USS Apocalypse

Sea Day

And so the fun begins.

Early in the morning, cruisers swarmed onto the sun decks to claim deck chairs for the day. Those who slept in would miss out on prime tanning positions. However, it could be argued that anywhere on deck was a good spot, as the sky that day was spotless of any clouds.

For the first time in nearly 25 years of work, Mitch was one of those who slept in. He was in quite a mess when he realized it was 8:30 rather than 5:30. He stayed in his room just long enough to throw on some tropical attire before he ran out and into an elevator, almost running over Evan and Ryan on their way back down from the bridge night shift.

The Lido buffet was in full Breakfast Mode. People where packed in to lines, yelling at poor Umar to make their Omlet correctly. Mitch weaved his way through the crowd and spotted Jordan a little ways ahead of him. "Hey! Jord-Man!"

Jordan turned and saw Mitch coming. "Good morning, sleeping beauty," he greeted in a catty fashion. "Sweet dreams?"

Mitch rolled his eyes and fell in step with his friend. "Whatever. My alarm broke. Anyway, did I- well, I know I missed early risers trivia, but did it-"

"Yeah yeah, I did it," Jordan answered before Mitch could finish his concerns. "And I got some of the staff to do the towel-folding thing at 8 when I realized that I couldn't count on you showing up."

"Oh," Mitch said, relieved, but also a little... perplexed. For the first time in forever, he felt... unneeded. "Looks like you got your eye on the ball."

"As always," Jordan flashed Mitch a cocky grin. "Tonight's formal night... finally, some lobster."

Mitch felt his mouth water at the thought of it. "Right! Too bad we don't have it every night... I would, if us staff members got a discount on the steakhouse."

Jordan made a vague sound of agreement. The staff were always grumbling about this issue.

"Tonight's the night though, right? Guess-that-song-trivia?" Jordan inquired.

Mitch remembered. "Right! I need to talk to RadDude about the playlist."

Jordan groaned. "Don't call Vasil that, it encourages him."

"What, I think he deserves to be called whatever he wants."

"Seriously? I told him, when he was brainstorming, 'DJ Vasil is a perfectly good DJ name,' but nooo, he goes with RadDude. DJ RadDude!"

Mitch couldn't help but laugh. Jordan was not a big RadDude fan. "Well, whatever, I really have to talk to him about the lineup tonight. See you!"

Jordan waved and walked off, while Mitch turned to wander his ship and find the wayward DJ.

~

The day went by more quickly than Mitchell had imagined, but then again, time does fly when you're having fun. The summer sun made its arc through the sky, and now, as 6:00 pm approached, began to darken.

The sun-soaked guests retreated inside to shower and get ready for dinner, and Mitchell did the same. Tonight was an important night after all: formal night.

Mitchell had not forgotten his secondary mission this cruise. He had searched all day, in nearly every area, for the girl he'd spotted yesterday. Unfortunately, he had not had any luck. Oh well, maybe he'd see her sometime around dinner. He would be ready for that possibility, as usual.

His fingers fumbled a bit as he tied the tie around his neck. What's wrong with me, he thought, I've had to do this twice a week for 25 years! Was he nervous? There was no reason to be. Mitchell was not conventionally attractive- people told him that he was not tall enough, his dark eyes and hair made him look angry sometimes, and his one weird tooth was... well, weird- but he always got the girl. His position made him desirable, and he was charismatic enough. No romance ever lasted longer than a cruise, though.