At 71, I Fell in Love on My First Cruise – On the Last Night, I Followed Him Below Deck and Saw My Suitcase Outside His Cabin
It was fear.
“For once,” I said, “do not tell me to trust you.”
He glanced down the corridor and then back at me.
“Someone went into your cabin.”
My anger vanished beneath a rush of cold fear.
“What?”
“About twenty minutes ago.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t know?”
“They used a copied keycard.”
I stared at him.
“How could you possibly know that?”
Richard looked toward the wall of photographs.
Only then did I notice something I had missed.
They were not simply photographs of me.
In several of them, the same man appeared somewhere in the background.
Blue baseball cap.
Gray jacket.
Average height.
Completely forgettable.
In one photograph, he stood behind me while passengers boarded the ship.
In another, he sat two tables away while I ate breakfast.
In a third, he lingered near the elevators while I waited alone.
I pointed at him.
“Who is that?”
Richard hesitated.
That hesitation frightened me more than an immediate answer would have.
Suddenly, the alarm stopped.
A calm voice came through the ship’s speakers.
“Attention, guests. The security alert has been resolved. Please remain in public guest areas until further notice.”
Security alert.
Not a fire alarm.
Not a drill.
Security.
Richard exhaled slowly.
“Sit down.”
“I am not sitting anywhere until you tell me why there are photographs of me covering that wall.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
Then he closed the door.
I immediately stepped backward.
Richard saw my reaction and opened it again.
“Better?”
“A little.”
He remained near the doorway, deliberately keeping distance between us.
“My name really is Richard.”
“How comforting.”
“I really am seventy-four.”
“Even better.”
“And I really am a widower.”
I folded my arms.
“Are we going through your dating profile now?”
A faint smile touched his face, but it disappeared quickly.
“Margaret.”
“Talk.”
Richard took a breath.
“I spent twenty-nine years as a police detective.”
I stared at him.
“You told me you worked in insurance.”
“I did. After I retired from the department.”
“So you’ve been lying to me all week.”
