toward the door.
They all laughed as Jesse slapped Scott’s back, pushing him right out the door. Everyone in the room laughed. Jesse turned, gave me a megawatt smile, and disappeared out the door.
“Well, there they go again,” Shelly said, plopping down next to me.
“What is it that they have to do?” Liza asked, sitting on my other side.
“Beats me,” I said. I sipped my wine, utterly confused.
“Maybe they’re burglars, and while everyone is out of their rooms eating dinner, they sneak into their rooms and steal stuff,” Shelly said with a sinister look on her face.
I chuckled. “No, I don’t think so; Jesse promised me he’s a good guy,” I told her. I hoped he hadn’t lied to me.
“Oh, they all say that, Bailey. But Scott has this innocent face, and if he’s lying to me, I’m…I’m just going to…I don’t know…cry,” Shelly said, picking up her glass. “Oh, hell, let’s just drink; we’ve got this whole bottle to finish. Then when it’s almost eight, we’ll go see what all this mystery is all about.” Shelly plopped her feet in the chair across from her and poured more wine.
“Agreed,” Liza said, holding up her empty glass. We finished off the bottle of wine, talking about our cruise and the good times we’d been having. My heart was beating so hard as I listened to them, but I remembered all the things Jesse had said to me and hoped he wasn’t playing me for a sucker. I really liked him. I knew some guys told you what they thought you wanted to hear just so they could get into your pants. But Jesse had been a complete gentleman, even though our kisses had become more intense. I wanted to believe himin the worst way; it felt good to be in his arms, and I wanted to spend the next five days with him.
At seven forty-five we got up and headed on deck to look for the Green Room, finally finding it way on the other side of the ship.
“OK, here we go,” Shelly said, opening the door for us to walk in. I took a deep breath and followed her.
“Let’s see what these guys are up to,” Liza said.
We walked into a big room with a large wooden bar on one end. The walls were all a beautiful shade of forest green, with green-and-gold-patterned carpeting. A large wooden stage was at the far end, with round tables all around it. A hostess greeted us like she knew who we were and led us to a table with a reserved sign on it. We were sitting right in front of this stage with the curtain drawn.
“They damn well better show up, or I’m going to be majorly pissed,” Shelly said as she ordered us drinks.
“I hope this isn’t one of Scott’s practical jokes,” I said, looking around at all the full tables. The room was packed with mostly women, talking and laughing. The waitress took our drink orders as we all sat there watching the door for our guys to join us.
“Where the hell are they?” I said, completely baffled. I started to get nervous when I saw it was almost eight, and the place was packed.
“Where are our dates?” Liza asked, just as a spotlight came on the stage and a man walked out with a microphone. “How are you all doing tonight?” he asked. Everybody cheered and clapped. I was still looking around for Jesse.
“Good,” he said, smiling. “We’ve got an extra-special show for you tonight all the way from Arizona. Put your hands together for Arizona Skies,” he said, walking off the stage.
The curtain went up, revealing a band on stage. I sucked in my breath—Keith stood there with a guitar, John sat behind a set of drums, Scott had a guitar, and Jesse was standing in front of them with his back to the audience with a guitar slung over his shoulder. I looked at Shelly in shock. “
What the hell?
”
John hit his drumsticks together, signaling the band to start to play. Jesse turned around, walking toward the front of the stage with a microphone in his hands. His smile lit up the stage as he started singing “Don’t Stop Believin,” by Journey. I
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