He pulled out a chair for me to sit and kissed my cheek, softly but quickly, and told me he would have breakfast ready in a jiff. “After that I will fill you in with my plan…”
I looked at him and thought for a moment. I could go on the cruise with my son. Fuck Eric and anyone else that might want to say something. I was going to have the best time of my life and I wouldn’t let that son of a bitch ruin it for me. I had wanted to go on a cruise all my life, and by god I would. Even if it was with my son.
Roy did his homework. He told me that, because we would be going on a honeymoon cruise, I wasn’t going to get my money back for anything in the world. We have to go as a couple.
He told me to practice calling him Roy and he would call me nothing but Anna. He said that we had to start acting like a couple too. We would need to start holding hands and putting our arms around each other. That I would need to practice sitting with him as my lover not my son, and that I needed to practice smiling too.
“Why are you doing all this son… Roy?” I asked.
“Mom… Anna, you have wanted to go on a cruise for as long as I have been here. I want you to go. This is paid for and, unless you have a boyfriend around that we don’t know about, I am your best choice.” He smiled at me and said, “Let me restate that… It would be my privilege and honor to escort you on this cruise. You know maybe I am being greedy, but I want to give you this.”
I couldn’t help it; I loved my son even more now. “OH. Shit son… Roy, there is something you might like to know. Ahhh … well…”
“What is it mom… Anna? Damn, this is going to be harder than I thought.”
We both laughed then I finally got out, “Roy, well you see, I paid for the captain to remarry me and your dad during the cruise.”
“Anna, the law that allows captains to marry people has pretty much been abolished. Nowadays they just preside over a pleasant, yet fake, ceremony. It is just something to do, and say you did, and I would be fine marrying you anyway. Anna…”
We both smiled at the way he said “Anna”.
“So, you won’t be embarrassed at marrying, dating and hanging onto your old mom for a whole week?” I asked.
“Hell no… it would be a privilege to be with you. I will be the envy of everyone on the ship.”
I went to him and gave him a big thank you kiss that would have offended a lot of the self-righteous hypocrites that I would normally avoid at all costs. But they didn’t know what this young man was going to do for me. Roy was going to help me to fulfill my dream, my dream of sailing the seas on a cruise ship. So, I kissed him again.
We practiced being a couple a lot. He was wonderful at remembering to call me “Anna”, and I got pretty good at not calling him son. And when I forgot, I would make it sound like “Sonny Roy”.
At the house, I had the locks changed and had three security cameras installed as well. A security firm would monitor the cameras while we were on the cruise.
Eric had filed for divorce and, after reading the divorce documents, I signed and returned them to the court without complaint. The settlement proposed that I would keep the house and our savings. Eric, I am sure, cheated us out of several thousand dollars, however I was just glad that it was over.
Chapter three: Cruise date arrives
The day of the cruise departure eventually arrived. Finally we boarded our ship and I could feel tears in my eyes as I walked up the gangplank holding my date’s arm. I pulled him to me and held him tight.
We were at one of the landings, just looking around, when one of the other passengers said. “Is this your honeymoon? You look like a wonderful couple.” I was suddenly tongue tied and couldn’t think of anything to say when Roy spoke up. “This is my fiance”, he said in a pride filled voice. “We are to be married on the ship. When is our wedding Anna???”
I was speechless. First, I was living a dream of the cruise that I had wanted for so long, second, my son just rescued me, third we were getting married????
“Oh… Oh… Ohhh… I think it is tomorrow. Noon at the… Shoot I am glad I wrote it down.” I flustered.
“Now that is one nervous bride, isn’t she?” observed Joy, the female of the couple with whom we were chatting. “Well, let us know if you need any witnesses”, said the smiling gentleman. “We are here for our second honeymoon. Hope we have as much fun as you will.”
Then Joy came to me and softly whispered, “He is a good-looking young man. If he is too much for you give me a call. Bill poops out pretty fast these days.”
My cheeks flamed red, but her smile and giggle suddenly broke through my embarrassment and I started to laugh. Roy put his arms around me and laughed with us as well.
We found our stateroom and the first thing I noticed was that it only had one bed. The second thing I noticed was that it wasn’t even a queen bed. It was a double bed. “OHHHH shit”, I thought to myself as I felt Roy wrap his arms around me from behind. “We will be ok mom… Anna. We can do this.” He held me firmly.
As he held me, I admitted to myself for the first time ever, that he didn’t understand how I felt about him. A week ago, I couldn’t have slept with him, I couldn’t have married him, I couldn’t even have had a wedding night with him.
But now, something had changed. I felt something in me that I hadn’t felt since maybe three years after Eric and I were married. And I felt it with my son.
Chapter four: Honeymoon Surprise Wedding
Roy:
I wanted to kill the son-of-a-bitch. Dammit. I wanted him dead. And I wanted to mop up his blood with his girlfriend’s hair. How dare he hurt my mother like he did!! After I threw him and his whore out the front door of our home, I told him flat out that he would not ever be able to walk again if he showed up at the house when me or mom were around. Then I told him I would hunt him down if he took something that didn’t belong to him out of the house.
After I said that he went to hit me, but I stopped his hand, grabbed him by the throat and softly explained, “Dad, you blew it. I am going to take care of mom now and if you want to mix it up with me, trust me, I fight dirty and you will have several broken bones.”
His fight suddenly left him. He had been paying for me to go to kickboxing classes for the last twelve years. The last twelve months I had been undefeated after ten fights before I quit. It just wasn’t for me. My Dad left after that without another word.
I knew my mom better than anyone knew her. She was my mom, after all. I knew what this cruise meant to her; it was her lifelong dream. I held my mom most of the night. It was after three in the morning before she fell asleep. I cleaned the dining room and kitchen. I took all the food out to the trash cans. I knew if she had seen it then she would start to cry again.