Strangers forced to share a cabin on a cruise ship.

By HectorBidon. Listen to the
Podcast at Steamy
Stories.

The waiting area outside the Long Beach cruise terminal was
abuzz with bright new outfits and happy chatter. It was enough to make even the
most reserved introvert start to feel a bit of excitement.

I was standing with Jack and Ciara, two regulars of the
social group. Jack was tall and rugged, something to do with landscaping; Ciara
tall and willowy, worked in an office of some sort. They weren't an official
couple, as far as I knew, but they seemed to have hooked up for the New Year’s
Pacific cruise. That was sort of the way the group worked. Thirty somethings,
mostly divorced, intent on maintaining the hard playing lifestyle of their
twenties, looking for like-minded dating partners to do it with.

Jack was explaining the different cruise drink payment
plans. I smiled politely and nodded, thinking how different from theirs my life
would be when I got to be their age.

Denise bustled up in a pretty pastel pantsuit with her
clipboard in her hand. She was a travel agent and the mother hen of the group,
forty-something and no longer trying so hard to pretend she was any younger.
She’d put together this group and made a nice extra income for her troubles.

"Hector," she said, ushering me a step aside,
"I'm afraid there's been a mix up with your reservation. Somehow your
single cabin didn't show up on the final printout." She gave me a
concerned look. "They're working on it,,  but we may have to double
you up with someone."

This came as a bit of a rude surprise. One of the only
reasons I'd finally agreed to come on the cruise in the first place had been
her assurance that I'd be able to have a single. It wasn't that I was
antisocial really, but I had my limits.

"You know Mrs. Pendergast, don't you?"

Mrs. Pendergast was an older woman, well into her sixties.
She wasn't a regular member of the group, but it amused her sometimes to hang
with a younger crowd. The group let her tag along to some of their events. I
was going to have to share a room with Mrs. Pendergast?

"Apparently she got sick and had to cancel at the last
minute. So we have an opening. She was sharing a room with, ah;" she
double checked her forms; "a Ms. Crenshaw. I don't know her, but I'm sure
she's very nice. It's a double room, and you know how it is on a cruise. You
don't spend that much time in your room anyway."

I didn't even try to return her smile.

"They're still working on your single, of course. I
just wanted to let you know the fallback plan."

Not only losing my single, but having to spend the cruise
being polite to an old lady? In Denise's mind, that was what the social group
was all about.

People were already starting to go into the terminal
building when Denise came back, this time with an attractive young woman at her
side. I wondered if it was Denise's daughter, there to see us off.

"Hector," she said, peering at me over the top of
her glasses, "this is Molly Crenshaw. I've been explaining our
predicament."

The girl gave me a weak smile. She was pretty, with long
brown hair swept back, wearing white shorts and a light blue top. She didn't
look like she could be a day over twenty-one. Not at all what I had pictured as
a travelling companion for Mrs. Pendergast.

"It's a double room," Denise was explaining.
"I'm sure they'll be able to rig up a partition if need be. But this will
be the first cruise for both of you. It will be nice to have a buddy to help
you find your way around. I'm sure the two of you will hit it off."

Molly was still looking at me rather uncertainly. This
apparently wasn't exactly what she had signed up for, either. She looked back
at Denise. "Well, if his other room got cancelled,”

Denise was delighted. The registration mix-up had been
solved in an efficient and social-group-positive way. I couldn't believe she
was being so cavalier about putting a guy and a girl who didn't even know each
other into the same room together.

"They're still working on my single though,
right?"

"As far as I know. You'll be able to check with the
Bursar once we get on board."

Denise had more than enough smile for the three of us. They
called our area for boarding.

"See you on board," she said, bustling off with
her clipboard.

Going up the gangway onto the ship itself kind of blew me
away. You entered onto the mezzanine level of what looked like the fanciest
mall I'd ever seen. There was an atrium that rose several stories high with
glass elevators gliding up and down and fancy shops and glittering lights on
every different level. On the floor below us a fellow in a tuxedo was playing a
grand piano. All of this right in the middle of the ship. Molly's eyes were as
wide as mine.

They'd told us to have lunch while the luggage was being
brought on. Molly and I had come aboard with a bunch of other social groupers,
but they'd all buzzed off one way or another leaving the two of us by
ourselves. We found a little sandwich and salad buffet.

"So, your first cruise?" I asked. I was pretty
sure I'd be able to get the room situation straightened out, but there was no
harm in being polite.

She assembled a forkful of salad. "Yes, Mrs. Pendergast
is a patient at the clinic where I work. She's pretty chatty, you know. She
kept talking about this fantastic cruise she was going on. But she needed a
travelling companion to come along and sort of look after her." She
shrugged. " Mrs. Pendergast offered to cover the cost, if I’d come with. I
don't know, she has a way of getting what she wants."

"Is she all right?" I asked.

"Denise says she's afraid she might be coming down with
something. She's a bit of a hypochondriac. But the tickets are already paid
for, and I'm already here, so Denise said I should just come along on the
cruise without her." She gave her little shrug again and took a sip of
iced tea. "Your first cruise too?"

"I'm not really a member of the social group, actually.
I went on a nature hike with them one time and ended up on Denise's list. So
now she sends me emails every time she has some big event. She was kind of
persistent this time. I think they needed to sign up a certain number of people
in order to get a discount or something."

Molly nodded and stabbed a crouton. "Well, it is a
cruise. It should be fun. And it'll be nice not to have to keep tabs on Mrs.
Pendergast all the time. There's gambling, you know. When we get far enough out
to sea."

"You gamble?"

"Of course. Poker, black jack. Machines mostly, but
sometimes at the tables. I have a system. It's a lot of fun."

After lunch I asked my way up to the Bursar's office. Molly
came along to make sure that everything worked out. The Bursar looked me up in
his computer. Apparently, when Mrs. Pendergast had cancelled, they'd looked to
fill the vacancy with someone from our same group. I was the only one in a
single, so they moved me in to fill her spot and gave my room to someone else.
He double checked, but there weren't any other singles available. He apologized
for the inconvenience and gave me my key card.

I was flabbergasted.

"Well," said Molly, "we might as well go
check it out at least."

We found our way down to the deck where the cabin was
located. The room itself was not much bigger than a walk-in closet. A chair, a
little night stand, a mirror on the bathroom door, a bed against the wall. That
was it. We looked at each other.

"Kind of smaller than I would have thought," I
said.

"Yeah," she agreed.

I corralled a passing steward.

"Um, we were supposed to be getting a double
room?" I showed him the printout.

"Yes, yes," he said in his helpful foreign accent.
"Very nice double cabin."

"But there's only one bed." I said