chatted with his friends across the deck, he got a look at her as she hung over the railing, delight and excitement written over her expression.
That, and the way her garment fluttered around her, made his own body react. And he hadn’t even met her yet. He was getting ahead of himself, so he settled against the railing to cool down and enjoy the departure with his friends.
They might tease him for trying to talk to a woman on the first day, but he still intended to go over and introduce himself once they were underway. If he didn’t, he might lose her in the multitude of people aboard the Palace of the Seas.
When he found her looking back at him, he was pleased, but not surprised. He was in his early thirties, and he still had it going on. For a while she looked away, and he was a little concerned. That wasn’t usually the reaction he got from women. He actually sighed in relief when she turned back to him, smiling at him from the banister. That was more like it.
Of course, that was when he lost her. He’d turned to Alistair, who was joking about being the odd man out, and when he turned back she was gone.
He went to three singles functions that night to see if she’d come out to any of them. He took time out to have dinner with his boys—Alistair, Myron and Rudy—at the singles reception in the Senator’s Quarters. Then he ditched them to check out a couple of the smaller singles mixers—the one in the Luau Bar and the one in the Messenger Lounge. He didn’t see her and had no way of knowing if he’d missed her.
If she wasn’t there on the singles cruise, he had no real way to find her again. There were thousands of people on the ship. That’s when he remembered the brochure. He pulled it out and rummaged through the pages. Each of them had had to submit a bio and picture for it, and it had come a couple of days before they were set to depart.
Unfortunately, there were dozens of pages of singles listings, and not everyone had sent in a picture. But there weren’t that many African-American women in the lineup, either. He found one that seemed to be her. The picture was small, so he couldn’t be sure. She was wearing a bikini and waving toward shore from the back of a motorboat. Her name was Safire Lewis, and she was twenty-three, hailing from North Miami. The woman he saw seemed to be older than twenty-three, but then women never told the truth on these things anyway. Right?
Safire Lewis was extroverted and outgoing. She liked swimming and jazz clubs, and she was looking for a man who thought he could tame her urges with tender loving care. She described her style as sophisticated but a bit risqué, and she defined herself as a sensual woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to get it—a little rambunctious but genial, sometimes saucy but always sweet.
She was looking forward to the singles cruise so that she could relax, kick back and meet some great guys. Her turn-ons were broad shoulders, confidence and someone who knew how to have a good time. Jeremy thought he fit that description. To describe herself in five words or less, she wrote “naughty and nice.”
It didn’t say much more than that, but that was more than enough.
Jeremy looked back at the picture. Her description of herself turned him on as much as seeing her had done. It made him more determined than ever to find her again the next day, when they would be at sea.
Easier said than done, however. The ship had fourteen decks, twenty restaurants, five spas, four movie theaters, gardens, pools, a casino, a carnival, a shopping district, a sports zone and numerous bars, lounges and cafés.
“You’re looking for whom?” Alistair asked.
“A woman I saw in line yesterday.”
“And you expect to find her how?”
“I think she’s listed in the singles brochure. I’m going to scout out the singles events.”
“I’ll go with you to the singles stuff,” Myron said.
“Me too,” Rudy said.
“I, on the other hand, will be at the pool.” Alistair wasn’t there for the singles mixers; he had a partner back home. He’d come to relax and enjoy. “I’ll meet you guys for lunch. Where?”
They were in Myron’s stateroom, and he picked up the booklet for the ship. “Okay. We have about thirty pages of options here.”
The other men laughed.
“Is there a singles luncheon venue today?” Rudy asked.
“Oh, joy,” Alistair said with a note of sarcasm.
Myron picked up the singles brochure. “In fact, there are three.”
“Pick one,” Jeremy said.
Myron shrugged. “The Onyx sounds good.”
“The Onyx it is. One o’clock.”
Jeremy, Myron and Rudy did a round of the singles events listed for that morning. Myron had started talking to a woman at the Pool and Cabana mixer, so they left him behind and headed to the Café mixer. She wasn’t there, and they didn’t want to go to the Date for the Day event, so Rudy left him to join Alistair, and Jeremy continued on alone.
Before heading to the Onyx, he stopped at the concierge to see if he could get Safire Lewis’s cabin number or telephone, which turned out to be the same thing. He tried calling the number they gave him but got no answer. At least he knew that if it was her—if the woman he saw was Safire Lewis—he could hope to reach her by phone. That much discovered, he joined his boys for lunch, still keeping an eye out for her.
He called her again before dinner—no luck. He called again after dinner—eureka.
“Hello.”
He had no idea what her voice sounded like.
“Hi, I’m trying to reach Safire Lewis.”
There was a pause on the other end. “Yes, this is she.”
“My name is Jeremy Bell, and I think I saw you when I was boarding the ship. I was wondering if you might want to get together for coffee or dancing or—”
“Who is this?” she asked.
Jeremy laughed out loud.
“I’m sorry. That’s a fair question. I’m on the singles cruise, and I think I saw you when we boarded. You had on a yellow dress. I wanted to meet you.”
“And you were wearing?”
“What was I wearing? I had on a white shirt and blue pants, I think. Let me check my closet. Yes, that was it. I thought you might have noticed me, too.”
“I remember you. But how did you get my name, my number?”
“After looking for you all day, I checked the singles listing. Luckily, there aren’t that many Black women on this cruise, so I took a chance that you were the one I saw.”
“Oh.” There was a pause.
“Look, you probably already have plans for tonight because it’s New Year’s Eve, but if you don’t, maybe we can meet at one of the mixers.”
“I
