. Belle's room had a private balcony so there was no reason to think she'd be coming back downstairs. He felt the need to see her again, but had a feeling it would have to wait until dinner. He finally went back to his room and attempted to make sense out of the itinerary again. He walked back out onto the balcony and made himself comfortable on one of the lounge chairs.

"Hello again." Belle's voice startled him.

He turned to see her reading on a lounge chair further down the balcony.

"Hello, Belle." He smiled at her, rather pleased to see her there.

"Aren't you warm with all that clothing on?" She giggled as her eyes surveyed him still dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and dress pants.

"Yes… I don't think I planned correctly for this trip." He noticed that she was in a very short sundress that displayed her extremely shapely legs. He unbuttoned another button on his shirt. He wasn't sure if it was the heat or Belle making him so warm.

"Don't you have a T-shirt and shorts that you can put on for now?" Belle was smiling at him.

"I don't own any T-shirts."

Belle giggled again. "The cruise line gave us all free T-shirts. Mine was in my top dresser drawer. You must have one too."

Gold smiled and got up. "I'll go look." He watched her as he edged his way back into the room.

He found the shirt immediately and began to undress. His fingers seemed to have trouble with the buttons. If he didn't know better he'd think he was nervous about Belle. This was crazy thinking. He'd change, go back outside and ask her about the itinerary. Yes, that's what he needed to do.

"That's much better." Belle commented as soon as she saw him. She patted the seat next to her.

Gold froze. Did she want him to sit down beside her? He wasn't sure what to do so he made his way over using the itinerary as his excuse.

"I was hoping you could help me decipher this. Do you have any idea what I should wear to dinner tonight? It says casual dress." He pointed it out to her. He had expected to wear a suit to every meal so this turn of events had put him out of his comfort zone.

"You're not used to being casual." She stated it as though it were a fact.

"Am I that obvious?" He grinned at her and she felt a little tingle run through her. He had the sexiest smile she'd ever seen.

"Yes, pretty much." She smiled more widely now. "Plus my father told me that you're rather formal." She leaned forward as though to observe him more closely.

The first thing that went through his mind was that he wanted to kiss her. The second thing was that he needed to stop thinking that way. His voice sounded unsteady when he spoke. "So can you help me out?"

"Of course, Mr. Gold. It's very simple. If you wear a pair of slacks and a polo shirt you'll be fine." She grinned at him. Then she continued. "I like your long hair. It's very sexy."

Gold almost choked even though there was nothing to choke on. He stared at her with a look of shock on his face.

She grinned. "Don't look so surprised. You're a very attractive man. I'm just voicing the obvious."

Gold had never been so thrown off his game in his life. He could almost feel himself blushing. Not so much at what she said, but because he realized that he liked her and what she said had given him a crazy hope. She was obviously just being nice. He had to remind himself of that before he made a complete fool of himself.

Gold finally regained his composure. "I have to say that you've practically rendered me speechless, my dear. That's quite a feat."

Belle giggled again. "I wouldn't want to do that. I love listening to your voice and lovely accent."

Gold just sat there grinning at her. "I'm very intrigued by you, Belle. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better." He knew he was playing with fire, but he didn't care.

"I think this week is going to be a lot more fun than I initially expected." She looked at him in a way that made him think some rather naughty thoughts. This was now getting dangerous. A little flirting was OK, but this really couldn't go beyond that.

"Till dinner then, my dear." Gold took her hand and kissed it. Belle felt another tingle run through her.

"Let's all go together. I want to make sure I sit next to you. I'm going to need you to help protect me from my father's matchmaking efforts."

Gold felt his heart sink. So that's why she was being so nice to him.

"I'm perfectly capable of doing my own matchmaking. The men he thinks I'll like are very superficial. I want someone who has lots of layers to him." She looked at him seriously this time. "I think you have a lot of layers."

With that she put her head back in her book. "I'll see you later."

"Yes, I'll see you later." Gold barely made his way back to his room. What exactly was going on here? Was she flirting with him? Was she just very direct? Did she really find him attractive and sexy? Gold thought about her shapely legs and enchanting smile. He was attracted to her. Not good. This was not good.

Gold spent the next hour in his room trying not to think about Belle. He reviewed the itinerary for the week and found that he would need casual attire for three of the seven scheduled dinners. One of the three dinners would have a tropical theme. He had polo shirts and slacks, but he was planning to wear them during the day. He didn't have enough for dinner also. As luck would have it, the valet assigned to their suite finally presented himself and Gold was able to ask him to order some appropriate clothing for him from the men's clothing store aboard the ship. There would also be two informal and two formal nights. The valet assured him that he already had the proper attire for those evenings.

His clothing arrived pressed and ready to wear well before he needed them. He glanced outside and noted that Belle was gone. It was still too early to get ready for dinner.

A knock at his door got his attention. "Mr. Gold. It's Belle." He rushed over to open it.

Belle was standing there with two life jackets in her hand. "There's going to be a mandatory lifeboat drill before the ship departs. We have to wear our life jackets and follow the arrows to our lifeboat station. I wasn't sure if you were aware of it."

"No, I wasn't, my dear. As you can tell I'm completely out of my element." He grinned as he took one of the life jackets from her. "When is it scheduled?"

"We should hear the signal in 15 minutes. We have to wear the life jackets and I thought it would be a good idea to practice putting them on before the last minute."

"Excellent idea, Belle." She was now completely in his room and had closed the door behind her.

"Where's your father? Is he aware of the drill?" Gold had backed up, suddenly uncomfortably aware of the fact that this young woman was alone with him in his bedroom.

"He knows. He needed to check on something so he took his life jacket with him. We'll see him at the muster station. Should we get ready?" She began to put the life jacket on and Gold followed suit.

It wasn't as simple as he expected but he managed to get it on correctly after struggling for a couple of minutes. When he looked up at her he burst out laughing. "You have it on upside down."

Belle laughed at herself and blushed. "You'll find that I'm completely uncoordinated."

Gold had an uncontrollable urge to kiss her. Instead he helped her remove the life jacket and put it on correctly. "Thank you, Mr. Gold." She looked into his eyes. The urge got stronger.

A long ear-shattering alarm made both of them jump and then laugh. It was followed by several other shorter alarms. "That's the signal. We need to go." Gold retrieved his cane and Belle took his free hand. "Follow me." She led him through the hallway, up the stairs and to their station. His hand was in hers the whole time. When they arrived at the station, Moe was already there. Gold felt very aware of the fact that his hand was still in Belle's when he saw Moe. "Your daughter was kind enough to help an old man find his way to the lifeboats."

Moe beamed. "She's a real gem. Isn't she, old man?"

"Yes." Gold looked at Belle and smiled. "She's quite remarkable."

Belle blushed ever so slightly as she smiled back at him. Then she looked at her father. "We were the perfect team. Mr. Gold helped me with my life jacket and I helped him find his way here." She smiled again at Gold and then stood next to him and linked her arm in his.

Moe slapped Gold on the back again. "Looks like you've charmed my daughter, Gold. Pretty impressive for an old man."

Gold grimaced. Belle squeezed his arm and whispered in his ear. "He's right. You have charmed me."

Gold felt something he knew he shouldn't, but it felt so good that he didn't care.

The drill master called them all to attention and then proceeded to review a long list of safety procedures with them. Belle kept her arm entwined with Gold's the whole time. When the drill was over Gold, Moe and Belle walked back to the room together. This time Belle didn't hold his hand.

When they got back to the suite they all parted ways to return to their rooms.

"Let's meet at 7:45pm. We can walk over to the dining room together." She looked directly at Gold as she said it.

"You heard her, Gold. She's going to help you out again. We wouldn't want you to get lost." Moe laughed heartily again.

"As I said earlier, she's quite remarkable." Gold looked directly into Belle's eyes and smiled at her. "I'll see you in a little while." He turned and entered his room.

Belle couldn't hide her smile. "You look radiant, Belle. I told you this cruise would be good for you." Moe was pleased with himself. He couldn't wait to introduce her to Gaston and the other men from the office at dinner. He had a feeling that she was going to find what she'd been looking for this week. And it would be all thanks to his "interference" as Gold had called it.