First submission... All characters are over 18.
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Sun... beaches... an endless supply of cold drinks... skimpy bikinis... and Rachel. It was the best cruise I have ever taken. Hell, it was one of the best vacations I've ever taken! It turned out to be the trip of a lifetime, though it had looked like it was going to suck from the get-go.
I am a partner in a small law firm in the Midwest. For our size, we had some very, very good clients -- clients which more than kept us in business, considering our overhead. Our firm wasn't anything big or fancy, especially compared to the major firms in larger cities. Overall, we did enough business to live very comfortably with some of the finer things in life without having to live and breathe work. Honestly, it was why I chose this firm and lived in a smaller city. I wanted a life outside of work.
As a yearly company 'thank you' the other partners and I chip in on bonuses for our employees. Usually we take the employees out for a really nice dinner where we hand out gifts based on the employee's tenure with the company. Some were small, a point and shoot camera, a small iPod, while others progressed into larger gifts for our longest tenured employees. New iPhones, iPads, and plasma TVs had become common place for our long-term employees. This year we wanted to do something special. It had been our best year ever. We had received several referrals (almost too many) to the point of upping everyone's hours for the better part of the year. We did very well on the books. We won a couple of large cases, and wanted to make sure we rewarded our staff appropriately. We decided to show our appreciation for everyone's additional effort more significantly this year with a week-long Caribbean cruise. We picked the "party" line, and a hot spot. Most hadn't been to the Caribbean from what we knew, so decided that we would surprise them all with the news at our yearly dinner.
The news didn't seem to go over well at first -- when I announced we wouldn't be handing out any appreciation awards that night there was an audible groan of disappointment. Soon though, the audible groans became a boisterous roar as I explained the details of the week-long cruise to all of the employees. The trip was to be a week without work, having the whole office shut down.
Soon we had the time set, and our travel secretary working on booking the trip for the 20 or so employees and a significant other as well as us 3 partners. I had all my arrangements made. I figured I'd go alone as there would be coworkers to hang with, but left me the option of finding some sexy companionship at night, or where I could just spend the time unwinding from a year where I'd personally averaged way more hours than I would have liked.
We booked balcony rooms for all of the employees, and suites for the partners. Well, we thought we had. My suite on the top front of the ship turned into a corner balcony stateroom on the back of the ship. I thought my trip was going to suck from here on out. Unfortunately they had mixed up my room booking. After a two hour delay in checking-in I was comped a $500 bar tab, and 50% off my next cruise purchase. Sounded good enough to me. One of the other partners offered to trade rooms, but I told him I'd be okay. I was here to relax anyway, and I could do that just as easily on the back of the ship as the front of the ship in a suite. My room was high enough, and I sleep deep enough, to not need to worry about the engines at night. After getting to my new room, it turned out the corner room was better than I could have imagined. It was a nice wrap around balcony with views out the side and rear of the ship.
So here I am, pulling out of port for the Caribbean. We agreed to give the first night to everyone as a free night, so I didn't have to worry about meeting up with anyone tonight. As our sailing time approached I decided to grab a nice glass of wine and enjoy the sendoff from my balcony. There didn't seem to be too much happening out the back of the ship, so I sat on the side of the wrap-around balcony watching the bustle of the city below. Lucky enough I had a port-side room. I loved seeing the traffic of the port.
I had just finished my 1st glass of wine when I heard the balcony door of the room just forward of mine open. Being a friendly (sometimes too outgoing) person I stood from my lounger to see my neighbors for the week. I somewhat awkwardly introduced myself to them around the balcony divider.
"Hi! I'm Mitch Martene. Looks like we'll be neighbors for the week." The young man, John, introduced himself and his wife, Rachel. They were newlyweds celebrating their honeymoon.
"Seriously? You don't look old enough to be married" I joked.
"Really? I just turned 27. Rachel will be 24 in a couple of months. I guess we just look young for our ages. Can't complain about that, I suppose!"
Perhaps. Might have just been her size. They gave me a quick run down of their lives (met at school in Boston. He was from Maine and just started med school at Harvard, she was from Connecticut and was a senior at Boston University). As the conversation progressed I invited them over to share my larger balcony and a glass of wine.
I opened the door and let them in. We shook hands as we probably should have 20 minutes before, and I grabbed some glasses and the chilled bottle. As we moved out to the deck I got my first look of Rachel. I couldn't really tell looking around their balcony, but she sure had the tight body of a 20 year old. At 5'1" and maybe 105 pounds she seemed so small in comparison with my 6'8" and solid 270 pound frame. Well, almost solid. I was in decent shape for a 45 year old lawyer.
Rachel had a naturally tan complexion, with long flowing chestnut brown hair and piercing green eyes. She was a knockout. I'd just have to guess, but beneath her tank top it looked like she sported a set of perky C-cup breasts. John must was a few inches taller than Rachel, but not by much. I offered them the two loungers as I quickly grabbed the stool from my room and took it out to the balcony.