On the deck of the cruise ship, happy sounds of splashing could be heard from the pool area as tropical-themed music played softly over the loudspeakers. A light ocean breeze perfectly complemented the warmth of the sun. The sounds of cheery couples enjoying one another’s company danced across the deck. Fun and relaxation permeated the air, and it all stood in stark contrast to Hope’s quiet suffering.
Letting out a melancholy sigh as she sat in her lounge chair, Hope found herself wondering why she’d agreed to go on this trip by herself. A tear ran down her cheek from behind her sunglasses as she replayed the last few days in her mind again and again. She couldn’t believe she actually let Chris talk her into going without him. Now here she was, on day one of a ten-day trip, lonely and miserable with nothing to look forward to other than finally getting back home to her husband where she belonged.
Hope glanced down at the book she’d brought with her from her cabin. She’d hoped that reading up on deck would help her get her mind off the situation, but the best she could muster was to stare blankly at the pages. Depressed and upset, Hope had been so lost in her own misery that she didn’t even notice the shadow falling across her.
“Well hey, pretty lady. What’s the problem?” came a voice, startling Hope and causing her to jump in her chair. Regaining her composure, she glanced up at the stranger who had interrupted her sulking. He looked to be at least a couple decades older than she was, maybe in his mid to late forties. He was well-built and handsome, with a smile that radiated confidence.
Typically Hope was a major extrovert. Under normal circumstances, she’d probably be willing to have a conversation with a guy like this, even if she’d have to start out by making it very clear that she’s happily married and had no interest in his flirting. Today though, all she wanted was quiet isolation while she slowly roasted in the sun.
“Listen, don’t take this the wrong way, but I just need to be alone right now,” she stated flatly, doing her best to be firm without sounding like a total bitch. “So if you don’t mind, I could use some space.”
The man’s smile never wavered as he ignored her request, sitting down on the empty deck chair next to Hope. Her brow furrowed and she was about to tell him to take a hike when he spoke up.
“That’s funny,” he began, “because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you need to tell me what’s got you so down.”
Instead of losing her cool, Hope stopped and considered the stranger’s words. She really was struggling today, and it seemed like all this guy was trying to do was give her an opportunity to vent. It wasn’t like he was being a jerk or anything. Letting out a long sigh, Hope decided she really did need to open up about this before it drove her bonkers.
“It’s just that this whole trip was a mistake,” she began. “My husband and I had been planning this cruise for over a year, since before we got married. It was going to be a sort of late honeymoon along with our first anniversary getaway. But instead of being together, he’s back home and I’m stuck here alone. It sucks.”
“I imagine so,” the man replied. “What happened?”
“The day before we were supposed to leave on the trip, some moron forklift driver at my husband’s job caused an accident. It sent him and two other guys to the hospital. None of the injuries were too serious, thank God, but he’s going to be laid up in the hospital for a week or two. Long story short, all our tickets were non-transferable and non-refundable, so my husband insisted that I go on the cruise without him so we at least got something out of all the money we spent. And being the idiot that I am, I let him talk me into it.”
“Hey now,” the man said as tears welled up in Hope’s eyes, “don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not an idiot. If you ask me, you made the right decision. This is going to be a fantastic experience for you. Just you wait and see.”
Hope wanted to believe the man, but she just couldn’t see how she was going to enjoy a minute of this vacation without the love of her life there with her. Their first anniversary would come and go during the cruise, and the idea of spending it thousands of miles away from her husband, sailing around the Caribbean while he was back home in the hospital, just felt so wrong. As she wiped away her tears, the man looked at his watch and rose to his feet.
“Now I’m terribly sorry to be so brief,” he began, “but I have an appointment with the masseuse, and if you saw her you’d know exactly why I don’t want to miss it. Don’t worry though, I’ll definitely see you around. In the meantime, you need to cheer up and open your eyes to all the fun opportunities onboard. By the way,” he added, extending his hand, “I’m Tony.”
Hope reached out and shook his hand. “Hope,” she replied before continuing. “Thanks for letting me vent, Tony. I really needed that.”
“My pleasure,” he smiled warmly. Despite herself, Hope's mood began to lift and she found herself smiling back at him. The two said their goodbyes, and Tony headed down the deck, quickly vanishing into the crowd.
Hope found herself beginning to feel better as she thought about what Tony had said. She really did need to cheer up. None of this was really that bad. Here she was, on one of the nicest cruise ships in the Caribbean, on a vacation some people would never experience in their lives. She still felt a little guilty about being away from Chris over their anniversary week, but he had been the one to insist she go on the trip. She was just being a good wife by doing what he’d asked.
The more Hope let Tony’s words sink in, the more she realized he was right. This ship was packed full of fun opportunities, and there was no sense spending the next nine days miserable when she could be having a great time. Plus, it wasn’t like she was really even going to go without talking to Chris. She purchased the ship’s internet service, so she could call him every night to check in. Before long, Hope was feeling pretty good about everything. Reclining in her lounge chair, she smiled and began reading her book as the ship slowly distanced itself from the mainland.
By her third day at sea, Hope was having the time of her life. She had spent the day prior exploring everything the ship had to offer, and spent all of day three checking items off her to-do list. By the evening she’d seen a comedy show, went to three different onboard activities, climbed the rock wall twice, and even made friends with a couple girls she met at one of the lounges.
It was nearly eleven at night by the time Hope started to lose steam. Realizing she hadn’t made her daily call to Chris yet, she decided to hit the lido deck for a slice of pizza and then head back to her room to see how he was doing. At the pizza stand, Hope grabbed her slice, spun around to leave, and practically ran headfirst into Tony. She let out a surprised yip and jumped back, nearly dropping her pizza in the process.
“Well hello again,” Tony said with a grin. “Long time, no see.”
“Holy crap!” Hope laughed. “You’ve gotta quit sneaking up on me.”
“What fun would that be?” Tony quipped as the two stepped away from the pizza counter. “So, how’s the cruise going? Are you still wallowing in misery?”
Hope laughed and shook her head at the older man. “Not in the least, thanks to you. After your little pep talk, I realized you were right, and I decided to make the most of the trip. So far, it’s been great.”
“That’s good to hear,” Tony responded. “Why don’t we go for a little stroll and you can tell me all about it.”
Hope’s smile faded slightly and she paused for a second. “Listen, Tony,” she began, “You seem like a nice guy and you’re super fun to chat with, but I don’t want to send any mixed signals here. I’m a happily married woman. In fact, I was just about to head to my cabin to call my husband. I don’t think it would really be appropriate for me to go taking strolls with another man while he’s laid up in a hospital bed thousands of miles away.”
Tony let out a little chuckle as he looked Hope in the eyes. “Oh Hope, you’ve got nothing to worry about with me. I’m harmless. It’s just that I can tell by looking at you that you need a best friend on this cruise, someone you want to share everything with and confide in. You need someone like me, an honest guy you can trust completely. I’m just asking for a little stroll here, nothing more. C’mon, what do you say?”
Hope stopped and gave what he said some thought. At first she had wanted to tell Tony absolutely not, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized he was right. If Chris had been here with her, she’d be sharing all of her adventures with him. In her day to day life, he was her best friend and confidant. Sure, she could call him from her cabin, but that wasn’t the same as having a real, living person there with her in the moment. Once again, she realized that Tony was absolutely correct in his assessment.
“Okay,” she sighed. “You’re right. Again. Let’s walk and talk, but don’t you dare get any ideas, mister.”
“I’d never dream of it,” Tony replied in his usual charm, and a moment later the duo were off.
As they strolled up and down the ship’s decks, Hope and Tony made casual conversation. Hope was a little reserved at first, but after a while, she found herself really opening up and sharing more and more. Tony was just so easy to talk to, she thought to herself as they chatted about everything from her hopes and dreams to his career in sales. This guy wasn’t Chris, that much was sure. Still, at least for the next several days, he’d be the perfect cruise buddy for her to share everything with.
Nearly two hours later, Hope was having a great time, completely lost in conversation with her new best friend. The topic drifted onto her relationship, and in the midst of telling Tony all about how she and Chris met, it occurred to her that she’d completely forgotten about going back to her cabin and calling him.
“Oh fuck,” she muttered. “I never called Chris tonight. I hope he didn’t stay up waiting for me.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Tony reassured her. “At this point, you need to let him sleep.”
“You’re probably right,” Hope ceded. “For that matter, I should probably get some sleep, too. When we get to the port at St. Thomas tomorrow morning, I’m meeting those girls I mentioned earlier to head off with them on their excursion.”
“That sounds like fun,” Tony replied. “You need to tell me all about it tomorrow night. How about after the ship boards, we meet back at that pizza place. We’ll grab a bite and compare notes from the island. What do you say? ”
Hope grinned at the suggestion. “Yeah,” she replied, happy to have someone to share her experiences with, “that would be nice.”
“Then it’s all set. Now,” he added, extending his arms and smiling, “I can tell you need a hug before you head back to your cabin.”
Hope quickly realized that Tony was right and stepped into his embrace, wrapping her own arms around him for a moment. After their hug, they exchanged goodbyes and Hope started walking down the hall toward the elevator.
“Oh, Hope!” Tony called after her, causing her to stop and turn toward the older man.
“What’s up?”
“One more thing. Tonight was a ton of fun, but you really need to be way more flirty from now on.”
Hope stared at Tony, silently processing his words. Slowly, a grin spread across her face. She strutted back to where he was standing and leaned in, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek.
“You want flirty?” Hope whispered into his ear. “You just wait until tomorrow night, stud, and I’ll show you flirty. With that, Hope spun on her heels and strutted off, briefly glancing back over her shoulder to give Tony a wink as she went.
The following evening, Hope was so excited to meet up with Tony that as soon as she boarded the ship she almost ran back to her cabin to shower and change. Once inside, she stripped out of her clothes and started the water. Giving it a second to warm up, Hope grabbed her phone from beside the bed and realized there was a missed call along with a few text messages from Chris. Hope frowned. As much as she was looking forward to her time with Tony, she still felt bad that she hadn’t called her husband the night before. Dialing him up in the messenger app, the phone rang a few times before she heard the sound of Chris’ voice come across the other end.
“Well, hey beautiful,” he began. “How’s it going?”
Hope grinned at the sound of her husband’s voice. “Hey babe,” she purred, throwing in a flirty tone. “It’s going SO good. I really wish you were here though.”
“Yeah, me too. So, what have you been up to? I didn’t hear from you last night. I missed you.”
Hope paused, considering how to respond. She didn’t really want to tell Chris that the reason she didn’t call was because she spent the last few hours of her day chatting it up with another man. Tony was just her friend and there was absolutely nothing going on between them. Still, she worried that Chris wouldn’t understand just how badly she needed someone to share the experience with.
Deciding a few minor edits were fine, she gave Chris a recap of the last two days, covering all the activities she’d participated in the day prior and sharing about her island excursion with the girls she’d met. She left out the part about Tony, of course. She also decided it would be best to leave out how she’d spent most of her day flirting it up with the guys in their excursion group. It was all totally harmless, of course, and it wasn’t like flirting was really cheating or anything. It was just something fun that she needed to do.
“Wow,” Chris replied after she finished. “It sounds like you’ve been having a blast.”
“I really have been,” she admitted. “Anyway, I’ve got the shower running and I’m supposed to be somewhere, so I’ve got to go. Love you, sexy.”
“I love you too, babe,” he responded. “Have fun tonight, and give me a call before you go to bed.”
“I will,” she promised before saying goodbye.
After her shower, Hope rummaged through her luggage looking for an outfit for the evening. She didn’t have time to re-pack her bags after Chris’ accident, so a lot of the clothes she had with her were the sort of sexy, revealing stuff that Chris liked seeing her in. She’d struggled with her wardrobe to find fairly modest outfits during the first few days. Today with as flirty as she’d been feeling, she was excited to have so many hot options to choose from.
Hope finally decided on a cute crop top that showed off her cleavage and left her midriff exposed, pairing it with her favorite cutoff denim shorts. After applying a little makeup and throwing on a cute pair of flip-flops, she pranced out the cabin door on her way to meet up with Tony. As she went, she couldn’t help but smile at the attention her outfit was drawing from the men she passed.
Hope strode out of the corridor connecting the pool area to the buffet and almost immediately spotted Tony near the pizza stand, standing by the railing across the deck from her. Their eyes met and Tony gave her a friendly smile. Hope responded by blowing him a kiss and winking before strutting over to where he was standing.
“Well hello, beautiful,” Tony grinned, eyeing her from head to toe as she approached.
“Well hello, yourself,” Hope purred as she strode up to Tony. Leaning in, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and wrapped her arms around him in an embrace.
“Hang on,” Tony began as they separated from the hug. “We haven’t seen each other all day and all I get is that little peck on the cheek?”
Hope laughed and took a step back, tsking as she put her hands on her hips. “Now, listen here, mister,” she mock-scolded, “I’m still a good girl, and a happily married one, too. Maybe you should just be grateful for what you get.”
Tony grinned back at Hope. “Maybe,” he began, “but I think you and I both know that what you really need is to get a little naughty and make out with yours truly whenever you get the chance.”
Almost as soon as the words escaped his lips, Hope felt her cheeks blush and her heart pump faster. How could he know her so well? Between all of her flirtatious behavior today, the attention she’d been getting as a result, and the fact that it had been nearly a week since the last time she’d had sex, Hope was a horny, worked-up mess. Eyeing Tony’s smiling lips, Hope realized that, as always, he was absolutely right. She needed this.
