Sarah was looking forward to the first day of her vacation. Winning a singles cruise was kind of a boobie prize, she thought, but still a week of drinking in the Caribbean was not going to go to waste. Work was stressing her out and watching her friends serial monogamy was too depressing for words. She got to her cabin, frowning at how small the rooms were she put away her clothes in the closet. Then she went to set up her bathroom. She opened the door, looked in, look at her bed, looked at the bathtub, looked at the bed, looked at the bathtub. Yes, the bathtub was bigger. Weird.
Sarah changed into her pre-planned outfit, a midriff top and low rise jeans. She looked at herself in the mirror. She still couldn't believe she let her friends talk her into bringing tops that showed off her midriff, let alone promising that she would wear one the first night. The mirror showed her what she always saw, that gawky freshman with a belly and a flat chest. She knew in her head that with a 34C she wasn't flat, but her belly seemed to never go away. Still judging by the women on the ramp this was definitely a target rich environment for her. Most of the women were older and single for a reason, and some of the men seemed to be quite attractive. There must be one eligible divorcee out for some fun, or SOMETHING like that.
David climbed up the ramp, wondering just what the hell he was doing. A man in his mid twenties, fresh out of the army going on a singles cruise. He walked up with a measured stride, his head on a pivot half of his earthly possessions on his shoulders. Less than 4 months out of Iraq he was just starting to get his things back together and he'd decided to take a week and take a REAL vacation, single women, alcohol, gambling, and nothing to do but take it all in.
He headed down to his cabin, taking in the standard twin bed, the furniture, all designed to make it easy to tie someone up he judged, and throwing his duffle down in the closet he headed to the bathroom to relieve himself, while he did he looked at the bathtub, then the bed, then the bathtub, then the bed again. Yes, the bathtub was bigger. Weird. He looked himself over in the mirror, slicked down the rogue lock of hair in front and headed out to check out the ship.
The ship was a floating brick, designed around a dozen seedy bars, four nightclubs, evenly split between rock and hip hop, two upscale clubs and one swank dance hall for the older folks. David walked into the first bar he saw, an Irish pub, complete with green beer. He decided this was a good place to start and grabbed a yard. He started checking out the crowd, 30-something businessmen desperately trying to look 20, and women of every description, well, every description you got in a desperate singles joint. At least he had enough money to get drunk. He polished off his yard and ordered a pint. As he walked by he ran into a young women and spilled beer all over his white T-shirt.
"damnit" he exclaimed flatly.
"Sorry" she said jumping back from the green arch.
"No problem" he said "it's a white T-shirt, I just gotta change" he said, looking down at it. He pulled it out to keep the beer off him, killed the dregs in the glass and headed out.
Sarah watched the young man storm out. He moved fast with a kind of grace, like a hunting dog cornering its prey, every move focused on his objective. She looked around the bar. Then she slumped into the same booth the man had been in. The seat was still warm. She looked at her appletini "Well Sarah, looks like the cutest guy on the ship is wearing his drink, and its all thanks to you,"
She threw down her drink and threw up her hand to call for the next one. She looked around the bar, you, not a man under 30. Sarah had no problem with the older crowd, far from it, but for some reason she felt like some eye candy. Unfortunately eye-candy is not what you see on a singles cruise apparently. The ticket jacket was covered with sexy young people, who apparently wanted nothing to do with the cruise line after the photo shoot. She nursed her second drink while wondering what she was going to do.
David reached his cabin before making a quick turnaround first he sprayed some cologne on, stuff he hadn't worn in years, then he grabbed a button down shirt. He hadn't planned on wearing it the first night but dancing on the floor smelling fancy and wearing a white t-shirt might not work. Rolling out the door he decided to hit a dance hall, he wasn't nearly drunk enough, but maybe there would be some younger women out there, if he was gonna get drinks spilled on him he might as well have something to show for it.
He checked out the first one, a loud hip hop club, a fast look told him it wasn't his scene so he moved on. The next club he heard some loud 80s hair band screaming. Moving right along he heard a club playing some grunge rock. Being a fan of early-mid 90s alternative he decided to check it out. This was the hideout for the 20-somethings. People his age were jumping around hair and body parts flying, some of them even in time with the music. He party-walked his way to the bar dodging flying elbows, hair, legs and other body parts with an agility belying his size. He ordered a shot and a beer. Knocking back the shot he found a corner of the dancing mass and started to move.
Now David was a true member of the muddy boots army. No matter what he was dancing in his boots were stuck to the floor by the mud. The beer disappeared quick and the waitress bringing around shots kept him nicely buzzed as he cut through the mass dancing with women varying from very attractive to "not without a few more drinks" He ended up dancing with a very hot little thing for a while, even grinding to some of the more inappropriate songs. Between songs he was parched he leaned in to say in her ear "Hey let me buy you a drink," unfortunately the song started right after 'you'
"HEY LET ME BUY YOU" the cute guy said in her ear. Sarah had had more than a few drinks but that wasn't the arrangement she wanted. The guy looked down at her and motioned to the test-tube shaped shot glass. Then she realized who it was. She staggered back a step and turned away as she blushed crazily.
