“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.