Death on Holiday

Chapter 8

Auckland was over, and now we were traveling to Mount Bellisle. It was another day at sea, though, first, and I was lucky. I had a date to prepare for. And that night was also 50s theme, with a huge party. I was looking forward to that, and I was hoping to maybe even have a date to that too by the end of the afternoon.

It was hard to choose a nice outfit for the cafe outing. Pheobe and Max came to my room to help me find some appropriate and nice attire; Pheobe for the actual outfit's look, Max just for moral support, and to tell us I looked ridiculous and Harvey would think normal me was better. I nearly cried thinking that. 

So in the end we decided on jeggings (black, cos black is cool, man) and a cute pink hoodie with an ADORABLE cat on the front. I matched it with my hair down (NEVER like it was at school), and my black and grey sneakers, and I was ready.

While I was off at my date, my friends were going to hang out at our kids' club (or as we called it, the teen bar). I told them to let all of our new friends know that I said hi and would see them all later. Max winked and said, "I'll let them know you and HARVEY are having some fun, eh?" I blushed to the root of my scalp.

They left me at the lifts beside a large garden and fountain. "Good luck!" squealed Pheobe. She hugged me tightly.

Max just grinned. "Oooh, here he comes!" she exclaimed, like a ridiculously annoying teenage girl, and pulled our other friend away.

I turned and saw him. 

WOW.

He was wearing a black band shirt featuring Pink Floyd, and grey pants. He was every bit the boy I wanted in my life. "Well, shall we go?" he asked me nervously, flicking his eyes at my face.

I smiled back. "Yes!"

We wandered almost silently along the boulevard down the centre of the ship. It wasn't until he shyly whispered, "You look really nice", that I began REALLY grinning.

"Thank you", I breathed.

We got to the cafe, found a seat, and he stepped up to order our food; both chocolate cupcakes, as well as a hot chocolate for me, and a tea for him. We sat and subtly stared at the other, though we could both see it was happening. The silence was probably meant to feel awkward, but it didn't. It felt more like companionable pauses, if I remember correctly now.

"Excited for tonight?" he asked.

I smiled. "Yep, can't wait! I love the 50s, it's so interesting".

"I know!" he replied, grinning at me, obviously VERY happy.

"All the fashions are so pretty", I continued. "And even the music and dances are still cool these days".

"Yeah". Harvey looked down, fiddling with his napkin. I'd ask you to dance at the first song, but Max always likes to act like I'm her date at these sort of things. We'll have to settle for later".

I think my heart stopped beating.

Had he seriously just asked me to dance? With him? TONIGHT??? I couldn't dance! But DAMN was I going to try tonight.

I think my face literally lit up, beaming as bright as the sun. I was surprised he didn't whip out some sunglasses. "Yes, we will!"

We made some more conversation, mostly small talk, but some deeper stuff as well. We discussed our dream futures, and luckily, that night, I found out that he did want a family. I didn't get many other chances after that. We both wanted kids, surprisingly, and he loved the fact that I wanted to teach. He smiled and said he would definitely trust me teaching his kids. He asked once more if I wanted to get off the next day at Mount Bellisle. I told him no again, though I felt absolutely terrible doing so. I nearly said yes to his hopeful face.