AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Throwing on pants and a shirt, he rushed out of his cabin without grabbing his shoes. He had to find her before she left the ship.
Running down the hallway, he knew her cabin was on the third floor. Racing to the elevator, he noticed that the hallways were packed with people leaving. The cruise was over and he remembered his time to disembark was at nine o’clock. Less than an hour.
Time was running out for him to locate her.
Cramming onto the elevator with people going down to deck five to disembark, he needed to go two decks lower. Standing inside the crowded elevator, he wanted it to hurry before she left. The damn machine was moving so slowly; he should have taken the stairs.
How was he going to find her? He didn’t know her cabin number.
A little girl on the elevator glanced down at his feet. “Where are your shoes?”
“I left them in the room. I was in a hurry,” he said.
“Momma says you should always wear shoes,” she said. “You can pick up diseases.”
Just what he didn’t need. A child telling him what he knew, but in his rush to leave had forgotten.
With a sigh, he glanced down at the little girl. “Your mother is right. I know better, but I left without thinking.”
The girl shook her head at him.
The mother gave a snicker. Finally the elevator stopped on deck five. He had to hurry down a couple more floors or he would miss his own check-out time. His flight left in five hours, but still, he didn’t want to miss it. Though he would if he could find Amelia.
The elevator seemed to chug down to the third floor. He ran off and then realized he had no idea how to find her room.
The hall was noticeably vacant. It was eerily silent. Only the maids and the stewards were in the halls.
“Amelia,” he yelled.
A steward met him in the hallway.
“Can I help you sir?”
“Yes, I’m trying to find a woman. Amelia,” he said.
“What’s her last name?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’ve got to find her before she leaves.”
The man sighed and shook his head. “This floor has already disembarked. I think you’re too late.”
A sense of regret filled him unlike anything he’d felt in years. How had he overslept the most important date of his life?
“And, sir, it’s against the rules to be barefoot,” the man told him. “I suggest you return to your cabin and prepare to leave.”
Why hadn’t he gotten her phone number last night? Her last name? Anything to let him know who she was. He desperately wanted to find her again.
“I’ll give you twenty dollars if you tell me her last name,” he said.
“That’s against the ship’s rules. I’d lose my job if they found out,” he said.
“I would never tell,” he told the man, knowing he sounded like a stalker.
The man shook his head.
With a sigh, Ryan felt so defeated.
“Do you think the main office would give me her number or even contact her and give her my name and phone number? I want to find her.”
