BABES TRADE

 

"What in hell did you do?" I asked my wife Samantha as we sat at the breakfast table on the port side of the cruise ship. We'd been onboard for three days and were set to dock in a Caribbean port in about three hours.

Samantha grinned at me. "Surprise!" she said through a chuckle.

I shook my head and sipped at the horrible coffee that was served onboard. "To say the least."

"You liked it," she scolded.

"Not the point. I thought we were going to coordinate on these things."

"We did," she said defensively. "Remember? On the way to dinner just last night I asked you if you would like to sleep with Marla. You said you would. In fact, if I remember, you said, 'Sure!'"

Marla and Carl were two of our four tablemates. The others, David and Darlene were even older than Samantha and I. Their interest was in testing the levels of service on the ship. They barely tolerated our presence at "their" table and generally avoided conversation with the rest of us. Marla and Carl, on the other hand, were a couple of years younger than us and on their first cruise. They were animated, engaging and emanated a spirit of joy and fun. We led them into some of our favorite activities and enjoyed joining them as they explored life onboard.