Til You Come Back to Me Again - A Love Story

Chap - 10

Ten

Day in the Sun

When Katia turned sixteen, I planned a Caribbean cruise for her birthday. I had always wanted to go on a cruise and when I mentioned my idea to her, she was ecstatic. The cruise would be a first for both of us. We were so excited about it, we even took a Latin dance class–at Katia's insistence. As usual, she was the perfect student, and I wasn't half bad, myself.

A couple of days before we were scheduled to leave, Katia had a few girlfriends over to share some of her chocolate birthday cake. Even though she told them they didn't need to, they brought gifts anyway. She really appreciated their friendship. Kimberly, Alison and Denise were fellow ballet students and they sometimes came over to put in a little extra practice with Katia, especially when there was an upcoming recital. While Katia was now finished with school, her friends were entering their junior year, and though they were all the same age, Katia seemed so much more mature. When Katia passed her tests, I had asked her if she felt awkward around her friends since they would no longer have school in common. She said no, and if anything, they envied her for being done. Still, the girls knew nothing would ever change Katia, which is why they loved her so much.

Two days later, we flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico and boarded the ship there. Since we would not set sail until ten that night, we put our carry-on bags in our rooms (I had splurged and gotten us both suites right next to each other) and went back off the ship, then we walked across the street to a pharmacy and bought two cases of bottled water to take on the cruise. Since we planned to spend a couple of days in San Juan when we got back, we decided to forgo looking around and just went back to the ship.

After putting the water in our rooms, we walked around the ship for a bit, familiarizing ourselves with the layout before heading to the Lido deck to have dinner. There was a grill close to the pool with tables to dine on both sides, as well as a buffet restaurant inside just beyond the grill area. We decided to have a little of both. Grabbing a burger and fries from the grill and salad and dessert from the buffet, we took our food to one of the tables out on deck and ate while listening to a live band playing island music. I glanced over at Katia to find her grinning widely and I laughed. She was positively giddy.

"Are you having a good time, Katoosha?"

"Definitely! And we haven't even left the port."

I laughed again, watching her as she took everything in, a festive feeling surrounding us. "I wish we were not leaving so late. I wanted to watch the deportation. But I guess we will have plenty of other opportunities to do that."

"I know. And just think, tomorrow we will wake up in St. Thomas. I'm so excited!"

"Really? I can't tell at all." I grinned when she gave me her signature smirk.

We finished our meal and Katia grabbed my hand. "Let's go, Angelo. I want to go look in the shop windows."

"Already making plans for my money, huh?" She flashed that innocent little smile of hers and I chuckled. "Oh, all right, let's go."

On our way through the pool area, we walked by two teenage boys who shot Katia big smiles and I shook my head, laughing. It had started already. Standing at only four-foot-four inches, Katia now had the body of a woman, perfectly toned by years of dance and martial arts. Coupled with her beautiful face and long, thick curly mane, she was a recipe for whiplash and teenage male heart palpitations, because she definitely turned heads wherever she went. I was sure that when she attended the activities for her age group on the ship, she would not want for company. She was a good judge of character and I always trusted her to do what was right, and she never let me down. Still, I would have to keep an eye out for the wolf pups on the ship. I chuckled inwardly. If she knew what I was thinking she would be appalled and I would get a verbal tongue lashing that I was sure would start with her sassy, "Angelo De Luca!"