Clifton liked to watch. In a way that's what led to his banishment, I guess. I didn't know at the time that it could have been called a glorious banishment, but my more recent one certainly qualified for that. I was in my second season as a dancer aboard cruise ships. I worked as one of ten dancers—five women and five men—and two women and two men singers w...
*Feel free to add your own chapters. I will write more, but others adding chapters will really help me finish this story. Thanks. Enjoy!* "AUSTIN! AUSTIN COME HERE!!" Screams Ally from the bottom of the stair case in Sonic Boom. Austin comes running down the stairs saying:" What? What's wrong?!" He has a very confused look on his face. &q...
"It's a great way to throw your money away; that's what it is." "Well, let's see, Pete. How much have you spent on the site's hookup service, and how many guys have you actually hooked up with?" "I've had some real hot conversations and cybersex with some of them," Pete sniffed. "Purely in cyberspace, right? At, what, a dollar a word?" John answered, with...
I met Wade in a church, of all places. Not that either one of us is religious, and neither one of us was attending a church service there. It was the cathedral in Cologne, Germany. I was bumming around Europe during the summer between university and grad school—I was studying art photography at MICA, the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore—and Wa...
"Well, look who we have here." Clint Folsom knew without even looking up that Inspector Sigmund Frist had recognized him. "Hello, Sig," he answered, gesturing for his old acquaintance to take a seat in one of the velvet-upholstered barrel chairs in the Alexander Lounge. It was after dinner on the MS River God. The ship was still tied to the dock at Rudeshe...
"Isn't that precious," the matron sitting to my left in the Minstrel dining room of the cruise ship was saying. "A young man has taken his father on a cruise. And he's so attentive to the older man's needs. I so wish my grandson... uh, my son... John could be like that." That was Margaret. Sheila, sitting to my right and a little close for comfort, agreed w...
It was Monday morning, the ship had just nosed up to the pier in Baltimore, and an announcement had sounded that it would be another half hour or so before the vessel cleared customs and the departing passengers could start leaving in an orderly and highly orchestrated manner. This didn't cover the crew and staff, though. Those among the crew and staff who w...
[This is a completed six-chapter work that will finish posting before the end of February 2017.] * The shipboard casino had opened an hour earlier, the sun was at its full height above the ninth-deck swimming pool complex, the lunch-service lines had opened at the Windjammer Café, and bingo was in full cry in the Spotlight Lounge. The Glory of the Seas cru...
"Look, there it is again," Jerrod said, turning his tablet around so that Kyle could see the screen. "It's the same cruise. And, look, it says they are prepared to be very generous, based on performance. I wonder what generous means." "I wonder what performance would mean," Kyle said, unwrapping the cashmere scarf from around his neck, rolling it up, and la...
A friend told me about the cruise liners, suggested it would be a good job for the summer and they were always needing staff. I was twenty years old and that seemed to be a great way to earn some money and see a bit of the world. I was attracted to the idea and looked up addresses so I could write and see what jobs were available. Within a fortnight, I had...