‘I have found someone for you’.

‘Really?’ Louisa’s beautiful fawn-brown eyes widened in mock erotic interest.

We play this game on occasion. When the love of your life is bi-sexual, any help you can give her to find a woman to have sex with feels more like doing a favor like washing the dishes for her, rather than assisting in infidelity. Not that it had ever happened, but it made me feel special for her to know that I was supportive.

‘Tell me’ she continued, and I gave her the usual run-down: Age, height, weight, dress, but this time there was an added detail:

‘Her eyes are amazing. She has oversized spectacles on and her eyes look very big.

Louisa batted her long, luscious lashes, and made a warm, cozy sound. I laughed out loud at the game’s repetition. We were exciting each other catering to each other’s fantasies.

‘Kind of a sexy librarian’ Louisa continued, ‘Just my cup of you-know-what’.

Her speech had become seductive, low, and slow. God, his woman made me laugh. We changed the conversation so as not to excite ourselves too much. After all, we were in the middle of the Logo Store at the time.

After the sun had gone down, the daytime heat lingered. It seeped in through exterior doors, like a late-comer to the party, and mingled with the body heat and perfume produced by a formal night onboard. With another day at sea tomorrow, there was no rush for the usual early night, and the hour back on the clock had convinced many to try the Disco bar onboard for the first time. The atmosphere was as thick as the heat, and there was a sense of romance in the air. Sweat and perfume blanketed everything, it was a perfect night.

I had found a small corner free at the bar, and was on my second drink when Louisa arrived, looking gorgeous in a blue, knee-length, halter neck formal dress. Her height didn’t need me to look for her heels – they were on. She was animated after the usual boring and frustrating night spent trying to sell cheap souvenirs for thankless, pedantic supervisors to uninterested passengers. I ordered her usual cocktail and let her talk until she had run out of frustration. Then she looked around the room, seemingly for the first time:

‘Good night, by the look of it.’ She said, sipping her martini.

‘Yes, very sexy.’ I replied. Her eyes looked remarkable. A little more mascara than usual, and hair straight, just the way we both liked her to look. I realized that we were on for tonight, and that I should hold back from another drink, and concentrate on performance. The way my cock was beginning to feel, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

It must have appeared that we weren’t standing together for a split second, because the next words I heard were almost whispered to me over the thump of the dance music.

‘I’ve put Dad to bed, so now I’m ready to play’ It was the passenger Louisa and I had been discussing earlier, and I appreciatively took in her fiery red formal dress and wrap that she was wearing. Her bob shimmered in the rapidly changing, multi-colored light, and a slight glint from her spectacles, once again highlighted her emerald eyes. Her un-rimmed glasses weren’t as big as I had first thought, but those eyes, and the beginning of wrinkles fanning out from their corners were so sexy. I struggled briefly with her name: Janice? Janet? I took the easy route:

‘Hi Jan’. Ooh, nice save.

Louisa whirled around and looked startled. Always accustomed to passengers talking to me out of the blue, she appeared surprised at a younger-than-average passenger standing close to me.

We enjoyed a couple of pleasantries, and I introduced Louisa in the usual way:

‘This is Louisa, a good friend of mine.’ I had found that this introduction let everyone know our situation, if they were paying attention. Considering that she is half of my age, it also made me feel like a fucking Superhero. Janice saved my memory and introduced herself to Louisa, with a tiny little touch that could have been the start of a handshake, or a sudden tender connection for no apparent reason. Her perfume was suddenly apparent: Dark, musky and somehow intriguing.

There was the customary sharing of compliments between the two of them that covered the gap of me ordering her a drink, and then Louisa was saying:

‘I love the way your glasses make your eyes look.’ She glanced at me for support, and I smiled back. Good, she got it.

‘I know.’ Janice replied ‘it takes everyone’s attention from my weak chin.’

‘Don’t be so hard on yourself’, Louisa soothed her, ‘You look fabulous. I hope that I still look that good at – what – early thirties?’

‘I wish.’ Janice grimaced. ‘You’ll need to add another five years on that.’

I offered some vocal support: ‘Are you really, I wouldn’t have thought that.’

‘Thank you’, she sipped on her Chardonnay.

‘That’s ten years on me,’ offered Louisa. ‘So, I have something to look forward to’.

OK, something was happening here, but I didn’t want to jump into the wrong assumption, so I served up a soft lob for Louisa to carry the conversation, and the conversation went back to the everyday for the next thirty minutes.