The Love Cruise.

Chapter 10

Ethan was now eating a bowl of fruit and drinking orange juice. The pool area he spent the night at, also had the grill area that he and Heather ate the night before. They serve breakfast as well from 6am to 10am. As he was eating, Gina found him. She was up early today, seeing it was only 8am right now and the ship was in its “at sea” day, not arriving until 6pm this evening in San Juan.

“Hi” Gina said. “Mind if I sit?” she asked, without waiting for an answer.

“I’m sure you can tell, with me being here, I know about last night. Thank you for giving her the space she needed….. All I can tell you is to just listen to her, when she is ready to tell you. She is in love with you and is afraid you will think horrible things about her, so she is scared….. I can tell that you are in love with her too…. Just go look at all the pictures the ship camera guy has of you two. It speaks volumes of love you two are sharing…. I can’t tell you what it is, but just know if it was me, in her position, I’d lock that away and throw away the key and never revisit it again. But that’s me. Heather isn’t wired like that. She’s a good woman.. No strike that, she’s a great woman. So just hear her out, then make the best decision for you both.”

Ethan started to say something, but Gina put a finger to his lips. “Don’t speak… Just listen later… By the way, she back in our room.”

With that, Gina got up and left. Ethan just shook his head.

Ethan got up a little later, did a walk around the ship, hoping he would run into her, but that never came to pass. He headed back to his room, and quietly shut the door. He decided to lay down on his bed and catch a few winks. Nothing else was going on for him so sleep seemed like a good option.

He awoke around 2pm, and got up. He decided to shower, after spending the night in the open moist air, left him feeling kind of clammy. After his shower, he turned on his computer.He figured if this was going down like he thought it would, the best thing for him, and even Heather, was to get off in San Juan and catch a flight back to Ft. Lauderdale, then another one to home. What had been turning out to be a fantastic vacation, has now turned into a total disaster for him. “I knew I should have cancelled last Saturday. Had I, I wouldn’t be in this mess.” he thought.

He found one flight going to Ft. Lauderdale, and that was leaving at 7:15 the next morning. He didn’t book it yet, but if she doesn’t come talk soon, before the ship docks, then he was leaving and getting a hotel room for the night, then leave for home the next morning. He could have gone on another airline, and got in tomorrow evening in Philly, but he wanted to stop and see a cousin he hadn’t seen in years.

It was after 4:30, and still nothing from Heather. So Ethan took out his suitcase and started packing. He packed the gifts first, except for Heather’s. He took the gift bag that was for his sisters present, and placed the necklace box in it, sat down and wrote out a note.

“Gina. Please give this to Heather. When I saw it, I knew it was for her. It matches her beautiful green eyes. Thanks. Ethan”

He had a tear fall onto the paper. Tears do not come easy to Ethan. The last time he cried was when they lowered Tammy into her grave. He now thought, any love he had, was also lowered into that grave on that day.

The last thing to be put away was his suit. He placed it in his garment bag and started zipping it up, when there was a soft knock on his door. He thought it was probably the Porter, coming to check on the room and turn the bed down, like they do every afternoon, while people were out and about.

He opened the door to find Heather standing there. Her hair was matted on one side, like she had been sleeping as well, and just got up. She had on a blue pair of loose running shorts and a white t-shirt. Her eyes were red and she had bags under them, like all she has been doing all day is crying, which she probably was.