Chapter 16

I hated not telling Josie what was troubling me. I knew though, that if I told her who had just boarded the ship, she would have gone ballistic. Ever since I first met her I had always tried to tell her the truth and now I was lying to her as I insisted it must have been something I ate that had caused me to feel ill. I couldn't think straight as I was trying to come up with any ideas as to how I could avoid my ex-wife. My mind was racing as I concentrated on the terrible consequences of Claire discovering I was using a false name and her ever finding out what I was doing on-board the ship, - that damn woman seemed to be holding my whole fucking future in her hands once again...

I protested, probably a little too vehemently, when my wife tried to make me to go to see the ship's nurse and get something to stop me feeling ill. I knew exactly what was wrong, I just couldn't tell her. Josie had always instinctively known when something wasn't right with me, she could read me like a book when I was trying to keep something from her. Consequently, this time she was clearly suspicious about why I was refusing to go to the sick bay. She didn't push it though. Deep down I think she knew I would tell her when I felt the time was right.

Over the next few days I was moody and irritable with almost everyone, not my usual self at all. I was so scared of my ex-wife seeing me that I ended up staying in our cabin as long as possible during the day and only leaving it at night to nervously do my shift behind the bar. The whole time I was working I was as jumpy as a kitten every time the door opened and some new passengers came into the lounge. Josie had never seen me like that before. I had always been cheerful and outgoing with the customers. Now I was quiet and morose, almost to the point of being curt and impatient when I was serving them their drinks. She quizzed me several times about what was wrong, reluctantly choosing to believe me when I told her everything was OK and I was just feeling a little under the weather that's all.

Normally after my shift I would spend an hour in the ship's gym to help me wind down and to keep me fit. Jimmy, the leisure centre manager, had supplied me with a key enabling me to come and go as I pleased whenever the gym was empty of passengers- it always was at 3am. The passengers were all usually tucked up in their cabins by that time, or drunk, or often both. Working out in a sweaty gym was the last thing crossing their booze-befuddled minds after a night of eating and drinking to excess. Those first few days of that fateful cruise I never went near the gym. Instead, immediately after we had cleared up in the bar, I would get to our cabin as quickly as possible, snuggling up to my surprised wife who was not used to me being there so soon after work. Another change in my habits she quietly quizzed me about. We didn't even make love those first few nights either. I just wasn't in the mood as I worried about what might happen to us- again something Josie noticed but thankfully never mentioned.

Four days into the cruise I had calmed down sufficiently to decide that enough was enough. I had to face my demons sometime. If the bitch recognised me and decided to expose my secret then I would have to face the consequences. If the powers that be then decided I should be sacked, then so be it. I had served my time for something I didn't do and losing my job was just something else that fucking ex-wife of mine would be responsible for. Josie knew almost everything about me anyway and I had to hope that Claire would be satisfied with just telling her who I really was and what I had been convicted of, knowing that if she did, Josie would just laugh at her and it wouldn't be a problem.

I started to go out with Josie during the day as we normally did. Exploring whatever island we were visiting at the time, we would go swimming and snorkelling in the warm sea from the delightful white-sand beaches, (a new hobby we had taken up together a couple of years previously). I loved the feeling of freedom it brought as we swam together. The wonderful sight of my wife, most of the time topless and sometimes even nude, never failed to inspire an overwhelming feeling of well-being in me. Having her holding my hand while swimming by my side as we observed all the spectacularly coloured sea-life of the Caribbean was possibly the most relaxed feeling I had ever experienced.

During the days on-board I would occasionally see Claire around and about. I must admit I was looking out for her, hoping to see her before she saw me. I was lucky on a couple of occasions but fortunately managed to avoid any contact with her at all. She always seemed to be wrapped around her partner whenever I saw them, ignoring anything else around her as she concentrated all her attention on him. I can only assume he must have been extremely well off for her to be that attentive to him- he was nothing like the type of man she had always fancied before. Maybe he had a huge dick? Maybe he was another leading gangster like that fucking Karl bloke? I didn't know, I could only speculate.

I heard all about her though. The ship's grapevine was full of staff complaining about the rude and arrogant couple who had tried to insist on eating at the Captain's table every night and never tipped any of the staff who served them, just demanded almost exclusive attention from whichever member of the crew they decided to bully. "Pretentious twats" was probably the most accurate and damning description of them from one of the crew who had been unfortunate enough to have crossed their paths when they were demanding help with something by the side of the pool one day. Gradually I began to relax a little more as the week went on. Claire and her husband hadn't come into our cocktail bar at all when I was there and it got to the stage where I began to think I may get through the whole three-week cruise without being confronted by the woman I still fucking hated beyond words. Then New Year's Eve happened...

There had been several huge parties going on around the ship earlier in the evening. A gala dinner in the restaurant; a special show in the theatre; dancing in the ballroom at midnight for the celebrations. All the usual New Year's festivities. Things had started to quieten down a little as most of the passengers made their drunken way to bed just leaving the usual die-hards to carry on drinking. Luckily Josie wasn't singing in the lounge that night- she was happily ensconced in our cabin after we had passionately kissed to welcome the New Year- out of sight of the bar patrons of course.