Chapter 4

There was another line just to get into the cruise itself, people were everywhere and Joe was starting to feel claustrophobic out on the lower deck. Eddy's head was on a swivel his head turned and followed every hot body until he saw another one cross his path.

"Look!" Eddy said, pointing up at a higher deck. It was a stunning blonde woman in a ravishing red dress.

"It's her! She's the one who gave me the tickets!" Eddy was in love, and secretly so was Joe.

She was nothing like he had ever seen, big blue eyes, long legs, juicy lips and curvy hips. She was on another level, literally and figuratively. Joe couldn't believe it.

"That girl? She was licking her lips at you!? She gave you the tickets?" he said exasperated.

"Yeah, of course" replied Eddy slightly offended at Joe's amazement.

Then as if she knew they were talking about her, she stopped mid-conversation and looked down at Joe, he was sure her gaze was locked on him, although Eddy thought that she was looking at him. Joe was frozen, the dread came rushing back, she was beautiful but Joe couldn't help the sense of danger. Eddy waved to her.

"Hey, I made it!" he yelled out, which would have been impossible to hear over the racket of the party people crowding onto the boat. "This is my friend Joe!" he kept trying to converse over the noise. And with that she turned away and went back into conversation, peeking back at Joe curiously. She was talking with a wealthy looking pretty boy and another beautiful woman who looked like she could kick most people's ass, man or woman.

Joe stared up at her until she and her companions left from the balcony. As soon as the sunlight shone on the upper decks, the three strangers melted away with the shadows.

"She stared right at me." Joe said a bit unnerved.

"You? She was looking at me. that's the girl from the bar. I'm going to get to know her real well these next ten days just you wait and see." and with that Eddy claimed her as his in terms of the friendship code. Which was a bit annoying but didn't matter to Joe too much, for Eddy had set him up for a dance contest and any of those girls were hotter than he thought he deserved.

Eddy wanted to wait and watch the departure from the bay but Joe convinced him against it, he just wanted to sleep and hopefully he would wake and the anxiety would disappear and all would be good and fine in the world. It took them longer than they had anticipated to find their room, the ship was large and the lower deck was a maze of stairways and crowded hallways. The crowd moved slowly and some people who had already started the party were doing beer-bongs in the hallways slowing the pace even more.

While Eddy used his size to plow his way through, from behind him Joe had heard a sniff next to his ear, he turned and there she was, yet another gorgeous woman, red hair, red lipstick and for a moment Joe thought her eyes were red too but they were actually a darker brown. She was wearing tight blue jeans and a tight white shirt, Joe gulped at the sight of her like a cartoon character would, she smelled delicious he thought," like coconut and cocoa." She could have been a model, but wasn't because she actually smiled at Joe and started a conversation with him.

"Sorry." she said "I've got allergies." She scanned Joe from head to toe, looking like she liked what she saw. Joe was freaked out, no way this girl was into him, she was almost too gorgeous, almost as gorgeous as the blonde who stared at him earlier.

"No need to apologize." Joe said trying to play it cool and keep eye-contact "I thought for a second someone was sniffing me." he joked. She bit her lip and twitched an eyebrow.

"Well I usually introduce myself before I smell people." she smirked.

Joe's jaw dropped again, she was into him! This was going to be the greatest thing to exist, ever!

She introduced herself as Maria and Joe gave her his name, they exchanged smiles and before she turned a corridor to head off toward her room she got in close and smelled Joe. She looked like she wanted to jump on him there in the hallway. Then she smiled once more and left.

"What the hell?" Joe thought, she was really into him, his ego couldn't possibly handle another attractive woman looking in his direction this morning.

After that there were no more flirtatious confrontations or strange smelling encounters, Eddy found their room and used the key-card to open the door.

"Here we are! Home at last!" sighed Eddy.

"I need to sleep." said Joe.

Their room was bigger than either of them had expected, two beds on either side and a window out into the ocean, the room was nicer than Joe's basement apartment. He put his suitcase in the closet before he had laid down on his bed and made himself comfortable, still thinking about the beautiful women surrounding him aboard the liner. As Eddy turned to Joe to tell him of his plans he saw that Joe was already asleep with a smile on his face, undoubtedly dreaming of beautiful, curvaceous vixens. So Eddy let him be and left the room closing the door behind him.

Joe never dreamt when he was at home in his bed, but this time sleeping on the cruise he did dream, he dreamt of beautiful women, blonde hair and blue eyes, and an island shrouded by night. There were other things in his dream like wolves and people with tails but those parts went by so quickly that he didn't remember them, not entirely. What he did remember most about his dream was the sinking feeling of helplessness and a dark cave he wound up in, The cave was small but cozy, there was a fire and a naked woman laying next to the fire. This would usually make Joe happy but for some reason he couldn't shake the dread feeling inside.