Little White Lies

by R. C. Matthews

  “Humph! You make it sound like you’re my science project, Royce. I’m not using you to test out my theories on life.”

  Well, if she was honest, then maybe she was a little bit.

  He rolled her onto her back and quickly straddled her hips. His eyes turned a deep smoldering green as he gazed down at her. “I don’t know, Madalyn,” he said, his voice husky. “A few minutes ago, it sure felt like you were engaging in a close study of my anatomy. I’m happy to be your science project a little longer if you haven’t quite gathered all of the necessary evidence.”

  Her insides melted and she wrapped her hands around his head to pull his mouth down towards hers. “I’m a hard worker and like to achieve success in all things, Royce, so I may just have to take you up on the offer.”

  And she immediately began her next experiment.

  Chapter Six – The Rings

  Royce’s fingers were entwined with hers as they walked to the formal dining room for breakfast. A silly grin spread across Madalyn’s face; she felt so happy. He caught her eye and a smirk lifted the right side of his mouth. How she wished she knew exactly what he was thinking! Madalyn was glad to find their table empty when they arrived. There was no pressure to maintain a façade.

  Dale welcomed them to breakfast and set down a carafe of steaming hot coffee. Madalyn ordered a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit and small glass of grapefruit juice. She immediately regretted her choice when Royce order waffles with bacon, eggs Benedict and cranberry juice.

  “That’s not fair,” she whined.

  “What?” he asked, his brow lifted.

  “Why is it that a man can eat so much more than a woman? You guys drop weight just thinking about it!” she said. “If I so much as look at eggs Benedict, I will have five pounds plastered on my ass.”

  “Let’s order you some eggs Benedict then,” Royce said, motioning for Dale to come back to their table.

  Madalyn laughed and pulled his arm down. “Stop it!”

  “Good morning,” Jordan said as she sat down. “I’m glad to see you two so happy this morning. Can you rub some off on JT?” She nodded her head towards her sleepy-eyed husband.

  “Sorry,” he apologized, “I’m not much of a morning person.”

  “A good strong coffee will fix that,” Madalyn said. She poured a fresh cup for JT from the carafe. Dale arrived with their juices and took Jordan and JT’s order.

  Jordan decided on a farmer’s egg white only omelet with no cheese while JT went for the real thing: three egg omelet with extra cheese plus bacon.

  Madalyn turned to give Royce an I-told-you-so look.

  With the coffee carafe still in her hands, Madalyn turned to Jordan. “Would you like some too?”

  “Yes, please,” Jordan said and then reached over the table for cream and sugar. Madalyn couldn’t help but notice her engagement ring.

  “That’s quite a rock,” she blurted out before she could stop herself.

  Jordan blushed and smiled at JT. “Yes. JT even picked it out by himself.”

  “Can I see yours?” she asked.

  Oh crap! Madalyn didn’t have a ring. How could they have overlooked such an important detail? Stupid, stupid, mistake! Her eyes flashed to Royce in her panic, expecting him to bail her out, but he wore a sheepish grin on his face and shrugged his shoulders. This wasn’t funny! Why wasn’t he helping? Was this his idea of a joke, to see if she could think on her feet? Well, she couldn’t, damn it! She felt a sudden urge to open a button on her shirt and fan her face.

  “Um,” Madalyn stammered. “I must have forgotten it in the room.”

  How pathetic.

  Royce finally took pity on her and flashed Jordan with a boyish smile. “We were a bit pre-occupied this morning.” He winked at Madalyn and everyone laughed.

  JT snorted. “You’d think you were newlyweds or something.”

  Disaster averted, for now.

  • • •

  “How could we have forgotten about wedding rings?” Madalyn asked, mentally scolding herself for getting into this mess. She knew there was a reason why she didn’t behave impulsively. The cat was out of the bag now so they were going to have to come clean, and the thought made her sick.

  “No big deal,” Royce said, throwing his hands behind his head and looking over at her from his lounge chair.

  “How can you say that? Why didn’t I say we chose not to buy rings or that we left them at home to keep them safe? People lose their wedding rings all the time on honeymoons. That would have been a plausible response!”

  “Madalyn, don’t worry,” he tried again to sooth her. “I’ll pick something up.”

  “I’ll pick something up?” she said. “If you haven’t noticed, Royce, we’re floating in the middle of the ocean! Where are we going to find a cheap engagement ring and wedding bands? We can’t risk being seen in the jewelry store on board—not to mention their stuff isn’t cheap. I knew we shouldn’t have done this!”

  “Boy, you’re a feisty little thing,” he joked. “I like it.”

  “Would you be serious for one minute, please?”

  “I’ve got it covered, baby,” he smiled at her, and grabbed her hand, rubbing it absent-mindedly.

  Madalyn took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “How?”

  “Just leave it to me,” he said, relaxing back in his lounge chair and closing his eyes. “We’ll avoid Jordan and JT the rest of today and then tonight, when we make port in Old San Juan, I know where to go. Do you know your ring size?”

  Of course she did. Until two days ago she was wearing a ring on that very finger.

  “Six and a half.”

  His head spun toward her. And then it hit him. “Oh, right. Of course you would know. Is this too awkward for you, Madalyn? This has been such an entertaining diversion for me, I’d forgotten the reason it was necessary.”

  An entertaining diversion—why did those words make her want to crawl into bed and cry? Madalyn pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

  “Hey, why the sullen look?” Royce asked. He leaned over and touched her cheek with the back of his finger, making a trail to her bottom lip, rubbing it with his thumb.

  “I’m an entertaining diversion?” she blurted out, dropping her eyes to her hands. She couldn’t look at him or he would see how hurt she felt.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he said, pulling her head up at the chin and locking eyes with her. “You’re spectacular and I love every minute I spend with you. Our foray into acting is entertaining. That’s all I meant.”

  Warm relief spread throughout her body at his words but she chose not to linger on the feeling, afraid to examine it any further. This was a fling, she reminded herself. It shouldn’t matter what he thought.

  “Oh. You’re not so bad yourself,” Madalyn said with a genuine smile.

  He leaned over, claiming her lips for a long, sensuous kiss. She loved it that he smelled so damn good all the time and she nuzzled her face into his neck for a moment, enjoying his masculine scent.

  “Not bad at all,” she sighed. She flashed him a big smile. “Let’s order something to drink now and enjoy the warmth of the sun.”

  “Anything you wish,” he said as he motioned to a waiter to take their drink order.

  Madalyn closed her eyes and smiled at his words. They reminded her of The Princess Bride when Westley declared his love for Buttercup every time he said, “As you wish!” It was one of her personal favorites.

  Royce ordered two of the daily special. They drank strawberry daiquiris and spent the afternoon talking about their favorite books, TV shows, and music. Their tastes were quite similar and she was oddly relieved that the t-shirt with her favorite band, which Charles had despised so much, wouldn’t be stuffed in the back of Royce’s closet.

  • • •

  About two hours after lunch, Royce dragged Madalyn to the gym for a run on the treadmill. A full sixty minutes. Was the man crazy? Although she complained like a baby
, she was glad he had the willpower to push them to work off a portion of the calories they had consumed during the day. With any luck, she’d walk away only five pounds heavier. Getting sweaty in the middle of the day also had its benefits—it meant they had to shower.

  Showering with a man was a novelty for Madalyn. Royce had carried her into the shower the first time that morning laughing and screaming. It had been a tight fit in the cabin shower—she couldn’t see the sense in it—but the tight fit made for a lot of fun. She needed to lighten up more.

  Royce had massaged the shampoo into her hair, reaching to the far edges of her scalp and his soapy hands had methodically washed her body, not missing a single spot. What a relaxing experience. She might have to keep him around.

  Twenty minutes later the bed was a wet jumbled mess from their love making with towels strewn all over the floor. Madalyn dried her hair while in her white lacy panties and bra as Royce sprawled out on her bed, watching television—or watching her; she wasn’t sure which. His eyes kept wandering over to her and back again. It made her smile. It was difficult to believe they met each other only two days ago. She felt as though she’d known him for weeks.

  Madalyn searched through her closet and decided to wear her white Capri pants and navy blue polka dot shirt knotted at the waist. The back pockets on her pants emphasized her curves. Deciding to test that theory, she walked over to the bed and bent over to pick up her white sandals with her bottom blocking Royce’s view of the television. She let out a surprised scream when he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto the bed, straddling her between his thighs and leaning down for a deep kiss.

  “Don’t tease me like that,” he growled, “unless that’s your way of asking me to bed you again, woman.”

  She giggled up at him breathless, “Stop it! You’re insatiable.”

  “You’re irresistible.”

  Thousands of tiny butterflies fluttered around her belly as she gazed up at him. Why did he do this to her? Lust was a powerful drug.

  “What should we do for the next two hours before we make port in Old San Juan?” she asked him, cradling his cheek in her hand.

  He gave her a salacious grin.

  “Seriously,” she laughed.

  “Who says I’m not serious?”

  “Bingo starts at four thirty in the theatre. Let’s go play,” Madalyn said, poking him in the chest. “I haven’t played bingo in years.”

  “Bingo? What are we, eighty? You want to spend an afternoon with the blue hairs?”

  She slapped him on his bottom. “That’s so politically incorrect!”

  “Oh, do that again,” he begged.

  “Get off,” she laughed. “It’s time for bingo. If you keep up the attitude, I’m not going to share my winnings with you!”

  “Bah, humbug!” Royce said, holding out his hand to help her off the bed. “Nobody I know ever wins. You may as well flush your money down the toilet!”

  Madalyn rolled her eyes at him and they walked out the door to try their hand at bingo.

  • • •

  “B6,” the lady on the stage called out to the crowd.

  “Just one square and I win! What about B10?” Liz yelled to the commentator and then turned back to the group. “Why can’t it ever be me? I never win anything!”

  “But you won my heart, Lizzy,” Mike said, grabbing her hand and kissing it.

  “Hmm,” she sighed and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “No offense, but I was hoping for the fifteen hundred bucks. How else is a girl to pay for her shoe fetish?”

  She raised her feet up and pointed to her sandals—they were a delicate deep turquoise number with a fancy bow at the heel. The color of her shoes matched the accents in her shirt perfectly. Madalyn caught a flash of red on the inner spike—Christian Louboutin. She wasn’t kidding!

  “I only need one more square too,” Madalyn commiserated with Liz. “N36.”

  “Sorry, girls, but this game belongs to me,” Jason said, pointing to his card. “Read it and weep. The next one is going to be G52.”

  Royce rolled his eyes at all of them. “Face the facts. No one ever wins this shit.”

  “The fact is that someone does have to win.” Madalyn refuted his claim. She was an eternal optimist. “Who cares if my chances are just one out of … ” she perused the crowd, taking a wild guess “ … three hundred players? My chances are as good as any in this room.”

  “Dream on,” Royce said while pressing a square on his card. “The best odds you have are for getting drunk!”

  Liz stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Have you decided where you’ll go shopping in town tonight?” Royce asked.

  “We thought we’d go to Calle del Cristo,” Susie said. “There are so many boutiques and galleries along that strip.”

  Royce nodded his head, “That’s a great choice.”

  “I didn’t realize you had been to Old San Juan before,” Madalyn said.

  “Yes, a few times.”

  “What do you suggest for a couple of men waiting for their women to finish their shopping?” Jason asked.

  “Tour the castle,” Royce suggested. Mike and Jason both gave him a horrified look.

  “Seriously,” he said. “The views are worth the hike up the hill. You can stop in a bar on the way up and grab a Medalla or two. It’s the local beer. Good stuff.”

  “B9,” the lady announced.

  Liz was about to have a fit when Royce suddenly jumped up and yelled, “Bingo!”

  “What?” Everyone in the group gasped in unison, staring at Royce.

  “I have bingo,” he said with a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders.

  Was that a deep crimson creeping up his neck and onto his cheeks? A young male crewmember walked over to them to check Royce’s card and gave the thumbs up to the crowd.

  “It’s good! We have a winner, folks.”

  The crowd clapped politely while a few passengers, including Liz, booed him.

  “Drinks are on Royce!” Jason said when a waiter came over to their table.

  “One round of the special for everyone,” Royce said and turned to smile at Liz. “No hard feelings?”

  “I can’t believe you just won!” Liz cried. “Susie and I were joking all morning about winning so we could go nuts shopping in Old San Juan. Are you coming shopping with us Royce?”

  “No. I need to pick a few things up,” he said, smiling over at Madalyn. “But I can meet you guys at Plaza San Jose around 8:00 P.M. I’m going to surprise Madalyn with dinner ashore.”

  “Where are you headed?” Mike asked and gave Madalyn a wink. “We’ll be sure to bump into you there.”

  Royce chuckled along and gestured that his lips were sealed.

  Madalyn laughed and shook her head. Royce had just won fifteen hundred dollars. “That’s so not fair—again! You don’t even believe in this shit!” she mimicked in her best bah-humbug voice.

  Royce winked at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to pull her tightly into his side for a quick hug.

  “Hey, I forgot to ask if you have plans for tomorrow in St. Croix,” Royce said to the group. “Madalyn and I were hoping you could join us for an excursion. It’s on me,” he said, waving his winning bingo card in the air.

  “We were going to head to the beach,” Susie said. “What did you have in mind?”

  Royce shook his head. He wasn’t giving any hints. “It’s a secret.”

  “What’s up with all the surprises?” Jason asked. “Cut us a break, man. You’re making us look bad over here.”

  “Well, I love surprises,” Susie said, slapping Jason on the leg. “Thanks for the offer, Royce. Count us in. I can’t wait!”

  Chapter Seven – Old San Juan

  Promptly at six o’clock in the evening Susie, Liz, and Madalyn stood patiently at the railing on the Cairo Deck, waiting for the herd of guests to disembark the ship before they went into town. Looking out to sea, Madalyn was overwhelmed by the beauty of the d
eep blue waters and sky. The women had traded in their heels for flat but fashionable shoes so they could navigate the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan. Madalyn was excited for her first experience on the island. She had read so much about the charm of the city; hopefully it lived up to its reputation. The city stood before them, a throng of charming and colorful two and three story buildings. She hadn’t realized there were would be so much lush greenery in sight.

  When the crowd had thinned, the ladies found the exit and walked into town. They made their way up the hill on San Justo Street and paused at the corner of Fortaleza while Liz peeked into the window of a shop. Madalyn was perusing the street, checking out the names of the shops, when she noticed Royce standing outside a store across the street. He was talking to a short, balding man with round black glasses and a potbelly. The man smiled while vigorously shaking Royce’s hand.

  Hadn’t Royce said he didn’t know anyone on the ship? What a strange coincidence to meet someone he knew. Royce pulled something out of his pocket, wrote on it and then slipped it into the man’s hand. What was that? It was difficult to tell from so far away—maybe a business card or small envelope? Royce forced a smile; it looked nothing like the genuine smile Madalyn was used to seeing. She would have to remember to ask him about it later.

  Liz grabbed Madalyn’s hand and pulled her down Fortaleza Street, past the post office and right onto Del Cristo.

  “These buildings are so quaint,” Madalyn said.

  “Soft yellow, peach, pink, aqua,” Susie sighed. “They’re all so cute and somehow work well together.”

  When they happened upon a bakery, Liz and Susie looked at each other with a knowing smile and pushed Madalyn through the door.

  “Come on, Madalyn,” Liz said. “It’s time for you to try Mollorca and a cup of Alto Grande.”

  “What’s that?” Madalyn asked. “It doesn’t sound very appealing.”

  “The yummiest pastry you’ve ever had,” Susie promised. “It’s kind of like a donut covered in powdered sugar. Get it toasted!”

  Madalyn dutifully ordered Mollorca and a cup of Alto Grande. After her first sip, she understood why the locals called it the coffee of kings and popes. It was a rich and flavorful exotic blend. It tasted delightful and paired beautifully with the Mallorca. A sign on the table said it was the super-premium coffee of the island with a tradition dating back to the mid-1800’s. Madalyn was in awe of such a long history.