1 Chapter 1: One Night Stand

When Celia woke up that morning, she heard someone showering in the bathroom.

Who could be in her bathroom? She didn’t have a shared cabin, so how could there be someone else there?

She forced her eyes open—it was not easy, because her eyelids felt heavy—and looked around for signs. There might be clues to the identity of the person in the shower.

Her bedroom did not look familiar, though. Her makeup, hairbrush, and bottle of perfume were not on the dressing table. Instead, there was a brush and something which looked like a lot of hair gel in their place.

With a jolt, she realized that she was not in her own cabin. This meant that she was the stranger here, and not the other way around!

Celia felt the empty space next to her. It was warm.

Whoever was taking a shower had been in the bed with her.

This caused her to wake up completely. She was immediately overcome with a feeling of dread. This was much worse than she had first imagined.

She leaned forward to sniff at the bedding then and her fears were confirmed: the bed held the fragrance of a man’s scent.

Celia tried to search her mind for memories of the previous night, but she could remember nothing around her pounding headache.

"Whose bed is this?" she asked herself in a horrified whisper. Who on earth was in the shower?

There was no time to find out, though. Her mind was in complete confusion and her heart was beating fast with fear of being discovered. She just wanted to get out.

She scrambled out of the bed as fast as she could. Then, to her deepening horror, she discovered that she was naked.

She grabbed at her clothes which lay strewn on the floor in front of the bed and dressed as fast as she could even though her entire body trembled with fear. Her hands were shaking.

Whatever happened, she just did not want the man in the bathroom to come out and confront her, nor did she want to know the identity of the person whom she had spent the night with. So she ran out of the unfamiliar cabin and disappeared down the hall.

***

Back in her own room, she took a good, long shower. She wanted to rid herself of the very existence of the previous night. But what had happened?

Today was the last day of the weekend cruise she was on with her best friend and fiance—a short trip to celebrate their graduation. But yesterday night, things had gotten out of hand.

She could vaguely remember feeling very hot and drowsy, and had headed for her cabin. She remembered kissing a man, or him kissing her. He had murmured something which she could not quite hear. Why could she not remember his face, though?

A feeling of embarrassment swept over her when she realized that she apparently had a one night stand.

“I have to straighten myself out physically and mentally,” she told her reflection as she applied her make-up as close to perfection as she could. She had officially ended her teenage modeling career, but brushing up her appearance now and again still boosted her morale.

Celia had decided to leave the modeling industry because she realized she would rather be a designer. She had enjoyed showcasing other people’s creations, but she had ideas of her own that she wanted to share with the world. Her passion was for jewelry, and she was confident she could go far.

After dressing, Celia left her cabin. She went to stand on the deck of the ship and shook out her hair as the breeze blew it free. The mid-morning sunlight brought out golden highlights among her bright auburn curls, but she was unaware of it, her mind on other things.

Celia’s stomach churned at the thought of seeing her fiancé now. She had no idea how she was going to tell him that she had woken up in a stranger’s bed this morning. It would be hard to explain but there was no other way out. He just might understand.

But she also knew that there was something else she needed to do first—

She would get back enough of her memory to confront Georgina about what had been in her drink last night.

Celia was sure that she had been more drunk than normal. And as much as it pained her to admit it, the dizzy feeling began after she had the drink which her best friend Georgina gave her.

What could her friend’s motivation be for something so risky and careless?

Celia felt abused and betrayed. On the one hand, she wanted to cry, and on the other, she just wanted to bang her so-called friend really hard on the head with a heavy object.

By the time she spotted Georgina lounging on a deck chair, Celia felt more than bold enough to confront her—although she had very few facts to go by and a mountain of embarrassment to fight off.

“You are really looking gorgeous this morning, I must say,” Georgina remarked with a broad smile which looked truly genuine. But Celia would not allow herself to be taken in by her old high school friend’s harmless appearance. It was beyond cruel of her to still smile.

“Georgina, what was in that drink which you gave me last night?” she asked without preliminaries.

“Oh, now where does this aggressive attitude come from?” Georgina responded with a shocked expression on her face. “I would have thought that you had a refreshing night’s sleep and that you felt as good as you looked,” she continued with the same innocent expression on her face.

“Georgina, was that drink supposed to make me sleep soundly?” Celia hissed back, making sure that the other guests on the cruise ship did not hear their conversation. “Then let me inform you that it actually worked like a rape drug.”

“Now, be careful what you’re implying,” Georgina responded as she rose from her chair. She looked at Celia suspiciously.

“Don’t look at me as if I had lost my mind,” Celia continued in an aggrieved tone. “You must be aware of what was in that drink. What you did was beyond irresponsible.”

Celia turned and walked away from Georgina in a furious state. At this point her face was almost as crimson as her hair.

“Celia, listen!” Georgina called after her, but Celia felt certain that Georgina could not possibly be concerned about her.

She headed back inside the ship and headed straight for her own cabin. She opened the door and locked it behind her before throwing herself onto her bed, facedown.

At first, she fought the tears of disappointment which were burning behind her eyelids.

Celia thought about all her aspirations for a dream wedding. She then let her tears flow freely into the pillow when she could not hold back anymore.

After a while, she sat up on the bed and studied her face in the mirror.

"That man can show up anytime and tell everyone about what we did," she told herself.

"I have to tell Randy," she added before laying down on her back.

***

Celia drifted off to sleep, and when she woke up again, her mind felt completely clear, her emotions even.

Her composure restored, she rose from bed with a sense of renewed courage, rinsed her face off, and refreshed her makeup. She felt ready to talk to Randy. Glancing at the clock, she figured he would be having lunch now.

As she walked down the passage on her way to the restaurant area, Celia sang softly to herself. She decided that nothing and nobody was going to ruin her life.

There was a piano at the entrance to the dining area. As Celia passed it, she heard muffled sounds coming from behind the instrument.

“Could there somehow be an animal on the ship?” she asked below her breath.

She then crept softly in the direction of the sounds and peeped behind the piano to rescue whatever animal or child which was trapped there.

What Celia saw then filled her with shock and disbelief.

She immediately recognised her fiancé Randy and her friend Georgina sitting on the rug behind the grand piano—and engaged in a rather passionate kiss. Their arms were wrapped around each other, and they seemed lost to the world around them.

“What on earth is this?” Celia exclaimed immediately. It seemed as if the words escaped from her mouth before she could stop them.

At the sound, Randy and Georgina scrambled to their feet and pulled their clothes straight.