Now, while we were in Pape'ete for a few days, we sent the two remaining crew members, Andy and Ted, into the town to stay at a local motel on the beach so we could spend the night alone on the cat. John flew back to Manhattan earlier in the day to be with his mother after she discovered she had cancer and would be undergoing radiation treatment. He didn't want to miss any time with her because it was a late stage and she might only have six months to live.
So, as sad as I felt that he would be ending his time on the voyage, I understood completely.
That night, after we said goodbye to John, I had special plans and wanted to be alone with Alexa on the cat, in our anchorage for the night. With the guys in town, we were by ourselves, finally, and so we went about our routine of anchoring the cat, then we prepared a meal, grilling some fresh fish we'd bought at the market in town, along with beautiful baguette and salad. We sat at the table and ate, enjoying the quiet, talking about the future, the only sound that of the water lapping against the cat's twin hulls, and the occasional cry of a seabird flying overhead.
After we finished our meal, I opened a bottle of wine and we lay together on the forward trampoline, pillows behind our heads, and watched the sun set over the open ocean. Once the stars began to appear and after we found all the stars we knew of in the Southern Cross, I took her glass of wine out of her hand and rolled over on top of her. She smiled, knowing what was coming next – or at least, she thought she knew.
"You enjoying yourself?" I asked, kissing her chin, her cheek, her neck. She giggled, because my beard had grown a bit scraggly and I hadn’t yet trimmed it back to its normal three day's growth.
"You know I am. I've never been so happy."
"Me, neither." I kissed her, deeply, and right away, my body warmed to her touch and from the way she moved her hips beneath me, I knew hers did as well. When her hand moved lower, grabbing my butt suggestively, I smiled.
"Not so fast," I said and pulled away. "I have other plans for tonight."
She frowned at first, but couldn’t hide a smile on her lips. "What? What are you planning? I thought as soon as we were alone, you'd be all over me."
"Usually I would but tonight is special."
She nodded. She knew what I meant. It had been exactly six months to the day since I sent her that errant email that started everything between us.
"Six months," she said. "Who could have thought we'd be here, now, doing this when you sent that email and I opened it? I thought you were a total jerk."
"What?" I said in mock affront. "Me? A total jerk?"
"Oh, yeah," she said with a laugh. "Mr. Big Shot 69? I mean what kind of jerk has an email handle like that? And what kind of total ass sends a pic of his watch and Amex unlimited credit card limit to a woman?"
I laughed out loud, remembering how I'd sent those in an attempt to encourage Lexxi of 9-1-1 Escorts to accept the appointment with me so I could teach my cheating brother-in-law a lesson.
"I thought you'd be seduced by my unlimited credit and expensive watch."
"The washboard abs weren't too bad either," Alexa said. “Candace and I were rolling on the floor, wondering what kind of guy you were. A first-class jerk. That was certain. Who would have thought…"
She kissed me, tenderly, and I almost let myself get caught up in the kiss instead of what I had initially planned.
When our kiss broke, I was hard as rock, my erection pressing against her groin.
"I have something for you," I said playfully, wanting to trick her. In response, she grinned and her hand slipped down my back once more to my butt, squeezing one cheek, pressing her body up against mine.
"Not so fast, you insatiable vixen," I said, pulling away. "Later. Right now, I have something else for you."
Then, I reached beside me in a small compartment in the side of the hull and pulled out a tiny box wrapped in white tissue paper with a gold ribbon tied around it. I handed it to her and she took it and looked in my eyes.
"What's this?"
"Open it," I said. "It's special and is to remind us of our journey together."
She began to open it, her eyes wide. Inside the white satin box was a single black Tahitian pearl ring, the pearl surrounded by a crusting of diamonds set in white gold.
"It's beautiful." She slipped it on and admired her hand. "Thank you."
Then she pulled me back down for a kiss, her mouth meeting mine, her tongue finding mine.
We kissed for a long moment, the kiss tender and full of emotion.
"Alexandria Marie Dixon," I said, my voice choking with emotion, "will you marry me?"
Her eyes were even wider at that. "What?"