“Beats Mogadishu,” Brock said as he neatly lined a dresser drawer with perfectly folded shirts.“Remember those conexes?I don’t know why they thought four of us would fit in one.”
“Good times,” Jerry said, remembering the extreme heat, the cramped quarters, and the bomb that detonated their fourth night there.He’d had a lot of opportunities to feel terror while performing his job over the years, but that night, as a burning beam pinned him and burned him, topped a lot of them.He pulled his shower kit out of his bag.“Anything’s better than Mogadishu.Nobody shooting at us here, though I’ve heard there will be sand.”
“Always with the sand.”
They enjoyed the rapport as they unpacked.They left their cabin door open and listened to their friends coming and going down the corridor.He couldn’t believe Osbourne’s family had gone through such care and expense to bring his people to him.
About ten minutes later, he heard Olive’s voice in the hall.He wandered to the door and watched Erin hang a banner spelling out “Bon Voyage” at the top of the door.
“What’s the purpose?”he asked.
She grinned over her shoulder at him.“One, so you know which room is yours.”She gestured down the hall.“Everything looks the same.”
He raised an ironic eyebrow and tossed a thumb over his shoulder toward the number on his cabin door.She laughed.“Yeah, yeah.”
Olive slipped by her and held out a cardboard anchor.“Want to put this on your door?”
He looked at the anchor, then looked into her eyes.“Is no an acceptable response?”
Bill stood across the hall from his door while his wife swooped a banner of colorful pom poms across the top of his door.“Does ‘no’ look like an acceptable response,” he asked, “because this is what I get.”
Olive chuckled and pulled it back.“‘No’ works.”She fastened it to her own door.“You can be a boring old grumpy landlubber.”
“Boring is my favorite when I’m on vacation.”He looked at his watch.“Ready for a walk before dinner?”
“Sure.”She stepped back and looked at the result.Blue and white anchors, ropes, and ship’s wheels covered the door in fun patterns.“Looks great,” she said.
He suddenly thought of his mother and her long tradition of decorating doors for special occasions.Olive looked just as delighted as his mother or Mabel ever had.
Olive patted her dress pocket and said, “I have my key.”
He stepped forward and held out his hand.“Let’s get the lay of the ship, shall we?”
As the cruise ship’s gentle sway rocked her cabin, Olive slipped a yellow dress from its hanger, the silk cool against her fingers.It fell to the tops of her white sandals, each peppered with cute little yellow leather daisies across the toes.After fastening the daisy earrings, she twirled before the mirror, heels clicking on the polished floor.Each night this week, she planned to slip on a beautiful dress, pairing earrings with flowing skirts or tailored jackets.She loved the idea of dressing for dinner.
“You look terrific,” Erin said.She came out of the bathroom in a red dress that fell just above the knee.Her dark skin shimmered under the glittery lotion she’d applied.She wore a large necklace with a rhinestone hummingbird sipping from a red rhinestone flower.
“Not quite as shiny as you,” Olive replied.“You look gorgeous.”
“You know it, queen.”She grabbed her purse from the bed and slipped her key card into it.“Let’s go see if the men think so.Maybe we can elevate their heartrates.”
Olive’s time in the Army had broken down any intimidation presented by sharing close quarters with virtual strangers, but she had still felt a touch of apprehension, hoping her personality would mesh with theirs.With Erin, she already felt like they were old friends.It also helped to room with someone who had several cruises under her belt.It removed a lot of the fear of the unknown.
Jerry and Calvin waited for them in the passageway.Jerry wore a pair of khaki pants and a blue-and-white striped shirt that he’d left open at the collar.When he saw her, his eyes lit up, and a slow smile spread across his face.As he looked her up and down, her heart beat a bit faster, and a flush started somewhere deep inside her chest.He whistled under his breath and said, “Remind me to take you to more places that require dressing up,” he said.“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” she said.She whirled around and then lifted her foot.“Do you like my shoes?”
He stared at them and dryly said, “They’re, without a doubt, the most amazing shoes out of all the amazing shoes I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
She threw her head back and laughed.“You barely looked at them.”
“The woman wearing those amazing shoes is much more interesting to look at.”
She snorted.“Well, the cool thing about these shoes is that I bought them for two dollars at a thrift store.Then I found not one but two dresses that match them perfectly.That makes me a winner.”She winked and slipped her hand into his.“I’m also starving.”
He brought their joined hands to his mouth and brushed a kiss over her knuckles.“Me, too.”
They had wandered the ship’s labyrinthine decks for a solid forty-five minutes, scribbling notes on a folded map—here a bustling buffet hall, there a sun-drenched pool deck, over there a neon lit gym pulsing with distant thuds.But the clock’s relentless tick forced them back to the cabin for quick changes, vast swaths of corridors and decks and theaters still unexplored.
