I dried off, then lavishly slathered the tanning lotion, making sure to smooth it in evenly. I had a hard time reaching my back, but I wasn’t going to ask Charles to do it for me. Grabbing the hair dryer, I blew the warm air over my body to dry the lotion. As the tube promised, I instantly looked several shades darker.
When I opened the bathroom door, Charles handed me the dress and a pair of silver sandals. Good lord, he had excellent fashion sense.
“Promise me you won’t cry at the dinner table,” he said.
“I promise nothing. But I’ll try not to. Let’s just not talk about ourselves and I’ll be fine.”
Formal dinner night promised to make the trip delightful. I doubted it. This ship had three formal dining rooms and outside each one, folks (mostly over the age of ninety) milled around in their finest. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn these couples had purchased formalwear exclusively for cruises and took at least two trips a year.
Our turn to enter the dining room finally arrived, and I grinned as I saw the host walk us to the same table where Kendra and Alan Daly were already seated. How fun that dinner would be. But then he kept walking and sat us at a table of people all old enough to be our grandparents. I grinned wider. No way we could get into any trouble with this crowd.
The problem with cruises was the free food. And in our case, the unlimited drinks. When you sat down for dinner and couldn’t decide between the filet mignon and lobster, or the roasted garlic chicken and saffron risotto, you could just order both. Same went for the dessert. Or desserts, as I’d planned.
The conversation lively and the company entertaining, I found my mind wandering back to Dominic. The room became a blur as I saw Dominic’s face on every man. Why had he left me behind? I couldn’t wrap my head around it, or my heart for that matter.
I had loved Dominic with all my heart. But after the conversation I had with Charles on the plane about Dominic’s alternate life, I realized I didn’t know my husband at all. The FBI should have told me all of this back when Dominic’s cousin surfaced. Or did they know? Maybe they thought he was really dead, too. I’d never know, because the only person who could tell me was dead. For real this time. At least a thousand times in the last several hours, I thought about calling Dominic’s mother. Maybe she knew more. Or maybe not, since she thought he was dead, too. Did she know the truth now? Did she see Dominic at the funeral?
“Mimi…”
Charles shoved me as he said my name.
“What was that?” I said, trying to sound like I hadn’t been far away somewhere in the past in my head.
Charles nodded his head to the table next to us.
Turns out it wasn’t the table he’d been indicating. The girl from the Twitter romance feed stood beside Alan’s chair.
“I thought you said you were on a business trip?”
“Excuse me?” Alan said, looking genuinely confused.
The girl looked at Kendra, then back to Alan. “You remember, don’t you? When I was on top of you in the plane’s bathroom. You were rocking your hips and…well, you know. Then afterward you said you were in Los Angeles for a business meeting.”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Who am I? I’m the girl you professed your undying love for on a flight from Chicago to LAX. I’m the girl you humped in the bathroom at 30,000 feet.”
Kendra pushed her chair back. “What are you talking about?”
“Who are you? The wife he now says he has? Funny he forgot to mention you when he had his pants around his ankles.”
“Alan?” Kendra asked.
Alan shrugged. “I have no idea who this girl is.”
That’s when they got loud. Twitter Girl stomped her foot and shoved Alan.
Kendra shoved her chair back, stood and threw her linen napkin on the table, then punched Twitter Girl in the face. Too bad she only got her cheekbone. A black eye on the chick would have been icing on the home-wrecker’s cake. Turning on Alan, she said, “You promised. I can’t believe this.”
Storming out of the dining room, she shoved Twitter Girl so hard, she fell on her butt in the middle of the aisle.
Alan turned around. “I told you, stay away from me. I’m married. I was drunk, and you were a blackout-drunk mistake.”
Twitter Girl moved her legs to the side, attempting to stand, then finally gave up on getting back up in stilettos, moved to her hands and knees, and pushed herself to a standing position. “Where was your ring when you were on the plane?” She pointed to the ring on his left hand.
“It was on my finger,” Alan said, shoving his hand in her face.
“Why isn’t he going after his wife?” I asked.
The woman sitting next to me said, “Why didn’t he help that poor girl up?”
I looked at her as if she might have a memory problem.
Charles shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t care, as long as the dinner show continues.”
“This is horrible,” I said.
“Leave me alone!” Alan stood, threw his napkin on the table in the same way his wife did, and stormed out of the dining room.
Everyone within a five-table radius had stopped eating to enjoy the show.
“Dessert anyone?” I asked, craving sugar.
6
Charles
Who needed dessert after that display? I couldn’t eat another bite. I wanted to follow Alan to see where he went. But Mimi needed to drown her sorrows in white chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce, and caramel apple crème brulee. I kept looking over at the empty seats, seeing Kendra’s handbag under the table next to where she’d been seated.
I couldn’t take it anymore. As Mimi stuffed her face with the last of her custard, I lifted my linen napkin off my lap, folded it, and placed it beside my empty plate. Before standing, I lifted my fluted crystal glass and said, “Here’s to the dead staying dead,” and I drained the last of the champagne before putting the glass back on the table.
Mimi must not have heard me, being in a sugar coma and all, because she didn’t acknowledge me until I stood.
“Where are you going?”
I ignored the question and walked over to the table Alan and Kendra vacated only a few minutes earlier. “Excuse me,” I said as I bent down and reached under the table. I didn’t make any excuses as I grabbed the small clutch handbag, straightened, and walked back to our table. “Let’s go.”
With her mouth full of either mousse or custard, Mimi said, “I’m not finished.”
I tucked Kendra’s handbag under my arm, pulled out Mimi’s chair, and put her dessert spoon in the coffee of the man sitting next to her. Don’t worry, he wasn’t drinking the coffee; he’d already complained about how strong it tasted and demanded a fresh cup. “You’re finished if you don’t want that dress to split next time you try to sit down.”
Mimi pulled the spoon from the man’s coffee cup and stuck it in her mouth, licking the last of the custard off it. Then she stood and thanked everyone for a lovely evening before glaring at me.
“What is your problem? I thought you brought me on this cruise to help me feel better. Calling me fat isn’t making me feel better at all.”
“Oh, suck it up, buttercup. We have a handbag to deliver.” I handed Mimi Kendra’s clutch.
“Eagle eye. Are we going to look in it?” Mimi asked.
“Of course we are. We just found it on the floor. We have no idea who it belongs to.”
We sat down on the bench outside the dining room and Mimi opened the small black clutch. I looked on as she pulled out a cell phone, a lip balm, two credit cards, a cabin key, and a tampon.
“Well, this doesn’t tell us whose bag it is. How do we say we found it?”
“I picked it up off the floor where she sat. Now we have to find her. Let’s split up.”
“How exactly is that going to work? Shouldn’t we take it to security and be done with it?”
“How boring would that be?” I picked up everything but the tampon and put it back inside th
e clutch. “If I find her first, I’ll call you.”
“I don’t have a cell phone,” she reminded me.
I handed her mine. “Now you do. I’ll borrow someone’s phone and call if I find her first. If you find her, sit down and have a chat with her, find out what she’s thinking. And record it with my phone. I want to hear the whole thing.”
“Why me? I’m on vacation from life, remember? This is none of our business.”
“It is our business because we read the Twitter thread. We need to know how this ends. And you need to do the talking, because you’re also a jilted wife. You two can wallow in self-pity together.”
I walked away before she could accuse me of being callous.
On the way to the nice, quiet pub I’d been in earlier, I crossed through the casino and considered sitting at a poker table, but decided I didn’t feel like thinking about cards. I was supposed to be looking for Kendra.
Instead, I came across Alan, sitting at a blackjack table.
Interesting. I guess I felt like thinking about cards after all, though this wouldn’t be the right time to try counting cards. More like I’d be counting on Alan to be chatty.
“May I sit here? I’ll wait until the next shuffle.” It’s considered rude to sit in and start playing in the middle of a deck.
Sitting with Alan at the table were three college age boys, all still fighting acne and bad hair, each with a small stack of chips. Alan’s stack stood considerably taller than the three boys combined. And at the end of the table, a balding man with ruddy cheeks and mean looking eyes, swallowed the rest of his drink and lifted the glass for the cocktail waitress to see he needed another.
“Another round for my friends,” he said when she arrived at the table.
“No, I’ve got this one,” Alan said.
Before the next round of drinks arrived, Alan ran out of chips and got up from the table.
The redheaded college boy said, “Oh, come on. Play some more. It’s early. And besides, you said you have plenty of money.”
Alan plopped back down on the chair. He bought back in and played the next hand. The cocktail server came back with a round of drinks, and Alan changed his mind. “I’ll take them. They can buy their own.”
A lot of booing ensued, followed by good natured ribbing, while the dealer shuffled the deck.
“Where’s Kendra?” I asked.
Alan must have already had a couple of drinks before and with dinner. He slurred the words. “She’s pissed off. Thinks I cheated on her.”
“You did,” I said.
“You know nothing.” Alan slammed back a shot of tequila.
I smiled and played my cards.
Alan drank a shot for each of the next three hands the dealer dealt, and he lost all three hands. His stack of chips dwindled fast. The stack was gone three hands later, and the three college kids were down to less than the table minimum.
Alan and the three boys got up from the table. The man at the end drank the last of his drink and got up, too. He followed behind. I thought I heard someone suggest going to another bar.
I hung back and waited, but didn’t let Alan out of my sight. Then I followed. We all ended up back at the bar I’d met Alan in earlier in the day.
The same bartender stood behind the bar, only now he had help because the place was packed. At the end of the bar, I saw Mimi sitting with Kendra. Oh, this should be fun.
7
Mimi
“Kendra?” I said as I pulled up a chair next to her in the crowded bar.
“Who are you?” She didn’t look as upset as I expected.
I didn’t realize I was that forgettable. I decided not to tell her I’d met her earlier in the day.
“I’m just a passenger on the cruise.” I showed her the clutch. “You left this in the dining room.”
She snatched it out of my hand. “There’s nothing in there to steal.”
“I know. No one uses money on a cruise. Besides, I have no reason to even look in it, much less steal anything. I just figured you’d want it when you sobered up.”
“I’m not drunk. Yet.”
The bartender came to our end of the bar. “What can I get you?”
“I’ll have a vodka tonic,” I said.
“Kendra, anything else for you?” I’m pretty sure I saw a twinkle in the bartender’s eyes when he asked the question.
“Thank you, Lyle, I’ll have another.”
Lyle returned a few minutes later with our drinks. His hand touched Kendra’s and instead of pulling away, she pushed it closer to him.
“I’m sorry about the scene in the dining room,” she said to me. “You were at the next table over, weren’t you? I’ve been admiring your dress. It’s similar to the one in the ship dress shop.”
I touched the fabric on my thigh. “It probably is the one you saw. My business partner bought it for me. I forgot to pack for the formal dinner. So, what was that in the dining room?”
Kendra wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “That was my alcoholic husband doing what he does best.”
“What does he do best?”
“Makes excuses for his behavior when he’s blackout drunk.”
“Does he drink a lot?”
“Only when he’s stressed, which seems to be all the time since he became a partner in this restaurant.”
“Yeah, the restaurant business is stressful.” Not that I knew anything about running a restaurant.
“This is supposed to be our start over anniversary. The last year has been so hard. We’ve both made mistakes, but he doesn’t seem to know how to own up to his.” Her drink wasn’t even half empty when she called across the bar. “Lyle, sweetie, I need you.” She lifted her glass.
Lyle, more than happy to please Kendra, made her another drink and brought it to her. “Are you going to be okay finding your cabin?”
This time, Kendra touched his hand. “What time does your shift end?”
A loud ruckus started at the entrance of the bar. I looked up to see Alan and a group of younger guys enter the bar. Distracted from the conversation between Kendra and Lyle, I missed part of the flirting, but I did see something cross between them when Kendra put her hand on the bar. Sadly, I didn’t see exactly what it was.
The group of men sat together around a table, laughing and joking. About ten minutes later, Charles walked across the room toward me.
“There you are,” I said, as if I’d been looking for Charles all this time. “I found your phone.” I picked his phone up off the bar and handed it to him.
“Wow, I didn’t even realize it was missing, but thank you. Are you about ready to go?” Charles tucked his phone inside the interior breast pocket of his tuxedo jacket.
“Have you met Kendra?” I asked expecting Kendra to drool over Charles the way most women do when they meet him.
She barely gave him a second glance until Lyle said, “Mr. Parks, dirty martini?”
“You know Lyle? Isn’t he a doll?”
Charles, not used to being snubbed, barely nodded an acknowledgement.
“Want to get a table?” I stood.
Charles walked away, and I followed.
We sat on a bench seat about three tables from Alan and his new buddies. I’m not sure why we were so fascinated with them, but it was like driving by a major car accident on the highway; we wanted to slow down and rubberneck.
“I went back through Twitter and found her name is Emily Cornell. According to her Facebook profile, she’s a college student and makes money from her social media antics. She advertises products on her Instagram page.”
The vodka tonic tasted sour, but I knew the drink was fine. It tasted delicious before Charles started talking. “She showed a video of herself and Alan going at it. How would any brand want to be associated with that?”
“The thread is now gone. All of it. But screenshots last forever.”
“How do you know this?” I sipped my drink again and it tasted normal. It must have been
me throwing up in my mouth over brands working with someone like this girl.
“Homework. It didn’t take that long. I went back to the cabin and did a quick search on my laptop, then came back here. I’d been following Alan and his new friends. We played a few hands of blackjack together before they left the table. I saw them detour here, but I needed to know who the girl was.”
I swirled my drink, listening to the ice clink against the glass. “This is a train wreck, and we need to stay away from it.”
Alan and his friends kicked up the volume a notch. Kendra turned, a grimace on her face. She slid off the side of her barstool, grabbing the edge of the bar as she stood. She’d had more than one too many. I leaned forward to get up and help her as she stood on stilettos made for sober women. Charles grabbed me.
“We are bystanders. This was fun while it lasted, but we need to move on. Don’t you have some grieving to do or something?” He didn’t get up, nor did he let go of my arm.
Somehow, Kendra wobbled all the way to her husband’s table. When she reached the table, Alan went quiet, but the boys, likely having no idea who Kendra was, turned louder, only now they were falling over each other to meet Kendra. She never even noticed them as she slapped her husband hard across the face. Before walking away, she leaned down and slipped her shoes off.
With the straps of her shoes hanging off her index finger, she stumbled her way out of the bar.
Charles stood. I stood. I wanted to follow her, but waited for Charles to make the first move. As we finally made our way out of the bar, Lyle cut us off, running out and down the hall.
“Interesting,” Charles said.
I agreed. “Are we following?”
“Not our circus.”
One of the couples at the dinner table with Alan and Kendra walked in. They immediately headed to the group of guys and Alan. Standing, not being invited to join the group, I could see the man’s face getting red. He stood about five feet nothing with a paunch he seemed proud of, since he’d taken his tuxedo jacket off, and had the tails of his shirt hanging down in front. He hadn’t been notified that the comb-over had gone out with the last millennium. He couldn’t have been older than forty or so, based on his smooth skin, but he sure dressed and moved like an older man.
Love is a Many Splintered Thing Page 4