I thought this ship was massive when we first boarded, but after spending a day at sea, it's starting to feel quite small. While dinner was a fully seated experience, breakfast and lunch were served buffet style.

Given my recent adventures, I found myself looking for security cameras in every room we went. The main dining area only had cameras where the cooks were positioned.

We walked around the ship after eating breakfast and found a game room where people were playing poker. You could feel the thick tension in the room as people were placing large sums of money on the line. Cameras decorated the ceiling with the large amounts of money on the table; it only makes sense this room was so heavily monitored. We didn’t stay for much longer as we felt the heavy air of people putting their life savings on the line. Trivia was scheduled to take place here later tonight; we’ll return then when the stakes are much lower.

In the middle of the ship, there were a few shops. We walked into the first one in sight. “Doesn’t this dress look amazing on me?” Syd held a dress in front of her.

I reached for the tag and looked at the price. “Not for this price it doesn’t.”

Syd made a frown, then looked at the tag; her expression changed, and her eyes grew wide. “Oh yeah, I look horrific in this. What was I thinking!” We both snickered as she put the dress back. As we left, I noticed that there were cameras strategically placed around the cashiers and the most expensive items.

Leaving the store, we walked past a large display; there was a digital board displaying tonight’s events. “Oh, look! Before trivia, there’s a cocktail mixer; we should go!”

“You want to meet more strange people? I’ve surely had my fill with that guy last night.” I chuckled.

Syd slapped me on the arm. “Oh, stop it. Not everyone is like that chess guy yesterday. We can’t be the only normal people on this boat. We have nothing going on after lunch besides trivia anyway. Think about it we could even make some new friends, and they can be our travel buddies!”

“Sure, we can check it out, but I want to hit the pool before we go to lunch.” I started to walk towards the elevator. Each hallway has a single camera at the end of each corridor. The outside of the boat was similar; there was a single camera outside each balcony, which would allow security to see down the entire corridor.

What am I doing? I solve one murder, and now I’m some trained detective. No one is getting murdered on this wonderful boat. The only thing I need to worry about is relaxing and spending time with Syd. 

After lunch there were about 2 hours before the mixer started, so we went to the spa to get a good sweat. “Oh, look at that, it's lunchtime. Let's hurry and eat so we can get ready for the mixer.” Syd said, looking at her watch and holding her book in the other hand.

“Ugh, you still want to go to that thing. Do we really need to go? I was hoping after all this you’d be ready for a nap.” I said. Taking the towel off my face. Syd was much more of a sauna person than me; I’d always preferred the cold.

“Of course! I’ve always wanted to find another couple and go on couple trips with them. I want to at least try to find them while we’re here.” Syd put her book down and looked over at me.

“Alright, fine,” I sighed. “But I’m going back to the cryotherapy room before we leave. It’s way too hot in here.”

“Really!? You haven’t even been in here for very long. You spent most of the time in the cryotherapy room.” Syd said.

“Yeah, because hell is hot for a reason; even God thinks heat should only be used to torture people.” I said, leaving the sauna room. As the door closed, I could hear Syd let out a little grunt in protest.

Freshly showered and ready to socialize, we grabbed a coffee and then walked over to the mixer. At a standing table was the master chess player I met last night. He held a drink in one hand as he talked to a woman who was a bit shorter than him.

“Don’t look, but the chess pimp is over there recruiting some innocent girl.” I said, hiding the side of my face.

“You don’t want any more chess philosophy? You might even learn how to get some girls to grow your stable.” Syd snickered as I glared at her.

“Stop it. Let’s just get out of here before…”

“Hey, my man from the bar last night!” The guy from yesterday said walking over with his girlfriend. “I didn’t properly introduce myself last night. My name is Cesar, and this is my girlfriend, Maria.” He extended his hand out to shake mine.

Dammit

“Oh, what’s up, dude? I didn’t know you were coming to this.” I said shaking his hand, then shaking Maria’s, “My name is Tom, and this is my girlfriend Syd.” Syd shook his hand and then Maria’s.

“Did you guys’ just board? We’ve been here for about 2 weeks now and haven’t seen you around the ship.” Maria said with a glass in her hand.

“Yeah, we boarded yesterday and will be here for 7 days. How long will you be staying on board?” I said.

“That’s so short! You’ll barely even get enough time to relax.” Maria said, “We’re on week 2 of our 3-week vacation.”

“Wow, a 3-week vacation—that’s so awesome! I wanted to do that, but my calendar is booked with surgeries for the rest of the year, and this is the only week I could take off.” Syd said.

 “You’re a surgeon, interesting. I have a cousin that’s a surgeon; he’s kind of a morbid guy. He says the best part of his day is that he gets to cut people open for a living.” Ceaser said.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed my profession does attract a lot of weirdos!” Syd said, as she did a cute little dance.

“I know all about weirdos; I work in construction, and there’s a litter of weirdos on each job.”  Ceaser chuckled, “But I love my job. Right now, we’re in the off-season, so I was laid off until our next job comes in at the end of the month, and since Maria is my stay-at-home girlfriend, it makes it so easy to plan these long vacations.”

“That’s right, my sole job is making sure Ceaser is in peak condition to perform well at work and plan our vacations!” Maria said, clutching Ceasar’s arm.

“That’s absolutely wonderful!” Syd said, “Hey, you guys are really cool. You should join us for trivia; it's about to start.”

“That sounds like so much fun!” Maria said with her eyes wide, “I’m the queen of trivia; we play all the time when we are home!” Without further delay, we made our way back to the game room.

Maria wasn’t kidding; during the game, she got nearly a perfect score. It was almost like she was a living Wikipedia; the judges started to suspect her of cheating, so they assigned one of the game monitors to stand next to her to make sure she wasn’t googling the answers. As the winning team, we split the winning prize of $10,000.

“That was so much fun!” Syd said she looked over at me, and I could see the message she was telling me in her eyes: I think we found our travel buddies.

“You guys are so much fun. We should hang out more while we’re on the boat.” Maria said, latching herself to Caesar’s arm.

“Yes, I was thinking the same thing! We’ll have a girl’s day tomorrow, and the guys can do their own thing.”

“That’s a great idea; me and old sport can continue our conversation from last night.” Cesar said with a wink.

Syd looked at me and started to snicker. Fuck, there goes my relaxing trip; now I have to listen to chessboard wisdom.