Tattooed Dots

by Kimberly Knight

  In all the years that we’d been friends, we’d had arguments, but never gotten physical with each other. But now that he was laughing at me and basically calling me a pussy, I wanted to punch him in the face.

  “I know, but she’s not one of the whores from the bar. She’s—different.”

  “Nicole is different, too. I think we got lucky.”

  “Yeah…” I muttered, slamming the bathroom door so I could take a shower.

  Lucky.

  *~*~*

  The girls didn’t know when they would be ready, and since we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, none of us had cell service to text each other. Avery and I forgot to look at their room number when we walked them to their door after dinner, so we couldn’t call their room, either. We decided we would just go to the mixer and wait for them.

  The mixer was in the champagne bar on deck six near the casino. Avery and I walked into the art deco bar that was designed like something out of a book I read in high school. I had an inkling to call everyone “old sport” and watch women in flapper dresses dance around to the jazz music that was playing through the speakers.

  “They’re not here, yet,” Avery said as we settled up at the bar.

  “I noticed.”

  The room was on the small side. As soon as Avery and I entered, I scanned the area for those piercing emerald eyes that I was already addicted to in such a short amount of time, only to not see them.

  I ordered a beer instead of a hard drink. I wanted to stay kind of sober. Usually, I didn’t give a fuck. I would get drunk, take a girl anywhere I could get a blow job from her and call it a night. I knew tonight wasn’t one of those nights, and I actually wanted to stay sober so I could remember everything Brooke said.

  After Dana and I split, my father told me that when I met the one who I was supposed to be with forever, she would devour my every thought. She would make me smile just by her walking into a room, and also make my dick hard at the same time.

  I never experienced that with Dana. I believed that it was because we were kids when we met. and I didn’t know about true love. I was just glad to be getting some when all my other friends were jacking off nightly, thinking about the girls at school.

  “Before they get here, tell me what your plan is?” I asked Avery.

  “Nicole wants to…”

  Before Avery could finish, two brunettes walked up to us. “Hello boys, I’m Kristen, and this is my friend, Stacy.”

  “I’m Easton, and this is Avery.”

  We shook hands awkwardly like this was some sort of business meeting.

  “Usually the guys are supposed to approach the women, but Stacy and I made a pact that this go around, we would take the initiative and approach the ones we were interested in.”

  Kristen and Stacy both had curly brown hair and green eyes. Stacy’s was shoulder length while Kristen’s came to the middle of her back. Their hair and eye color matched Brooke’s, but their eyes weren’t speaking to me like Brooke’s did. I didn’t want to be rude, but I wasn’t interested. Neither Kristen nor Stacy were my brunette.

  “Does that mean this isn’t your first singles cruise?” Avery asked.

  “No, we’ve been on a few with no luck, but they are so much fun that we just continue doing them,” Stacy said.

  I could tell that Stacy was interested in Avery, and Kristen was interested in me, but we needed them to leave us alone so Nicole wouldn’t get mad at Avery. Women tend to jump to conclusions when a guy is talking to another female.

  Before I could come up with an excuse to walk away, my eyes fell on the door as Brooke walked in wearing a green dress that matched her eyes, and I smiled as my dick begun to get hard. Her milky legs extended from the knee-high dress and were met with silver heels.

  Usually I didn’t notice what a woman was wearing. I couldn’t remember what color dress the girl who I got head from at the bar two nights ago was wearing. But Brooke, this epitome of her would be burned into my memory until the day I died. She was simply breathtaking.

  I stopped Avery midsentence of what he was saying to the broads and motioned with my head towards the door. Brooke’s eyes met mine, and I smiled again, but at her this time. She smiled back, wrapping it around my heart, and gestured to us so Nicole could spot us.

  “Fuck.” Avery said under his breath.

  Brooke and Nicole made the short distance to us, and before we could introduce them to Kristen and Stacy, Nicole wrapped her arms around Avery’s neck and kissed him. Avery returned the kiss. I could see their tongues swirling around each other, and I wanted to punch him. He was making me fucking jealous that Brooke didn’t do the same to me.

  “Hi,” I finally said to Brooke.

  “Her?” She questioned. I knew exactly what she was asking. She was still playing our game, trying to find a chick for me.

  “No,” I replied, shaking my head.

  “Her?” Brooke asked about the other brunette. I didn’t ask which one she was asking about because it didn’t matter.

  “No,” I laughed and smiled at her. “Never.”

  “I see,” she said.

  Do you? Do you see? Do you realize how much I want to grab your face and kiss you until you can’t breathe?

  “Damn,” one of the brunettes said and then they both walked off.

  “You look beautiful,” I said to Brooke, looking from her perfect feet all the way up until our eyes met again.

  “Thank you,” she said, a hint of pink spreading across her cheeks.

  “You always blush when I give you a compliment.”

  “I’m not used to them.”

  “Your boyfriend doesn’t compliment you?”

  She thought for a moment. “No, he doesn’t,” she said, shaking her head.

  I wanted to ask her why she was even with the guy. He sounded like an idiot, and every time we talked about him, she seemed sad and unhappy. There was a reason why she agreed to go on an eight day singles cruise without the loser, and I hoped to enjoy every minute of it.

  “That’s a shame,” I said, slightly shaking my head side to side in disapproval.

  “Shit, I need to go back to my room real quick,” Brooke said, looking over at the two lovebirds still sucking face and laughing. “Before these two go there and I can’t get back in for a few hours.”

  “You want me to go with you?” I asked, hoping she would say yes.

  “That’s okay, I’ll be fast.”

  “Why do you need to go back to our room?” Nicole asked.

  “I forgot to take a pain pill,” Brooke responded.

  “Let me come with you,” I said, wondering why she needed to take a pain pill. She seemed fine and mentioned no injury before.

  “Okay,” she finally agreed.

  “I need to talk to Easton real quick,” Avery said before Brooke and I could walk away.

  We stepped a few feet down the bar from the girls. “I’m going to wait ten minutes and then take Nicole back to her room, so make this fast and then hang with Brooke for at least an hour, okay?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. I would do anything if it meant more time with Brooke.

  I was getting tired from the long day of traveling from the East Coast, and I figured we all were, too, but I didn’t want this night to end. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring…maybe Brooke and Nicole would do their own thing, and Avery and I would find different girls.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Brooke

  I was becoming extremely sick and tired of my shoulder hurting. It had been over two months since I injured it. I’d never been one to pop pain pills, but the pain was so immensely intense that I needed the slight relief from it—any relief I could get for that matter. The medication I was taking only made the pain bearable, and I still felt the aching dull pain in my shoulder blade. It felt like it just needed to be adjusted or cracked somehow.

  I tried stretching it over and over and over, but that wasn’t helping. I was hoping that the massage therapist would b
e able to rub the knot out or give it more than three hours of relief like the medication did. I just wanted the pain to go away, the pill popping to stop and to not be in pain every day.

  Stupid bowling!

  “You know you didn’t need to walk me to my room. I was coming right back,” I said to Easton as we maneuvered through people.

  I was actually happy that he insisted on coming. Jared would have just let me wander off like he did one time when we went to New York City for the weekend. Jared only wanted to sleep in the hotel room, but I wanted to go sightseeing. I begged and begged him to come, and he would just say “one more hour”. I got fed up and left, walking around Times Square by myself for a few hours. He never called my cell, didn’t text—nothing. When I got back to the hotel room, he was dressed and ready to go and had the nerve to ask where I had been. I was beyond livid.

  “I wanted to.” Easton smiled and my stomach clenched as I looked at his dimples.

  “Well thank you, it’s sweet of you.”

  “Let me guess, your boyfriend would have let you come back alone?” he asked.

  We took the stairs down to my cabin instead of the elevator, there was a long line waiting for the elevator. Some people were making out as they waited instead of just taking the stairs. This was definitely a singles cruise.

  “Yeah.” I sighed. “He would have figured nothing would happen to me since we are on a ship and there is no place to go.”

  “No place to go but overboard and in the middle of the Pacific with sharks,” he joked.

  I laughed slightly. “Part of me wishes he were here so I could throw him over.”

  “Trouble in paradise?” Easton asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “No…yes…I don’t know. It’s a long story that consists of four years of the good and the bad.”

  “Like any relationship.” He nodded.

  “True. When was your last relationship?” I asked, slipping my ID badge that doubled as our room key into the door.

  Laughing slightly, he asked, “Are we talking serious relationship?”

  I eyed him curiously. “Um… yeah?”

  “Then…about seven years ago.”

  “You haven’t dated in seven years?”

  We both stepped into my room, and I went into the bathroom to grab my medication, returning to the mini fridge to grab a bottle of water to swallow it down. Easton was looking around the room, so I tried to grab some of my clothes before he turned back around. Nicole and I both had bras and panties scattered throughout, and the clothes we wore that day were on the floor. We were in a rush to get ready for the mixer after dinner and we didn’t bother picking up. Plus, I didn’t know I would have a man in my room—at least not one whose opinion of me I cared about.

  “To clarify, I’ve dated. Just not in serious relationships.”

  “So, you’re like a player,” I asked, then swallowed the pill.

  Of course, Brooke, you’re on a singles cruise. Don’t worry about it, you have a boyfriend anyway.

  He laughed softly. “You’ll need to define ‘player’.”

  “Someone who sleeps around.” I shrugged, returning the water to the fridge.

  “Define ‘sleeping around’.” He laughed…again.

  “Um…” I said, as he held open the door for us to leave. “You know, someone who goes around fucking a bunch of different chicks.”

  “Then no, I wouldn’t consider myself a player.” He shut the door behind him, and we started walking toward the elevators. The stairs were good to go down, but not up. Especially while talking.

  “But you’ve slept with chicks in the last seven years, right?”

  Why was I so curious about him that I couldn’t stop asking questions? This was more than just casual talking. It was like I wanted to know everything about him. Get to know him and his dark secrets. But why? After seven nights, I would never see him again and would go back home to—Jared.

  “Of course I have, but I don’t sleep around. Usually they just suck my dick.”

  I felt my face blush at his bluntness. I was starting to wonder if he wanted me to suck his dick. It didn’t make any sense in my mind that he was hanging around a girl with a boyfriend when he had a whole ship full of single women. If he wanted somebody to suck his dick, he would have a better chance going elsewhere.

  “You don’t say?” I laughed. “Why do you stop at them giving you head?” Why was I so fucking curious? The questions were just pouring out of me.

  “In high school, the chicks were more likely to give you head than sleep with you. Now, they would rather sleep with you than suck your dick, so I like it better.”

  “I suppose that’s good logic.” I laughed. “What happened to end your relationship seven years ago?”

  I noticed as we exited the elevator that we weren’t going in the direction of the mixer, but were on our way to the back of the boat. I didn’t mind at all. I figured Nicole and Avery were probably scoping out our floor, waiting for us to leave so they could use our cabin. When we were getting ready for the mixer, Nicole made sure to shave—everywhere, to wear cute panties, and basically told me that I needed to find something else to do until at least midnight or even one in the morning if I didn’t want to walk in on them.

  Easton paused for a moment before replying. I wondered if I had crossed a line talking about his past. I didn’t mean to, but there was just a natural feeling I had towards him—like I could talk and laugh with him for hours.

  “So, do you want the long and real version or what I normally tell chicks that ask me?”

  “Well, I think you should tell me the long and real version since we have a long time until we can go to sleep,” I replied.

  The wind blew through my long hair as we walked the side deck towards the rear of the boat. People were all around us, laughing, hugging, kissing and drunk.

  “I got married right out of high school,” he began.

  I knew we were both old enough to be married or have been married, but I was still shocked and a little disappointed to hear it. I’d always had the fantasy of having a big wedding and sharing it with someone for the first time, but if I married Easton, I’d be his second wife.

  Why are you thinking about marrying this guy? You only just met him.

  “I was young and stupid, but I got the best daughter out of the deal.”

  “Oh wow, you have a daughter?” I asked in shock. Even though I was thirty, I couldn’t imagine having a child, but when you got married right out of high school, I guess you started early.

  “I do, and she’s my world.”

  “That’s so sweet. How old is she?”

  “Ten going on thirty,” He laughed. “She thinks she knows it all. She gives me a run for my money sometimes, and I’m not looking forward to raising her alone when she is a teenager and going through her woman things.”

  Hearing Easton talk about his daughter was warming my heart. The way his sky blue eyes lit up and his smile reached the crease—it was priceless. I hoped that the man I married and had kids with would love our child as much as Easton loved his daughter. “I bet. I’ve heard that kids can be a handful.”

  “Especially when you’re a single father and have no idea what you’re doing.”

  Easton leaned on the railing of the back of the ship when we approached. The wind was still blowing, causing my hair to wisp across my face from the left side. I held it down with my hand and turned to face him to prevent it from becoming tangled.

  “Her mother isn’t in the picture?”

  “She passed away a little over five years ago.”

  “Oh my!” I gasped. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you. We were going through a divorce at the time, but it’s been hard on Cheyenne since it happened.”

  “Cheyenne is your daughter?”

  “Yep, that’s my Peanut. Here I have pictures on my phone,” he said, reaching into his pocket. I waited as he turned on his phone. “I don’t know why I have my phone on me since we
don’t get service out here.” He laughed.

  He showed me a series of pictures of a beautiful girl with long, dirty blond hair that matched his hair color. Her eyes looked lighter than his—like a light blue, almost grey, and her smile had dimples just like his.

  “She’s beautiful,” I said, handing him back his phone. “I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through since her mother passed away.”

  “It’s been tough because her death was sudden. It happened on the last day of our divorce trial. She was hit by a fucker who ran a red light and plowed into her. She passed away before she reached the hospital.”

  I hadn’t known this man for more than seven hours, but as he told me about his wife—or ex-wife—dying and having to raise his daughter on his own, I wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let go. I wanted to make everything better. Do whatever needed to be done to make sure he and Cheyenne didn’t experience any more heartaches in their lifetimes. But that wasn’t reality.

  People experience heartaches every day. Some are minor and some are major. We learn from them. No matter what the heartache is, we grow, we become better people—fighters—survivors. I’m not big on going to church, but I believe in God, and I know he would never make someone face any situation that they couldn’t overcome—except death, of course.

  “I bet that was tough on Cheyenne. I’ve practically lived without my mom since I was thirteen.”

  “Practically?” he asked, changing the subject to me.

  “When I was thirteen, I came home to a note from her and one hundred dollars. The note said that she had to go out of town on business for a week. She had business trips at least once a month after that. Some lasted more than a week, some lasted only the weekend. The trips occurred like that until I was sixteen, and then she decided to make the trips longer. Oh and did I mention that I have a younger sister? I had to take care of her and myself.”

  “How much younger is she than you?”

  “Seven years.”

  “Wow seven? That’s a big gap.”

  “Well, we don’t have the same father, and we both don’t know who our fathers are.”