Chapter 3
After a few moments of waiting in the line and a couple more conspiracy theories, a group of six women passed and joined in line behind Joe and Eddy, they were beautiful, and paid no attention to the men around them. One girl was especially eye-catching to Joe, she had a nose piercing, dark hair, she wore a Heavy metal t-shirt and short shorts, her legs went on for days, he couldn't help but stare.
"What did I tell you Joe? Sex, drugs and rock and roll." Eddy said as he noticed Joe's jaw dropping, "All our lives we've been preparing for this one cruise, and after it we can die happy men." He was right, at least about the preparation part, it was not guaranteed that they would die happy or not.
"Excuse me, ladies?" Eddy started out planting seeds as he called it, getting the women's attention. "Have you been on this cruise before? We're new to the whole party cruise thing and could use some pointers." Eddy finished with a suave smirk.
"Well we've never partied on this cruise before but we've got some experience on party cruises, first thing you need to know: figure out where all the bathrooms are, never know when you are going to spew." The babe with the nose ring said.
"That's good advice," Joe butt-in "I'll make a map of all the bathrooms first and I'll share it with you." Eddy squinted at Joe and Joe dropped his eyes, he was nervous. All of his years and his managing experience disappeared when he was outside of work. He brought his gaze back up, he remembered to look them all in the eyes at once knowing that women were like a wild animal, he couldn't show any sign of weakness or he'd be ripped apart.
"You're so useful," Eddy said with a big smile on his face, "Joe here actually won us the tickets in a competitive usefulness competition." Eddy was clearly making fun of Joe now and Joe's face turned a bright red.
"We won a contest too, for dancing." said a Hispanic brown-eyed, brown-haired, angel. After which the other girls giggled amongst themselves.
"They were gifted to you?" asked Joe.
"Dancing? Joe here is quite the dancer himself, He can teach you a thing or two." said Eddy with conviction, the girls looked at Joe, he could feel himself begin to sweat.
"Is that so?" replied the Hispanic angel.
"I usually charge for lessons but for you guys I'd do it for free." Joe tried to say in the coolest way possible.
"Sounds like a challenge." said the dark haired heavy metal goddess who smiled at Joe, noticing their common interest in at least wearing heavy metal T-shirts.
Joe suddenly felt the coolness leave his body, her green eyes cut into his soul, he froze.
"It is a challenge!" Eddy stepped in. "Isn't it Joe?" Eddy nudged him.
"it is." Joe said matter-of-fact.
"Well then, there's only one way to settle this." stated the Hispanic angel "With a dance-off!" she and her friends laughed, all of them beautiful and flirty and tattooed. Joe was in heaven and he hadn't even made it on board.
As they waited in line, Eddy managed to use his favorite line "Do you come here often?" then he got the names of the six girls and introduced himself and Joe. The dark-haired green-eyed heavy metal goddess was Caroline, the Hispanic angel was Mercedes , their friends: a tall blonde with a full sleeve of tattoos and a lip piercing was Natalie, the shorter one with thick hips and luscious lips was Emily, The one who had no interest in the men at all was Karen and her close friend with rainbow hair was Zoë.
During the waiting process the red-haired man and thick frames also managed to get themselves into the conversations, but the conversations ended abruptly after that and they never got to introduce themselves.
The red-haired man was the Eddy of the two Joe thought, he was excited and eager to board the pleasure cruise and add to his sexual interaction repertoire . Thick frames was more cautious like him, he relayed the stats he had heard about the XX Stacy and how over a thousand people have died or went missing on this cruise because of over-partying or other nefarious means. Facts like these brought back the dread that had sunk away upon talking with the ladies.
By the time they reached the boarding ramp, the girls were busy talking to another group of guys behind them and Joe kept checking back to see if Caroline was looking at him, she wasn't not that he saw (but she was when he wasn't looking). The security guards were big burly men and Joe had spotted that there were some guards carrying sub-machine guns, which he pointed out to Eddy who told him it was for their protection.
The dread came back and grew, to the point when the security guard checked his ticket, his instincts told him to turn back, hop in a cab, and go home. Why was he so nervous? Was he afraid of being confined to a ship for almost 2 weeks? The cruise itself was a ten day cruise, five days to get out to the international borders and then another five days back.
The only thing that relieved his dread was the treasure trove of beautiful women around him, some noticed him and others were licking their lips at the sight of him. He wondered if his casual, cool dress made him stand out, he had thought he'd been special but then...
"It's happening again." Eddy stated.
"What's happening again?" asked Joe
"I feel like a piece of meat! This is going to be the greatest thing ever to exist. Ever. These girls look hungry." Eddy said as he flexed his Pecs.
Finally, they made it out of the queue and were free to find their room. The tickets read 1308, they exchanged their tickets for keys at a kiosk. The key was an electronic key-card.
Joe managed to find Caroline and Mercedes and the others one last time before heading to the room to drop off his luggage.
"I look forward to our dance-off! he yelled out over the crowd, they laughed to themselves and Caroline blew him a kiss before disappearing into the massive ocean liner crowd.
"Smooth, don't forget to make a map of all the washrooms." Eddy chuckled. Before Joe could retort he went on, "Didn't I tell you this was going to be great!? I've never seen so many hotties in one place, and we are going to be stuck on a ship with them, for ten days!"
"It's almost too good to be true." said Joe.
"But it is true, look around." Eddy said as he gestured to the crowd of people all around them. The sun was rising now by the time they made it onto the lower deck. The day was only just starting but all Joe could think about was getting into his bed and catching up on the sleep he never got.