Page 21 of Total Ship Show

“Oh, my gosh, that is the best story ever!” Michelle is all smiles. “I mean it’s crazy, but you guys will have the coolest story to tell for a long, long time!”

“Wow, Aris.” Grace lifts her glass. “You got to sample the goods before you even got to sample the goods. That’s impressive.”

“Right?” I laugh and clink my glass with Grace’s. “I would say it’s not a bad way to meet someone except I’ve seen some pretty downright nasty coochies in my line of work. You’d be surprised what some women will stick up there, but Adrienne here was a fun surprise.”

“We definitely like to keep it interesting, don’t we, Honey?” Adrienne wraps her arm around my bicep and bats her lashes.

“Life is never dull with you around, Babe. That’s for damn sure.”

* * *

Adrienne giggles as Jackie and Dave and then Hillary and Ted tell their first date stories to all of us around the table. Two perfectly adorable if not sappy stories filled with flowers and doors being opened and quiet meals at fancy restaurants.

“Uh oh,” Ted murmurs, looking at the two of us. “Adrienne is giggling. Why do I feel like there’s a story behind that mischievous grin?”

“Because, oh, Lord…our first date was anything but perfect. If it could go wrong, it totally did.”

Hillary snickers. “Well at least you can laugh about it now, right?”

“Oh yeah.” She nods. “We laugh about it a lot now. And trust me.” She pats me on the shoulder a few times. “Aris knows to never eat the fish tacos from the Seaman Buffet ever again.”

Everyone at the table laughs and I can feel my cheeks heat under Adrienne’s smile.

“Ooh, poor Aris,” Jackie sings.

“No, no.” Adrienne waves her hand. “You mean poor Adrienne!” She gestures to me with her thumb. “This big lug was letting out silent but extremely deadlies in the car the whole ride back to my place and when we got there, he practically begged to use my bathroom.”

Smiles and grins all around the table.

“I wasn’t going to invite him in on the first date, but I saw the look in his eye, and I felt bad for him. So, I let him in, and his ass exploded several times in my bathroom. The smell was so bad, Miss Ethel from next door came knocking and said she was worried there was a sewage leak in the building and was going to call the proper authorities. I had to explain to her that it was just a nasty case of seaman poisoning.”

“Oh, my God!” Grace and Hillary laugh so hard they start to cry.

“In my defense,” I say to them, holding up my hand. “I did insist on cleaning her bathroom from top to bottom when I was done. And I sent her flowers every day for a week. That was seriously some killer fish. Also…she didn’t run away or ghost me after that first date. She even called to check in on me the next morning so, you know, I figure if you can take a massive shit in your girl’s apartment on your first date and she comes back for more, she’s a keeper.”

* * *

“Well…” I inhale a long breath, slowly releasing it as we gaze out at the dark waters of the ocean. The starry night a near magical backdrop. “I don’t know how we made it through our first day, but we did it.”

Adrienne shakes her head with a soft giggle. “I really don’t know how we pulled that off without laughing our asses off in front of everyone.”

“We made a good team.”

And I mean that with all sincerity.

Studying her as she sits in the chair next to mine on the top deck overlooking the ocean, her hair floating around her in the wind, I tilt my head and take her in. This girl. Her natural beauty. Her effortless smile. I’ve wondered several times throughout this day if she might just be a dream.

From the look on her face when I picked up her pink sparkly dildo in the airport to the blush of her cheeks when I saw her on the plane. The shock when she ran into me again right here on this ship and her raw vulnerability as she asked me to help her. I knew in that moment there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.

She’s a fucking dream.

She so easily agreed to help me where any other woman may have laughed in my face and walked away or worse, asked what she was going to get out of the deal. Adrienne didn’t do either of those things. She merely said yes. As if it had been our plan from the get-go. And it’s in this moment right now, looking at her, that I realize I might be in over my head here. Will I have one of the best weeks of my life hanging out with this girl on this ship? Absolutely.

Will I be able to just let her go when the week is over?

Shit.

I honestly don’t know.

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