“You know I’m not going anywhere, right?” I said. Syd was clinging to me like a koala; she’s been like this since I picked her up from our new apartment. Syd had both arms wrapped around my torso, with her head buried in my chest.

“I know, but I was such a mess when you were away. I’d honestly lose my mind at the thought of there being a day I called, and you didn’t pick up.” Syd nuzzled her face deeper into my chest.

I placed my hand on top of her head and then ran it down from the top of her head down to where her hair touched her shoulders, almost as if I was petting a cat. “I know, babe,” I said, resting my arm around her shoulder and gently kissing the top of her head. “How do you like the new apartment that Karlo got us? I was running late, so I didn’t have time to go up and see it before we left.”

“It's absolutely amazing; it has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. I know you like a big office, so I made the master bedroom into the office/workout room. Our bedroom is the room near the master bedroom, and the spare bedroom is across from the guest bathroom. The place is even big enough that the kitchen has an island. The best part is even though we are on the seventh floor, the water pressure is absolutely immaculate, and it's close to the hospital, so I just walk there before I have to give my first operation for the day.” Syd made a small whimper. "But it's just so lonely without you there. I wish all those special agents would work faster to sort this thing out.”

I kissed her on the top of her head. "Have I ever told you I'm so lucky to have you?"

Syd looked up at me blushing "Not nearly enough." She then laid her head back down.

Looking out the window, I said, “By the way, how did you get such a good deal on this cruise?” Even though we’re still on the highway when I looked out of the window of the Uber, the giant cruise ship made the buildings look like toy houses in comparison. The behemoth was pearly white with an indentation in the middle, which I would assume was the main pool area.

Syd’s head perked up, and she was now looking at me with excitement in her eyes. “I wanted to find a really fancy ship we could both enjoy. Luckily, one of my surgical assistants is friends with a travel agent, and they gave me the hookup.”

I let out a deep sigh. “I'm just so happy to have a nice, relaxing vacation with no weirdos or crimes to solve.”

“Yes! And this is an all-adult cruise, so there won’t be a kid in sight!” Syd said

“Your way too good to me, Sydney.” I said, giving her a kiss. “This is the best vacation I could’ve ever asked for.”

The car pulled to the side of the curb and came to a stop. “Looks like this is your stop; enjoy your time on that beautiful ship.” The driver said, then we heard the pop of the trunk going up. We thanked him, then grabbed our suitcases from the trunk.

As we rolled our suitcases to the boarding bridge, there was a man in a butler's uniform waiting for us. “Good morning, Mr. Morningstar and Ms. Walker. My name is Reginald. I will be your butler during your time aboard.” Reginald said, taking our bags.

“Is that your real name? It’s like you were born to be a butler.” I said with a little chuckle.

“It is, sir. I only do this job because I'm a failure. I wanted to be a doctor, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get into med school.” Reginald said there were tears welling up in his eyes.

I looked over at Syd, and she was just as surprised. “Uh, sorry, man, if it makes you feel better, I wanted to own a farm with 12 kids, but I ended up becoming a data scientist instead.”

Reginald started crying hard, tears rolling quickly down his face. “My older brother is a data scientist, and my parents say that I’m a failure because he makes more in a year than I’ve made in the last 2 years.”

Syd nudged me hard with her elbow. “Stop talking.” She mouthed. She’s right; this might be the longest week of our lives if I keep accidentally bringing up touchy subjects.

“Uh, my bad, man, we should get going; there’s a line forming behind us.” I said, Syd grabbed our bags, and I rubbed his back as we walked on board. Reginald offered to show us around the boat as he was sniffling, but we said we’d rather just explore on our own.

“That was really strange how he just opened up like that, right?” Syd said in pure shock.

“You’re telling me, I didn’t think my little joke was going to trigger a mid-life crisis.” I snickered, “If that's our butler, there are definitely more weirdos among the guests.”

Syd nudged me on the arm. “Stop it; don’t say that. He was really upset,” she said, fighting the urge to smirk. But her poker face broke, and we both chuckled.

Syd took me around our ship and shared everything she'd learned when booking this trip. Our ship was all-inclusive, with no extra fees for anything onboard. This retreat takes place on a private island owned by this cruise line. It works like a revolving door, with a constant flow of people coming aboard and disembarking at each port. Our ship also refuels at each port to prepare for every new voyage. Some people stay aboard for as little as a week, while others remain onboard for months. We're only going to be aboard for 7 days.

Our itinerary is scheduled to be 2 days at sea, 3 days at port in Aruba, and then we’ll spend another 2 days at sea heading back home. The ship had a plethora of free activities, so the long days at sea will go by quickly.

“My favorite part about this ship is there’s a complementary laundry room, so we won’t have to do laundry when we get home!” Syd said, skipping down the hall, throwing her hands in the air, presenting the laundry room.

“That’s pretty neat. It’ll make packing easy, so I can hit the road as soon as we get back ashore.” I said, looking at the spinning clothes through the dryer door window.

Silence fell upon the room, and I could feel the tension rising. I looked over, and Syd was pouting. "Don't say things like that! I'm on this vacation to forget we can't go back to our normal lives anytime soon."

I scanned the room to change the subject. “Oh, would you look at that? It's almost time for dinner. We should get dressed; didn’t you say we need to be in formal attire for dinner? There’s no time to delay!” I said, then gently turned her around and playfully pushed her to the elevator.

Syd giggled. “Okay, okay, stop it; you don’t need to push!”

I finished getting dressed before Syd. I told her I was heading to the bar for a drink and that she should come get me when she was ready for dinner. The bar was peaceful. There were no TVs, just someone in the middle of the room playing a grand piano. As he played, he filled the room with soft music.

Syd mentioned that this getaway was supposed to allow guests the ability to just relax and unplug from their daily lives. But none of this seemed relaxing. I’d prefer watching a cheesy sitcom or playing a video game to unwind.

As I drank my Old Fashioned, I stared outside the window and watched as the ocean moved past us. Thinking about how my life completely changed in such a short amount of time.

“Hey, got a minute?” A voice next to me said. I turned my head, and there was a gentleman sitting there with a glass of some brown liquid. Taking a swig of his drink, he continued. “I just had a revelation that chess is about 2 pimps fighting for control over territory.”

I raised an eyebrow, but before I could say anything, he put up a hand to stop me. “Hear me out. There are 2 pieces that we know are male because they are called the king. Each king has their queen. Which we can assume is his bottom bitch because she’s the most powerful piece on the board. I won’t go into the logistics of the other pieces because I haven’t thought it through, and it will take too much time to explain. But let me ask you this. Why do you think I’m assuming all the other pieces are other hoes in his stable?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but he quickly cut me off. “It’s because of the pawn. When a pawn reaches the point furthest from the starting position, it gets a promotion from the king to become the new queen. It's like when a pimp makes a new girl his bottom bitch.” The man said, taking another sip of his drink.

Who the fuck starts a conversation like this?

“That’s a cool theory, dude.” I said, finishing my drink. “But don’t you think that’s an extremely big leap in logic?”

“It's not a theory; it's all facts.” Something heavy lingered in his eyes as he took another sip from his glass.

Before I could interject, I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Hey Tom! Ready for dinner?”

“Yeah, I’m more than ready.” I chugged the last bit of my drink and pushed my cup closer to the bar. “Alright man, take it easy.” I said, glancing back at the man at the bar.

He didn’t say a word; he just raised his glass as if to say, ‘We’ll meet again.’

Syd clung to my arm. “Did you already make a new friend?” she said.

I turned around to look at him, and he just took a finger, and he tapped his head. “No, that was just some drunk guy at the bar.”