Love on the High Seas. Yasmin Y. Sullivan

one in the Messenger Lounge. He didn’t see her and had no way of knowing if he’d missed her.

      If she wasn’t there on the singles cruise, he had no real way to find her again. There were thousands of people on the ship. That’s when he remembered the brochure. He pulled it out and rummaged through the pages. Each of them had had to submit a bio and picture for it, and it had come a couple of days before they were set to depart.

      Unfortunately, there were dozens of pages of singles listings, and not everyone had sent in a picture. But there weren’t that many African-American women in the lineup, either. He found one that seemed to be her. The picture was small, so he couldn’t be sure. She was wearing a bikini and waving toward shore from the back of a motorboat. Her name was Safire Lewis, and she was twenty-three, hailing from North Miami. The woman he saw seemed to be older than twenty-three, but then women never told the truth on these things anyway. Right?

      Safire Lewis was extroverted and outgoing. She liked swimming and jazz clubs, and she was looking for a man who thought he could tame her urges with tender loving care. She described her style as sophisticated but a bit risqué, and she defined herself as a sensual woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to get it—a little rambunctious but genial, sometimes saucy but always sweet.

      She was looking forward to the singles cruise so that she could relax, kick back and meet some great guys. Her turn-ons were broad shoulders, confidence and someone who knew how to have a good time. Jeremy thought he fit that description. To describe herself in five words or less, she wrote “naughty and nice.”

      It didn’t say much more than that, but that was more than enough.

      Jeremy looked back at the picture. Her description of herself turned him on as much as seeing her had done. It made him more determined than ever to find her again the next day, when they would be at sea.

      Easier said than done, however. The ship had fourteen decks, twenty restaurants, five spas, four movie theaters, gardens, pools, a casino, a carnival, a shopping district, a sports zone and numerous bars, lounges and cafés.

      “You’re looking for whom?” Alistair asked.

      “A woman I saw in line yesterday.”

      “And you expect to find her how?”

      “I think she’s listed in the singles brochure. I’m going to scout out the singles events.”

      “I’ll go with you to the singles stuff,” Myron said.

      “Me too,” Rudy said.

      “I, on the other hand, will be at the pool.” Alistair wasn’t there for the singles mixers; he had a partner back home. He’d come to relax and enjoy. “I’ll meet you guys for lunch. Where?”

      They were in Myron’s stateroom, and he picked up the booklet for the ship. “Okay. We have about thirty pages of options here.”

      The other men laughed.

      “Is there a singles luncheon venue today?” Rudy asked.

      “Oh, joy,” Alistair said with a note of sarcasm.

      Myron picked up the singles brochure. “In fact, there are three.”

      “Pick one,” Jeremy said.

      Myron shrugged. “The Onyx sounds good.”

      “The Onyx it is. One o’clock.”

      Jeremy, Myron and Rudy did a round of the singles events listed for that morning. Myron had started talking to a woman at the Pool and Cabana mixer, so they left him behind and headed to the Café mixer. She wasn’t there, and they didn’t want to go to the Date for the Day event, so Rudy left him to join Alistair, and Jeremy continued on alone.

      Before heading to the Onyx, he stopped at the concierge to see if he could get Safire Lewis’s cabin number or telephone, which turned out to be the same thing. He tried calling the number they gave him but got no answer. At least he knew that if it was her—if the woman he saw was Safire Lewis—he could hope to reach her by phone. That much discovered, he joined his boys for lunch, still keeping an eye out for her.

      He called her again before dinner—no luck. He called again after dinner—eureka.

      “Hello.”

      He had no idea what her voice sounded like.

      “Hi, I’m trying to reach Safire Lewis.”

      There was a pause on the other end. “Yes, this is she.”

      “My name is Jeremy Bell, and I think I saw you when I was boarding the ship. I was wondering if you might want to get together for coffee or dancing or—”

      “Who is this?” she asked.

      Jeremy laughed out loud.

      “I’m sorry. That’s a fair question. I’m on the singles cruise, and I think I saw you when we boarded. You had on a yellow dress. I wanted to meet you.”

      “And you were wearing?”

      “What was I wearing? I had on a white shirt and blue pants, I think. Let me check my closet. Yes, that was it. I thought you might have noticed me, too.”

      “I remember you. But how did you get my name, my number?”

      “After looking for you all day, I checked the singles listing. Luckily, there aren’t that many Black women on this cruise, so I took a chance that you were the one I saw.”

      “Oh.” There was a pause.

      “Look, you probably already have plans for tonight because it’s New Year’s Eve, but if you don’t, maybe we can meet at one of the mixers.”

      “I hadn’t actually planned on going out tonight. I brought some work with me and was in for the night. But maybe...”

      He could hear her hesitation, but at least she was thinking about it.

      “I had planned on going to the Peacock Lounge for their New Year’s Eve party. Maybe we could meet there.”

      He didn’t get a response right away.

      “I’m not sure. Let me see how much I get done, and I’ll consider.”

      “Well, no pressure. I’ll be there, and if you don’t recognize me, I’m sure I’ll recognize you. I hope you can come.”

      “I’ll see,” she said.

      It was clear that she didn’t want to commit, so he decided not to push it.

      “It would be great to meet you, so I’ll keep a lookout.”

      “Okay, then.”

      “Goodbye.”

      Clearly, he hadn’t made the impression he thought he’d made. When she looked back at him and smiled, he thought that they’d connected. Now she seemed unsure if she wanted to meet him.

      To be fair, she didn’t know him from Adam; he could be a serial murderer. She seemed more cautious than her bio had led him to believe. That, or she was swamped with something for work. Or she simply wasn’t that interested in him from what she saw. He had no way of knowing.

      At least she remembered him. And she might come tonight. He wasn’t sure what he would be doing until he spoke to her. In fact, he probably would have rung in the New Year at one of the sports bars with his boys if he hadn’t spoken to her. Now, he had time to change and catch up with the guys to let them know his new plans.

      He met up with Alistair and Rudy at a sports bar around ten o’clock. Myron had a date with the woman that he’d met at the Pool and Cabana mixer, and Jeremy would be meeting them in the Peacock Lounge at eleven.

      “I’ll be back before twelve-thirty if she doesn’t show.”

      “She’ll show,” said Alistair. “Hottie that you are.”

      “Thanks