Hey @sambethe it’s me again! I’m back with the main gift I prepared for you as your Secret Valentine. I hope you like it. I wanted to write you something sweet and I hope I did it right.
Emma stared up at the big ship in front of her: The Jolly Roger. If she had been 16 or 17, maybe even 20 years younger, her inner self would have jumped up and down at the name. She would have seen THE ‘Jolly Roger’ and would have expected Captain Hook and Peter Pan to appear out of nowhere to take her out of the system. They would have taken her to Neverland to a world full of lost boys and girls, where there were no group homes and bad foster families. But now, 28 years old Emma just smiles at the name of the ship and goes in the waiting line to embark on a six-day cruise on the Caribbean Sea.
She had received the tickets from Mary Margaret and David as a Christmas gift meant for her and her boyfriend, Walsh. She loved the idea of being on a ship in the middle of the ocean for a week and the fact that Walsh could have been there with her was a nice addition. But as always, Emma’s plans hadn’t gone as she’d wished and a week before leaving on the cruise, she had found Walsh in bed with someone else. Of course they had broken up and Emma had told him she never wanted to see him again, but she had two tickets for this cruise and she didn’t want to go alone.
The problem with that, however, was that Valentine’s Day fell during the course of the cruise and all her friends had either plans with their partners or, in Elsa’s case, were visiting family in Norway. Eventually, Emma had decided to go on the cruise alone. The only things that warmed her heart were the fact that the ship would be full of strangers and no one would care for her.
The first day passed quickly. Emma was busy accommodating and trying to adjust to the fact that she was by herself on a ship, for the first time. But the big room that looked more like a hotel room than a cabin on a ship helped a lot. And so did the open bar that served all kinds of cocktails and the big pool on the deck.
On the second day, Emma decided that she wanted to explore the ship. She was walking around the deck, when she passed through a door. She found herself in a room full of computers and people. She knew deep down that she had to go back, that the tourists weren’t allowed in there, only the staff, but she didn’t want to. Her curiosity pushed her to take a quick look around. Finally she decided that it was better if she left the room before anyone saw her, but when she turned to the door she ran into a person.
“Who are you?” the person asked her.
Emma took a step back and stared at the person. It was a man, a tall man with intense blue eyes that could easily compete with the ocean around them, and apparently, he had an accent. He also wore a uniform that fit him perfectly, with the name tag that said “Captain K. Jones” so Emma could understand that this was the captain of the ship. With him was a man with the same intense blue eyes that wore a similar uniform that said “Staff Captain L. Jones”.
“Lass?” the captain asked again.
“Maybe she’s one of the tourists that can’t speak English,” the other man said to the captain.
It All Starts With a Dance 