Chapter 6

"What?!" We both screamed as we glanced at the woman and then at each other, not even realizing how we had lost track of time.

"Can we have the check please?" he asked, as I started gathering up our stuff. She rushed over and before Howie could reach for it, I took it. Now, please don't ask me why I did that, or why I put my card down, or why I uttered 'I got it'. I told you, don't ask! All I knew, for some unknown fuckin' reason, was that I needed to pay, that somehow it was important; some deep gut feeling told me. Again, I told you, don't ask!

Howie just looked at me and I smiled and shrugged.

"Not all of us are gold diggers." I smiled at him and threw him a wink as I quickly signed my name and we both ran out of the place and to the boat!

-----

He tossed his stuff on the chair and sat down on the bed as he thought about the day and the evening, resting his head on his hands as he looked in the mirror. Having her pay was not something he thought she would do; but he was quite pleasantly surprised by that actually.

He really thought this whole shit show of a cruise would be just that, a shit show. And within the first few hours, he was most certain it was a meat bag shit show.

But the moment he ran into her and saw her reaction to him, he really did think twice about the cruise. And, no, he wasn't thinking anything, no romantic thoughts; he wasn't quite ready for that, or so he believed. He really thought he could sulk about, avoid people and heal his wounds. He was just as honest with her when he agreed that he didn't, or rather, wasn't looking for a friend.

But he had to give it to her, that the first evening was fuckin' hilarious and fun, and even a great distraction, not that he would ever say that to her. And after dinner tonight, he might not be so jaded with women. He knew his brother and sister had told him that not all women weren't like that, but shit, that was the second ex he had that had done that to him, that used him like that.

Okay, maybe he was picking the wrong women, well not maybe, he was, point blank, he would admit it now. It wasn't like he had a type or only went after a certain style of woman. It's just who he felt connected with. It was all a bad sense of judgment.

Well, not even. His last two ex's were just really good actresses and fooled him pretty well, everyone said it wasn't his fault. And he believed them. BUT, it still didn't help the jaded outlook he had, or that was, until tonight.

He checked his phone and looked at the time. The wake up call would be coming at 6am for the zip lining trip and it was 11:16; he had plenty of time for a night cap. He grabbed a different shirt and changed, quickly heading up to the deck.

-----

He paused as he saw her sitting at the counter of the bar, staring at her phone in her hand. You could tell that something was bothering her, which irked him, although don't ask why, again…no asking! When they had gotten back on the boat 45 minutes ago, they were all full of smiles, so what the hell happened to bring that look on face? Again, he didn't like it, but couldn't figure out why. He walked over and lightly nudged her.

"Fancy meeting you here." I gave him a half smile before grabbing my drink and downing it. "Hitting it hard?"

"Yeah, I feel I need it."

"What happened in the last 45 minutes, Theresa?" I sighed but wasn't giving anything up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him signal the bartender over and heard as he asked for a beer. The bartender glanced at me and I nodded my head for another drink. Truth be told, I would have much rather down some shot, but given the early wake up call, I had thought better than getting quite that drunk. The bartender set both our drinks down and I took a deep breath, opening the picture that one of my ladies had sent me and handed my phone to Howie. He carefully took it, wrinkled his brows as he looked at the picture and took a long swig; which he just about spat out again as it dawned on him just what he was looking at. "The fuckin' bastard got married?"