Katie’s excitement level built as they went through the check-in process at the cruise terminal, and by the time they began their walk through the long glass tunnel to board the ship, she was nearly giddy with delight.
“I can’t believe I’m going on a vacation. I’m going on a ship. A cruise! I’m going to the Caribbean.”
Ben chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Yes, you are. Did you just realize this now?”
“No, but I haven’t really let myself get too hyped up about it. I’m always wary of getting my hopes up for something and then being disappointed and having to rein it all back in. And with this, there was so much chaos around it. I’d just moved to Maya’s when she got injured, and between helping her get around, pitching in to run the store, and then deciding to take this trip, it’s been nuts. And even though I was excited to go, I was also scrambling to figure it all out and get things booked with such short notice, so it was stressful.” She turned to face him, walking almost sideways to do so. “But now, it’s here, and I’m here, and I’m like ultra-psyched. I can’t believe I’m actually doing this.”
“You’re doing it.”
“I’m doing it.” Her grin widened as she straightened and faced forward again. “We’re checked in. We’re boarding. Look, this ID card has my name on it.” She held up the card for him to see. “This is happening!”
“Yeah, it is,” Ben said, his grin never wavering. “I used to do that—keep myself in check so I didn’t get my hopes up. But a wise friend told me that when we live that way, we’re focusing more on the disappointment than the joy. She says you should assume it’s going to be good, and then, if something doesn’t work out, you just deal with the disappointment. But at least you got to be happy part of the time.”
“Geez, do I happen to know this wise friend of yours? Because that sounds exactly like something Maya would say.”
Ben laughed. “You guessed it. That’s definitely Maya’s influence. Before we became friends, I was always the type who would figure out the worst-case scenario and plan for that so I could feel like I was prepared no matter what happened.”
“Which is exactly how I am,” Katie said with a sigh.
“But that’s not how Maya lives.”
“No. Certainly not.”
“She genuinely believes things are going to work out in her favor, and it’s crazy how often they actually do.” Ben shook his head, grinning. “Call it luck. Call it manifesting. Call it whatever, but being around your sister made me want some of it. She’s been trying to get through my thick skull for the past few years. Little by little, she’s reprogramming me. Sometimes I straight up revert to my doomsday plotting, but I think for the most part, I’m more positive now than I was before. And I swear my quality of life is better for it.”
“Did Maya put you up to this? Did she tell you to share that story with me?”
Ben shook his head, his brows coming together in confusion. “No. Why?”
“Oh. Because I’ve been going through some stuff, which I guess she has shared a bit with you, and I told her I want her to teach me how to approach life the way she does.”
“I highly recommend it.”
“I don’t know,” Katie groaned. “It’s like I want that, but at the same time, I am who I am and I think how I think. You know?”
“Oh, I do know. Trust me. But you just need to make a conscious choice to think differently. What if for the next week while we’re on this ship, you just assume everything is going to go well? The weather will be great, the food will be delicious, and you’re going to have the time of your life. Every single morning, wake up and say, Today is going to be a great day. And then believe it’s true and expect it to happen.”
“But then what if it’s not a great day?”
“Then you deal with it, same as you normally would. But what if it is? What if it is a great day, and you didn’t waste any time you could be enjoying it by expecting it not to be?”
“So, should we be saying that your family is going to be fabulous, and they’ll be really nice to me?”
“Ha,” Ben scoffed. “I said we were going to think positively, not completely suspend reality.”
“Oh, so you think positively about everything else, but you’re still dug into the trenches with this. Shouldn’t it apply to your family as well?”
He thought about her words for a moment, and then a slow grin spread across his face. “Okay. All right. Touché. You called me out, and you’re right. Maya would tell you I’m a work in progress. I’m still learning. So, what do you say we hold each other accountable this week? You work on believing it’s going to be a great trip…”
“And you’ll work on believing you’re going to enjoy your family’s company?”
“Whew,” Ben exhaled with a soft laugh. “That’s a big ask. Enjoy their company? How about we start with there won’t be any blow-ups, or maybe no one will storm out of a room angry, or we could go with no one will say anything that makes me want to punch something?”
“Whichever one works best for you. Okay? Deal?” She offered her hand for him to shake, and then she stated her affirmations in an exaggerated upbeat voice. “This is going to be a great cruise. The weather will be perfect. The food will be divine. And I am going to have the time of my life.”
“Aye, aye, matey!”
They turned the corner in the hallway to see a large backdrop featuring a rendering of the ship framed on either side by palm trees. A photographer stood by a camera on a stand, waving them over.
“Would you like a welcome photo, folks?”
Ben looked to Katie with an arched eyebrow. “Do you want to take a picture to document this moment?”
“Sure!” Katie followed the photographer’s instructions and dropped her carry-on bag and her purse onto a chair by the camera stand, and then she walked forward toward the backdrop. When she turned, she realized Ben hadn’t joined her and was instead waiting behind the photographer.
“You’re not going to be in it?” the man asked as he looked over his shoulder at Ben.
“No,” Ben said with a slight shake of his head. “I’ll let the lady star in her own picture.”
“What?” Katie motioned for him to join her. “No way. C’mon. Get over here.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, and when she nodded and waved him over again, he walked toward her with his hands in his pockets. “Wouldn’t you rather have one by yourself?”
“What? No. Why would I want a picture of me by myself? We’re doing this cruise together, aren’t we? We made a deal.”
“Yeah, I guess we did.” Ben smiled as he stepped into place beside her.
“Unless you don’t want to?” Katie said, her eyes wide as she considered that his reluctance might not be strictly consideration of her feelings. “You don’t have to. If you’d rather not be in the picture—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Ben said, wrapping his arm loosely around her shoulders as he faced the camera. “I’d love to be in the picture with you. Are you kidding me? I thought you’d never ask.”
“A little closer,” the photographer said. “Happy smiles.”
Katie slid her arm around Ben’s waist and stepped in closer, marveling at how solid he was. With his muscular arm encircling her shoulders and the faint hint of his cologne tickling her nose, she couldn’t help wondering what it might be like to be in his embrace.
What if they really were a couple, and they were about to embark on an exciting adventure together? An anniversary trip, perhaps? Or maybe even their honeymoon? Or was a tropical getaway just something they did regularly?
She let her mind wander through various scenarios, and then suddenly, the photographer was saying, “Okay, thanks. Have a great cruise.”
She stepped away from Ben quickly, embarrassed to realize she’d been so lost in her imaginary life that she’d missed the real-life moment. She didn’t even know if she’d smiled, but based on what she’d been thinking, she was certain she must have.
“Ready to get this party started?” Ben asked as he gathered her bags, handing her the purse and slinging her tote bag over his shoulder. “Man, this thing is heavy. What do you have in here? An anchor?”
“I can get it,” she said, reaching for it, but Ben leaned slightly away and started walking.
“I got it. You have the other bag to carry. I have nothing.”
They fell into step beside each other, and Katie found it hard to shake the micro-fantasies she’d been pursuing in her head.
It would have been nice if her very first vacation and her very first cruise could have been with a lover instead of someone she barely knew and had no connection with. Everything about the experience would hit differently viewed through a romantic lens.
She couldn’t picture doing such a thing with Grant. He would have rushed her past the cheesy photo backdrop, but then again, he wouldn’t have been boarding a cruise at all. He never traveled strictly for leisure. There always had to be a business angle involved.
But she could see herself doing this with someone she loved.
Someday.
When there was a someone.
“You still have your ID card out?” Ben asked as they approached the short line of people ahead of them waiting at the threshold to board the ship. “They’ll scan it to register that you’re coming onto the ship, and then anytime you get off and get back on at a port, they scan it both ways. That way they can track whether you’re on or off, and they know when everyone is back on board.”
“But how do they know it’s me holding the card?”
“Remember they took the picture at the check-in desk? It comes up when they scan your card.”
He nudged her to move forward as they reached the podium and the crew member held his hand out for her card.
“Welcome aboard,” the woman in the uniform said with a broad smile, which Katie promptly returned.
“That’s me,” Katie said to Ben and the crew member when she saw her smiling face on the screen, but then she added in a whisper to herself, “The new, adventurous, positive me.”
They moved past the podium as she tucked the ID card into the outside pocket of her purse, and then she stopped to stare in awe at the multi-level openness of the ship’s grand atrium.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ben said beside her.
“It’s so…big. So open. I knew from the outside the ship was huge, and I’d seen pictures of this room online, but it’s far grander than I imagined it to be. Are the steps on that staircase made of crystals?”
“Yeah. Looks like some shops up on that next level, and some kind of bar or lounge on the one above it.”
“Yeah, I remember seeing those on the deck plans on the website. I made a list of everything I want to visit. Oh, wow!” she exclaimed as they entered the long main gallery, which was two stories high and lined on either side with restaurants and shops on both levels.
High above them, the arched ceiling was a beautiful myriad of panels that looked like stained glass windows stretching along the entire expanse of the gallery. But as Katie gazed up at the ceiling in amazement, the images shifted to a blue sky with clouds and balloons.
“Oh my gosh!” She slapped absent-mindedly against Ben’s arm as she stumbled along looking up. “Did you see that?”
“Yeah.” Ben laughed as he put his hand beneath her elbow to gently guide her around a group of people who had stopped to talk. “They’re projections. They’ll change throughout the cruise.”
Turning her attention back to her immediate surroundings, she grabbed hold of his arm with stopped, and then she pointed toward the shop on the right. Inside, display cases were filled with truffles of every color and variety as well as fudge in a plethora of flavors. “Look at all that chocolate! Can we take a closer look?”
“Of course.” Ben steered them toward the chocolate shop, and Katie stopped in front of a large glass display case by the entrance. It held an intricate sculpture as tall as Katie featuring a compass centered inside a sun that was surrounded by waves. “Looks like the whole thing is carved out of chocolate. Oh, look at that one. It’s a dragon.”
“That’s incredible!” Katie darted over to the next case to take a closer look at the dragon, and then she looked toward the counter and frowned. “They’re not open. We can’t buy any chocolate?”
“The shops are only open during certain hours, and never when we’re in port. Something about duty taxes or sales restrictions from the local governments, I believe.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Katie said, still crestfallen. “I do remember seeing something about that on the website.”
“But we can come back when they’re open and get chocolate,” Ben offered. “For now, let’s head to our room and put down the anchor you’ve got in this bag, and then we can do some exploring.”
He’d called it their room, and though that was what it was, the word choice was jarring. She’d been coasting along in some sort of la-la land that was half amazement at what she was seeing and half fantasy of what she’d been imagining, and the reminder that she and Ben would be sharing a room brought her abruptly back to reality.
Suddenly conscious of how casually she’d been touching his arm as they’d taken in the sights, she shifted to put a bit more distance between them.
No matter what she might have imagined or what she might rather have, she and Ben were not a couple. They weren’t even pretending to be one like he and Maya would have been. They were strangers, brought together by a series of odd circumstances.