"Okay ladies, dinner won't wait for us." Andrew sighed remorsefully as he banged on Gloria and Monica's door late that evening after they had cast off. But as he waited, he wasn't surprised to hear the same response he had been hearing for the past half hour. "Just a second!" Gloria's voice echoed back through the door and Andrew could only roll his eyes and shake his head again for what must have been the billionth time that night. "Women." He murmured under his breath as he checked his watch yet again. What was it about them that took so long to get ready?
But then Andrew's irritability seemed to suddenly and completely vanish as the door swung open and Monica stood there ready to go. She looked so incredible that it totally took Andrew's breath away when he saw her. She was…immaculate. She stood there wearing a stunning sleeveless purple dress that seemed to be littered with sparkles and she had also put her hair up in a way that she rarely did, but a way in which Andrew thought looked nothing short of great on her: half up, with only the strands around her face pulled back around the rest.
"Andrew…what's wrong?" Monica questioned in a perplexed manner as she attempted to regain his attention, as he seemed to have allowed his mind to wonder into some far off place. But when he heard his friend's voice, he snapped himself back to reality and forced out whatever answer came to mind first. "Nothing, I'm…beautiful." He breathed, clearly losing control of his imagination again, but then he caught the more puzzled expression upon his friend's angelic face and quickly corrected himself. "Fine." He saved, desperately hoping the damage hadn't already been done. "I'm fine." He then regained eye contact with his friend and prayed to God that whatever he thought was going through her head, wasn't.
Monica seemed to let it go a little, but still kept a close eye on him as the two, followed by Gloria, strode from their rooms and down the hall, down the stairs to the dining room, where dinner was already being served. It was delicious, they had to admit. They served salad and grilled chicken breast and wine. It was just exquisite, and tomorrow they would enjoy plenty of swimming and pool and whatever they wanted…as long as it didn't rain again. Right now it was still clear as far as they could tell. Although they barely ever felt anything on the ship. It was so huge.
After dinner the band started up and people just couldn't resist dancing. They were beautifully slow songs and the angels could already see that Grace and Jack were already dancing. Monica thought it was just utterly romantic and wonderful when newly weds came into the world. She often dreamt about what it would be like to get married. To plan a whole wedding and then walk down the aisle in an immaculate white gown to recite her vows to her future husband. And yes, she often wondered what it would be like, but she never wished it to reality, for she had her friends and God and that was enough for her. Gloria and Andrew were the best friends anyone could have and normally there was another as well. Tess, Monica's old supervisor. But she was on another assignment now and unfortunately couldn't be with them on their vacation.
"Excuse me miss," suddenly Monica was wrenched from her musings and back to reality as Andrew's teasing voice cut through her thoughts, "would you like to dance?" He offered in mock sophisticatedness, as though they were back in the olden days or something. Monica smiled at her friends charming antics and nodded. "Thank you, I would love to." She replied in that same voice, clearly deciding to play along for now. She then allowed Andrew to lead her onto the dance floor by the hand. But once they were out there, they both dropped the act and became their normal selves again as Andrew took his free hand and wrapped it around her waist to place it upon her back and she did the same to him and with that they began to dance. This wasn't the first time she had danced with Andrew but it had been a while and she had forgotten how wonderful it had been, twirling around him on the dance floor.
The song they were dancing to tonight was Friends Are Friends Forever and it was more than appropriate for the occasion and, as she danced, Monica recalled the first time she had met Andrew, on that log in the woods in her second year of casework. Of course, they had many great memories together, but that was not one of them. Wow, she had really hated him. Well, perhaps hate was too strong a word but…no, she hated him. Oh how things had changed since then. She couldn't remember ever having a better friend. And now, as the song slowed a little more, Andrew let go of her waist and then took both of her hands in his before lifting them and placing them around his neck. He then placed both of his hands on her waist and Monica took the chance to lean in plenty closer so that her head was actually resting on his shoulder and her body leaned trustingly on his. Oh how she loved him; not in the same way humans loved each other of course, but he was her greatest friend and she loved him for that.
When the song was over, Monica and Andrew headed back over to their table where Gloria was waiting and ordered some desert, which of course was just as fantastic as dinner had been. They didn't stay much longer after that before heading back to their rooms, since it was late. There they changed into whatever they planned to sleep in. For Andrew it was a T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. For Monica it was a nightgown that looked more like an angel's white dress than anything. And for Gloria it was simply an extra long T-shirt.
"Well, goodnight." Andrew smiled and waved briefly to the girls before disappearing into his room and closing the door gently behind him, but not two seconds had passed before the door reopened again as Andrew suddenly had a second thought. "You know Monica, I was thinking…" He began, but Monica already knew what he was going to say in reference to the night before and quickly cut him off. "Get back in there Squirrel Boy." She ordered with a clever smirk as she turned down the covers on her bed. Andrew didn't even other arguing with this and he quickly turned on his heel and disappeared into his room again, slamming the door teasingly behind him this time.
Within another fifteen minutes or so, the angels were asleep again. Surprisingly, Monica actually found that whatever motion of the sea she could feel through this mammoth thing actually soothed her and helped her to rest more soundly. Of course, none of them expected the horrible awakening they would get later that night.