The Elusive Smuggler by Liz Turner

Author:Liz Turner
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2020-06-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Questions & Answers

“Excuse me, Miss?” a passenger called out to Gabriella as she passed by.

“Good morning. How may I assist you?” Gabriella asked with a brilliant smile.

“I just wanted to lodge a minor complaint,” the young man continued. “I tried and tell one of the other crew members, but he wouldn’t stop laughing at me.”

“I apologize for his rudeness.” Gabriella internally sighed, knowing what was about to happen. In her years of working on their beloved cruise ship, she’d grown accustomed to being asked strange questions. The crew members received special training on how to answer the most bizarre of questions with a straight face, but even their intense training wasn’t always enough to cover the vast array of ludicrous inquiries they encountered. It wasn’t the policy of Fischer Cruises to make a passenger feel stupid. “So, what seems to be the problem?”

“The microwave in my cabin doesn’t seem to work. And before you ask, it was plugged in. I couldn’t even find its power source. It’s kind of stuck to the wall.”

“That is quite a problem,” Gabriella sympathized, her lips twitching involuntarily.

“You want to laugh too, I can tell!” the man said in a hurt voice.

Gabriella bit down on the inside of her lip, wincing slightly but grateful the pain helped her regain control. “Sir, I’m afraid we don’t have microwaves in the cabins,” she explained as kindly as she could.

“What do you mean? There is a microwave in my cabin. It has a door and buttons and everything!”

“Can you describe the location of your microwave?”

“It’s randomly hidden inside the closet!”

“I see.” Gabriella found the right words. “I’m afraid you’ve been trying to use the safe to reheat your food,” she said in a lowered voice.

“What?”

“The safe—a storage box where you can lock away your valuables so that the cleaning staff have no access.”

The man’s eyes widened with humiliation, realizing his own stupidity. Occasionally, passengers humbly admitted their own faults, but usually the conversations progressed to new heights of ridiculousness.

“Where can I purchase a microwave for our cabin?”

“Unfortunately, that’s not possible, sir.” Gabriella shook her head before moving swiftly away from the bemused man. She took a deep breath as she stepped out into the fresh air at the stern of the ship. It was an exquisite day with a gentle sea breeze, fresh, tugging at the tendrils that had escaped her neat ponytail.

She leaned her head over the railing, closed her eyes, and lost herself in the choppy, deep blue waters churned by the ship’s rear motors, creating mesmerizing turquoise and white foam.

Voices carried across the breeze, piquing Gabriella’s interest, for she recognized at least one of them.

“I’m sure you’ll love the itinerary I set out for you today,” Sarah was saying.

“Yeah, but it will suck doing these activities alone,” Sebastian complained.

“There are some group events that’ll help you easily make new friends.”

“I’ve already made a new friend…”

The voices stopped, and Gabriella edged a little closer to the concealed conversers.

“I think of you as a friend too,

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