First Class Voyage (First Class Novels – A Contemporary Romance Series) (5 page)

There was no family breakfast today so Maureen came back to
her cabin after a delicious plate of Eggs Benedict and began calling each cabin
that housed a member of her family. They were to meet in the piano bar at
precisely 10:55am to begin the days’ trivia games. Maureen was a challenge to
the other players all on her own, but with her family by her side, she was sure
they could not be beaten.

“We will win every game,” she stated as Peter was putting on
his shoes.

“You hope,” he chuckled.

“Oh no! We WILL win. Who could beat us?”

And with that they exited their suite and headed to the
piano bar to take on the rest of the ship.

*****

Andrew and Rory, Janie and Matt, Katy and Mark, and Paul and
David sat with their parents waiting for the trivia to start. Rory was the only
one happy to be playing.

“Oh, come on,” he insisted. “It’ll be fun!”

Maureen smiled at her son-in-law and inspected her pencils,
making sure they were sharp and ready to fill in the answer sheet. She had
three pencils, in case the first two became blunt.

The crew member stood by the piano and explained the rules
of the game. They were playing “Name That Tune” from the hits of the 1950’s.
Everyone rolled their eyes and sighed.

“No point me being here,” said Katy.

“Me either,” chimed in Mark.

Janie and Matt frowned, knowing they would also be
absolutely no help at all to their mother’s victory quest.

Maureen shooshed them all and the first piece of music
began. They had to name the song and the artist. David and Paul took out their
phones and began playing a game. Andrew leaned back in the chair and closed his
eyes. Mark and Katy were talking and Janie was trying hard to listen to the
music, and Matt was amused by the intense look on her face.

Rory leaned in to Maureen and whispered in her ear.

“Oh yes!” Maureen beamed. “Brilliant!”

Andrew turned to his husband, eyebrows raised.

“I do know some music from that era,” Rory grinned.

The next piece of music began and Peter and Maureen had
immediate recognition in their expression and so it went. For twenty songs
everyone but Rory, Maureen and Peter sat twiddling their thumbs, only remaining
because Maureen would be devastated if they left. And after twenty songs and
the answers being given, Maureen lost by one point to a gentlemen in a
wheelchair and an oxygen tank. She was mortified.

As the crowd disbursed, Maureen sat in the chair, head hung
low, shamed by her loss.

“I should have won,” she muttered to herself.

Janie and Matt, though finding her mood rather melodramatic,
felt bad and offered to come back in the afternoon for the next game. Maureen’s
head lifted and a giant smile appeared, obviously lifting her spirits
dramatically. Mark and Katy felt guilted into offering to come too, as did
Andrew, although Rory was only too happy to try again.

“Okay then,” Maureen beamed. “One o’clock we meet back here
to
win
this time!”

*****

Matt and Janie spent lunch on the lido deck with Ella.
Christopher was a bit fussy so Patty stayed with him in her cabin. They had
hamburgers and fries and an apple and Ella chatted happily the whole time they
ate. It was obvious to whoever saw them that Ella was the apple of Matt’s eye
and he doted on her with more love than he could ever have imagined having for
a child. He didn’t think he could love Janie any more than he did but the love
for a child was very different than the love one has for a spouse and he
understood that now.

As he listened to Ella chat away about absolutely nothing in
particular, he watched Janie watch their daughter and he could see it in her
eyes too.
How very lucky I am
, he thought.
How grateful I am for her,
he smiled at his wife.

Adam and Tyler interrupted his thoughts as they slid onto
the bench next to their mom.

“Hey!” Janie smiled brightly at her boys.

“Hi!” Adam kissed his mom’s cheek. “Hello Ella,” he grinned.

“A’am!” she grinned. “I ate my boogah!”

“Yes you did,” he laughed. “I’m glad I’m almost fluent in
Ella.” 

“There is a three-on-three tournament starting this
afternoon. You wanna play?” Tyler asked Matt.

“Nah, thanks, but check with Mark. He’s always up for a
game.”

“Will do,” Tyler replied and then inhaled his hamburger.

With lunch finished, Matt and Janie took Ella to Patty so
they could, once again, go to the piano bar in support of Maureen.

“Do you know what subject this one is?” Matt asked as they
stood in the elevator.

“Celebrity something,” she smiled.

“Great. So I won’t know any of these answers either,” Matt
frowned.

“You never know. You may have dated one of them in your
previous life,” Janie smirked.

Matt grabbed her by the waist and bent her backwards and
laid a huge juicy kiss on her in a very romantic style. The elevator dinged and
the doors opened to a group of women. They cheered loudly as Matt let his wife
up and pronounced for all to hear, “There was nobody of consequence before
you!”

The women all but swooned as he ushered his wife past them.

“If only I could find one of those,” they heard as they
headed to meet Maureen.

*****

Everyone was there but Paul. He was in the gym working out
and decided to skip this round, according to David. Maureen gathered her brood
together to give them a pep talk.

“I know you think that this is a bit ridiculous, but I’d
really like to win this time,” she encouraged. “Please do your best.”

Katy stifled a snicker and Mark bit his lip to stop from
laughing. Andrew rolled his eyes and Rory patted Maureen’s hand and said he
would try his hardest.

This game involved looking at photos of famous people and
writing down their names. Janie didn’t think it sounded too hard. She watched
movies and listened to music so she was hopeful that maybe this time she could
contribute.

The family wrestled with the other participants trying to
get close enough to the photos to make their guesses. After the first two, John
Travolta and Harrison Ford, Janie was feeling quite confident, that is until
she came to picture number three, then four and five.

“I have no idea who these people are,” she whined to Katy
who was standing beside her.

“Me either,” she commiserated. “I think Maureen will think
twice before asking me to play again.”

They slowly made their way through all twenty photographs
and looked at their paper. They only had thirteen names. Maureen would not be
happy. They made their way back to the table where the family was gathering to
compare notes, Maureen writing down the names on the ‘official’ paper they
would score from. As they compared their lists and Maureen recorded their final
answers, they realized there were only two that they could not agree on.
Numbers eleven and seventeen were giving them trouble.

“I think eleven is Lionel Ritchie,” Rory said.

Maureen frowned. “I thought it looked like Denzel
Washington.”

Janie decided not to say anything. Katy looked around at the
puzzled expressions, “It’s neither. It’s Billy Ocean. I’m sure.”

Maureen looked at Katy, skeptical. “It looks like Denzel. I
have seen a few of his movies.”

Katy just shook her head and pursed her lips.

“How about number seventeen?” Andrew said.

Mark offered his opinion. “I think it’s Criss Cross. You
know those rapper kids from the nineties?”

Nobody else had an answer so Maureen scribbled down Mark’s
suggestion.

“Silly name,” she muttered as she wrote.

The staff member called time and the answers began. People
were yelling out their guesses from all over the lounge and Maureen looked
happier with each correct answer she had.

They came to number eleven and the young lady leading the
game said on her last three cruises nobody had gotten the next answer correct.
Katy sat back and folded her arms. She had watched Maureen write down Denzel
Washington on the paper.

“Any guesses?” came the voice through the microphone.

Several names were called out, both Denzel and Lionel
amongst them. They were told they were all wrong. Finally, Katy had had enough.

“Billy Ocean,” she yelled.

“Correct!” came the reply. “Well done!”

Maureen’s eyes flew open wide and she looked up at Katy then
back at her paper.

“Good job!” Mark grinned and kissed her on the cheek.

Everyone had moved on to number twelve.

“Told ya!” Katy pouted. “But your mother doesn’t listen to
me!”

On through the list they went to number seventeen, the other
questionable answer they had.

“Kid ‘n Play,” came the voice from the other side of the
room.

“Yep. That’s it!” said the young lady with the microphone.

The entire room seemed to groan all at the same time.

“Oh well,” Maureen patronized Mark. “That was a hard one.”

Katy folded her arms and looked at Mark. He shrugged and
tried to hide his grin.

By the end of the game, Maureen had eighteen answers correct
and again lost by one to the team that had answered number seventeen correctly.
She wasn’t happy.

“Oh come on!” she said. “We should be killing these other
teams. There isn’t a smarter group of people on this ship than you lot right
here!” She really wasn’t happy at all. “Andrew, you need to step it up next game.
And Janie? I know you’re a smart girl. Now come on! Next game is in an hour.
Let’s do this!”

Mark led Katy by the hand out of the bar before any
incidents
happened. He was fighting his grin all the way to the coffee bar where he
ordered two drinks.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Katy snapped. “NO mention of
the fact she would have at least tied with the other team if she had just
listened to me, ONCE!”

“It’s just a game. A stupid game,” Mark tried to calm her
down.

“I know that!” she snapped back. “But your mother doesn’t.
Not a word about that fact that I had the right answer.”

“It’s not personal,” Mark said.

“Oh yes it is! Rory is wonderful. Janie is perfect. But me?
I don’t count for anything. We’ve been together for three years. Three years
and she still doesn’t…doesn’t…” She really didn’t know what Maureen thought.

The coffees were ready and Mark signed the receipt and took
them from the counter, handing one to Katy. “Well, let’s redeem ourselves at
the next one shall we?”

“Hmph!”

*****

The third and final round of trivia for the day was to take
place in the lobby. The family gathered as requested and waited for their
hopeful redemption to begin. This trivia game was to name the movie from a
quote. The same young lady from the last game would read a quote and the
players had to guess the name of the movie.

“Sounds easy enough,” Maureen smiled.

“Only if it’s a John Wayne movie,” added Peter.

The family circled around their mother, determined to get a
win so that they could stop playing these ridiculous games.

“Okay, here’s number one,” said Amy, the staff member.
“Bueller.”

Janie and Katy looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“We know this one,” they chimed.

And so it went. Numbers one through nine went incredibly
well for the Lathems. At least one of them was absolutely confident they knew
each of the first nine movies. That is until it came to number ten.

Amy had repeated the quote three times.  “Call my name.
Bastian, please! Save us!”

Not one of them had a clue. Finally, Katy leaned forward and
whispered very quietly.

“It’s only a guess, but maybe it’s The Neverending Story?”

“Well,” said Maureen, “Nobody else has a guess so let’s go
with your answer then.” She smiled at Katy and wrote it down on the paper.

Katy was shocked, downright speechless. Mark just smiled as
the next quote was read.

Finally it was number twenty and they could be done,
although Katy had to admit that she was slightly enjoying this game. Peter knew
every movie made before 1980 and Rory knew almost every movie made after 1990,
so it was just one decade that they had made a couple of guesses on.

“You want to talk to God? Let’s go see him together, I’ve
got nothing better to do.” Amy repeated the quote again. “And,” she added, “I
need the exact title of the movie.”

“It’s Indiana Jones,” said Andrew. “I’m sure.”

“But which one?” asked Matt.

Nobody knew for sure.

“Should we guess?” asked Maureen.

“Just put down Raiders of the Lost Ark,” said Matt. “And
then keep your fingers crossed.”

Everyone agreed and Maureen scribbled down their answer and
waited for the answers to begin.

As they went through the quotes again, one by one, Maureen
was ticking off the correct answers. When they came to number ten, they were
nine for nine.

“Call my name. Bastian, please! Save us!”

A couple of answers were yelled out and Amy said they were
both wrong. Maureen raised her hand and gave Katy’s answer, The Neverending
Story.

“That’s it!” smiled Amy.

“Yay!” their group cheered. They all congratulated Katy on
her great guess.

All the way up to number twenty and they had a perfect
score.

“Fingers crossed,” grinned Matt.

The answer was indeed Indiana Jones, but which one? Amy held
them in suspense for several seconds until she confirmed it was indeed Raiders
of the Lost Ark.

The Lathem family jumped up and cheered wildly. They had a
perfect score and had won the trivia game. Amy presented Maureen with a cheap
plastic trophy and everyone present would have thought it was an Olympic gold
medal or an Oscar the way she accepted the Chinese-made dollar store piece of
crap. She turned to her family and smiled. As everyone else in the lobby filed
past them, off to do something else, Maureen offered her acceptance speech.