I'd never been on a cruise before, it had just been a last minute decision whilst trying to decide on a holiday looking in the travel agent's window at the cancellations. But I must admit that it had definitely been one of my better decisions. Here I was now cruising round the Caribbean for a fortnight for probably the same price it would have cost to go to Torremelinos.
I'd always envisaged cruises to be the domain of the retired, although this was still correct to a certain extent, there was still plenty of other extremely attractive ladies to look at to pass away the time on deck when cruising between ports. And here was me, young single guy, treating himself to a holiday having just split up with his girlfriend and with the world at his feet once more.
So there I was laying on my sun lounger up on the sun deck contemplating what a tough life this Caribbean cruising was! The sun on my skin felt wonderful, and I could feel it turning my lean muscular body a lovely golden brown colour. I'd seen this lady wander past a couple of times for drinks, she must have thought I was asleep behind my sunglasses, but I could see her looking and really eyeing me each time she passed. She wasn't half bad herself. Anyway, I must have dozed off in the sun and woke a short time later needing a drink. I made my way to the poolside bar and was sitting chatting idly with Andrew the barman, who was having a very slow day, whilst he mixed my cocktail. Just as he put it in front of me someone sat down next to me and said to him "That looks good, can I have the same." I turned to see it was the same lady that had been watching me on the sun lounger.
"Can you get the lady the same and put it on my bill Andrew" I said. "Why thank you, that's very kind of you" she replied. "You're very welcome." Andrew mixed and poured her drink, smiled knowingly at me and went off to wash glasses at the other end of the bar. "Are you enjoying your holiday?" I asked. "How could I not be?" she replied rhetorically, "Sun, sea and cocktails. What more could a woman want?" she said with a glint in her eye and a hint of flirtatiousness in her voice. "What more indeed?" was my response in the same manner as hers. When I saw her close up I changed my earlier opinion. She was better than half bad, she was lovely. She must have been mid to late 40's with a lovely golden tan, a very well kept figure and a complexion that would have made a woman 10 years her junior proud. "Who are you here with?" I asked. "No one" she said, "I'm celebrating my divorce and am treating myself to this holiday with some of my settlement. It's the best thing I've done in years and I'm loving my new found freedom."
"Good for you, get out there and enjoy yourself" I said. "I intend to." she said looking me in the eye. "Anyway that's enough about me for now, what about you, who are you here with?"
"I'm on my own too, just split up from my girlfriend so I thought I'd treat myself as well. And you're right, getting away does work wonders." Her ears pricked up when she found out I was on my own too, maybe this cruising wasn't going to turn out to be such a bad idea after all. We had a couple more cocktails and chatted for a while, putting down our ex-es and discussing what we both now planned to do with our futures. We both found it nice to be able to talk to someone in a similar situation. It was late afternoon now and a chill breeze was beginning to get up on the sun deck. "I'm getting a little chilly now," she said, her loose wraparound silk shirt and swimsuit offering little protection against the breeze, "would you like to come back to my cabin for another drink and we can talk some more?"