Chapter 1

Joe appeared to be an average guy, He drove to work 5 days out of the week, he lived in a basement apartment, he paid his taxes yearly and he brushed his teeth twice a day. He appeared average even to himself, though this was not the case.

He was a handsome guy for someone so average, he had light brown hair a chiseled jaw line and stood around 6 foot tall. He had hazel eyes and a beauty mark on his cheek. He kept his hair short and shaved every day, being clean and proper made him feel accomplished somehow.

His goal in life was to run his own restaurant, successful people had goals and ambitions and he thought it would be a good idea to have one too. Just one restaurant would be good enough for him, a feather to put in his cap, it would be open 5 days a week, fine Italian pastas and pizzas with a sociable bar and respectable clientele. He knew the ins and outs of the restaurant world and he knew he could run a business, for he had done it for others for so long. He worked his way through the ranks in the restaurant system, from bus-boy, to server, to supervisor, to manager.

He'd stay a manager for longer than he expected, still working under the general manager and executives, he had been a manager for five years now and was turning thirty. Unhappy with his stagnation he would drown his sorrows at local pubs, bars, and occasionally a nightclub. The numbing of alcohol helped Joe cope with the lack of accomplishment, he had become addicted to the high of the night life where he was often praised by those lesser and more unfortunate.

Recently he had been dumped by his girlfriend Charlotte because of it, they had been together three long years and only just moved in an apartment together, in the third year Joe spent more time at the bar with his "friends" than he did with her. Charlotte broke up with him only four weeks ago, she kicked him out of the apartment and he got lucky enough to find this basement on short notice. She was a nice enough woman, Charlotte, she loved him, and he loved her, once. That was some time ago.

Indeed, everything appeared normal in Joe's life, he had problems just like everyone else he thought, everything was normal in Joe's life. Up until today.

Two knocks on the front door, it was Tuesday and Joe was off work, maybe not an average day off for most, but it was average for Joe, whose schedule was always changing.

"Who is it?" Joe asked, already knowing the answer .

Another two Knocks, he didn't bother to look out the peephole, he knew the only people who ever visited him was his good friend Eddy who he had worked with for ten years (their friendship expanding many restaurants); and his parents, who usually called in advance. Sure as it was Tuesday, when Joe opened the door, there stood Eddy with a big enigmatic smile, you could tell he was up to something.

"Hey buddy" said Eddy grinning ear to ear. "Don't be mad, but I got you the next two weeks off of work."

"You got me off of work? How??"

"I talked to Jerry." Eddy pushed passed Joe and made himself comfortable flopping down on Joe's couch."He approved it!"

Joe's house was neat, he cleaned twice a week and didn't have too much furniture unpacked yet to clutter his hole in the ground.

"He approved what?"

" Your two week get-over-your-ex vacation! Consider it a late birthday present." Eddy was proud of what he'd done. "Here look at the schedule." he pulled up an app on his phone that showed the schedule for the month. Sure enough, Joe saw that he had two weeks booked off. He didn't know whether to be angry that Eddy was able to take liberties with his schedule or relieved that for the next two weeks he wouldn't have to go to work, and Eddy obviously had something planned for those two weeks. He decided to stay impartial, it was his natural instinct.

"How did you get him to book my time off without my permission?"

"I showed him these." At that moment Eddy produced two tickets from his pocket. These tickets were not your average run of the mill tickets, they were golden with two big X's in red ink. Joe had never seen them before and therefore the effect Eddy was hoping for did not come to pass, instead what he got was:

"And? What are those for?" Joe was trying to conceal his curiosity.

"Two tickets to board the XX Stacy, the wildest, hottest, most notorious cruise ever to exist on god's green!"Eddy was pumped up, Joe, not so much.

"The XX Stacy!? Didn't ten people die on that cruise last year?" he worried. In the news headlines last year he remembers something about a cult suicide aboard a private party liner.

"The very same! Exciting isn't it?" Eddy was now up and almost hopping about Joe's apartment. "Let the wild sex-filled misadventures begin!"

"I thought the cruise was banned? Isn't that what happened? It got banned." Joe was pretty sure.

"Yes it was banned, but it isn't anymore. Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have these here tickets." Eddy could always convince Joe, and Joe never really resisted for too long when Eddy had a harebrained scheme; he usually went along because he could not see anything better to do. This instance was also another one of those cases where Joe gave in and let Eddy convince him, for he did have nothing better to do and felt like a party on a cruise ship could be quite fun, he had never been on one before.

"The cruise ships out tomorrow morning so you had better get packing, bring lots of condoms you're going to need them." Eddy said with a wink. Joe not believing him, rolled his eyes and packed his clothes under Eddy's supervision, Eddy made sure he didn't pack any "lazy clothes" which sweatpants, T-shirts and hoodies were classified under. Whilst Eddy was busy searching through Joe's closet for a good shirt, Joe packed away a box of condoms, just in case. He was in good shape and took good care of his body and people often referred to him as handsome. Then it occurred to Joe.

"How did you get these tickets? I thought they were impossible to get a hold of?"

Eddy smiled, a very Eddy smile.

" You won't believe it, The sexiest little blonde thing came by the bar last night wearing a tight black sparkling dress, she was nearly bursting out of it. She sat at the bar with her friend who was also a fox (dark skinned and jacked), and they were asking me all these questions like, do you have a girlfriend, do you live with anyone blah blah blah, they were really interested you know, they were licking their lips and eye-balling my stuff."

"Eye-balling your stuff?"

Eddy pointed to his entire body starting with the lower frontal region.

"It was like they wanted to eat me," he said in the best way possible. " They asked if I had heard of the XX Stacy cruise, (which I had) and they gave me these tickets, for free! On top of that they left a hundred dollar tip!" Eddy was beaming, "This is destiny calling my friend." He had no idea how on the nose that last comment had been.

"That's not what happened, tell me how you really got those tickets?" Joe's disbelief lasted only for a moment, of course this happened to Eddy, he was the most interesting person Joe knew.

After hours of grooming tips and fantasy 'what if' situations Eddy had left Joe's apartment in a whirlwind of lustful joy, leaving Joe alone to contemplate what he had just gotten into. "The XX Stacy was the world's greatest pleasure cruise," he thought. "A party that never stopped. Even if people died on board." and with that thought lingering and a small sense of dread in his stomach, he went to bed.