The mature couple got the answer wrong so Brennan moved to the D’Agostinos.
“Mrs. Mid-Wed.” Brennan matched blue eye for blue eye with Alex’s mother. “When and where was your first kiss with your husband?”
“This is so easy!” whispered Alex. “We’ve heard this story a million times. They started dating at their freshman dance. We’ve got this locked up.”
“Calm down, Ally-Cat. It’s not like they’re going to win a trip around the world.” Cam patted her knee.
“A win is a win, Cam,” she answered.
“Well,” Mrs. D’Ag looked out into the audience, took a big breath, and said, “It was in first grade in Sister Regina’s classroom.”
“What!!!” Alex and Anthony howled in unison. The crowd laughed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Brennan walked to the front of the stage and peered outward, making a broad gesture of shading his eyes. “It seems as if we have disagreement from someone in the crowd. Could it be that there is a dispute to the contrary?”
Our crew laughed hardest and pointed to Alex and Anthony.
“Well.” Brennan walked back to Mr. D’Ag. “Let’s just see what is on Mr. Mid-Wed’s card, since that’s the one that counts.”
He looked at the card, then at Mr. D’ag, who sheepishly shrugged, then back out at the audience.
“It says right here, ladies and gents,” Brennan paused for effect, “first grade in Sister Regina’s classroom.”
The audience exploded, and it took a few moments for Brennan to calm everyone down. He himself was doubled over in laughter. Finally he straightened up and motioned for everyone to stop as he wiped tears from his eyes. Alex, Anthony, and even Damian were more shocked than anything.
“All right, Mr. and Mrs. Mid-Wed, you owe everyone, especially your family apparently, an explanation.”
It was Mr. D’Ag who answered.
“Well, we were assigned to clean the blackboards. And ever since the first day of first grade, I had always thought Angela was the prettiest girl. I just got up my courage and I kissed her, right there, on the cheek.”
“My, my, on the cheek?” asked Brennan. “What happened next?”
Mr. D’Ag turned red.
“She punched me in the stomach and said she’d let me know when she was ready for kissing.”
Laughs from the audience.
“And when was that?”
“Freshman year,” added Mrs. D’Ag, “at the dance.” She reached to grab her husband’s hand and smiled prettily at the audience. “I was ready to kiss him then, and I’ve been kissing him ever since.”
A chorus of “awwww” followed.
“Aww, indeed,” said Brennan. “And with that, you are our winners! Bryce, bring out the prizes!”
Third prize was a pair of baseball caps with the ship’s logo emblazoned. Second prize was a pair of logo’d umbrellas. But the winners received a gift basket holding many ship items as well as a bottle of champagne and two glasses. We whooped and hollered as the basket was presented to our couple.
Bryce and Brennan started to leave the stage with the couples, but Neil walked onto the stage and held the cruise director and his sidekick back.
“One moment, I need you to help me with another presentation.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, “we’re celebrating love this evening, and we think it’s only fair to celebrate for one of our own.”
What on earth?
The screens changed from the Marriage Game logo to a photo that I would much rather not have seen.
It was the rear view of a man taken at the end of the ‘70s party. The photo was shot on deck, and you could tell that he was bent over a woman. What blocked most of the view was his unusual headgear.
He was wearing a full-feathered headdress from the Village People.
Oh, no. What fresh torture was this? Was I to sit here and watch some weird twisted celebration of Brennan and a girlfriend? Or worse, maybe a fiancée.
I looked from side to side. Trapped. If I left the row, seated in the center as I was, I would be so visible. I leaned back in my seat and tried to take deep breaths. My new friend Russ was on one side of me, and my sturdy support Damian was on the other side. Alex leaned forward on the other side of Damian and signaled her own support with her eyes.
“We interrupted a very important question, but at first the young man didn’t realize we caught him on camera,” continued Neil.
Wait. Why was Bryce turning red? And why did Brennan step off to the side of the stage?
The screens changed, and the same man in the new photo was at a different angle, turned toward us.
It was Bryce!
He held his hand toward the camera, and the young lady behind him peeked out over his shoulder. It was Jinette, another of the cruise staff, who at that moment Brennan was leading onto the stage.
“Bryce,” Brennan continued for Neil, “I wondered where the crowning glory of my costume disappeared to last night until I saw these pictures. Now we know we interrupted you from asking Jinette a very important question that night. Would you like to share it with this group of your most intimate friends?” Brennan gestured toward the audience.
Bryce shot both Neil and Brennan a look and took a deep breath.
Shyly, he walked over to Jinette, fell to one knee, and took her hands in his. He began to speak.
“Can’t hear you!” came from the resident jokester in the balcony.
Neil pushed her microphone into Bryce’s face.
“Jinette ... will ye ... I mean, can ye see yerself ...”
His brogue became thick, and he barely choked out enough words to finish his question. The petite blonde Jinette pulled him up and nodded her head. They locked in an embrace, and Brennan spoke.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t plan that as part of the cruise. But once we found out our own Bryce’s plans, well, we knew you’d like to share in this joy. Please, continue the engagement celebration, as well as the celebration of our newly crowned game winners, in one of our many clubs and bars! Good night.”
The music swelled, and the crowd stood to leave.
“Well, that was lovely!” my mother said. “Of course, my engagement was much classier, and I liked it better.” She looped her arm through Russ’s and smiled up at him as they headed out along with the rest of the family.
I headed toward the aisle, and Alex pulled me back. She motioned to Cam to join the others and that we would be along soon.
“OMG! What did you think when you saw that picture up on the screen?” she asked.
“What did you think I thought?”
“I know!”
“But what does this mean now?”
“Nothing, Alex. It just means that it was a mistake when I thought I saw him on deck, that’s all. So what, though? Just because that wasn’t him I saw kissing a girl doesn’t mean he and I would work out. There are way more complications than that.”
“What can you possibly mean?”
I forgot that she hadn’t seen Brennan’s mysterious note. We both sat back down in seats in the empty theater and I pulled it from my evening bag. She shook her head after reading it silently then dramatically read it aloud:
I know you recognize me now and you must understand why I did what I did. We have so much to discuss.
She folded it back along its creases and used it to tap thoughtfully on the chair in front of her.
“You have to do something about this, Keir.”
“Why?”
“Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
I took the note back, returned it to my bag, and shook my head.
“You know what? I think he just wrote this without thinking. I bet he doesn’t even remember it.”
“Who would do that?”
“You! People like you! All hot-tempered and—” I stopped, noting the look in her eye.
“What I mean is, some of us are more logical and don’t do irrational things—” Oops. Not much better.
Breathe. Start over.
“Look, I’m pretty sure this was just a half-baked apology. I’ll just deal with it like that. It can’t be more. Besides I’ll give you three good reasons why it wouldn’t work anyway.”
I raised my hand and counted each on individual fingers.
“One. He’s bound to be a ‘girl in every port’ kind of guy. And I think it’s a result of having been an ugly duckling in college. He blossomed, and now he probably just goes through women like paper.
“Two. He travels for a living. Remember? I live in Denver. Remember?
“Three. He was a freshman when I was a senior.”
Alex dove right in, folding down each of my fingers as she refuted each argument.
“Whoa. One. I might have bought that first reason a little bit. But you have to admit that not every ugly duckling turns into a mean swan. As for number two, well, jobs change all the time. People can move. But three, uh, explain that one to me?”
“Alex, after all the grief I gave my mother about Russ being younger, how on earth could I possibly come along and start dating someone younger? How hypocritical.”
“Three years, Keira! Not a lifetime. Three years! And even so, do I have to have this whole older-woman-younger-man-not-an-issue conversation with you AGAIN?” She whapped me on the back of the head.
“Ow!”
I crossed my arms on the seat in front of me and leaned my chin on them. Alex followed suit. We sighed in unison.
“Look,” I said finally. “We’re wasting time here. We should be celebrating that victory with your parents and getting to the bottom of that first-grade kiss story, and YOU should be getting to bed relatively early. Tomorrow is your cooking demonstration. You are the headliner, and you need to be ‘on’ for the people.”
“What? When am I never ‘on’?”
I pulled her up to her feet and laughed.
“Too true. But let’s not risk it, shall we? Let’s blow this popsicle joint.”
Arm in arm, we walked up the aisle to leave the theater. As we reached the last row, we saw a figure in a shadowed seat.
“I figured if I waited long enough, you’d have to leave eventually.”
Brennan’s smiling, dimpled face appeared as he leaned forward into the light.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alex and I glanced at one another, unsure of what to do.
“It’s okay, Alexandria.” He winked up at her. “Remember? ‘Capone’s not a threat. He wouldn’t notice if you were buck naked.’”
She caught her breath. I rarely saw Alex speechless, but this was one for the books.
“Capone, I mean Brennan, it was a long time ago. We ... I ... never meant any harm.”
“What’s he talking about, Alex?”
“It was in Marketing 350, back in college. Beth Jordan and I ... You remember Beth? With the long red hair? Only dated Thetas? Always wore pink because she said it was her signature color—”
“Focus!” I poked her in the shoulder.
“Well, class was over late, and we needed to get to a party. We had our outfits, and, well, the room was empty, so instead of going to the ladies room, we ducked in the back corner to change. We were sort of not fully clothed, and someone came in the room.” Her cheeks colored, and she looked at Brennan.
The facts quickly clicked into place in my brain.
“Ali! You didn’t have the decency to cover yourselves when he”—I pointed to Brennan—”walked in the room?”
She nodded slowly.
“What were you thinking?”
“You remember what Capone—”
“Brennan,” I corrected.
“Was like in school. He never paid attention to anything but his books. We didn’t think he even saw or heard us.”
“Ah,” Brennan smiled, “but I did.”
Alex’s attitude changed rapidly from one of guilt to one of irritation.
“Why didn’t you say something then, you Peeping Tom!”
“What, and miss the free show?”
Alex lunged, and I caught her just in time to avoid her pummeling him.
“Ali! It was years ago!” I pointed out.
“Look at him smirking away. I ought to ... oooh! You were probably just hiding behind that beard all along!”
Brennan shrugged.
I turned my best friend toward me and shook her by the shoulders.
“In about ten minutes, you are going to see how funny this is. I suggest you go find the family and tell the story with all the embellishments I know you will add.”
“What! And leave you here?”
“I can deal with him. And if you doubt my abilities, remember, there are security cameras all over. Now go!”
I turned her around and scooted her toward the exit.
“Do you still have those neon-green undies?” Brennan shouted at her back.
Alex paused as if she were going to turn around, then thought better of it and continued on her way.
When I was sure she was gone, I turned back to Brennan, who by this time had left his seat and was walking toward me.
“And then there were two,” he said softly.
I moved backward, but eventually my path was blocked by a large object. Oh. Right. A waist-high decorated box served as a table for brochures during plays and shows and as a receptacle for used bingo cards during bingo afternoons.
Brennan stood directly in front of me and placed one hand on either side of me on the box.
As he leaned toward me, his sapphire eyes seemed luminous in the small amount of light available, and his normally devilish grin seemed somehow less playboy and more schoolboy.
“Keira ...”
He leaned in closer, and I did the only thing I could do.
I punched him in the stomach.
“Oof!” He reeled backward and grabbed his midsection with both hands. “What did you do that for?” he choked out.
I moved quickly away from where I was cornered and stood in the middle of the aisle, my fists still clenched.
He kept one hand on his stomach and held the other out toward me in defense.
“Hey! Put down your dukes. Truce?”
I looked down at my boxer pose and burst out laughing.
“You’re safe.” I grinned and moved over to a seat in the back aisle.
“Thanks, champ.” Then he mimicked limping over to the seat next to me.
“Of all the responses I thought I’d get, that certainly wasn’t one of them,” he shook his head and his rumpled curls fell into his eyes. I resisted the urge to push them back on his head.
“Well, if it was good enough for Mrs. D’Agostino, it’s good enough for me,” I said.
“Oh. Your friend’s parents’ story from first grade. Ha-ha.”
We sat silently for a minute. When he reached over for my hand, I broke the silence.
“Brennan, you have to know that I have so many questions.”
He nodded.
“You couldn’t have expected me to just make out with you with all those questions on my mind?”
“A guy can try, can’t he?” He tapped the side of my foot with his.
I turned sideways in my seat.
“Does this usually work for you when you pick up the ladies?”
“Well, sure.”
If his hand hadn’t been clasping mine, I would have leapt up.
His tone softened.
“No, no, come on. Can’t you tell I’m kidding?”
I guess he could read my expression. He grabbed my other hand and turned me toward him.
“Keira! It’s an act! The whole debonair playboy thing is an act!”
“What? For what purpose?”
He dropped my hands, leaned back on his chair, and scraped his hair back from his forehead.
“I don’t know. At first, I did it because I was scared, and now it’s just what people expect I guess.” He paused. “You remember me in college. I was the invisible man. No one saw me or paid attention to me. Admi
t it, you wouldn’t have known if I was in your lab sessions or not.”
I felt guilty because what he said was true.
“It didn’t help that I was so shy. People like you who aren’t shy don’t get how awful that is.”
I wanted to jump in and tell him how wrong he was about me being shy, but I knew I needed to let him continue his story.
“Well, I was a marketing major, and I loved everything about marketing—planning, analyzing, preparing content, trade shows—you name it, I loved it. But eventually I realized that I wouldn’t get anywhere if I couldn’t even market myself. So I did a little competitive research and realized that, demographically speaking, I needed to present myself less like Capone and more like—”
“Real Deal.” Of course. The star running back.
“Yep. I took him as my model. I started working out, got rid of my beard and glasses, and eventually instead of being overlooked, I was sought after.”
“Obviously this was after I graduated. I would have remembered such a transformation!”
He laughed.
“Well, it wasn’t overnight, but yes you were long gone from campus. But you never left here”—he tapped his head—”or here”—he tapped his heart.
“What!” My face turned blood red, and my hands flew to my cheeks.
“Keira, I fell hard for you during that freshman year. There you’d be in lab, the blonde princess with the IQ off the charts. I was just happy you didn’t catch me sneaking peeks at you. But then, why would you? No one paid attention to Capone. One night at the frat house, I made the mistake of letting Real Deal know how I felt about you, and he came to the lab and invited you to a party we had. You probably don’t remember.”
“Oh, I remember,” I nodded. “You did a Hawaiian dance with your fellow pledges, and he dragged you over to where I was, and then you ran away. Why did you run away?”
“Are you kidding me? What would you have done? Real Deal felt so proud of himself ‘getting you there for me.’ Auugh, I can still see the disgust in your eyes.”
It was me who clasped his hands this time.
“It wasn’t disgust. It was, oh I don’t know, something else. I saw a different side of you. A fun, laughing side that I didn’t know existed. And I saw your beautiful eyes. But then you ran off, you idiot! And you never came back to my lab hours. Didn’t you ever think I was shy, too?”
Love on the Lido Deck Page 20