The Cruise Companion - Emma
Julie comes across a young woman who has a few needs
By Aoife
A/N - Recently, something amusing happened. While browsing my favorite cruise line message board, I came across a post titled 'Seasoned Cruiser Needed.' Curious, I read through it, and soon my imagination took off.
This new chapter continues the enjoyment of its protagonist, Dr. Julie Anders. The series first chapter, The Cruise Companion - The Holidays, was posted in the Lesbian Sex category, this and future chapters will appear in other categories, maintaining a Sapphic focus. This chapter is being posted in the Mature category based on the age difference but holds true to the Sapphic lifestyle.
If this style or subject matter isn't to your taste, I completely understand and appreciate you taking the time to stop by.
All characters, names, and events in this storyline are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental and unintentional.
A big thanks to Nicole for her editing and suggestions. Any remaining mistakes are my own; my eyes aren't quite what they used to be.
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Friday Evening
I ended the video call with Sabrina. She reached out wishing me a happy fifty-fifth birthday. Over the last few years, Sabrina and I have absolutely enjoyed our time together including the last cruise. Over the last years we have remained close friends and lovers yet neither of us could commit fully to the other. We also agreed to never not enjoy the company of another.
On this day I pondered the thought of retirement or slowing down and considering a life with Sabrina but that would require so much in both of our lives. I don't believe it will happen soon. We were thrilled with how things have been for the last few years. In all reality, I am not old enough to retire. I still have so many years to give.
I sit here on my back deck listening to the evening winds blow through the trees and feeling the calm of the rustling leaves. Now and then I hear Mother Nature speaking, as I hear the creak of the limbs on the trees. I looked out from my back deck and wondered how old some of those trees were. I have lived in this house for more than twenty years now.
I ponder my life now even more than I did five years ago. I am curious if twenty-five years ago I would have imagined my fifty-fifth birthday dinner like this. Tonight was a simple dinner with my daughter Maddie, a good Italian takeout for two and a good Sauvignon Blanc.
Now, first off this is an excellent Sauvignon Blanc if it wasn't for this Duckhorn, the eggplant parmigiana and chicken parmigiana would have been just okay but the pairing of this wine was perfect. Maddie, my daughter just left as she needed to work in the morning. As she kissed my cheek she joked one day she would be like me and enjoy life.
I am a fan of her career choice, and I support her life as a healthcare provider wholeheartedly. She survived COVID as a Physician Assistant working in the ER. I know she is strong but... well I wish she wouldn't work in the ER.
The other thing I wish for is Maddie is that Lynne didn't crush her heart and soul in the manner she did. Lynne decided while we were on the Christmas cruise, which I gladly paid for, that Maddie and my relationship was too much for her. Lynne wanted to separate me from my daughter. She has a lot to learn about life.
Thankfully she took her skills as a chef and heading south to escape the cold fall, winter and early spring of Philadelphia.
My fault! Pffft good riddance you damn floozy. It took Maddie a few months to shake Lynne and to put herself back out there but no matter what she did; I wished I wouldn't have caused her that pain.
Tomorrow, I start my second sabbatical in the last five years which is wholeheartedly supported by my co-chair and the chancellor's office. You see, I am a tenured professor and the co-chair of the Microbiology Department. I also facilitate an Ethics in Healthcare course from time to time. I had to finish this research and prepare the last conclusions for the presentation I would give in four months. I asked for and was granted three months, it should only take nine or ten weeks.
But yes at fifty-five I sit on my back deck relax with my third glass of amazing wine and dream of what is next. Maddie insisted that she and I take another mother-and-daughter cruise in the coming fall break. Her father, my one-night stand from many, many years ago, asked for some time with her in the spring. I sipped the last of this glass and realized I hadn't seen him since her PA school graduation. That would have been almost eight years ago. It didn't matter that we did not miss each other.
So, for clarity's sake, I met Alan my first year at Penn. Only with the assistance of my parents did I make it through the next difficult nine months and my undergraduate degree. I loved Maddie the minute I saw her, the most amazing-looking baby girl a mother could dream of. Alan did what he could on a Teacher Assistant pay and young faculty salary. My parents' support got us through her childhood and me through my Master's.
It was in our second month living together, no, we never married that we determined we needed to part ways. We both concluded that we were a good one-night stand and that it wasn't going to work between us. He went his way and I went mine. Maddie and I moved into my parent's basement where they became not only her grandparents but my full-time nannies.
When they passed away last year, within months of each other, Maddie and I cried until we couldn't cry anymore. We then celebrated the lives of the two most amazing people we had ever loved. They gave their house in Abington to Maddie, and with me, just down the street a few blocks; we tend to see each other a few days per week when she isn't on a date with Claire. God, I hope one day they get married and have at least one grandchild. I want to be the special thing to her child that my mother and father were to me.
Now to fill in the background and space because there are a few specifics I need to share with you. Life as a single mother while going to college wasn't all that easy but I wasn't given a choice, my parents pushed me to continue. They wouldn't allow their grandchild to stop my education or career. However, I loved Maddie every moment I could. I wasn't without responsibilities either. I lived at home and took care of her as best as I could. I didn't party nor did I socialize and rest assured, I didn't date.
I was finishing a research project for my Master's thesis which focused on the relationship of microorganisms and their metabolites as they can produce tumor genetics for cancer when I met Stacie. Stacie was beautiful, she was loving, she was kind, and brought out of me what I suspected; I love women. Stacie brought out in me what turned out to be a dormant passion and helped me understand who I was as a lover and as a woman.
I finished my Masters and while working in a prominent research hospital, I finally came out of the closet. My parents were my biggest worry but Maddie was of greater concern. I told Alan first, so as not to blindside him if Maddie asked questions, he was supportive and caring.
So yes, I am a lesbian having had one heterosexual experience in life which brought me my greatest gift in this world, my daughter Maddie. We are not only best friends, we are closer than that. Over the years she has been my travel partner, my roommate, and my confidant. She has cried on my shoulders as I have on hers.
When she met Claire two years ago, I was the happiest mother in the world.
No, I wasn't thrilled and happy because she was gay as well, but because she found true love, that is all I wanted for her. I have liked Lynne, but when Maddie came to me three years ago and admitted that their Christmas cruise was great, she just didn't feel "it" and neither did Lynne both admitting that the spark was missing. I was happy to see they admitted and acknowledged that.
I never found my true love, unless you call cruising, researching cancer, and my daughter true love. 😉
So, as the sun fell lower behind the trees, I realized it was time to step inside. I made my way into the kitchen to see that Maddie had cleaned up and put away the dishes. I emptied the wine bottle into my glass and curled up on the couch listening to some piano music as background noise.
