Caged Birds Don't Like to Sing

Thankfully, I packed one little dress to wear. Just in case of an event like this. There was always at least one fancy dinner per cruise. This one happened to be tonight. I didn’t really know what to expect. The last cruise I was on was when I was only seven. I wasn’t even allowed to do anything since I was so young. My parents had left me with a nanny in the room every evening. I didn’t get to go out and enjoy the nightlife of the cruise. I had only seen the blue skies and bright sun.

I swished my hand over the front of the deep wine colored dress, smoothing out the wrinkles from bending over the sink to do my makeup. It was sleeveless and form fitting, but not so tight that I would be passing on seconds. More like stretchy material, but still thick. I gingerly leaned over one last time, finalizing all of the little touches on my skin. I brushed over a lightly layer of a rosy blush and patted the back of my head lightly, securing the hair in a pin.

I raised the dress’ bottom up high so I could adjust my thigh high tights. They were black, but just tinted my skin lightly. I hoisted up the floral patterned top rim and tried to stick the glue-like substance back to my skin. It was the only thing I had to keep them up.

I heard a small rap at the door. I turned my face away from the mirror and leaned over to open the door. Jackson smiled at me, looking me up and down. “You ready?” he asked. He was leaned against the door frame with his hand held onto the knob.

Jackson was wearing a black, button up shirt with a grey suit jacket over it. It wasn’t buttoned up, though. It looked formal, but not overly dressy because it had Jackson’s little touches to it. His necklaces around his neck played it all down. Especially his horseshoe shaped amulet that he wore all the time.

“Yeah,” I said, picking my clutch off the bathroom counter. I clicked it open and filed my fingers through, checking if everything was there.

Jackson tugged on my elbow and hurried me along. My heels stumbled around and over each other. I almost fell over, but Jackson grabbed my other arm. He did his seductive, yet smug, half smile as he helped me back up straight. “Look what you did. I almost wiped out on the floor,” I playfully said, smacking his back lightly with my clutch.

“Almost,” he repeated, still with the same smile on his lips and still holding onto my elbow.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes as we closed the room door behind us and walked down the long hallway. I hoped that Jackson knew his way around because I surely didn’t. I was starting to believe that I was just plain awful with directions.

When we arrived to the dinner, most of the tables were already taken up. Except for a small table right in the center of everything. By everything, I mean the long tables filled with huge families. All members of each family were dressed formally, even their little ones. High-chairs were placed around randomly with little babies murmuring and placing their hands all over everything. I wondered why they let little kids into this area. But I guess anyone who didn’t cause a disruption was allowed in. And these babies seemed to be good natured. Surprisingly.

Jackson pulled out my chair for me and I sarcastically batted my lashes. “You’re too kind,” I complimented sarcastically.

As he sat down in his own chair across the table, “What?” he expressed. “Can’t I be courteous to my own wife?”

I cringed on the inside at the word wife. It was not that I didn’t love the fact that I was married to Jackson. It was moreover the fact of marriage in general. Especially at the age of twenty. It just seemed too young and too rushed. However, it already happened. And on the same note, I think I was okay with it.

“Well in that case, thank you,” I played more, leaning over the table as I said it.

I tossed the napkin on my lap as the waitress came to our table side. She immediately set a wine glass in front of Jackson and filled it halfway. I received a small glass filled to the rim with water. As the women poured that and dropped in the ice cubes, Jackson mockingly pointed at me and silently laughed. I stuck out my tongue briefly. I think even compared to the small children in here, Jackson and I were the most immature.

I took a sip of my water as the waitress talked about the menu. “The meal today is made of some of the well-known Aphrodisiacs,” she set down a few appetizer plates in front of us even though I think we already missed the appetizer. “If you don’t know what that means, they are foods that are thought to increase a person’s libido.”

I pulled the glass away from my lips, coughing under my breath at the water that went down the wrong passage. I placed my hand over my mouth. The waitress looked at me to make sure I was okay, but my eyes were glaring across the table at Jackson. He still seemed as confident and lusty as usual. I scowled to myself.

The waitress continued, “We have saffron and tomato risotto, oysters, steak in red wine sauce, and lobster tonight.” She pulled out a small pad from her little apron around her.

“I’ll have the tomato risotto,” I told.

“May I have the steak.” Jackson said.

She wrote it down and then scurried off. I examined around the room after she left. Everyone seemed so serious. I’d hate to be the one to screw up and throw everyone into a hissy fit. They all looked like they had a stick up their ass.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” I specifically directed towards the Aphrodisiac menu. I leaned my elbows on the table and put my chin in my hands, smiling wryly at Jackson. I felt like this was some kind of plan of his. Especially when he took my hand from my face and took it to his from across the table.

“How was I suppose to know?” Jackson defended, taking a sip from the wine glass. “Are you say
saying I’m going to get lucky tonight?” He had a wishful look on his face with a little tinge of sparkle in his eyes.

I pursed my lips and shrugged, nonchalantly sipping on my water. “I don’t know,” I hemmed and hawed. He rolled his eyes.

After some talk and mockery about the overly stiff people here, Jackson and I finished up our plates of food. The portions were incredibly small, but also amazingly filling. I knew they had to give small portions because the food was so expensive. That means it was even more expensive to eat.

The little waitress came back with two small plates. Each had two white chocolate truffles and two chocolate dipped strawberries. I assumed those were going to be another twenty-five dollars.

Jackson thanked her and she skittered off once again. A few people had already left the restaurant because it was getting late. There was still many in the room, however. Jackson started to place some money on the table so we could leave quicker. He took a bite off the strawberry and flicked the lid of it in my direction.

It landed and stuck on my collarbone. Startled, I looked down to see it sitting there. I picked it off and tossed it into my napkin. Jackson was snickering. “Ha-ha, you’re so funny,” I hissed caustically, but with a mischievous grin on my face.

While Jackson was giggling and eating his truffle, I began to aim. I balanced out my index finger and thumb to the top of the truffle. Knowing my sweets, I knew that truffle tops could fly off easily. I used to do this when I was younger at fancy restaurants. I’d flick truffles at random people. Let’s hope my aim was still as good.

I flicked and Jackson’s eyes moved up right at that second. He dodged it. But by my mistake, I had ended up flicking the entire truffle. It flew through the air with amazing power and speed. Jackson turned around to see where it was going as I tilted past him to get a better look.

It hit a waiter straight in the face. Unfortunately, he was holding a giant plate over his head. He was stunned and stumbled around. The plate tipped around until the Baked Alaska, that was on fire, fell off onto the table. The two ladies and the gentleman were in shock and freaked out. They all shrieked.

Jackson shot back around to look at me. Both of us, following our instincts, jumped underneath the table and hid under the cloth. The money was already on the table so maybe it’d look like we had already left.

“Nice going, Marissa!” he said in a whisper once we were hidden. He was actually laughing quietly despite the fact that we could have caught the table on fire.

“You started it,” I concluded, crossing my arms.

I was on my elbows and knees. I tried to sit up, but hit my head on the table. “Ow!” I cried, rubbing my head. Jackson’s hand clamped over my mouth. But the table had already shook.

We looked over as a beam of light came in. Someone had lifted up the table cloth. “Que faites-vous sur le terrain?” the man with a mustache cried. He shook his hand fervently. “Sortez de là!”

Jackson and I looked over at each other and then back to him. We had no clue what he was saying, but we assumed that it wasn’t anything good from the tone of voice he used. Jackson and I crawled out on all fours.

The guy was making hand signals to rush us out. Jackson got up first and helped me up. It was hard getting off the floor in a dress. I dusted off the little fuzzies when I was fully up.

“À quoi songiez-vous? Des ravages mon restaurant est quelque chose qui peut vous amener jetés par dessus bord!” The mustache man continued to scream.

Jackson and I stared at him, completely mystified as to what he was trying to say. Another man came up behind him. This one looked a little more calm.

Jackson raised an eyebrow. “English please?”

The calmer man sighed, “He’s just blowing off some steam by threatening you two.”

I gulped at his indifference to the situation. I wandered my eyes back and forth to the three men. The calm one continued, “So what did happen here?”

I peeked around. Everyone was evacuated except for the four of us. The tablecloth was burnt black. I bit down on my bottom lip.

“My wife was just trying to hit me with something. She missed. Complete misunderstanding,” Jackson smoothed over.

The man tried to explain it in French to the mustached guy. He was still fuming over the top. Then warned us something in French. He seemed to be pointing it to me specifically.

Jackson stood in front of me, noticing that he was starting to go off on me. “Leave her alone. It was an accident.”

The guy who acted as a translator stepped out of the way. I glared at him, “Do something, you idiot!”

He frantically said something to the angry man. It just seemed to upset him more. He shouted even more into Jackson’s face. Jackson’s expression got bitter, but I knew he wasn’t one to throw fists. I tugged onto his forearm.

“Let’s just go, Jay,” I cooed. Jackson took one more look at the man before following my lead.

“That guy was a creep,” I muttered once we were far enough away and on the path to our room.

“More like a prick,” Jackson fumed, still bitter and dragging his feet.

I rubbed his back soothingly as he opened the hotel room door. “It was still hilarious, I’ve got to admit,” I hesitantly chuckled.

Jackson turned around once we were the room and smiled. He laughed lightly as well and nuzzled his head in closer, trying to put his lips to mine. I kissed him back and ran my fingertips over his jacket, knowing exactly where this was headed.

His body pressed mine against the closet door. I took my hands and wrapped them around his neck, playing with his hair lightly. “This has taken a sudden twist in events,” I giggled. His hand slid around my hips and pulled me off the wall. Twirling us around, he moved us into the main area of the room. He sat back onto the bed and I sat on top of him. We were horizontal on the bed at this point.

I felt his hands take grip off the top of the dress. I kicked off my heels and started to shimmy the dress off. After I knew it was off, I rolled over to the top of the bed, sitting the right way and my knees were loosely bent. Jackson looked at me seductively as he licked over his lips. By now I knew that was his blatant way of showing that he wanted me.

He came over beside me and I got back on top. Right after that, he rolled me back over so I was underneath him. I tried to move around one more time, but that resulted into him being flown off the bed. He looked up at me, laying down on my stomach with my knees in the air and chuckling. He popped back onto the bed and I threw off his belt and jacket. A pile of clothes was accumulating on the ground at the end of the bed.

Jackson’s hands pinned my wrists above my head as he rested his body onto mine. I was still lost into the mixture of hormones and adrenaline rushing. I was unsure of the idea of having sex again, just because of it being so new. But there wasn’t any reason not to. I had just got out of my pregnancy scare.

His hands trailed down my body as he slipped off my tights. I was down to my underwear and he was now down to only his pants. His lips trailed down my neck and made me moan lightly. When his lips were back to mine, he was smiling. I kneaded his hips lightly before he took off his pants.