Page 110 of Ten Years and Then…
“So do we just get a bill at the end of the cruise?”
Nora reached into her purse for her wallet, and pulled out her American Express card. “No. I give them this,” she handed it to the woman behind the counter, “and everything gets billed to it.” She laughed. “Technically, I guess you’re right, I will get a bill at the end of the cruise. And don’t argue—I’m the one who asked you to come, so we’re using my credit card.”
She didn’t want him to argue—mostly. There was a little part of her that hoped he would. And an even smaller voice in the very back of her mind, hoping the check-in clerk would hand her card back and tell her that Daniel—no, Greg! —had already arranged ahead of time for everything to be charged to his card.
Why had she thought of Daniel?
Because that’s absolutely what Daniel would have done. If they’d managed to make it as a couple long enough to be able to afford a cruise together.
Daniel, an hour later
“You were right, there was barely any line at all,” Leanne said. Daniel had figured—correctly, as it turned out—that most people would rush to check in early, even though boarding didn’t start until ten-thirty and continued until three o’clock in the afternoon.
Instead of spending an hour in a slow-moving line, they’d enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, with two trips each to the omelet station. And now, at the cruise terminal, they’d only been in line five minutes when they were called up to the check-in desk.
The clerk took their tickets, typed away at her computer, and handed them each their SeaPass cards. “And I see you’ve already given us a credit card, Mr. Keller. Thank you. Enjoy the cruise.”
“Daniel, when did you—we never talked about whose card to use!”
They walked away from check-in and towards the boarding area. “We split the cost for the tickets, but I wanted to do this for you, Leanne. There was a number to call for pre-boarding, and I gave them my card. I hope you’re not angry—I know maybe we should have discussed it, but I wanted to surprise you.”
She smiled—almost as brightly and joyfully as Nora used to. “I’m surprised. And—I like it. I’m just not used to anyone doing something so … I don’t know. Gallant?”
Nora had called him that once, too.
Nora, two hours later
“Here we go. Room 3146. You ready?” Nora inserted her SeaPass card, heard the little click, and pushed the door open.
She climbed in, with Greg a couple of steps behind her. She was glad all over again that she’d spent that hour with Keith; she knew to expect that the room would seem very small at first glance.
Sure enough, that was the first thing Greg noticed. “This is tiny! There’s barely enough room to turn around in here.”
Nora stepped away from him and did a twirl. “See? I can turn around just fine.” He almost laughed; that was a good sign. “Really, it’s bigger than it seems. And anyway, like Keith said, we’re not going to be doing much in here besides sleep, so it doesn’t make much difference how big it is.”
He didn’t say anything at first, just mouthed, “Keith?”
“Oh, he’s in the travel office at work. I figured he’d know all about cruises, so I harassed him over lunch last week about it. I just wanted to be prepared.” He nodded. “By the way, one thing he said—we already saw it a little when we boarded—they’re always trying to sell you something. He said to just tune it out. If you let it get to you, you won’t have a good time onboard.”
Of course, she had let it get to her almost immediately; she gave her SeaPass card to the first person who asked. It was a woman in a snappy Royal Caribbean uniform at a little table in the Atrium selling the specialty dining package—three dinners in the specialty restaurants aboard ship, supposedly at a discounted fee. “If you’ll pardon the pun, that ship has sailed already, hasn’t it?”
He said it with a smile, but she wondered—just for a moment, then she dismissed the thought—if Daniel would have said it at all.
Daniel, two hours later
They were wandering the halls of the ship, not going anywhere in particular.
“I just had a thought,” Leanne said, “They must have a doctor on the ship, right?”
Daniel stopped in his tracks. She hadn’t said anything about feeling bad; had he missed some sign? He looked her up and down, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. “Are you okay?”
She put a hand on his arm and laughed gently. “No. It’s just—you can take the girl out of the hospital, but you can’t take the hospital out of the girl, I guess.”
Why hadn’t he thought of that? Of course as a nurse, she’d be curious about medical care onboard. “There was a map by the elevators,” he said, and let her through the corridors of deck three to the nearest elevator bank. Leanne stopped him in front of a stateroom door.
“Oh, that’s cute!”
There was a handmade sign on the door, held on by magnets: Caution: Unsupervised Couple on Vacation! And a couple of little heart magnets on either side of it.
