Chapter Four A new union and life without Esther
Catherine was already at the house by eight in the morning, bags in hand. I had stayed up most of the night over packing or should I say putting everything I owned into one HUGE suitcase.
"And they say women over pack. Do you have everything you own in that bag?"
"Everything except my mustang and I figure we'll pick it up on the way." I smiled until I tried to pick up the bag. Screw that, I'd let the porters deal with it. Passport, drivers license, a ton of cash, and one credit card is all I should need. I checked and rechecked the list the travel agency had sent over to me. The last thing I threw in was seasick pills. I wasn't taking any chances.
We said our goodbyes. Esther gave me a big hug and whispered 'good luck' in my ear. It was a five-minute cab ride to the storage facility and the port was about a three hours drive so we had plenty of time to talk. This would be my first official cruise and I was looking forward to it like you wouldn't believe. I had all my valuables, including the ring, in a small backpack I planned on keeping close to me until we got in our room. There would be no slip-ups if I could help it.
Even with express check-in it still took a while and our bags didn't show up until after some stupid thing called muster. I felt like I was on the Titanic listening to them explain what we would have to do in the unlikely event we needed to abandon ship. We were going to the tropics for Christ's sakes, how many icebergs could there be? I unpacked everything, hung it all up, and put the rest in the dresser drawers. Catherine hung up her two long dresses and that was it.
"I work out of my suitcase. I know where everything is so excluding my toiletries everything stays in here." I guess she was an old hand by now. We signed up for a few excursions but mostly we wanted to spend the time by ourselves. We walked the ship, found out where everything was and headed back to our cabin.
"Let's hit the pool deck," she suggested.
I grabbed one of five bathing suits I'd brought while she dug out hers. I was just tying the knot in front when I looked up and saw what she was wearing. Where's the rest of it? Were the first words that my brain asked. It was yellow, tiny, and tinier; that's the only way to describe it. She wasn't big breasted but what she did have was all out there.
"What?"
"I think I've got a few bandages in my suitcase that would cover more than that suit is covering."
"Steve, we don't know anyone here, and I'll never see any of these people ever again. And unless you think I don't look good in this suit, what's the problem?"
"You see, we're probably not going to make it out of this room the way you look and the way I'm feeling right now." I looked down at a raging hard-on.
"I can fix that," she said sitting on the bed opening my swimsuit and taking me in her mouth. It didn't take her long as she deep throated me while caressing my balls.
"Oh fuck," I said holding onto her shoulders to steady myself while she drained me.
"Now," she said pulling up my shorts. "Shall we go to the pool deck?" Weak in the knees we made our way up one flight of stairs.
At fifty-four Catherine look better than good. If I didn't know any better I'd swear she wasn't a day over forty. She got more than one look from teenage guys to those a lot older than me. It got to the point I didn't want to leave her alone for even a second.
When I went to the buffet line to get us some fruit and a cool drink there was a guy sitting on my lounge chair talking to her when I got back. Even through his dark sunglasses I knew what he was staring at. I stood there with both hands full of food when they finally noticed me.
"Honey, you're back. Steve, this is Don, Don this is Steve."
"Steve, I'd shake your hand, but it looks like you've got them pretty loaded. Kate, maybe I'll see you around," he said getting up.
"Kate?" I said looking at her.
"Here, let me help you." She stood up taking both drinks." After that incident I never left her side.
We had the late dinner seating so after changing into something more appropriate we walked the decks until just before eight. There was a mob of people waiting to get into the dining room but within five minutes we had found our table and were seated. I ordered us drinks and a bottle of wine to have with dinner.
There were three other couples at our table. John and Tracy were in their late fifties, Linda and her new husband Paul were at the most in their mid to late twenties and just by looking at them you could tell they were newlyweds or close to it. The third couple came in late. Kevin was in his late forties but his wife April couldn't have been much more than twenty-nine. Looks like he had a trophy wife.
We went around and introduced ourselves and found we were from all walks of life and were scattered throughout the United States. When Catherine said this was my first cruise everyone added their tidbit of something I just had to do, but to a person they said it would be memorable.
Dinner was long and drawn out. Finally after finishing our wine Catherine suggested a walk on the deck. That's when my cruise went to shit. All the fucking outside doors had steps to keep water from coming in during a storm. I opened the door and plowed into one falling flat on my face. Then adding insult to injury, the door closed on my leg. Embarrassed doesn't even come close to describing how I felt.
Catherine was trying to re-open the door when the steward rushed over to help her. Feeling more like a klutz, everyone helped me up. It was then I realized I had a slight problem feeling the pain shoot through my right foot. A quick trip to the infirmary confirmed that I had a slight ankle sprain.
"Keep off it for a couple of days and you'll be as good as new," the doctor instructed me. "Take two of these three times a day for a couple of days, keep it elevated, and you'll be upright in no time." He handed me a small bottle of pills that contained what to me looked like large aspirins.
"Great, just fucking great," I mumbled softy to myself watching him put an ace bandage around my ankle. Standing up it was sore but manageable.
"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" Catherine said laughing. "Looks like bed rest for you."
"Not on your life. This is my first cruise and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it even if it kills me."
So, we didn't walk the decks that night, but we did hit the clubs. We got a table close to the dance floor and I got an extra chair to keep my foot elevated. The place was dark and the music was very loud. The best we could do is to watch other people dance. When Catherine was asked to dance by one or more guys she always said told them thanks, but no thanks.
"Go ahead and dance, I'll be fine. It's not like I'm going to be able to do much of anything for at least a couple of days."
"You sure about this?"
"Look, I know you love to dance. Have some fun and don't worry about me. I'll just be a good cripple and sit here in the corner," I told her sticking out my lower lip. She kissed me.
"Maybe we should go back to the room and do our own type of dance?"
"We'll have plenty of time for that later tonight. Right now it's time to party." So for the next two hours she went from one guy to the next on the dance floor. She never danced a slow song with any of them, but she did a few mean salsa dances with one. She sure was a great dancer. We left the club around one thirty in the morning.
"I haven't had that much fun in ages," she said beaming.
We made it back to our cabin, undressed, and sat on our balcony enjoying the night air. Holding her hand I reached over, kissed her, and said what a good idea this had been. We made our way back into the cabin and with the balcony door propped open so we could hear the ocean made mad passionate love and fell asleep in each other's arms.
We never made breakfast in the dining room but hit the Lido deck for the breakfast buffet. We were docking at Key West this morning and she was looking forward to walking around the downtown shops.
It was crowded and after an hour or so my foot started to bother me.
"Babes, I need to go back while I can still make it." I could see she was disappointed. "Look, you shop and have some fun and I'll meet you back on the ship."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive," I replied giving her more than a little peck. "Just don't spend all your money on these over priced touristy items." She smiled and I was off on my slow hobble back to the ship. What had taken us a half hour, took me almost an hour to get back. I was hurting and sweating like a pig when I finally made it back to the ship. I iced the shit out of my ankle, kept it elevated, and popped three of those damn pills. At least from the balcony in my room I could see the dock and the people walking back to the ship.
It was after four thirty when I saw Catherine and two guys walk up the dock to the ship. I recognized my new buddy Don and who the other guy with him was anyone's guess. I guess Don was right, he would see her around and it looks like he had.
She must have had four bags stuffed with clothes and over the next hour she modeled each item for me. When she brought out a bright pink swimsuit the size of a two cotton balls, my face showed what I thought of it.
"Loosen up. If you've got it flaunt it and if you don't, flaunt what you've got. This one I plan on wearing on that special sun tanning deck." I looked confused. "Steve, it's a topless sun deck for adults only. I want to go home without any tan lines this time and don't worry, you'll be right next to me."
