10. The officer is no gentleman

Tights and underwear are draped all over the shower on a make shift clothesline. There are so many half empty containers of shampoo, body scrub and conditioner on the base of the shower you can hardly move. They are the only reminders of the people who have occupied these cabins before us but Nicky the neighbour insists on keeping them to add variety to each shower. The shower feels good, its hot and strong, one of the only good things about this cabin.

I rinse off and wrap myself in the only towel left, a hand towel. It barely reaches around my above average sized bust and there is a risk of flashing my pubes. My hair is dripping wet. Vanessa must have used both the bath towels.

She is lying on her bunk smoking a cigarette and reading a magazine when I come out of the shower.
“So, how did cocktails go,” I ask, wiping the escaped steam from the mirror above the sink.
Vanessa sits up quickly bending her head forward and pulls my bath towel off her head, throwing it on the floor.
“Guess what,” she says, excitedly. Whatever it is, it must be good to make Vanessa this happy I think to myself as I smear my face in Nivea. I can see in the reflection of the mirror as she clips her hair onto the top of her head and lights another cigarette from the one in her mouth. From nowhere she produces a bottle of wine and two glasses.

A knock comes to the door. “I’ll get it,” says Vanessa, the cigarette bouncing from the side of her mouth, the ash threatening to snap. While Vanessa gets up, I grab the damp towel off the floor and step back into the shower room to cover myself up. I peak out the door to see who is there. Vanessa is throwing her clothes out the door. Better covered I join Vanessa at the door to see what on earth she is doing. There, standing laden with clothes is a young Pilipino man dressed in a blue smock and Wellington boots. Vanessa is searching for more clothes as she explains what’s happening. He told her us his name is Rod and that he used to clean the cabin for the previous occupants. For $10.00 dollars each per week he would take our uniforms and clothes to the laundry, clean the cabin and make our beds three times a week. Rod has barely finished giving his sales pitch when I too am reaching for my stained uniform. Just like that I have spent more than one third of my entire month’s salary.
“Friday, he calls over the top of the laundry in his strong accent, I will bring them back Friday.”

That’s great we agree when he Rod has left. At least we don’t have to worry about our uniforms now.
"Oh, by the way, someone wants to flog us a TV, says Vanessa. What do you think?"
"How much is it?" I ask ringing out the last drops of water from my hair over the sink.
"Only $50.00 dollars,” she says, don’t you think it would be good to have a TV?"
“Anyway listen,” says Vanessa not waiting for a reply, she sits back down and offers me a glass of wine with one hand and a cigarette with the other. I accept both and pull the chair out. This sounds like it might be juicy.

Before lighting up,I open the cabin door and the bathroom door to let some of the air out. We both agreed on the first day that only one of us would smoke in the cabin at a time but with this piece of exciting gossip the rule is broken, only for today.
Settled in, Vanessa makes me swear I won’t tell anyone. “Ok, I won’t “fucking” tell anyone.” Congratulating myself once more for my quick wit, Vanessa carries on.
“I’ve met someone,” she whispers, then deeply draws on her cigarette and blows it out quickly. She is grinning from ear to ear. “So what do you think?,” she says getting up and checking the corridor.
What do I think about what, I think, “What do you mean you’ve met someone?”
Still whispering (loudly), Vanessa goes on to tell me that during the captain’s cocktail party she had made eye contact with one of the senior officers and that he had come over and took a virgin drink off her tray.
“And?” I urge waiting for the climax. Vanessa gets up again and checks the corridor. Reversing back down again and ducking back into position, she puts her finger to her lips and signals for me to be quiet.
“It’s the chief engineer,” she says, pouring more wine but keeping her eye on me at the same time for my reaction.
Just them the sound of heels clicking and chatter can be heard, louder and louder as it reaches a crescendo at our door, a momentarily glance from each bar steward and the noise fades off into the distance as they make their way up to passenger areas.
“The chief engineer…,” I repeat as Vanessa tells me again to schhhhh and gets up for the umpteenth time to check the corridor. This is getting annoying.
I don’t know what is going on. The Chief engineer took a drink off her tray and now we’re not allowed to speak about it. Just then the door of Nicky’s cabin is opened.
“Hi girls,” says Jackie, Nicky’s cabin mate.
“Hi,” we reply in unison, not before almost jumping out of our skin. Jackie closes our bathroom door and locks herself in from the other side. We wait for the toilet to flush and for our door to be unlocked again before Vanessa continues.
“He asked me if I wanted to meet him tonight,” she said, dancing her legs on the floor in excitement.
“What, where?” I whisper taking an extra large gulp of wine. I’m not sure how I really feel about this but for the moment I am wrapped up her enthusiasm. I have never seen Vanessa so excited about anything.
“He said deck 11 aft at midnight, oh my god what am I going to wear,” she said giggling. She raised her glass of wine and we do a toast.
“To me and my new man,” she said laughing loudly and clinking our glasses together before lowering her voice again and jumping up to check the corridor.
“Bloody hell Vanessa will you sit down. Why do you keep checking outside, what’s the big secret anyway?”
Vanessa adjusted her towel around her before sitting down again. She puts out her cigarette and I light another one.
“I just don’t want anyone to know yet that’s all,” she replies defensively. I can tell by her face that there is more to it than that but after today’s events I decide not to push the subject. Instead I ask her what he looks like and what she’s going to wear to meet him and she brightens up again immediately. She checks the corridor another couple of times as she went on to tell me in great detail how he had walked over, what expression he had on his face when he walked towards her, how she felt, what she said (ok) and how he couldn’t stay and chat. So basically the whole conversation went like this. He said, meet me on deck 11 aft at midnight,” and she said, “ok”.

Part of me is feeling left out. Why doesn’t something exciting happen to me. The whole time Vanessa is going on about it I can feel the smile of my face being betrayed by my eyes. I am happy for her, I’m just not happy in general. Vanessa lets me know that she has spoken enough by reclining back on her bunk and holding her magazine up blocking any eye contact. Before I swing my leg up onto my bunk, I put some knickers on sparing Vanessa the dreaded ginger minge.