Thursday. 13:55 Miami International Airport, Baggage Claim 2A

Alice had a guilty look on her face. She insisted on the couple flying commercial, partially because of guilt of her family’s wealth and because of the improper looks it may bring for cadets to fly that way. But her insistence to plan this trip and take care of the arrangements had led them to wait for forty-five minutes and counting. John’s second checked bag hadn’t shown up yet.

She noticed that John had taken this development largely fine. That is if one were to ignore his left eye twitching and that vein in his forehead pulsing. There hadn’t been any complaints yet, though that was more a matter of it not happening, not that he wasn’t going to complain about their predicament. Alice did notice that he was glued to his tablet.

“So, yeah. I’m just going to apologize.”

John smiled as he leaned down to Alice and kissed her, “Apology accepted.”

“What were you doing?”

“Cancelling our Delta flights back home, sending yet another email to the CEO, and then booking proper flights home.”

Alice sighed, “I wish you hadn’t done that. You really do know how it looks, right? And you are the one that needs to play ball too.”

“I’m aware and honestly, I just don’t give a damn. It’s been forty-six minutes and twenty-seven seconds and my bag is still not fucking here,” John showed Alice the timer he had set on his tablet, “Yeah, I am totally done dealing with this pedestrian style of travel. And of getting butt-fucked by baggage handlers.”

Alice shook her head, “You know my position on this, but if you don’t care about the optics then I’ll just go with the flow. I just don’t get it.”

“If it were just one airline, I might be able to understand it. But it’s literally all of them,” John forced a smile, “Speak of the devil, the assholes finally delivered it. Big shocker, dead ass last too.”

John walked forward and grabbed the bag off the conveyer and walked back to Alice. He extended his left arm out in front of her. Alice giggled then put her hand through the opening to interlock their arms. Despite his annoyance at the baggage situation, it was the start of their Christmas break. He was looking forward to the time off and spending it with Alice. There was no telling when they would be together for the next holiday.

They walked out of the terminal to a waiting black car service that John had neglected to Alice that he had hired. It was a forty-five-minute drive to the port. John shrugged and justified it by saying they had the money to afford it. Alice sighed and thanked the driver for stowing her bag in the trunk. They sped off down the freeway to the port shortly after the pair got comfortable in the back seat.

15:45 Spirit of the Seas, Royal Suite 2

Alice fumbled with her tablet trying to get the app to open their door. John offered to help but Alice turned and put a finger in his face. Normally that would get most people beaten to a pulp, but that gesture forced John to back off and wait.

Eventually, the door unlocked and opened. Inside was a suite nearly three times larger than their dorm room on campus. Alice dropped her bags in the hallway and ran into their bedroom for the two-week trip.

John laughed and pushed her bags into the room with his feet. He set his bags down on the couch and walked over to the bar, the rest of the room was completely ignored. To his great delight, he saw the wine cabinet fully stocked. While that wasn’t necessarily his cup of team, there were four bottles of Penfold’s Vintage 2252 Grange. There were also several other red wines, all from brands that Alice liked.

He really got excited when he pushed open the bar’s sliding doors. Several scotches that were right up his alley were there. The standouts were a twenty-five-year-old Lagavulin and twenty-year-old Kilchoman. John hurriedly tore off the foil seal to the Lagavulin and pulled the cork.

Alice had walked back to the living room and was smirking taking in the sight. This giant of a man was totally transfixed over smelling the cork of a bottle of scotch. John was completely focused on the intoxicating and unique noise of the Lagavulin. She started giggling as he found a glass and poured himself a drink.

“John, I love you. But my god the excitement you get over alcohol is really weird sometimes.”

He ignored the comment and sniffed the glass, taking in the various smells of the amber liquor. He took a sip and sloshed it around in his mouth. More tastes and flavors were had, some expected though many were new. The finish of the spirit was potent and full of iodine and brine, while the alcohol had an effervescent effect as it flowed down his throat. He grabbed a bottled water and let exactly three drops of water drip into the glass.

“Holy hell, that opened up the scotch. It’s almost better than sex,” John turned and winked at Alice, “Almost…”

Alice was laughing as she walked over to hug John but pulled back from him after she smelled his breath, “Oh my god, why do you like those super smokey scotches? It smells vial.”

“Smells and tastes delicious my dear,” John said as he put down his drink and recapped the bottle, “Damn good job, honey. I think I may have to retract my initial comments downplaying this experience.”

Alice slapped John’s ass before looking through the wine cabinet, “Oh my god, the wife did something right for once. That’s so weird.”

John started to laugh, “You know damn well I didn’t mean it that way.”

Alice turned and gave John that evil grin and wink she was known to have, “I know but someone needs to keep you level-headed. By the way, you need to see the view in our room.”

John took his drink and walked into the bedroom. The room was very nice, but it wasn’t in his top five that they had been in. He walked over to the shades and pressed the button to open them. They were on the aft side of the cruise ship was facing the ocean. The view, once underway, would be magnificent.

Their balcony was enormous compared to most of the other rooms. John opened the sliding glass door and walked out onto it and looked over the edge. He smiled as he turned to look at Alice.

“Honey, the deck wraps around out front. It’s fucking amazing.”

“Ooh, let me see,” Alice said excitedly as she mixed a Manhattan, “Right after I make this.”

Alice, unlike John, hurriedly made her drink as quickly as she could. She set the drink tools in the sink and walked through the bedroom. John was enjoying the sunshine on the forward-facing portion of their deck.

“What a view.”

John looked to his right to see his smiling wife wrap an arm around him, “Damn straight. You better go easy with that too by the way.”

“Are you implying that I’m a lightweight?”

“Yes,” John said seriously, “I am.”

“I’ll be fine. Unlike you, I normally pace myself.”

“Point conceded. What time do we shove off?”

“Not until 19:45 unfortunately. We got here about two hours earlier than I assumed. I thought we were flying out later.”

John took a drink and closed his eyes as he took in the warmth of the sun, “Whatever will we do?”

Alice let go of John and settled into one of the deck recliners, “Finish our drinks. After that, you’re brushing your teeth and rinsing your mouth out with mouthwash before anything else happens. Your breath stinks.”

John grunted as he sat down in his chair next to Alice. The couple ate in the sunshine and enjoyed both their drinks and the conversation. Their vacation had really started in earnest, and now John was fully bought into Alice’s plan.

23:30 Spirit of the Seas, Royal Suite 2

The cruise ship was underway to their next destination. The captain spoke to everyone over the PA earlier about where they were heading and when they’d expect to dock. John and Alice were too engrossed in their lovemaking to pay any heed to the announcement.

They were now in bed and soundly sleeping. Who knew that flying, eating rich foods, drinking expensive alcohol, and having lots of sex could be that exhausting? Even living it up as hard as they were required them to rest. Mainly so they can repeat most of the day’s excitement in the coming days.

At least they both were sleeping until John woke himself up. He yawned as he rolled onto his back. Swear words were spoken in his mind before he slid himself out of the bed. He put on some gym shorts and walked onto their deck.

He grinned at the door as it slid open. The noise complaint came because the door didn’t shut behind them. John stretched his arms as he looked out at the ocean. The moon was reflecting its light down upon the ship and waters as it orbited overhead.

John grabbed the railing with both hands and kept looking out at nothing in particular. The entire Manchester incident flashed back in his mind. The royal family thought he was a hero, as did most in the military, but John thought the situation was one mistake after another. And compounded by his own bloodlust at the instigators.

“You want to talk about it?” Alice asked from inside the room, “You’ve got that whole brooding thing going on that you do often.”

“Lisa contacted me earlier this week,” John turned and leaned against the railing, “It’s why I called, mailed, and messaged you on Saturday.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Alice sounded a bit hurt, “I keep telling you that we’re a team.”

“She’s off-world so there was no immediate risk to you or me. Plus, you had finals to focus on,” John took a deep breath, “And don’t try to argue that I’m more important, I know and agree with you on that point, but we’re also still students.”

“Are we going to be involved in putting her down?”

“Doubtful. We can’t send in a special forces team to end that asshole without starting a war. Even though he and Lisa are both in need of a good killing, starting a war over them isn’t worth it.”

“I wish I could do more,” Alice paused to think a moment, “What if…”

John interrupted her and spoke in a serious tone that Alice wasn’t used to hearing, “No. Don’t even think about doing that. You would literally be throwing both your life and career away to do that with me.”

“But that’s what you would do.”

“It’s exactly what I want to do. Here’s the thing honey, I was trained to do that. Can you willingly turn off your morals and ethics and do anything and everything that needs to be done?”

“But if they are gone then we wouldn’t have to worry about them again.”

“True, but could you live with that knowledge of lying, stealing, and hell, even murdering innocents or ancillary characters to get to our objective?”

Alice looked like she was going to say something. John walked into the room and kneeled down on the floor in front of the bed. He held her hand in one and caressed her cheek in the other.

“That would eat you up little by little over time. Killing another soldier in battle or war doesn’t make you a bad person. Doing what I have done, and what we’d need to do on a mission like that, does make you a bad person. You don’t want that guilt and pain to drag you down for the rest of your life. More than anything else though, I don’t want you to have to carry that baggage around.”

Alice surprised John by quickly hugging him tightly, “Why do you always speak like you can’t be forgiven for what you’ve done?”

John hugged her back and smiled, “Because I can’t be forgiven. But that’s alright, I’ve made peace with that knowledge. I’m resolved to make this universe a better place for you and our kids. Well, eventually when we do have kids that is. If I can do that, then when it is my turn to go, I can do so contently.”

The couple continued their embrace. Alice was at a loss for words over John’s statements. She was shocked that he viewed himself in such harsh terms. There was so much she didn’t know what he had done, which naturally made her curious about the parts of his past that he didn’t speak about. Naturally, Alice was curious about getting more details behind that, but pushing for that didn’t seem wise because deep down she wasn’t prepared to hear some of the more gnarly and reprehensible things John had done. Nor was John likely to agree to her request and share those details with her.

The couple eventually calmed down and went back to bed. John fell asleep fairly quickly but started to snore. A closed fist to the side woke him up and caused him to roll over. The blanket thief appeared once more during the evening. When John woke up the next morning, he had but a sliver of the blanket left covering him.

09:45 High Seas Casino

John was sitting at the center seat across from the dealer. He had been playing for a bit over forty minutes and had lost a grand total of four hands. He was counting cards but wasn’t betting on it as obviously as he’d like to be. His streak of good luck had garnered attention from a member of casino security though.

“Five and Six, for a total of eleven,” the dealer said dejectedly, “What would you like to do sir?”

“Double me,” John said pushing forward a small stack of one thousand credit chips.

The dealer flipped over the king of clubs. The poor man’s soul temporarily left his body based on how his upper body went limp. The dealer recollected himself and finished with the three other people to John’s left.

Thankfully, for both the casino and dealer, two of them busted. Another man stopped at eighteen. The dealer was showing a ten, so his odds of winning weren’t that good. With a sigh, the dealer flipped over the hidden card. It was the queen of hearts. The dealer had successfully taken money from five of the six people at the table.

John just smiled and enjoyed seeing ten one thousand credit chips placed next to his bet. Two things then happened simultaneously. Another dealer came by and rotated the other one out before shuffling the deck. And one of the managers on the floor tapped John on the shoulder.

“Excuse me sir, but could you come with me over to my desk,” he said as he handed John three-chip trays.

“Sure thing, boss,” John said with a grin.

Internally John was wondering why they hadn’t asked him to vacate his seat sooner than that. He wasn’t about to voice those thoughts though. He didn’t want to give them an excuse to confiscate his winnings or ban him from this portion of the ship. At least not yet.

John stood up and walked over to the manager's podium in the center of the room. Different casino games were set up around it. Blackjack commanded half of the tables in that portion of the room. Craps and roulette each had three tables on the other side.

“What can I do ya for?” John asked sarcastically.

“We aren’t going to be letting you play anymore blackjack. The rest of the games are open for you. If you try and play blackjack, we will be forced to confiscate your chips and ban you from both casinos onboard.”

John nodded and smiled, “No problemo. I will avoid the blackjack tables.”

The pit boss nodded and the two men behind him parted to let him walk away from their impromptu meeting. He was intercepted halfway to the cashier by Alice. She was shaking her head at John but switched to grinning when she saw the chip trays.

“I thought you said gambling was stupid?”

“Ok, don’t start with that attitude. Gambling is fucking stupid,” John said with a sigh, “Besides it was illegal for me to do so before.”

“Yet here you are. At least you’re in the money.”

John grinned, “Can’t play blackjack anymore though.”

“Pfft, what are these chips twenties?” Alice reached in and grabbed the chips that fell over in the tray.

Her eyes bulged as she saw the actual denomination and she whispered, “What the fuck? You have two full trays and then some?”

“As I said, I was asked to not play anymore. Going to play craps next.”

“With all that?” Alice asked worriedly.

“Oh, hell no, I’m going to cash out these two and wire them into our account. Going to play with this lot,” John separated the trays and showed her the partially full one, “using this money.”

“Hmmm, ok. But let’s go do something together. You can gamble later.”

John looked somewhat defeated, but this was her trip, and he was mostly along for the ride. The couple strode over to the cashier. Two hundred thousand credits worth of chips were cashed out and wired into their joint checking account. The remaining credits were placed on his line with the ship, which he was reminded to cash out before they left the boat.

John then made a really bad and awfully sexist joke saying he was letting his little lady go shopping for something nice. The cashier rolled her eyes at John. Alice smiled and elbowed him in the ribs. Alice grabbed one of the thousand credit chips John hadn’t cashed out and slid it over to the cashier. She smiled and thanked the couple for the tip. Alice then took his hand and dragged John to the shopping mall on board. If he was going to give permission for her to go shopping, then shop she will. John would play the role of bag-bitch the rest of that morning.

13:30 Poolside Bar

Alice was wearing a giant grin on her face as she and John swam over to the in-pool bar. She had spent a lot of money on lots of random stuff. Most of it was for her, but she had purchased some really nice knick-knacks for their friends too. John ordered a pair of margaritas for the couple. He noticed her grin and shook his head.

“One joke. One bad joke and hours later you’re still using that to control me like some little bitch.”

“No, I’m not controlling you. But you were an ass and you need to learn more humility. And improve your sense of humor.”

“Fair enough. Did you get enough shopping done at least?”

Alice had a smile that beamed from ear to ear, “Well, maybe I’m not entirely done. However, I will let you off of bag holding duties now.”

“Here’s a strawberry-lemonade margarita for you sir. And for the pretty lady a blueberry-mint one,” the bartender said pushing the pair of glasses toward them.

John took both drinks and walked over to shallower waters, where Alice could more comfortably drink at. There were underwater seats where the two could sit down in an alcove, though another couple was already in that one.

“Here’s your drink short one,” John said sarcastically.

“Funny guy,” Alice slapped John’s arm after taking her glass.

“You know, this ain’t all bad. Made some spending money. Could’ve done without all that shopping. Had lunch overlooking this big ass pool. And now swimming and drinking in said pool.”

Alice snorted, “Maybe I’m weird, but I’d get bored as hell doing this non-stop. But so would you.”

John took a drink and smiled, “We’re adrenaline junkies. The both of us. We desperately need what the Navy offers.”

“Can’t say that I’m looking forward to living above Manchester. We are way too close to that bitch,” Alice took a drink and sighed, “Sorry about last night by the way. Didn’t mean to demand I join you in everything.”

“Two things,” John said before taking a drink, “Don’t worry about last night. Please let me get dirty so that you don’t have to. I meant that I really don’t want you to have to deal with that ugliness. Secondly, you know damn well I don’t want anything to do with that crazy princess.”

“I know, but I just can’t stand how she looks at you like that. You aren’t her plaything”

John grunted, “Oh, so I’m your plaything then eh? Jealous Alice needs to chill a bit. If she doesn’t our deployment is going to suck balls.”

Alice squinted at John and sighed, “You are treading in dangerous waters their big guy. But still, I know you aren’t interested at all, but I just really don’t like that bitch. She’s just…”

John snickered, “Everything you could’ve turned into, but didn’t.”

“What did you say?” Alice was wearing a wild look on her face.

“Hits a bit too close to home, doesn’t it?”

“Oh, look who’s the psychoanalyst now?”

“I read all those books of yours for shits and grins. You know how my mind is,” John was laughing at the irony.

“Times like right now I don’t like that part of you.”

John leaned over and kissed Alice on the cheek. Their first day on the ship had been a fun one. It was the first of many to come. Whatever reluctance he had over this trip; he was all in on enjoying their time off. And spending both the Christmas and New Year’s holidays abroad would be a hell of a good time.