The Cruise

"It was the same with his other tricks. 'Its fucking obvious, it was up his sleeve.', 'there's a false compartment in the box, any fucking idiot can see that.' On and on it went, and the Great Linguini had just about reached the end of his tether, when suddenly there was a loud bang, followed by a scraping noise, and down she went. The Great Linguini found himself floating on a hatch cover miles from where the ship went down, no-one in sight, just the fucking parrot, sitting there, glaring at him. 'All right Linguini, I give up, what did you do with the fucking ship?'"

"I bet it was the Titanic when he first told that joke." I whispered to Natalie. She smiled at me. It was a nice smile.

"There was a blue between the Captain and the First Mate on this ship. When I say this ship I don't mean this actual ship, just a ship. Anyhow, the Captain had written in the ship's log; 'The First Mate was drunk last night.' The first mate was upset at this and tried to get the Captain to delete it from the log. 'I can't, simply because, you were drunk. I am following normal protocol and just stating the inescapable fact that you were in fact, quite drunk.' 'But,' argued the First Mate, 'this had no bearing at all on my performance on the job, and because my work was not affected, I don't feel that it was necessary for you to mention it in the log.' 'Rules are rules." The Captain said. The next day the First Mate was on duty. He chuckled to himself as he was writing up his entry in the log. When the Captain read the log the next morning he was horrified to read; 'The Captain was sober last night.'"

"It's a little stuffy in here, I think that I'll go up top and get some fresh air. Would you care to join me?" I said to Natalie.

"Sure, I'd love to."

Fuck, here I was half hoping that she would decline and give me an excuse to ease myself away from her. We took the lift to the top deck and walked across to the rail. It was a cool night on deck, with the breeze from the ship's forward movement ruffling her hair and what was left of mine. "Don't the stars look bright out here away from the city lights?" I said.

"Yes, they are spectacular, I've never seen them like this. Tell me Gordon, Simone was very quick to stop any questions as to why your wife isn't with you on this cruise, I assumed that whatever the reason was, had to be recent. I have a similar reason for being here on my own. My husband was out jogging, as usual, one morning when he apparently had a massive stroke. The Coroner said that he was probably dead before he hit the ground. My family bought me the ticket on this cruise in an effort to take my mind off my loss, and my boss gave me the time off so that I could come.""

"At least he didn't suffer. My wife was in a car accident. Her car was rear ended and pushed into the path of a truck. It wasn't the truck driver's fault that he couldn't stop in time. It took nearly two hours for the paramedics to cut her from the wreckage, but she couldn't be saved, she died that night in hospital. That was a month ago, and it's taking some getting my head around the whole episode. It happened a couple of days after our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I should have been the one driving our daughter to the airport, not her.""

"I'm so sorry." She put her hand on mine on the rail. It felt so comfortable that I couldn't bring myself to remove it. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there seemed to be a definite connection between us.

"It seems as if we both have kids who have conspired to force us to have a good time. I didn't want to come on this cruise. The plan was for the both of us to come, and without her I just didn't feel that I could, or should."

"I had the same feeling. I threw myself into my work in an attempt to take my mind off my problems, and I thought that I was coping well. That was until I had something of a meltdown one day. I hit the wrong key and thought that I'd lost a whole design project. I was devastated and burst into tears, something that I had never done before, even when things didn't go to plan. My boss called in the company IT geek and he managed to salvage my work. It was something that I knew how to fix, I'd done it before. I just panicked. It was then that I sat down with my boss and we discussed where I was at with my recovery, and here I am."

"What sort of work do you do?" I was expecting some sort of graphic design or even Architecture, her answer was not what I expected at all.

"I'm a Mechanical Engineer, you know conveyors and freight handling equipment. I was working on an ore loading facility for a projected new mining venture. The company wants to cost the whole project, from ore extraction to the loading of bulk ore carriers, to test its commercial viability before they give it the go ahead. If they decide to go ahead, we get the job to provide the infrastructure."

"I can understand why you panicked. With these sorts of projects it's definitely a case of time being money, and any delay could prove costly."

"So, you know about these things do you?"

"Yes. I was a Mining Engineer before I retired to a life of indolence."

"I can't see that happening. I can't see you sitting around doing nothing. I bet your garden is spotless, and your golf game has improved exponentially."

"Have you been stalking me?"

"No, you're so much like my husband. He retired last year and worked harder at enjoying life than he ever did on the job."

"You must have been a child bride. I can't see you being even close to retirement age."

"Aren't you sweet to even think that, let alone say it? I'm closer to the death knock than you think." She shivered. The air had become quite cold. I took my jacket off and draped it over her shoulders, folding it around her. She held my hands in front of her and leaned back into me. "Thank you for that. I think maybe we should go back inside. I can't have you freezing because of me."

"Somehow I don't feel all that cold." I held her to me and could feel the warmth of her body against mine. My cheek lay against hers and I could smell the subtle aroma of her perfume, it was the same perfume that Sylvia wore, and it smelt just as good on Natalie as it did on her.

Natalie turned in the circle of my arms and put hers around me. She sighed softly and put her head on my shoulder. "I can't believe that I'm doing this, standing here with my arms around a man who I've known for less than a day. And do you know what else I can't believe?" She didn't wait for me to answer. "I can't believe how right this feels."

I had to agree with her. Despite my initial misgivings, despite me not wanting to be here in the first place, this felt good. I know that there will be people who, knowing me and my shock at losing the love of my life so recently, would tell me that this is all wrong, that I shouldn't dishonour the memory of Sylvia so soon after her death. To these people I say, I need something like this to take my mind off my loss. I don't know whether this will go anywhere, I don't know even if I want it to go anywhere, but in this very moment I will not dishonour Natalie by pushing her away from me. I have to consider her needs as well as my own.

"What are you thinking about?" Her question was tentative, as if she was afraid that I was going to tell her that we shouldn't be thinking about this, let alone doing it.

"I was trying to convince myself that Sylvia would not be yelling at me that this has the potential to be a very bad move on my part. I've told myself that, but she has been remarkably quiet on the subject, so I have to think that she approves. I don't know where this is leading, so I'll just go with the flow and see where we finish up. That is of course, that this is what you want."

Her answer was succinct and word free. She kissed me. It was a very nice kiss, soft and sweet with a very clear message, she wanted it just as much as I.

I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it was rapidly approaching midnight. "It's getting late. I don't know about you, but I need my beauty sleep. May I escort you to your cabin?"

"My, aren't you the gentleman? Yes you may." She linked her arm in mine and we headed for the lifts. I felt a tingling when I saw that the button she pushed was for the same level as my cabin. My mind was racing, what if, no there was no likelihood that they would do that would do that, put a woman in my twin share cabin, surely they would find a single man, if such a beast existed on this predominately female cruise, to occupy the other half of my cabin.

"This is my cabin." She said as she stopped outside my cabin door. "I'd invite you in but I don't know if the guy that they put me with is in there."

"He's not. Yet."

"Do you know something that I don't?"

"Yes. This is my cabin. I must have been somewhere else when you came on board. I went straight down to the dining room when dinner was called, so we missed each other. How is it that you were put into my cabin?"

"It seems as if this was the only cabin space available, the only last minute cancellation. They asked me if I minded sharing with a man, and I told them that it would be okay as long as he kept his distance and wasn't too disgusting in his personal habits. They assured me that you were the perfect gentleman, but then they would say that, wouldn't they."

(Okay, before you leap into print and tell me that this will never happen, you're probably right. But it could happen, and for the purposes of this story it has to happen this way. CM)

"I'd hate to think of the legal ramifications if anything should go wrong, like I was a mad rapist, or you were a serial killer."

"The possibility that that should happen has just diminished to the point that it will never happen, unless there is something that you haven't told me."

"The only thing that I can think of is if, sometime over the next couple of weeks I should give in to temptation and crawl into your bed. But that isn't about to happen." I saw the look on her face. "At least not tonight, that is. I think that we should put the brakes on until we are sure that this is what we want. Agree?"

"Agreed. Now let's get inside and get some sleep."

Sleep came hard for me, in fact I looked at my watch at 3:00 and came to the conclusion that it wasn't about to come at all. I head Natalie get out of bed and head for the bathroom to get herself a drink. "Damn." She said softly as she kicked something on the floor. I switched on the lamp over my bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't. I was still very much awake."

"You too. What are we going to do?"

"If you promise that there'll be no funny business you can join me." Did I just say that? Did I just invite her into my bed?

"I'd like that." She poured herself a glass o water. "Would you like a glass of water?"

"Yes, I would, thank you." I climbed out of bed. She was wearing a nightdress, I don't know whether it was silk, or some artificial fabric, bud it was shiny and flowed around her body when she moved. Two thin straps held it up, and the top sort of flowed over the mounds of her breasts. They didn't seem to be sagging all that much, but then I couldn't be totally sure. What I was sure of was that my cock had been aroused from his enforced hibernation. A point that didn't go un-noticed.

"I'm flattered." She said as she handed me my glass of water.

"What do you mean?"

"At least a part of you thinks that I'm attractive." She said, glancing at the tent front of my boxer shorts.

"Pretty much all of me does."

"Are you forgetting your promise?"

"I must be having a senior's moment, I can't recall making any promises."

"I must have imagined it then." I had finished my drink of water and she had taken the glass from me and placed it on the shelf in the bathroom.

We climbed into her bed and she turned her back on me. I tried hard to resist the temptation to hold a breast, honest I did, but it didn't work. Of course that resulted in my cock pressing into her. "I'll never get to sleep with that thing stabbing me. I think that we should roll over."

Roll over we did, and it was her turn to put her arms around my waist. It was comfortable for a while, but then her hand headed for the gap in the front of my shorts, and the next that I knew was her finger, barely touching me as it caressed the underside of my cock. Barely touching was enough to have him standing tall and straining on the leash. "The only way that we're ever going to get to sleep is to make love."

"If you say so." I could hear the smile on her voice as she whispered into my ear.

Whoever said that oldies couldn't enjoy making love was talking out his arse. We both enjoyed it, both times, before we eventually staggered off to sleep, her with her head on my shoulder. If we smoked it would have been time for a post-coital cigarette.

It was early when I woke. My arm was numb from having her head resting on it, but I wasn't about to move for fear of waking her, so I lay there, in her bed, trying hard to rationalise what had just happened to us. How was it that we had ended up sharing a cabin? How was it that we had ended up sharing a bed? How the hell did we end up sharing a night of sublime love making? There was no rational answer to any of these questions. The only thing that I knew was that I had enjoyed the experience immensely and wanted it to continue.

"Good morning my love." Natalie's head lifted off my shoulder as she looked into my face. "And how are you feeling this fine morning?"

"I feel just fine, physically that is, my mind however, is in complete turmoil. We said that we weren't going to get involved sexually, but we did, and I'm attempting to make sense of it."

"You think too much. It was meant to be and it is."

"But I shouldn't be feeling like this about you, or about any other woman, so soon after Sylvia's death. She would be turning in her grave, except that she's in an urn in a niche in a wall. There was no way that I was ever going to make love to another, especially not this soon, but somehow it feels right."

"Just hang on to that thought, it feels right to me as well."

"I think that we should head off for breakfast, we'll need to restore our strength. You can have first turn in the shower."

Natalie climbed out of bed, and I had to admit, watching her walking across the cabin, that she was very well put together. Don't get me wrong, there were the expected sags here and there, but, to me that just added to her beauty.

She wasn't long in the shower, and emerged with a towel wrapped around her wet hair and another around her body. She saw that I was looking at her, so she slipped the towel from her body. "I haven't scared you off, have I?"

"No, in fact I find you even more attractive totally naked, without make-up, there can be no pretensions, what you see is what you get."

She kissed me as I stood to head for the shower. "You're not too shabby yourself."

I didn't bother wrapping a towel around myself as I emerged from my shower to find that she had my clothes laid out on the bed for me. She was casually dressed in jeans and a top, sneakers, and just a touch of lipstick. I stood taking this all in, that was until she walked up to me and grabbed my cock. "Get dressed before I'm tempted to drag you back into bed and ravish you."

"Where did you two get to last night?" Simone asked as we joined the others at our table.

"We went up top for some fresh air, and then we went back to our cabin to get a good night's sleep."

"The consensus was that you were making a flying start at a ship-board romance. I didn't think so, but I was in the minority."

"Bullshit. It was you that suggested it." Brenda, a blousy blonde who looked like she was always ready for some on-board action said, looking at me as if judging if she could expect some success in a pitch at me.

"It's way too early for a romance between us, but let me warn you, if any of you women should try, watch out. That's all I'm going to say on the matter." Natalie warned them.

We headed for the buffet and selected fresh fruit, yoghurt and juice. We had both been warned about the dangers of the non-stop food supply available on these cruises, and were determined to limit our intake, just enough to maintain our energy levels was the key.

After breakfast we joined the athletic types around the swimming pool. It was an eye-opener to see the predatory types, mostly female, hovering over any available members of the opposite sex. That the males and females of this group never took on their predatory opposites set me wondering. I would have thought that the opportunity of a sure thing would have lessened the stress somewhat. Natalie made it very clear to the first couple of bikini clad senior femme fatales that I was her property and anyone encroaching on her territory do so at their peril. I noticed a Don Juan sliding towards us on stopped him in his tracks with a withering stare. He made as if he wasn't heading for Natalie and slid towards another woman.

We swam a little, sunbathed a little, after applying sun screen to each other of course, grabbed a drink from a passing waiter, swam some more, and then headed down to our cabin to prepare for lunch.

"Natalie." I said as we entered the cabin.

"I don't like the sound of this."

"Am I dreaming or what?" I took her hand. "I'm having a real problem getting my head around what is happening to us. We've know each other for less than a day and yet it feels as if we've known each other forever."

""I know. Thought it was only in those soppy romance stories where a man and a woman see each other for the first time and know instantly that they were meant to be together. No my love, you are not dreaming, this is real, and unlike a dream we won't wake and find it gone." She kissed me in such a way as to tell me that she knew that it wasn't a dream.

It was mid-afternoon when we eventually extracted ourselves from each other's arms and got out of bed. We had made love only the once, but it was a slow journey to our eventual climax, followed by a cooling down period where we talked and caressed each other.

After dinner there was a dance in the main ballroom. Natalie was a good dancer, especially in the slow dances, where we held each other close with her head resting on my shoulder. I had to pull off a couple of sudden pivot turns when other men approached to cut in, and take her away from me. One of them had his finger about a centimetre from my shoulder when I swung Natalie around. Eventually they gave up and tried their luck elsewhere.

The ship docked in Wellington and there were tour coaches drawn up on the pier waiting to take passengers on one day packages. We slipped away and found our own tour, walking through the streets, looking at the shops and having lunch in a little cafe that served plain old fish and chips that, after a couple of days of ship food was heaven.

The smiling reaction from the locals, at seeing two people of our age walking around, hand in hand, laughing and smiling like couple of school kids on their first date, was a bonus for us. We were accepted by them as a couple, and I guess it was our first date. It was ironic, and I suppose a sign of our times, that we had made love before our first date, but it seemed to us to have been perfect for us. We were perfect for us.

"All right you two, spill. Don't try to tell me that you two aren't an item." Simone said as we sat down for dinner.

"Well yes, you could say that. We have a lot in common, both having lost long time partners recently." I said to the group at our table. "If you remember, our first meal, you stepped in when Natalie asked how it was that I was on my own. Now she knows and has been a great help in my dealing with my grief."

"And Gordon has helped me get over my loss. It would seem that destiny has brought us together."