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“So, are you winning?”
“No lovely. I think Ashley’s winning. She just has an instinct for it.”
The shop starts to fill up. A group of three women come in, gossiping loudly. They are bitching quite loudly about their husbands and I’m amazed that they can talk like that in front of so many people.
“Yep. I bet against two of these ladies for sure.” Her face falls in mock dismay. “I’m screwed. Just listen to that.”
“Oh, Reg has been a beast, an absolute beast!” One of the ladies exclaims. “We’re supposed to be having a romantic time, reconnecting and falling back in love, where is he? At the bar. At the movies. In the pool. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”
Natalie shakes her head forlornly. “You see? That’s going to explode later today. For sure. I put the odds on them making nookie not fighting.”
Her affected tone and manner are too much for me and I bellow out a huge laugh. I slap my hand over my mouth but its too late, the women are looking at us curiously, starting to frown.
“Uh-oh.” Natalie whispers. “I think they heard us!”
“Of course, we heard you, girl!” One of the ladies shrieks. “You aren’t in another room! What the hell is so damn funny?”
Natalie and I have totally lost our shit. Giggles are spilling out around the solemn faces we’re trying to make.
“Cheese it!” Natalie whispers.
We both get up and start hurrying towards the door. I turn to the ladies and try to offer a serious apology, but I can’t keep up the façade and end up letting Natalie drag me out the door, both of us giggling like schoolgirls.
Twenty-One
Ashley
Alex loves the onboard cinema and I don’t blame him. When I was a kid I would have gone nuts over a cinema in my own backyard so to speak, especially one I could go to at any time. It wasn’t something my parents invested in no matter how much Robin and I tried to convince them it was a good idea.
It’s not a huge theater, very cozy with about 50 seats. Alex and I sit near the front so he doesn’t have to peer over anyone super tall and he’s practically vibrating with excitement over the fact that we’re going to be watching a marathon of Disney Princess movies.
We belt along to ‘A Whole New World’ together and I’m impressed by the fact that this tiny little dude knows all the lyrics.
“Which is your favorite princess?”
He bounces in his seat with delight. “Aurora! An’ then Rapunzel. N’ then I really like Tiana because she makes all the pretty food!”
I laugh a little because this little guy honestly just keeps getting cuter. “Do you love the moment in Sleeping Beauty where the cake ends up all those different colours?”
“Yes!” he squeals delightedly and I have to shush him a little when I notice a couple of the other families glaring at us. “An’ in tangled she paints her whole room! I wanna paint my room like that.”
“Well maybe I can help you,” I find myself saying. I want to bite my tongue the second the words are out of my mouth. Whatever is going on with Jess and I it’s not fair to get a little kid’s hopes up that I’m going to go on being involved in their lives once all of this is over.
I mean I’m pretty sure I want to be. The idea of never seeing either of my cuties again makes my chest feel funny. But Jess might not be up for dating a disaster like me and that’s if I can figure out what dating is all about. I’ve never really properly dated anyone in my life.
Alex is looking at me as though I hung the stars and I feel a little bubble of pride mixed in with my anxiety. No one has ever looked at me like that before. “Really?”
“Sure, if your aunt is okay with it!” I decide that even if Jess and I don’t mak
e it past the cruise I’m going to totally renovate this kid’s room into a complete replica of Rapunzel’s if it costs me a fortune. “Now I’m wondering if you can help me with a big surprise I’m working on.”
His eyes get big. “Is it a secrit?”
“Yeah, it’s a secret!” I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I feel like I should do something real for Jess to show her that there’s a sincere bone in my body and I have no idea how to start. “It’s a surprise for your Aunt Jess. Can you tell me what kind of things she likes? I want to make sure it’s a really good surprise.”
His adorable little face scrunches in confusion. “She’s a grown up. She likes cereal and getting up on time and making sanwiches. Oh! An’ knowing where the keys are!”
I smother a laugh. “Okay, well you’ve been living with her for a little time now, right? Tell me a bit about what your home is like, I might be able to get some ideas from that.”
