by June Shaw
Sue appeared puzzled. Seconds later her eyes brightened as a realization seemed to dawn. “Right, for my massage.”
“You had a massage? Already?” Randy asked. “Did you come on the ship tense?”
“Doesn’t everybody live with tension?” Sue asked in a snippy tone.
“I don’t. I have a terrific life.” Jane’s smile spread toward her ears. “How about you, Tetter?”
“It’s okay,” she said with a shrug.
“And you seem really happy, Cealie, especially when you and your boyfriend are alone.” Randy cocked up his chin, the idea of what he suggested seeming to appeal to him. He slid his gaze toward Tetter.
She took a step away from him.
“I normally keep a positive attitude,” I said.
“Good. Okay, gang, so what’ll we do now?” Jane asked as though speaking to teens instead of people whose hair was graying beneath the colors. She yanked the ship’s newsletter out of her purse. Unfolding it, she ran a slim finger down the wide sheet. “Let’s see, right now there are golf lessons and a lecture on photography and a line dance class and some other stuff. Let’s go to line dancing. I love to learn new steps.”
“I’m a klutz on my feet,” Tetter said.
“Why don’t we go to different things that interest us?” Sue suggested, and I had an idea she only wanted to get away from us. Why, I didn’t know. But I felt creepy around her now. I probably would until Gil learned some things from his uncle. In the meantime, I felt a need to keep her in sight.
Could she harm someone else? Someone with us?
I shook my head. Had I already found her guilty?
I scanned her upswept hairdo and striking face with too much makeup that no longer covered the purplish-yellow bruise, and her low-cut neckline. A plastic surgeon had given her double-D cups. I checked out my own breasts. Maybe sufficient, but making a dash toward my waist. I could possibly speak with her surgeon. Her knit dress was clingy and her heels extra high.
I didn’t look forward to dancing now but did want to stay close to Tetter. Something was definitely troubling her. She was no longer the vivacious teenager, but even if she was much older, she should still display some of the attributes she’d had. Now her eyes appeared haunted. So far during this trip she hadn’t exuded one ounce of cheer.
If I remained around her, she would know I still considered her a good friend and should confide in me once the time was right.
Tetter, Randy, Sue, and I followed Jane to the Broadcast Lounge. The twang of country music filled the room. The stage area was nearly filled with women. Many spectators sat. Most on the dance floor clumsily missed steps to a line dance.
The song ended. Dancers rested a moment, most staying where they were.
“Let’s go,” Jane said and headed for the stage.
Randy smiled, walking behind her.
Sue sat at a small empty table. “I’m not going up there.”
“It’ll be fun. Come on. We’ll all do it,” I said.
Tetter took a chair beside Sue. “Not me. I don’t dance.”
“I’m not much of a dancer, either,” I said, torn between what I should do now.
“But you said it would be fun, so don’t let us stop you. We’ll watch,” Tetter said.
I didn’t need people I knew watching me make a fool out of myself on a dance floor, but I’d put myself in this position. And this would certainly not be the first or last time I’d make a fool of myself.
“Okay, everyone,” said a young man in a ship’s uniform, “now we’re going to do The Tush Push. We’ll show you how first and then we’ll all do the steps together.”
A lively country song played. Three vibrant crewmembers pushed their tushes, along with other clever moves.
“Now y’all are going to do it. This is simple.” The leader had us mimic a couple of fairly easy steps. “And here you’ll put your right foot forward and sway back and forth, pushing your little tushes.”
“His tush might be little,” I told Jane. “But he hasn’t checked out mine.”
“Yours isn’t so big.” Randy laid his hand on my butt and squeezed.
“Uh-uh,” I said, twisting away. Maybe he wanted to flatter me, but my instinct was to slap his face.
Instead, I moved away from him, to the opposite side of Jane. I spied Tetter keeping an intent gaze at us.
Our instructor showed steps and had us practice without music. I became doubly ill at ease, not catching on to the steps while trying to avoid Randy, even shifting back when it wasn’t time to so I’d keep him out of my peripheral vision.
Everyone tried The Tush Push with music. I didn’t push my tush in the correct places and missed some steps, but Jane appeared to get the entire dance right.
“How did you like it?” she asked as we left the stage.
“It was okay.” I rushed ahead, not wanting to face Randy. I could only look at him with anger.
Sue stared at me. “One of you should have stayed sitting with us.”
Anger made me want to lash out at her verbally. She was right, but I was already annoyed with Randy. I sucked in a breath and blew out a loud exhale. “I’m going to do something else.” I kept going, out of the room.
In the wide hallway, I breathed easier, less apt to swing at any one of my friends.
“It’s time for lunch. Let’s do buffet.” Jane caught up with me, followed by the others. She gave me a friendly wink. “I already knew that dance step.”
I responded with all I could give, a smile so tight it made my teeth hurt.
Sue and Randy conversed while Tetter remained silent behind us. We walked the halls, took an elevator, and finally arrived on the Lido Deck.
My mind carried me back to this area during the safety drill. I pictured where Sue and I had stood until I’d seen that bride in her strapless gown. And I’d spoken to her and the groom, congratulating them. It hadn’t seemed long before I returned to my previous spot that Sue had also left. I glanced across the nearly empty pool deck now. Yesterday it had been crowded with people and their life jackets. And I’d searched for Sue and found her with Jonathan. In that short time, they’d appeared taken with each other. If I hadn’t known their encounter was so brief, I would have believed they were a couple.
Soon afterward, Jonathan died.
“Cealie, are you okay?” Sue bumped into my backside. “Sorry, I was looking away and ran into you. You were just standing there.”
“Are you feeling all right, Cealie?” Tetter asked, concern in her eyes.
“I’m great. I was just looking at those young people in their bathing suits,” I said, not wanting to mention the thoughts distracting me. We ambled beside an enticing royal blue enclosed heated pool, each corner guarded by ten-foot gilded seahorses.
“Look, Cajun food.” Jane reached the buffet decorated with fishing nets and plastic crayfish and crabs.
“My gosh, look at all the choices.” Tetter was speaking a little more than she had earlier, maybe starting to feel trustful of us.
With some oohing from Jane, we meandered around, picking up items. Most of us chose at least one type of salmon to go along with other dishes.
“Your friend’s chef probably fixed those Cajun foods,” Jane said. “Those red beans look tempting. And the corn bread. I’m going to get some.”
“I guess they have red beans and sausage because it’s Monday,” I said.
“You know that because of Gil,” Tetter guessed with a brief smile, and I nodded.
Like we had done in school, we all lined up with trays and chose items. I took squash smothered with onions and bell pepper, and red beans over rice.
“Look at this.” Randy used tongs to hold up a sizable length of smoked sausage. “Nice, huh?” With a grin, he held it toward Tetter, who turned away, and Sue, staring at him without a smile.
Yanking my tray backward, I shoved my elbow into Randy’s ribs.
He yowled and dropped the sausage. It rolled behind the counter.
<
br /> “Sorry,” I said.
He chose a smaller sausage link without comment.
What had he been doing, acting like a young teenage boy with the big sausage thing aimed at Tetter? And when he held it up to Sue, he’d certainly been suggesting that, as Stu, she’d once had a penis. Maybe she still had one.
My anger flared at Randy. And at myself. He had no business hinting to Sue about her surgery, and I’d had no business sharing her personal history.
Sue rushed ahead and set her tray on the table. “Did y’all get lost?” she asked as we neared.
“Randy lost his sausage,” I said. “He needed to find one that was more his size.”
Jane grinned at him. I didn’t look but did not imagine he grinned in return.
My thoughts and discussion about men and their private parts needed to go. There were too many other wonderful things to think about, I considered, using positive self-talk instead of allowing negative vibes to sink in.
All from our group set down their trays. I took drink orders from Sue and Tetter. Jane came with me to get them. “Oh, look who’s over there,” she said.
I knew it had to be Gil.
He sat alone, sipping water, his plate almost emptied.
Jane nudged me. “Go with him.”
“That’s okay. I’m with all of you.”
“You know you want to.”
“I’m not too happy with him,” I said, the eye contact with Gil working away my resolve. “But maybe I’ll go for just a little while.” Actually, we hadn’t left each other long ago, and I doubted he’d learned anything from his uncle yet. But maybe he had.
I again wondered who he had already seen Alaska with.
I carried drinks to my classmates. “I’m going to talk to Gil. I’ll be right back.” I lifted my tray.
“Don’t hurry,” Tetter said. Pink dots colored her cheeks. “I mean you don’t have to. Just do—whatever.”
I strode to Gil’s table without meeting his gaze and sat across from him. He removed my salad dish from my tray and set it at my place. “Hi, how are you?” he asked, making me look at him.
Direct eye contact gave me a shiver of excitement. His magnetism enticed me. But I was woman. I could avoid him. I can do anything—alone, I reminded myself, knowing I needed control to keep from making love with him.
He watched my eyes. His eyes smoldered with sensuality, making me want him.
Or wait—was that look in his eye confidence? Gil, knowing what he wanted, and that he’d get it—whether it became a business venture, or me.
I shifted my gaze away and ate. “Good red beans,” I said, watching my food as though afraid a cucumber or red bean might try to escape.
“I’ll tell the chef.”
“Please do.” I kept my eyes down. He was just a man, I told myself, and he knew exactly what he wanted from life. I, however, did not. You know what you want. I’m going to continue to rediscover Cealie, I mentally told him, as I had said aloud before we parted. The wife and mother part of me had lost the knowledge that it was okay to do things only because I wanted to. But now I was regaining that awareness.
I looked him in the eye, meeting as equals and not as man and woman sexually drawn to each other, and lifted a forkful of rice and beans. “Well seasoned.”
He watched my lips. I felt squeamish under his gaze, until he reached over and with a napkin, wiped the corner of my lips. And peered at my eyes.
I thrust my fork down, ready to say I was going for dessert—but Gil’s grin let me know what he would suggest if I said that.
“Did you get to speak with your uncle?” I asked.
“I did. I asked him about the man who died and Sue.”
“Did he think she hurt herself on purpose so she could get down to the emergency room and find out about Jonathan?”
Gil sipped his water. “He said he can’t give out personal information. It’s confidential.”
I blew out a sigh. “Did he say anything about Sue?”
“Yes, he’s definitely interested.”
“Good. What does he think about her? Does he have any idea about motives? No, I don’t mean that. I don’t really believe she hurt the man or even saw him after we met him on the Lido Deck. But what did your uncle think? And what do you mean—he’s interested? Does he want to know more about her surgery?”
“From what I gather, he’d like to make intimate contact—and possibly discover that information for himself.”
Chapter 7
“Gil!” I said, choking on my tea.
“What? You asked. That is what I believe Uncle Errol wants. He seemed genuinely interested in your aunt.”
“This is too strange. When did he meet her? Only when she went to his office with her hurt eye?”
“As far as I know. And I only know that because you told me.”
“Good grief, what does he see in her?”
“She is a stunning woman. And he’s a single man. Divorced.” Gil seemed to take delight in this weird conversation.
I leaned toward him. “Doesn’t he know she used to be a man?”
“Not until I told him just now. Obviously Sue doesn’t announce it to everyone who bandages her cheek.”
“And what did your uncle say?”
“That information seemed to make him more intrigued.”
I threw my arms up. “Men!”
His grin widened.
His uncle, the ship’s doctor, surely knew about transgendered individuals and how troubling their unique situations must make them. Either he didn’t care, or more probably Gil was teasing me, making up the whole thing.
My classmates were rising, their plates nearly empty. Tetter glanced at me, her expression bland—the usual for this trip. I needed to be around her to try to help her become our old buddy Tetter again. Surely that fun girl was still under that troubled demeanor.
“I need to go,” I told Gil. “My friends are leaving.”
“I hope I’ll see you later.”
I evaded answering by wiping my mouth with my napkin. I stood. “I don’t guess your uncle believes Sue could have hurt Jonathan.”
“Probably not. I doubt that he’s kinky enough to want to date a killer.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You men seem to like women, no matter what.”
“You do have a point.”
I shook my head and headed for my classmates, not believing for a minute that he was serious about his uncle being interested in my aunt. I caught up with the last person, Randy. He glanced at me, a little fear in his eye, probably thinking I’d hurt him again. I moved beyond him and fell into step with Tetter. Moving faster ahead, Jane kept up with Sue’s long strides.
“Where is everybody going in such a hurry?” I asked Tetter.
“There’s an art preview at the other end of the ship.”
“Who’s interested in buying art?”
“I don’t know. But you can register to win a piece. And there’s free champagne.”
We hustled to the opposite end of the ship, signed in, and were asked if we wanted a number so we could bid for pieces. We looked at each other and shook our heads. We were only there for entertainment, art, and champagne. I would sit close to Tetter. Maybe she’d have a drink or two and then open up about her troubling situation.
A waitress offered champagne, which we all accepted. We walked around and scanned intriguing and exotic paintings on easels grouped in the rear. An attractive woman wearing a suit asked everyone to sit so the bidding could begin.
Jane led the way midway down steps to circular benches and sat. Sue took the next seat and Tetter went next. I tried to scoot behind her, but Randy shoved in and beat me. The only seat left was beside him. I didn’t get close. Otherwise I might need to really hurt him.
Immediately, Tetter waved for a server and exchanged her already-empty stemmed glass for another one. The rest of us sipped our first drinks.
A man wearing a black suit set a large painting on an easel. The scene was bus
y, filled with too much activity for me. People in front of us bid. So did a few others to the side. A young woman purchased the art for three hundred twenty dollars.
As a smaller painting was carried to center stage, Tetter snapped her fingers for the attention of a server with a tray of champagne glasses, some filled but most empty. “Another one, please.” Tetter raised her index finger.
Randy grabbed her finger. He placed her hand against his cheek and grinned.
She smiled back at him.
What was this? The champagne was already going to my head, making me slightly tipsy. Maybe that also happened to Tetter. I’d have to watch her so things wouldn’t get out of hand with our male classmate.
Our group passed their empty glasses to me, and I handed them to our server. She gave me full glasses for all in return.
Beside me, Randy snuggled closer to Tetter. She did not seem to mind and even giggled. She was beginning to resemble the Tetter I’d known from school—always laughing, sometimes a bit of a flirt. But back then she hadn’t been happily married.
“We’ll start at three hundred on this piece.” The auctioneer aimed a pointer at a tranquil country scene with a bright blue outdoor table that kept drawing my eye to it. The spot of crimson flowers on a trellis near a fence made me also keep looking there. I understood why bidders might want this picture that sold for five hundred dollars to a woman on my right. I glanced behind to see other bidders.
Gil sat three rows back, lowering his card with the number twenty-seven.
I scooted back to sit with him. “You were bidding on that pretty picture,” I said.
“I thought you might like it. But that other woman seemed to want it so much I decided to let her have it.”
The woman he was so kind to rose on spiky red heels and sashayed over to sign for the painting. One section of her platinum hair fell to the plunging front of her dress.
“What a nice person you are,” I told Gil.
He nodded with a grin. “If you’d want any painting here, I figured that would be it. But I wasn’t sure you would want one. That woman did.”
Sue and Jane left their places and with a few others, headed for the exit. Sue rolled her eyes at us. She sauntered on her own strappy heels toward the door.