I walked out the room and checked if there was anybody in the hallway that could notice my presence. I headed towards the ship's cabin in a rush and finally got to the deck. And, there she was, the love of my life: Jacqueline de Bellfort. Dressed in a simple and subtle black dress, simple enough to not draw attention to our secret meeting.

I Marched in her direction, trying to not look excited, because I didn't want anyone to get suspicious about us. I touched her shoulder and she turned to me looking frightened, but the second she saw me, a large and beautiful smile popped on her face.

”thought you wouldn´t come anymore” she whispers looking around us.

“I couldn’t leave the room, there were too many people in the hallway” i said trying to keep some distance from her  “I don’t think we should have our meeting here in the hall where everybody is watching…”

“Don´t worry about it, I’ve found the perfect place”  She said looking me in the eye  “Come!”

I followed Jackie through the ship’s deck, still maintaining a safe distance between us. Even though it was killing me, nobody could get suspicious of us at that hour of the night.

We walked into the ship’s game room, and stopped for a couple of minutes to make sure there wasn’t anyone there. It was late, so the workers and the passengers were already resting in their cabins.

I get near Jackie and smile when i feel her body next to mine. Putting both of my arms around her waist I lean in to bring our mouths together as I missed those lips so much. But I wasn’t able to complete the passionate action because we were interrupted by a deep male voice saying:

“Discretion is not your forte!”

We split right up.

“I said i would help you guys, but you’re making it to hard for me!” he said with a mocking expression.

“Simon…” Jackie starts, but is interrupted middle way her sentence.

“I’m tired of covering up you two for such a low price!” he squeaks mad.

“Low price??” I question, trying to keep cool “I pay more than you deserve, Simon”.

“More than i deserve, Linnet? I hide that you meet with a woman everyday and pretend to be your husband!” he screams angry “I should earn more money and if you don’t give it to me I’ll be forced to tell everybody about your secret relationship!”

“You can’t do that, Simon!”   Jackie says frightened.

Seeing the horrified expression on my lover’s face, I do a ridiculous proposition:

“When the ship returns I’ll pay you double, but you have to disappear of our lives.”  I say irritated, willing to do anything to make him shut his damn mouth “Now go away!”

The man stared at us for long seconds before finally turning around and leaving the room.

Maybe Jackie and I should stop our meetings for a while, it was getting too risky with so many acquaintances near us. We couldn’t let them know what we really meant for each other.

I wrapped my arms around her body in a tight hug while whispering comfort words on her ear and listened to her cry  that showed how scared she was of the situation,.

“I’ll take care of everything, don’t worry my love” I tell her sweetly.

“Linnet, please don’t let him screw all up” She begs with a low voice.

“I’ll go after him right away and make sure he doesn’t speak with us like that anymore” I say looking back as I hear a noise.

I ran through the the ship’s deck once again, but on the opposite direction, finding Simon smoking by the railing. I walked assertively towards him, getting angrier as I remembered all the stuff he had said to us.

“I demand that you never speak to us like that again!” He lifts his eyebrows, looking at me in a mocking manner “Jackie can’t get nervous, or she’ll…”

“She’ll what? Leave you?” He laughs without any humor “You are both women! You shouldn’t be together!” he shouts annoyed.

Not being able to hold back my fury, I slap him in the face. Realizing what happened, his expression changes from surprise to a very angry face, so angry I could almost see smoke coming out of his buffing nose. He grabs my neck rapidly with his enormous hands making the air come out of my lungs. Trying to get rid of his hands, I manage to smack him one more time, but it lands soft on his face, inefficiently.

“I’ll teach you to never do this to me anymore” He says spuming with anger

It all happened so fast, that when I realized I was being hold against the cruise’s railings, ready to be thrown in the sea by him

“LET HER GO!” Simon stepped back at the same time that a glass goblet hit his head, and before he could even blink an eye, Jackie’s body collided against his own, throwing him over the iron bars.

 We watched Simon’s body fall gradually in the water, waiting for our worst nightmare to sink.

I felt my neck hurt like hell and I could see the deep cuts that took place on Jackie’s trembling hands. My girlfriend held my face gently, looking right into my eyes, making me the biggest and most romantic promise of all, before our last kiss:

“No one will ever hurt you again.”