Page 112 of Ten Years and Then…
She knocked on his door Saturday morning, and she was in tears. He’d led her straight into the bedroom, got her under the covers, let her sleep for six hours and then brought her lunch in bed.
That night—after the one glass of wine she allowed herself, since she had to be back at the hospital by six the next morning—was their first time. And his first time since the night before his graduation.
“Daniel? Hey, are you okay?”
He’d been so lost in those thoughts he hadn’t noticed they were at their table and already sitting down.
“I was just—I was thinking about July 4th. About us. I’m so glad we’re here. And I was also thinking how lucky I am, to be with the most beautiful woman on the whole ship.”
The second part was true.
And maybe—if he kept saying it enough—he could convince himself the first part was, too.
Nora, eight o’clock
“I thought for a minute about renting a tuxedo for the cruise,” Greg said, looking around at their fellow diners.
It wouldn’t have been out of place—maybe half of the couples in the steakhouse were in formalwear. The men didn’t all wear tuxedos, but most of the ones who didn’t wore well-tailored suits instead.
Greg’s suit was—well, he’d had it dry-cleaned, anyway. That counted for a lot. Didn’t it? He could just as easily not have packed a suit at all. There were a few men here in sweaters, a couple in polo shirts and one—his wife, or girlfriend or whatever she was didn’t look happy about it—wore a T-shirt.
She wore a green dress; the same one she’d worn eight years ago, at the Valentine’s Day dance with Daniel. That had been the last time she’d worn it; she was shocked to find it in the back of her closet when she’d been packing for the cruise. The only thing missing was the elbow-length gloves. She wondered what happened to them.
Maybe they’d fallen into the back of her dorm room closet after she and Daniel had gotten back from the dance, and a few months later, whichever freshman girl had gotten her room the next year claimed them for herself. Nora hoped she—whoever she was—had gotten good use, or at least a good laugh, out of them.
“Nora?”
She shook her head to clear it. “Sorry, I was thinking—I really do like that suit on you.” It wasn’t totally a lie.
“I was just asking, mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese for our side?”
He did say earlier that they’d be “eating the world,” didn’t he?
“Why do we need to choose? I heard the waiter say to that table,”—she waved a hand in the direction of an older man and a redheaded woman maybe half his age—“we can order as many sides as we want, there’s no extra charge.”
“I guess so,” Greg said, but there was a hesitation in his voice she couldn’t quite place. “Still kind of wasteful, isn’t it?”
Normally, she liked that Greg thought about things like that. She tried to be mindful of herself and not buy food she wasn’t pretty sure she’d eat. But this was a vacation. How would they know if they liked the mashed potatoes or the mac and cheese better if they didn’t try both?
“Let’s do it anyway, just this once. I bet they’re both really good.”
He gave in with reasonably good grace. She just hoped he wouldn’t be glaring at her later if she didn’t clean her plate.
Daniel never would’ve minded. He’d have ordered all the sides just to see her try them.
Chapter 36
The first night of the cruise—aboard Empress of the Seas
Daniel, November 6, around nine-thirty in the evening
“Daniel, it’s fine. Please, go see the show, I can get back to the room on my own.”
He’d thought Leanne was looking a little off even before dinner. The escargots surely hadn’t helped.
“I’ll walk you back. Let’s go down to the sickbay first, though—when you were in the bathroom, I asked the waiter and he said they keep seasickness pills out for people to take. We’ll go get some and then get you comfortable.”
“I think it’s more the snails than the seasickness. And you warned me, I should have listened.”
