Her Cruise Ship Surprise | ✔

Chapter Four

God, she was glad that she received a map of the boat. She'd never find her way around otherwise. Deciding to take a trip down to her cabin, she made her way to the stairs. Only one elevator was currently running and all the older passengers were using it.

Going down a few flights of stairs, she stepped out onto her floor. She was glad to have been going down, not up. She had a feeling by the end of the trip she would be in the best shape of her life with all the stairs. Her work made sure that the officers stayed in good shape, but there was nothing like a good stair workout.

Following the signs on the wall, she stopped at the door of her room. There were two bags of luggage by her door and two by the one beside her. Only one of them was hers. The luggage carriers must have misplaced the other.

Ignoring it, she slid her card into the reader and pushed open the door. Her jaw dropped as she stepped into the room. The walls were a dazzling shade of white with gold trim, and the rest of the room was dressed to match. White sheets with a gold duvet covered the twin beds, with three pillows each lining the head. And towel animals sat in the middle of the bed behind a box of chocolates. One animal was a giraffe and the other an elephant.

Tamara walked over to the balcony door and threw open the matching curtains, white with gold trim. Pulling open the door, she walked out into the spacious balcony facing the breakwater. The turquoise water glittered liked a gem in the bright sunlight.

Taking a deep breath, she breathed in the salty air and sighed as she rested her hands on the railing. The life rafts were two decks below hers and thankfully didn't block her view of the ocean.

She glanced to the back of the boat and saw numerous cruise ships lined up behind hers. She could only see the edges of the others from her position in the middle of the boat, but she felt like a kid again, opening a present on Christmas Day.

Tamara looked up and saw the balcony above her. It was set back a bit further than hers. It was a little unnerving that they could see down onto hers, but at least she had a little bit of an overhang and could sit underneath it without being seen. Two cushioned loungers and a table graced the balcony.

All she could think was that she'd just stepped into heaven, minus the singles that she knew were mingling around the ship now. Stepping back inside, she picked up the papers on the white and gold desk and riffled through them. Tammy squealed in delight. Beer! One of the simple delights in her world. Without looking through the rest of them, she placed them down and glanced around the room. Her gaze stopped on a cupboard door that looked big enough to house a fridge. Leaning down, she opened it, and then opened the fridge, and found it empty. Her lips pulled to one side. It said it would be delivered to her room.

Tammy picked up the phone and then she remembered that the front desk clerk said her room wouldn't be ready until 5pm. Not wanting to miss the embarkation ceremony held on the upper deck, she shoved her suitcase into the closet, grabbed the ship map, and left the room.

***

It wasn't until she could no longer stand that she stumbled her way to the room, having drunk too many beer and margaritas. The sun had long since dipped behind the horizon and all the older crowd had disappeared into their rooms, leaving the young partiers roaming the ship; primarily taking over the hot tubs.

She hadn't pulled out her suit yet, but planned to do that tomorrow. Sliding her card through the lock, she pushed open the door and heard the faint sound of snoring coming from inside. Her heart rate kicked up a notch and she reached for the gun on her hip, but her hand came up empty. Damn! She wasn't allowed to bring a gun onboard.

"Shit!" she whispered. The phone was on the other side of the room by the balcony. There was no way she could reach it without waking up the sleeping intruder. Left with no other choice, she flicked on the light and spotted a head full of blond hair resting on the pillow, face buried in the sheets.