Page 3 of Cruising for Christmas
“Ryan and I are sharing a room,” Shay said.
Norah stared at her. “I understand that, and I feel stupid I didn’t realize this sooner, but I thought I was sharing a room withyou. And maybe I’m mistaken, but I believe I referenced us being roommates no less than fifteen times, yet this is the first time I’m hearing that we arenot, in fact, roommates.”
“Okay. Don’t be mad. But I didn’t want you to back out.”
“So I’m sharing a room with a stranger?” Norah hissed as more people walked down the hallway.
Shay took Norah’s elbow and led her into the room to get out of the way of people trying to pass them in the hallway. The door clicked shut behind them.
“Not a stranger. My brother.”
Norah waved her hands around the tiny room and then pointed dramatically at the single bed in the room. “Who is a stranger. To me. I’ve never met him, Shay!”
Shay held up her hands. “I know. I know. But he isn’t a bad guy. It’s not like he’s going to molest you in your sleep. He may be a stranger to you, but I can vouch.”
Norah rolled her eyes. “Oh, thank GOD. That makes me feel so much better. You can vouch that he won’t molest me in my sleep.”
“Norah, please. I was really excited you wanted to come, but there weren’t any rooms left. This was the only way I could get you on board with us.” Shay took Norah’s hands and gave her a pleading look. “You’ll have fun, and you won’t even be in the room, except to sleep.”
“It’s the sleeping part I’m worried about, Shay! There’s one bed!”
“Okay, in my defense, I asked for two beds. We can go talk to the front desk about separating them.”
Norah walked over to the bed and lifted the sheets. “This doesn’t look like two beds.”
“It should be. Most cruise ships have two twin beds that are pushed together to form one large one, or they can be separated for two sleepers.”
Shay walked over and examined it. “Uh oh.”
Norah moaned and dropped onto the bed. “Does he know?”
Shay looked sheepish again and sat down next to her.
“Shay, what did you do?”
“I kind of maybe altered the reservation without him knowing.”
Norah’s head swam with those words. He would be as blindsided as she was when he showed up. “You, what? How did you even do that?”
“My parents use a service to book vacations. We always get the same gal. Her name is Misty, and she’s the sweetest. Anyway, I asked her if we could add you on, and she did.”
Norah dropped her face into her hands. “So your brother is going to show up expecting to be rooming alone, only to find out he’s going to be rooming with a stranger?”
Norah realized she sounded like a broken record, pointing out they were strangers, but it seemed like Shay needed to have it pounded into her head.
Shay inspected her nails. “I wish you’d stop calling yourself a stranger. You’re practically family.”
“To you, maybe. We may have lived together throughout college, and I may have met your parents during family weekend every year, but I’ve never met your brother. I actually don’t even think I’ve seen a picture of him.”
“Sure you have.” Shay whipped out her phone and scrolled through her photos, furrowing her eyebrows as she went. “Hmm. Hang on. I’m sure I have one on social media.”
She then scrolled through her accounts. “Okay. I’ll check his account.” Then she scrolled through his photos, which all consisted of a dog.
“So he has a dog?” Norah stated.
“Yeah. Hmm. I never realized how much my brother avoids photos. He’s never been much of a social media person, though.”
“Is he ugly or something?”
