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It was a formal dining night. That meant everyone who wanted to eat in the main dining room was expected to follow a dress code. Fancy dresses and nice suits were encouraged. Shorts, swimsuits and flip flops were strictly forbidden.
Those who didn’t care to partake had other options, of course. There was a BBQ shack that served delicious ribs, coleslaw and potato wedges. There was also a sandwich shop and a place that made pizzas at all hours of the day and night.
The newlyweds, however, had decided an elegant sit-down meal might lift everyone’s spirits.
Scott grumbled a bit about having to dress up while on vacation. He wasn’t a fan of formal attire, preferring instead to wear a t-shirt and jeans. Claudia simply smiled and dismissed his complaints. She loved it when she managed to talk him into dressing up. He looked extra handsome in a suit.
Claudia didn’t want to wear the same gold dress she had sported for Emily’s wedding. Thankfully, she had brought a simple black shift dress that could easily be dolled up. Once she had curled her hair, selected a pair of nice shoes and put on some lipstick, the inexpensive dress looked like a million bucks.
When she and Scott stepped into the dining room, Claudia was amazed by how it had been transformed. There were fresh flowers everywhere, adding bright and cheery pops of color. The tables were all draped in white linen tablecloths. Candles flickered in the center of each table, adding instant ambiance.
The Mermaid Fantasy crew was going above and beyond to keep the cruise ship passengers happy. But it was clear from the snippets of conversation Claudia overheard that not everyone was satisfied. It seemed many people were irate that the ship had been forced to dock while Chad’s death was investigated.
A man had lost his life, and folks were whining that their vacation plans were being interrupted. Some people were so entitled.
“Claudia, Scott! I saved seats for you!” Emily called out when she spotted them.
She was seated at a large round table with Kyle beside her. They looked like the picture of wedded bliss, their fingers interlocked as they whispered to each other. It was exactly the way one would expect newlyweds who were deeply, madly in love to behave.
Based on what Claudia had observed, Kyle treated Emily very well. He was attentive and respectful. He looked at her like he adored her. He seemed like a decent guy at first glance. Maybe he was even husband material.
But did he also have a violent streak?
He had gotten into a fistfight with his own cousin - a cousin who had shortly thereafter wound up dead. Claudia had concerns that Kyle might have a tendency to fly off the handle a little too easily. Worse, she was beginning to wonder if he might have had something to do with Chad’s untimely demise.
Shortly after Claudia and Scott sat down, they were joined by Ashton and Lucy.
Ashton’s version of formal attire was...interesting, to say the least. He was wearing a faded denim button-up shirt. It was a couple sizes too large for his skinny frame. It was untucked, which together with his long, stringy hair, gave him a sloppy, dishevelled appearance. Upon closer inspection, Claudia concluded that his black dress pants were, in fact, black jeans.
A couple of snooty blue-haired ladies at the next table gawked at Ashton’s ensemble and then sneered in disgust. For a moment, Claudia wondered if one of the servers might politely inform Ashton that his outfit was unsatisfactory and ask him to leave the dining area. But no one did.
The waiters were probably too busy staring at Lucy to notice what Ashton was wearing. In fact, Claudia would be surprised if they even knew Ashton was there. All eyes were on the blonde bombshell, and she seemed to be lapping up the attention.
One would never have reason to suspect Lucy’s longtime boyfriend had been murdered only a short time ago. She didn't look like a woman in mourning. She looked like a glamorous diva strutting down the red carpet at an elegant, exclusive event.
Lucy wore a short, tight salmon-colored dress that was covered in sparkly, delicate beads. The dramatic sweetheart neckline showed off her ample cleavage. The pale pink color of the dress highlighted her deep, perfectly even tan. Her blonde locks were so voluminous that Claudia suspected she had visited the hair salon earlier in the day.
But it was the way she was beaming that really caught Claudia’s attention.
As Lucy sashayed up to the table, she smiled flirtatiously at every man who made eye contact with her. When the waiter came over to take her order, she flipped her hair and batted her faux eyelashes. It was a strange way to act given the circumstances, particularly when she was seated with Chad’s family.
If Ashton disapproved of how Lucy was behaving, he didn’t let on. In fact, it was difficult to tell whether he had even noticed. He was staring intently at his phone, seemingly oblivious to everything and everyone else. Table manners didn’t appear to be his strong suit.
Claudia glanced over at Kyle to see how he was reacting to Lucy’s behavior. But he wasn’t even looking in her direction. He was too busy whispering something to Emily. Apparently whatever he had said was amusing, because she immediately blushed beet red and burst into a fit of giggles.
First courses were served with impressive speed. Claudia had selected chilled roasted peach soup, mostly because it was something she had never heard of before. When she saw how nicely it was decorated with fresh sliced strawberries and sprinkles of almonds, she knew she had made the right choice.
Not everyone was as pleased as she was.
“What in tarnation are these?!” an irate man’s voice rang out from a few tables away.
Claudia looked over to see a feeble, hunched over man with sparse white hair seated in a wheelchair. His complexion was crimson and he had an expression of absolute rage on his gaunt face. He was shaking his fist furiously as he yelled, not seeming to care in the slightest that he was making a scene.
“They’re oven roasted pumpkin seeds,” a bewildered waiter replied cautiously.
“I ordered watermelon and feta!” the old man howled. “Not pumpkin guts! What kind of hippy nonsense is this?”
A few people chuckled at the man’s characterization of the roasted seeds as pumpkin guts.
“That’s the gentleman who was alone and confused outside the coffee shop the other night,” a woman at a nearby table told her traveling companions. “I was concerned about him. It’s good to see he’s here with someone. A person so disoriented shouldn’t be left alone. Poor fellow.”
“He’s no gentleman,” one of the woman’s traveling companions replied with disgust. “Spend ten minutes within earshot of him and you’ll understand what I mean. He’s a vile human being who does nothing but spew vitriol, if you ask me.”
Scott leaned over to Claudia and whispered, “I recognize him. That’s the old guy who was making a big scene when we were lined up to board the cruise ship.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Claudia replied quietly.
Suddenly the situation escalated in a disgusting manner.
The waiter tried to smooth things over and offered to bring out a fresh plate of watermelon and feta - sans pumpkin seeds. But that didn’t seem to appease the old man one bit. He seemed determined to have a meltdown. His howling and complaining culminated in him making a racist comment about the poor waiter, who was only trying to do his job.
“Dad! That’s enough!” a mortified man chastised him.
In response, the old man violently threw his plate of food across the room. It hit a vase of flowers. Both the plate and the vase shattered, leaving a mess of glass, appetizer, water and flowers all over the place.
The man’s poor son couldn’t stop apologizing. He stood up to clean up the mess, and when she caught a glimpse of his face, Claudia immediately recognized him. It was Stan Howard, the fifty-something year old man she had met while she was walking on the seldom-used upper deck of the ship.
“Don’t touch that!” Stan’s father roared at him. “Don’t you dare clean that up!”
Stan ignored his father and began picking up the larger pieces of broken glass.
The worked up wheelchair-bound man began spewing hateful insults at Stan. “You sissy!” he screamed, spittle flying out of his mouth. “It’s no wonder you never amounted to anything! It’s no wonder you can’t find a woman! What a pathetic waste of space you are! You disgust me!”
Stan stood up and stormed over to his father.
For a moment, Claudia feared he might strike the older man.
Instead, Stan grabbed his key card from the table and stomped out of the dining room.
“Woah,” Scott murmured. “That was intense.”
Claudia pushed her chair back from the table. “I’ll be right back,” she said.
