The next morning, at 10:04 AM, Vic had gotten dressed and was walking down the stairs to find Louise cooking breakfast. She was making the eggs in a saute pan while Mary-Beth was sitting in her highchair at the table.
Vic took a whiff of the food himself. "Smells good," he declared walking into the kitchen.
Louise turned to her right to see Vic enter. "Thought I'd make some breakfast for me and my soldier," she told him.
"Well thanks for thinking about your man," Vic replied. "You know I need the energy to fight at a war."
"I'm glad you got redeemed in the military too," Louise said. "Phil really saved you there."
"Yeah," Vic answered. "You're really lucky to have a reliable big bro like him. At first, he seemed like a typical delusional drunk when I first met him. But I actually warmed up to him over time. I owe it all to him."
Louise nodded in agreement. She them put the scrambled eggs and three sausage links on each of the two plates and handed one of them to Vic. She also served Mary-Beth some breakfast baby food in a bowl as the couple took their seat at the table and began digging in.
Just then, the doorbell rang. "Come in!" Louise called.
She and Vic heard the door swing open and close afterwards and footsteps approaching the kitchen. In came Phil, who was holding two tickets in his hand.
"Morning, bro," Louise told him.
"Morning, sis," Phil replied.
"What brings you here so early in the morning, Phil?" Louise asked.
"Well I know that you and Vic had been hanging out with each other... " Phil started to say.
"We've been doing more than that, Phil," Vic told him. "Louise and I are a couple now."
" ...which is why I decided to do something for both of you," Phil finished his sentence.
He approached the table and set the tickets on the table. "There for a beach cruise that start at 12:30," Phil announced. "The ship's located at Ocean Beach and will leave any moment."
"You got us a cruise membership?" Vic asked. "Gee Phil, I really appreciate this."
"Hey," Phil replied modestly, "it's a way to pay you back for all the times you helped me, Vic. It's also a reward to give to you for protecting my sister from fatal calamity."
"Thanks so much, Phil," Louise told him hopping out of her seat and giving her brother a hug.
"Anytime, sis," Phil told her. "And don't worry about Mary-Beth. I'll look after her. I want her to spend more time with her uncle."
Phil walked over to Mary-Beth and used his finger to gently tickle her cheek. Mary-Beth giggled in glee.
"I'll be in the living room," Phil reminded as he began to exit the kitchen.
"Oh Phil!" Louise called to him.
"Yeah, sis?" Phil asked.
"Please don't drink around my baby," Louise told him. "I don't want her to get exposed in any of that rated 'M' shit as an infant."
"Don't worry, Louise," Phil replied. "I decided to go sober for now on. No more drinking for me."
Phil then exited the kitchen, and Louise returned to her seat to enjoy her breakfast with Vic.
After finishing breakfast, Vic and Louise were now dressed for the beach. Vic had on a red Hawaiian shirt over beige cargo shorts and black sandals while Louise was wearing a red tanktop over matching shorts and orange flip flops.
Louise was also carrying a bag and a beach umbrella as she and Vic were walking towards the Cheetah parked outside.
"I'm so excited to get on this cruise ship," Louise said storing the beach material inside the trunk.
"Let's make this a date we'll forever remember," Vic told her. "Phil has everything taken care of with Mary Beth in there."
The two hopped inside the Cheetah, and Vic started the engine. He put the vehicle on drive and drove away, making a U-turn to head straight down the road and turning right down the longer road.
"You might find this hard to believe, Vic," Louise told Vic, "but of all the years I've grew up here, I've never been to the beach before."
"Never been to the beach?" Vic asked. "And you've lived here all your life?"
"I've only grown up in the small town by Little Havana," Louise explained, "and I never got to go any place farther from it."
"Well hopefully, this would be your big break if you know what I mean," Vic told her as he made his way down the long road of Washington Beach."
"I sure can't wait!" Louise replied.
Vic drove through Ocean Beach and finally made it to the beach, where there were many guests around the sandy area. Vic parked up front and he and Louise hopped out, walking towards the beach.
The sun shone brightly above the shore, and the wind blew the waves in the ocean, in which a few guest were either wading in or surfing on.
"It's a good thing I brought some sun screen along with me," Louise said pulling a bottle of sun screen out of her bag.
She opened the top, squeezed a liberal amount of the sun screen on her palm, and rubbed it around her arms and legs.
"Great thinking," Vic told her. "Sure would hate to have to end the day at the beach with a sun burn."
The two then set up their lounging spot about twenty feet from the shore, and Louise set a towel on the sandy surface. She also opened the umbrella and set the rest of the stuff aside.
Before the two had a chance to rest, however, a couple of beach-goers, two Caucasian guys. one bald and one blond, both dressed in a T-shirt and shorts each, came around standing right above them.
"May I help you?" Louise asked them.
"Yeah. we're takin' this here spot," one of them responded with a Southern accent.
"Forget it," Vic barked at them. "We were here first. Get your own spot."
"You wanna make this here personal, you piece of trash?" the bald guy threatened shoving Vic aside.
This prompted Vic and Louise to stand up to the two guys. Louise grabber the umbrella and folded it to use to whack the bald guy with, and Vic connected with some punching combos to beat up the blond guy.
The fight lasted for twenty seconds until the two guys were knocked silly. "That's right!" Vic warned the two guys. "Get on out of here!"
He watched as they eventually darted away. Vic turned to Louise, who was also getting exhausted from fighting the two guys. "Now, back to us," Vic said.
"Definitely," Louise agreed.
She opened the umbrella back up, and she and Vic got back to lounging together on the towel. They wanted to relax for the afternoon before they had the energy to have some real fun for the next few hours.
After hours spent doing various activities at the beach, Vic and Louise finally decided to get on the cruise ship, which pulled away from the shore and slowly began to go out in the open and Louise spent hours on the cruise ship playing various cruise ship games such as pool, bowling, darts, and even multiple card games.
As the evening fell, Vic and Louise were now having dinner at the table inside the restaurant of the cruise ship. The song "We Belong" by Pat Benatar was playing inside. They both took a glance at the sunset in the pinkish-orange evening sky.
"It's too bad we're not in the West Coast right now," Louise told Vic. "We would have a much better look at it over there."
"Yeah," Vic agreed. "But at least we're having a great time here. The afternoon at the beach went well, and now we're having a peaceful evening here in the cruise ship."
"I wouldn't trade it in for any other memory," Louise replied. "Let's make this a night to remember."
"Cheers," Vic said as he and Louise grabbed their glasses and clashed them against each other's as they drank their water.
The two then stared in each other's eyes after finishing their meals. Vic saw the sunlight in the background glow in Louise's blue eyes. The sunlight also shone through Louise's golden star necklace. The two stared at each other face to face, letting their facial expressions do the talking. Their exchanges only lasted for about twenty seconds until they heard gunfire.
"Ah shit," Vic muttered under his breath.
He jumped out of his seat and looked over the side of the ship to find gunmen on speedboats firing at the ship. Vic took a harder look at the gunmen to find that they were the Mendez goons.
"Who are those assholes?!" Louise shouted.
"The Mendezes!" Vic replied. "I guess they want revenge after what I did! Good thing I was prepared!"
He returned to the table and reached out under for the AK-47. "They're about to get smoked!" Vic declared.
With the AK-47 in his hands, he walked over to the side of the cruise ship and saw the moving speedboats speed around the ship. Vic took aim at one of the speedboats and fired at the gunmen on it, killing each of them one by one.
Later, he also fired at another speedboat and continued riddling it with bullets until it caught on fire and exploded. There were two speedboats left, and Vic couldn't stop firing at them. The bullets ricocheted off the speeding vehicles as the Mendez goons returned fire to the ship. Vic, however, was too quick for them and caused both of their boats to catch fire and exploded, killing the gunmen in each of them.
Little did Vic and Louise know, however, Armando and Diego had sneaked up behind in a speedboat on their own for Diego to plant a bomb on the ship, in which the detonation would go off in just a minute.
"Let's see Vic and his lover get out of this one," Armando snickered.
"¡Arder en el infierno!" Diego added as the two brothers rode away.
Vic caught a quick glimpse at them from behind and fired back at them, only for the brothers to escape.
"Damn!" he muttered.
He also noticed the bomb detonator and turned to Louise. "Those guys just planted a bomb on this ship!" he told her. "We gotta get off of this ship now!"
"But how are we supposed to get off?!" Louise shouted.
Vic looked around and saw a lifeboat attached to the side down below. "There!" he shouted pointing at the speedboat. "We gotta get down there before the bomb goes off!"
So Vic guided Louise down to get to the bottom of the ship in order to get to the lifeboat. They had about less then fifty seconds to get off the ship, or they were caught in the explosion. It took them about fifteen seconds to finally make it to the bottom to the lifeboat, and they had almost thirty seconds before the bomb would go off.
"Okay!" Vic told Louise. "You just get on the boat while I lower it into the ocean!"
Louise didn't say a word. She just complied to Vic's order as the latter used the button to lower the lifeboat and quickly jumped on along with Louise. As the boat finally dropped and hit the ocean, Vic drove far enough from the lifeboat just in time to avoid the subsequent explosion of the ship behind them.
"Now let's get back home!" Vic announced.
Just then, more of the Mendez goons on speedboats came to chase the two. "Hey Vic!" Louise told Vic. "You still got that K? I wanna smoke those assholes!"
Vic handed Louise his AK-47, and Louise aimed for the Mendez goons as Vic continued speeding away. She pulled the trigger and fired at the gunmen on the speedboats.
"You're gonna have metal for supper!" Louise bragged firing at the Mendez goons.
During the chase, one of the Mendez goons' speedboats caught fire and exploded. The impact caused the other speedboat to catch fire and exploded as well. Louise laughed hard at the sight.
"Did you see that, Vic?!" Louise shouted. "Did you see how I blew those assholes up in the ocean?!"
"They had it coming too!" Vic replied. "Now let's get back home!"
Vic continued riding until he reached the jetty in Vice Point. He and Louise hopped out of the boat and onto the jetty. They made their way on the flat surface up above and ran through the streets of Vice Point until they finally made it to Louise's house.
Vic and Louise stared at each other. "Sorry about what happened this night," Vic told Louise. "I never expected the Mendez brothers to come striking back."
"Sorry for what?" Louise told Vic. "I had a great time! We got to lounge at the beach, we kicked a couple of beach-goers' asses, we got to spend time at the cruise, and I got to use that K of yours to blast those hitmen! It was like shooting a scene from an action film! I'm blessed to have a soldier for a man."
Vic chuckled in agreement. "Well it looks like we had a blast today, no pun intended," he said. "You want to go in?"
"Sure," Louise replied with a smile. "I'd love to savor the night with a little rest and relaxation at home."
So Vic and Louise held each other's hands and walked inside together. The Mendez brothers may have tried to butcher the two's date, but this only brought them closer and caused them to have even more fun than they actually expected. It was perhaps their best moment together.