As he entered the emigration tent on Long Wharf on the waterfront in Saint John, Canada, Freddie was in time to observe what must be the tail end of a particularly loud argument between Maria and Ralph Tinsley, two of the diners that he regularly served at the late seating in the main dining room of the “Quincy Queen”. There was a broad circle of empty space around the two. Other departing passengers were giving them a wide berth and turning their faces away from the battle as if nothing was happening.

She, elegantly thin, a well-preserved late forties, and European in look, was standing stiffly, arms folded over her chest and looking into the distance along the long expanse of empty tent space off to the side of the long line of passengers moving toward the tour buses. In that corner of the tented area a young man was singing Sinatra songs with the use of a boom box and microphone. The husband, older than she was by a good ten years, and twice her bulk, with a bullet-shaped bald head and military bearing in spite of the shorts and T-shirt he was wearing, towered over the woman, fists clinched. The fireworks had stopped before Freddie entered the tent, but it was clear to the cruise line dining room waiter that this had been a rolling altercation—he’d heard some of it at dinner the previous night, as the ship cruised along from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Saint John, Canada. It was equally clear that the woman was beyond exasperation.

Freddie—that wasn’t his real name, but it was an approximation he had settled on because the passengers wouldn’t have been able to pronounce the name he’d been given at birth in Goa, India—had become very attentive to this couple. There obviously was a bubbling sexual tension between them that was something Freddie honed in on. He slowed down and turned off to the side, searching through his shoulder bag like he was looking for something, so that he’d have an opportunity to watch this little drama further. Several of those passing by him gave him a smile—more than one, like that French gay couple, gave him lingering looks of appreciation and interest. Freddie was striking, being a near identical twin of a young Denzel Washington, even down to the dark skin, thanks to his Goan ancestry. Freddie smiled back to each and every one, everyone being a future possibility, while keeping his eye on Maria and Ralph.

Freddie wondered how many of these passengers showing interest in him in his shorts and T-shirt recognized him as one of the dining room waiters rather than another paying passenger. To a great extent, his staff uniform was a barrier that helped him settle on possibilities. If someone—woman or man, it didn’t matter much which to Freddie—looked beyond his dining room uniform and still showed and signaled interest in him, it gave him some assurance and a place to start. Both Maria and Ralph, when they were jabbing and hissing at each other, had given him such looks during the last two dinner settings. Alphonse, the section head waiter, who did much of the identification and acquiring for him, for a cut of the profit, had already inclined his head toward the couple more than once during dinner service.

Tour tickets in hand, Ralph, with a motion for Maria to follow him, marched toward where tour guides were sorting out people to go on the various buses on separate tours. As soon as the man turned and stepped off, though, Maria, still clutching her sides with arms crossed across her chest and eyes downcast, started meandering, almost in circles, into the empty interior of the tent at the side of the line.

With wide gestures and intimidating on-the-edge speech, no doubt fed by the angry exchange just now with his wife, Ralph was engaging two of the tour guides. By the time he’d finished concentrating on them and looked around to realize that Maria wasn’t behind him, she had drifted to the far corner of the tent, behind the strolling minstrel crooner.

Ralph’s demeanor took on a panicked aspect, and he looked all up and down the line of passengers moving toward the bus and the footpath up into the city as if he was bereft to be left alone. He didn’t look as far away as the far corner of the tent, though, where Maria was moving through an opening in the canvas and toward the footpath.

Freddie realized this was an opportunity and one that came before he had anticipated it would. He would pick them off separately, which was better than tackling them together. But which one?

Ralph was moving up and down the line of passengers, obviously looking for his wife. Freddie could almost hear him growl and look back at the ship, take two steps in that direction, and then change his mind and move back in line toward the buses.

With a smile and an apology, Freddie cut through the line to the other side and, walking through the immense empty quadrant of the tent where the crooner was swaying and moving, passed through the opening at the far corner. Maria was well ahead of him, moving toward the path that followed around the ends of disused and deteriorating piers and then wound around the base of the Hilton Hotel and led up into the center of the old section of Saint John.

He followed her, through the crowds from the “Quincy Queen” and two larger cruise ships, up the hill and into town. She was shopping the windows of the commercial street, the stores not yet open, but, although she looked in the windows, she didn’t appear to be seeing anything. Freddie walked faster, but still unobtrusively, smiling at those he passed and getting appreciative “doesn’t he look just like...” smiles in return as he narrowed the distance between him and Maria.

She was standing in front of a jewelry store window, what claimed to be a Native American store, with a window full of sliver and turquoise and other polished stones jewelry. She was just standing there, teary eyed, tense still from frustration, and looking at the display of jewelry.

“I like that large slide there, the turquoise with the white veining in it,” he said in a low, mellow voice. His voice sounded like Denzel Washington’s too. “I think it would look great on you. Oh, and that tie tack is great too. I know just what I’d wear it with.” Actually, he knew just where he’d hock it and get over $100 for it.

“Eh, what?”

“That pendant right here,” Freddie said, leaning into her close and pointing.

“Yes, it’s pretty,” Maria said in an offhand manner, but as soon as the words were out, she was brought up short, no doubt recognizing the timbre of his voice, but not necessarily knowing why or where from. She turned her face to the young man standing beside her and couldn’t help returning his engaging smile.

“Aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am, Freddie from the ship’s dining room. Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have—”

“No, no, Freddie. I’m happy to see a familiar face.”

“It’s a bit early for shopping in Saint John, ma’am. The old Victorian houses are a couple of streets higher, on Germain Street, if you’d like to see them first. Or there’s a coffee shop or two—”

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you ... Freddie?”

“Yes, ma’am. This is my third circuit on this run this season.”

“I’d like a cup of coffee. If you could show me a good coffee shop nearby, I’d be happy to treat you to—”

“Oh, I’m sure you don’t want to ... didn’t Mr. Tinsley come off the ship with you?”

“I have no idea where Colonel Tinsley is at the moment and don’t really care.” The “colonel” was pronounced with venom in her voice. But she regained control. “And I would really like a cup of coffee and have no idea where to get one.”

“Just down that street over there, you’ll find a good coffee shop. Not a chain, so it won’t be as crowded. Here, I’ll show you.”

Once in the coffee shop and sitting in a booth off to the corner and having coffee to sip, Freddie started in. “You seemed a bit sad back there at the jewelry store.”

“Did I? I guess this cruise isn’t doing what I had hoped. I had hoped it would clarify, but it’s just brought into focus something I didn’t want to see. Here, separated from West Point and all that entails, I thought I’d see so much more clearly. Unfortunately, I think I have.”

Her forearms were on the table in front of her, her fists clinched. Freddie reached over and gently unclinched them. She didn’t resist. “You are too tense,” he said, “Sometimes it helps to let some of it out. You are supposed to be on vacation, I believe.”

It wasn’t long before she was telling him of the sexual tension between her husband and herself because of his affairs—all short term—but all terribly frustrating and embarrassing for her. What Freddie focused on, though, was what she didn’t say but what he knew more because of what he’d been able to overhear while standing station in the dining room—when he, as a waiter, was just part of the wallpaper and unnoticed in the muttering, short jabs, the two had made to each other. What Freddie knew, which Maria wasn’t owning up to, was that the colonel’s affairs had been with men.

“I’m sorry,” she said after she’d wound down, “I didn’t mean to unload like that. I’m so embarrassed.”

“Don’t worry about it, beautiful lady. My lips are sealed.” Only as Freddie pulled a hand away to make a zipping gesture across his smiling, alluring face did Maria realize that they had been holding hands across the table and that all of the tension had flowed out of her. She didn’t take her other hand out of his.

“You are a beautiful woman,” Freddie whispered. “You deserve far better than that.”

She looked down sheepishly, and when he lowered his other hand to take hers, she gripped it like it was a lifesaver.

“Now, if you’d like to see the Victorian houses on Germain Street,” I’ll be happy to show them to you.

“Could we go back to that jewelry store first? I think I’d like to buy the silver and turquoise slide you pointed out. I think it was lovely and I can’t get it out of my mind.”

Freddie knew by now, though, that he was what she couldn’t get out of her mind. And of course she insisted on buying him the tie tack he’d pointed out as well. Whether she fully consciously realized it or not—although Freddie thought she probably did—this sealed a deal.

He fucked her in a windowless niche notched into the side of one of the Victorian houses in an alleyway. They kissed passionately as he pressed her back into the brick of the niche. He unzipped her pants and pulled them and her panties down her thighs and entered her strongly with a long, thick cock as she hooked her legs on his hips and they continued in a deep kiss as he stroked up inside her.

They returned to the ship separately, but not without arranging an assignation for that night. Maria said she’d stay in town until just before sailing. That she couldn’t bear to see her husband again any sooner than she had to.

“He’ll go to the show and then to the casino after that,” Maria said. “I’ll have a headache. Our cabin number is 1548.”

Freddie saw him almost immediately upon reboarding the “Quincy Queen”. Ralph Tinsley was walking all over the public areas of the ship, looking here and there. Freddie knew he was looking for his wife, Maria. Freddie also knew that Maria wasn’t planning to come back to the ship for at least three hours.