by Rye Hart
I groaned. “Please, no strippers,” I said. “I like men just fine, but random genitals in my face is too much. Not really into that, Lila.”
“Genitals,” Lila giggled. “It's a penis. A dick. Cock and balls. You're a grown woman, sweetie. It's okay for you to say those words, you know.”
Hearing each word come out of her mouth made me cringe even more. Lila was cackling with glee on the other end of the phone, knowing she was making me uncomfortable. She seemed to delight in making me squirm. Always had.
Sometimes, I wondered how we ever became best friends. She was always the wild one, even back in middle school when we'd first met. She lost her virginity before anyone else in our little group, and I, of course, was going to be the last. Because at twenty-three, I was still a virgin.
Lila continued, “Fine, there aren't going to be any strippers,” she said. “At least none that I know of.”
I groaned. “That you know of?”
“Calm down,” she said. “It's a cruise,” she said. “Just a little sail on the ocean. Harmless as it comes, right?”
“Maybe?” I bit my lip.
I hated that my best friend would be paying for me to go on a cruise. She had that kind of money, sure, but it still didn't feel right. Cruises weren't cheap, and I wasn't the kind of woman who was comfortable taking handouts.
“Listen, Lila, I appreciate it. But I really don't want you—”
“Shush. It's too late anyway,” she said. “I've already paid for the tickets and it's non-refundable. So, you're going on this cruise with me, whether you like it or not. I have a feeling, though, that you're going to end up liking it a lot.”
“I have classes,” I argued.
“It's during Spring Break,” she said. “I already made sure of it. Relax, Josie. I got you covered. I took care of everything.”
“My mom's chemo, though—”
“I've already called your sister, she's going to be there for your mom,” Lila said. “You literally have no excuse. None. Like I said, I took care of everything. Including, anticipating every excuse you'd throw up not to go and making sure it was covered.”
Lila laughed on the other end of the line, knowing she had me in checkmate. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with something, anything, that would get me out of going. But, like she said, she'd already taken care of everything. Dammit.
“You called Amy?” I asked.
“I did. Right before I booked the tickets,” Lila said, sounding rather pleased with herself. “She's coming into town the day before we leave, so you can give her all the info she needs—”
“You're paying her to visit with our mom,” I said, a statement, not a question. I knew my sister too well. “Please tell me you're not paying her for this.”
I felt sick to my stomach at the mere idea that she'd pay my sister to stay with our mother. And the fact that Lila would go that far upset me greatly.
“No, silly. I'm not paying her, so don't get your panties in a bunch,” she said. “I just mentioned that you don't have much time left with your mom, and you both need to make the most of it.”
“So you guilted her into it?” I shook my head. “Not much better.”
“Why not? It's true,” Lila said. “Amy should spend time with your mother. You don't know how much time you have left with her, and—”
“My mom is going to pull through,” I whispered, my voice catching in my throat.
Lila's voice softened. “Of course she is, sweetheart. I'm just saying, she's not getting any younger, and if my mom were still around, you bet I'd spend every waking minute with her if I could.”
Lila's mother had died about ten years back in a car accident. Sometimes her life seemed so perfect that it was easy to forget that her stepmom wasn't her real mom.
“I'm sorry, Lila,” I said.
“It's all good,” she mumbled.
She kept the emotion out of her voice, forcing herself to sound upbeat, but I knew it wasn't actually “all good” with her. Lila was never okay when it came to talking about her mom. It was a wound that, even a decade later, was still raw to the touch for her.
“But it worked. Amy is coming into town and you and I will be embarking on a little birthday adventure,” she said. “That's all that matters.”
“I don’t know,” I hemmed and hawed.
“Come on, Josie. It'll be fun,” Lila said. “And girl, you need a vacation more than anyone I know. You need to get out of this place for a while just to detox from it. And I bet that you find with a little time away, a little time to clear your head and actually have a little fun enjoying your life, you won't feel so burned out.”
She was right. I was worn out from burning the candle at both ends for so long. Most days, I felt exhausted from going to school full-time and being at the hospital the rest of the time. I couldn't remember the last time I got a full night's sleep.
Maybe, this was what I needed, maybe I could get some rest. Maybe, that would allow me to come back refreshed, recharged, and be better for my mom. Because God knew, she needed me.
“Alright, Lila,” I laughed. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'll go.”
Chapter Two
Josie
The cruise was out of San Diego, which meant we didn't have to go very far to get to the terminal. It was one benefit of living in a beautiful, coastal area, I suppose. Not that I got to enjoy it much very often. Lila explained it was a short cruise. She knew I’d have to get back before classes started, and I’d need to study. But she’d made me promise I wouldn’t bring any homework on the trip. It was hard for me to promise because I had so much to do in order to keep my grades up, and I needed to keep my grades up because I needed to keep my scholarships.
There’d be time when I got back, though, so I told her I’d do nothing but relax. It was my first cruise, and the first vacation I’d taken as an adult. I was a little apprehensive about it at first, the anxiety of everything going on and everything I had to do weighing down on me, but as the day of departure grew closer, the more excited I felt myself getting.
Being that it was early April in Southern California, the weather was about as perfect as it could get. It was a tad chillier than normal on the coast, thanks to the cool ocean breeze, but it felt amazing. I could bask in the sunlight all day, and while we were boarding, I had a big smile on my face as I imagined laying out on the deck, letting the sun warm my body, while feeling the gentle roll of the ocean beneath us.
“Feeling better already, I see,” Lila said, a satisfied smirk on her face. “Aren’t you glad you came now?”
“I am, actually,” I said. “Thank you, Lila. I guess you knew what I needed better than I did.”
She squeezed my hand. “I know you, girl. And I know you need to relax now and then,” she said. “You’ve been so tense and stressed lately, you just needed to unplug for a while.”
“That I do,” I laughed.
Lila and I stopped off at our cabin and I felt my eyes grow wide and my mouth fall open when I saw where we’d be staying. She’d paid extra for a suite that was larger than my studio apartment. Two separate sleeping quarters, a balcony that overlooked the ocean, and a nice sized bathroom to boot. I had no idea rooms that large existed on a cruise ship, but of course, Lila only did things up big. Only the best would do.
“Birthday girl gets pick of the rooms!” Lila exclaimed, dropping her suitcase in the small living area.
I glanced at the two nearly identical rooms, and finally picked the one closest to the water, with a window that opened so I could fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean waves in my ears and the scent of the sea in my nose. That left Lila with the room closest to the door. The walls were colored in a rich, deep burgundy and had intricate designs done in a lighter shade. The bedding was mostly white with hints of burgundy and trimmed in gold. It was all very fancy, especially to a broke college student like myself. And when I collapsed upon the bed, I felt myself sinking into it, and I sighed with contentment
. It was pure heaven.
“I'm going to get so much sleep in here,” I exclaimed, feeling my eyes already getting heavy.
“You are so not going to sleep the whole time,” Lila called from her room. “We're going to have fun too.”
I rolled over on the bed and found a brochure sitting on the nightstand. I picked it up and flipped through it, rolling my eyes at all the beautiful people photographed within. Many of them were mostly naked, frolicking about in skimpy bikinis, lounging in hot tubs and tanning by the pool.
Then something caught my eye—the title of one of the clubs on board the ship.
“Hedonistic Heaven,” I read aloud and then, intrigued, continued reading the description of the place. “A club for only the naughtiest, most open-minded of guests. Come get your kink on.”
I giggled, thinking it was crazy that a cruise would have such a place, but then again, they had to accommodate everyone. I flipped to the section listing the numerous pools on the ship and it felt like my heart stopped in my chest.
“Lila?” I called out.
“Mhmm,” she muttered, popping her head into my room.
“What kind of cruise is this exactly?”
“What do you mean?”
Her gray eyes twinkled, and she couldn't quite keep the small smile off her face, though she tried really hard. I knew she knew exactly what I meant and knew exactly what kind of a cruise this was. But she kept smiling at me, giving me that innocent stare like the kid who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“Why does it say that most of the pools are clothing optional?”
Lila shrugged. “Because we're adults, silly. This is a no-kids-allowed kind of cruise,” she said, brushing me off as if that explained everything.
“And why is there a kink club on board?”
“Oh, there is?” Lila asked, her eyes wide as she rushed into the room and plopped down beside me on the bed. “I must have missed that.”
She snatched the brochure from my hands and read from it, allowing me to see the front cover, which I hadn't see when I first picked it up. The name on the cover of the brochure caught my eye now, though.
“Hedonistic Adventures?” I exclaimed. “Singles cruise! What were you thinking, Lila?”
Lila cackled, falling back on my bed, her long brown hair flying around her face as she rolled around, obviously enjoying every second of my freak-out.
“I thought it would be fun, Josie,” she said. “I thought doing something different and exciting for a change would be a blast. Not to mention that I think it'd be good for you.”
I stared at her, disbelief running through my veins, mixing with the anxiety. Of all the things she could have done, taking me on a singles cruise was probably about the worst thing. This was not my scene, nor was I interested in it. I had too much to worry about without having to worry about, well, something like that. I'd heard about singles cruises before and it was definitely not for me.
“What?” she asked, the smile on her face growing even wider. “You don't think it sounds like fun?”
“Not really,” I mumbled. “You know I'm a—”
“I know, I know,” Lila said, propping herself up on her elbow, giving me a long look. “But I thought maybe you could cut loose a little bit. Maybe even meet someone. God knows, you need to get laid, Josie.”
I threw the brochure at her, a wide range of thoughts and emotions rolling through my mind and body. The ship had already left port, so there was no way to get off now. I was stuck there, on a cruise ship full of single men, all of them looking to get laid. Great.
Not that she was wrong. I did want to have sex. Eventually. It just wasn't that easy for met with my conservative, strict upbringing, and my mom's old-fashioned views on sex ringing in my ears every time I tried to get intimate with a guy.
Knowing all that, if Lila thought taking me on a cruise full of horny men would change that overnight, she was not only a fool, she'd wasted a lot of money.
“I guess I can hang out by the one pool that isn't clothing optional,” I mumbled.
“Come on, Josie, you have a great body,” Lila said.
I scowled at her. “That's not the point.”
While Lila had a supermodel kind of body—slim and trim, naturally—I was more on the curvy side. I had hips and a little belly on me. My breasts were larger and fuller, which was the one thing I had on Lila I supposed. But it wasn't something I was proud of, thanks to my mom always chastising me to keep them covered up to “avoid tempting the wrong kinds of men.”
“The best part about a cruise like this, Josie, is you'll never see any of these people again,” Lila smiled. “So you don't have to be ashamed and you don't have to worry. What happens on this ship, stays on this ship. You can let loose, get naked, have wild sex with a stranger in the hallway and never have to worry about running into him again. And you never have to worry about anybody here judging you because we're all here for the same thing.”
I had to admit, it sounded nice in theory, but I knew I was frigid. Not that I didn't want to have sex. I just froze whenever things headed that way. I'd freeze and bolt, the echo of my mom's voice in my head condemning me for being a whore.
“We'll see,” I sighed, falling back onto the perfect little cloud I'd be sleeping on. “At least the bed is comfortable.”
ooo000ooo
“Just because it's clothing optional doesn't mean you have to get naked, you know,” Lila said. “You can still wear your swimsuit, no one will care. That's the definition of the word optional, silly. Didn't you learn that in college?”
“But that means I have to stare at a bunch of naked people.”
Lila raised an eyebrow. “What, you don't like naked men?”
“That's not what I meant,” I countered. “Having them parading around in front of me, all dangling and flopping around like that—it'd just be weird, that's all.”
“Nothing weird about it,” Lila argued. “Just because you were raised to be a prude, doesn't mean there's anything wrong with nudity. The human body is a beautiful thing. A work of art, even. You should enjoy it as such.”
My cheeks flushed red and burned with the heat of embarrassment. I knew there was no way she was going to let me get out of it. Lila had always been wilder than me, and she got a kick out of pushing me out of my comfort zone. Most of the time, it was a lot of fun and I could later admit that I needed it, but sometimes, it was a bit too much.
Still, she was right. I liked men as much as any straight, warm-blooded female, and I could admire their naked form as much as the next girl.
“As long as I can stay dressed, fine,” I said, grudgingly.
Which was how we ended up in the top pool deck, surrounded by naked people. Men and women, strolling around and letting it all hang out like the didn't have a care in the world. As I looked around, though, I noticed that I wasn't the only one hesitant to take their clothes off, thankfully. I wasn't alone up there.
It almost seemed to me like the folks who stripped down the quickest were either seasoned pros or perhaps had been hired to help people get more comfortable. There were also quite a few people who remained partially clothed. A few women removed their tops. Guys wore nothing but a towel covering their privates.
Lila was wearing a tiny bikini that barely covered anything as it was, and she reached behind and undid the halter straps, letting it fall and exposing her A-cup breasts in all their glory. I gaped at her, not even close to believing she'd just bared her chest for the world to see. Lila's breasts were paler than the rest of her skin.
“About time I got some sun on these puppies,” she said with a wink as she laid back on the lounge chair.
But Lila wasn't done shocking me. Oh, not even close. Before she got herself completely settled, she slipped off her bottoms. Seeing her laying there, entirely nude, made me flush and look away. It wasn't like I hadn't seen her naked before—we'd changed in front of each other countless times. But this was different. I didn't want to
stare at my best friend's privates, especially not in public.
Part of me envied her ability to strip down and bare it all without a care in the world. I loved the idea of being free from my swimsuit, allowing my own breasts to get some color, and maybe even attract a little attention while I was at it. Though she'd been nude less than two minutes, I noticed that Lila was already drawing a little attention and felt a pang of jealousy shoot through me.
Men and women glanced down at her naked form, admiring her perky, small tits and thin body. If Lila noticed, she didn't acknowledge it. Instead, she sipped her cocktail and put on some sunglasses, getting cozy in the chair like this was your normal pool, and she was fully clothed. “It feels so nice having the cool ocean air on my body,” she said. “You're missing out, Josie.”
“I'm good,” I said.
Lila had talked me into getting my first bikini for this trip, though looking at the naked and half-clothed people around the pool, I didn't know why she bothered. I liked the bikini, though. It was a vintage style with a high waist and a halter style top. Navy blue with white polka dots. I'd thought it was cute and sexy, but now I felt overdressed as I stared at the folks around me. Even the folks with swimsuits were still pretty bare—G-strings and strapless bikini tops. And, of course, there were muscled bodies and toned abs everywhere.
It was a lot to take in. A lot to absorb and process. And I wasn't quite sure where to begin, to be perfectly honest.
“Oh my God, Josie, don't look, but there's a mega hot guy heading our way,” Lila whispered, adjusting her glasses and staring off to her right. “Do you see him?”
“You told me not to look,” I muttered, doing as she said.
Lila slapped my arm as if I should have been able to read her mind. I turned my head and glanced in the direction she was staring, and my eyes fell on him immediately. As I took in his form, I felt like I couldn't breathe for a second. It was a tired old cliché, but he looked like a Greek God. He clocked in at well over six feet and was built like a statue.
