MAYBE THIS TIME | JENLISA

18

Cruise Day Five: Day at Sea

Jennie yawned and shifted lower in her lounge chair, adjusting her linen shirt and undoing a button by her chest. She was wearing her bathing suit, but she hadn't been able to drag herself out of this chair yet today, probably because the view of Lisa from here was spectacular.

"You seem more tired than usual. Late night?" Barb asked from behind a travel magazine.

Jennie yawned again and shook her head. "Not a ton of sleep. I'll make it up later." She hoped that was a lie.

"Dreaming about little miss hottie bartender all night?" Barb pushed her sunglasses into her hair, and Jennie noticed the very apparent sunglass tan Barb had honed over the past few days. It suited her—she looked athletic and happy.

"Something like that." Jennie looked back to the bar and watched Lisa shake what was probably the hundredth cocktail in the past hour. She admired the strong, slim arms that never seemed to tire, especially last night when she did so much more than daydream about Lisa.

Barb gave her a broad smile and patted her on the shoulder. "I think you should go for it."

Jennie laughed because she had, multiple times, including this morning on the balcony. "I'll take that under advisement." She changed the topic, this time to Barb's love life. "So, how's Marlene?"

Marlene was the name of the woman Barb had been spending all her free time with. They shared a love for gambling, and Barb had sheepishly mentioned that she thought Marlene was pretty.

Barb looked shy and examined her cuticles. "She's good. We have dinner plans before the dance tonight."

"That sounds fun." Jennie paused. "What dance tonight?"

Barb gave her a hearty laugh. "The White Party. I hear it's a tradition on these cruises. All the ladies get dressed up in their best white attire and head to the dance club. There's prizes and free drinks and live music. I'm looking forward to it."

Jennie had totally forgotten about the dance. It had been one of the highlighted events in her cruise information. "Shit."

"You're going, right?" Barb asked as she sat at the edge of the lounger. "I wanted to introduce you to Marlene."

"I, uh, I'm not sure." Jennie didn't want to commit until she'd talked to Lisa to see if she was off later, but more importantly, she was second-guessing the white outfit she'd packed, out of spite.

Barb frowned but seemed to get over it quickly. "Well, let me know. I'm going to take a quick dip to cool off. I'll be back."

She pulled off her tank top and headed down to the pool, diving in headfirst with sunglasses on and all. Barb was the best.

"She's got a serious stroke of luck this week." Lisa's voice sounded to her right.

"Oh?" Jennie turned, happy to hear her.

Lisa took a seat on Barb's lounger and continued, "Rumor has it she's been cleaning house at the tables in the casino. She won a pretty snazzy excursion in Curaçao the other night—I think they just want her off the ship, to be honest. So she stops taking all their money."

Jennie took off her sunglasses and folded them, placed them by her side, and reached out to discreetly run her fingers along the outside of Lisa's thigh. "Curaçao, huh?"

"Tomorrow's stop." Lisa pushed her thigh into Jennie's touch before shifting away. "Still want to explore the island together?"

Jennie laughed. "You know how I feel about Curaçao. I'm positively thrilled to see none of it."