Love on the Horizon ✎

9

It's not yet six-thirty a.m., but I'm wide awake in my bed, staring up at the plain white ceiling. It's still dark outside and Phoebe is fast asleep, but my body is itching to get out. We went to bed relatively early last night, mostly because we were both crazy tired. I think many passengers were, so we were in our beds by ten p.m.

Dinner in the main dining room last night was surprisingly good. Thankfully, the stiff couple from earlier were not our dinner guests. Instead, we were joined by a couple, Alice and Mark, a few years older than us from Wisconsin and two men travelling together, much like ourselves. I spotted green wristbands on them, so they were part of the singles program like us too. Both men were tall and pretty decent looking with accents. We got to talking over the starters and turned out they were from France, which explained the accents and also how well dressed and immaculate their hair and faces were. At least that's how I picture French men – well styled and groomed.

The men presented themselves as Luka and Pierre, classic French names and our dinner conversation went well. They were thirty-five and thirty-four and from Toulouse in the south of France. Luka had short blonde hair and blue eyes as if he were from Scandinavia and not France and Pierre had dark brown hair and brown eyes, matching his darker skin-tone. Their accents were smooth and slightly husky, and I think I could have listened to them all night long. Especially, whenever Pierre said the word 'mousse'. I melted a little every time.

We were told that our waiter would remain the same throughout the cruise so when Javier presented himself as our dinner waiter, we all greeted him with smiles and waves. Javier told us he was from Barcelona and would do his very best to give us a great experience. We could hold off on the tips until the final evening of the cruise or just tip him whenever we saw him, he added with a wink and a cheeky smile. Javier looked to be in his late twenties with a mass of brown curls on his head and friendly brown eyes. He never seemed in a rush and chatted to us in between courses and when he took away our dessert plates I really felt as if he was a friend and not a waiter. I guess that's what they aim to do.

Alice and Mark are taking a break from their two children and decided to treat themselves to a grown-up trip, though it sounded like it's hard for Alice to be away from her precious nuggets for so long. I'm sat next to her, and she shows us photos of Lily, age seven and Liam, age nine, on her phone and they do look adorable with matching dimples.

Back in bed, I realize I may get to catch my first cruise sunrise and I quickly pull on a pair of pants and throw a shirt over my head. Shoes on and I grab my cardigan knowing it will be cold outside at this time.

The hallway is dimly lit by lamps on the walls between the cabins, and I hurry down the empty corridors, quickly finding the main hall with the wide staircases and elevators that we used yesterday. A few crew members are up and about, but otherwise the halls are deserted. I step into an empty elevator and press the button for deck 11.

The elevator doors open with a ping, and I step out into another wide hallway. I stop and look around. I have no idea which side is facing east. A man in a uniform walk in my direction and I go up to him.

"Good morning, miss," he politely greets me with a small tip of his hat. I thought they only did that in movies. That's super cute. Okay focus.

"Good morning. Could you please tell me which side of the ship is facing east? I was hoping to catch the sunrise."

He smiles and nods. "Our portside is facing east right now, miss, so for the best view you should go this way." He points to the left of the elevators.

"Portside. Thank you," I say and take off, walking as fast as I can without actually running.

I follow the signs for the outside deck and soon get to several sets of doors that open out towards the pool deck. I push a door open and suddenly my nose is once again filled with the scent of seawater. Light has started peeking through the horizon and I walk towards the front. As I go further up the deck, I see I'm not the only one here to watch the sunrise. Close to thirty people are here, having already found the best spots to enjoy the morning.