“You can’t just come onto this ship and expect me to forget everything that happened.”

        “I know I can’t.” Slowly, Janine felt like her plan was working. That Lance was starting to fall for her again like he had the first time, nearly two years ago. “But I can ask for forgiveness and promise that I’ll never hurt you again, can’t I?” Janine said, her voice growing softer with each word. “I love you, you know. I never stopped.”

        Lance looked at her and still saw the scheming eyes that he’d seen when she had broken his heart without a second thought. He no longer saw the love in her eyes that he once saw when they were first a couple.

        “I can’t do it,” he told her. “I just don’t love you anymore. I don’t.”

        Janine shook her head, convinced that she could convince him that he was wrong. That he did still love her, and that they had a chance to gain back what they had lost.

        “No. You still love me. You’re just upset right now.”

        “Don’t you see?” He spread his arms to make his point. “Look where we are.”

        Janine raised an eyebrow and then nodded. “Yeah, we’re on this ship. But, Lance----”

        “Look at us!” he said loudly. “Nothing would change between us. We never were right together. We never were.”

        “No.” She reached out to touch his arm. “No, we are right together. Can’t you understand that me hurting you was just a mistake? I never meant for it to happen, I swear it.”

        Lance knew that she was telling the truth. No, she didn’t mean for it happen, but the fact was that it did happen. And it had only made him realize what he’d been missing since they’d gotten together. That there was no chance for them. They just weren’t right for each other. He was a player, and so was she. They both played to win. They would never work. Never in a million years.

        “We’re not discussing this any longer,” he said with his hands in his back pockets. He spoke the words like a father telling his child that it was the end of the discussion and there was no reason to discuss it any further.

        “Can we talk about it later?” she asked.

        “No. And I think we should stay away from each other till we dock in New York.”

        “You don’t mean that.” She reached out but he pulled back, like her skin was fire.

        “We’re over, Janine. Forever. And please do as I ask of you and stay away from me. I never want to see you again.” Lance walked away, but not before glancing back to see if Janine was still standing there.

        She was still standing there as he slammed the door behind him. He swore he saw an evil glare in her eyes.

        You're not going to get away with this, Lance. We belong together. No matter what you say, I know that in your heart you still love me.

******
        Hannah ended up in the lounge having a few drinks after her observation on the Boat Deck. She had never been drunk before, but after three glasses of wine she was starting to feel dizzy.

        Somehow she knew that wasn’t a very good thing.

        She managed to get up from the table she’d been occupying for the past two hours, but as she reached for her scarf that was lying in the chair across from her, she lost her footing and fell to the floor.

        “That’s gonna leave a mark,” she slurred as she ran her hands through her hair to straighten it out a little bit. She picked up the scarf and wrapped it around her neck.

        She tried to walk again, and made it as far as one of the blackjack tables before once again succumbing to the floor beneath her.

        But this time, someone helped Hannah up. She felt a pair of strong arms around her waist. She didn’t care who it was; she just wanted to get out of here.

        “Please,” Hannah pleaded. “Out. Gotta get back to room.”

        The person holding her met her eyes and suddenly hers went completely cold. She tried to get out of his embrace, but he was so much stronger than she was and there was no way she could get away.

        “Fuck,” she muttered and pounded at his chest. “Let me go!”

        Lance smirked and realized Hannah was very funny when she was drunk. Or tipsy. Whatever she was, she was adorable. Even with her eyes rolling and her hands pounding into his chest with a lot of force.

        When he didn’t say anything, Hannah hit his arm, but not too hard. It was a very light touch.

        “Let go of me,” she demanded, her words becoming more slurred as the moments went on. “Rwwght naw!”

        But he carried her out of the lounge and started walking with her in his arms down the staircase and down to the lift.

        “A deck,” he told the lift attendant.

        Lance knew he was looking at them strangely. Why wouldn’t he? Lance was holding a woman in his arm thats was punching him in all different places. And Hannah’s eyes would close every few seconds, then they would open back up. Sometimes she’d be smiling at him, other times she would be glaring at him like he had just ran over her cat.

        Lance stepped off the lift with Hannah still in his arms, her arms now rested securely against her stomach. She was too exhausted to continue beating him. Her eyes were half closed, but Lance knew she was watching him.

        It wasn’t long before he had his room door open and he placed her down on his bed. Thank God Joey’s not here, he thought. How would he explain this?

        Hannah didn’t know where she was, but she knew who was sitting in front of her. His hand was moving towards her. Not liking that one bit, Hannah sat back more on the bed further away from him.

        “I can’t believe you dragged me out of there.” Hannah felt a little better. She didn’t feel like throwing up too much anymore.

        “You expected me to just let you embarrass yourself? Come on, that would have been rather stupid.” Lance settled down in the chair beside the bed and looked her over. What had happened to cause Hannah to get drunk? he wondered, but didn’t have time to think about it before she was yelling at him again.

        “You should have just left me there. I don’t need you!”

        Where was all of this coming from? When they had last talked, things were great between them. Now Hannah was acting like a totally different person. Lance had never met a more confusing woman in his entire life.

        “Did something happen that made you go and get yourself hammered?” he asked. “Cause the Hannah I know wouldn’t just go and get drunk for no reason.”

        She glared at him. “Do you really want to know? Cause I’ll tell you.”

        “Yes, I want to know. That’s why I asked.”

        “It because of you!” she yelled, but her eyes were closed as her head hit the pillow before she could elaborate.

        ---A Few Hours Later---

        Hannah woke up with the biggest and most painful headache she’d ever had. The pounding in her head and the loud snoring beside her that woken her up from her sleep. Looking around, Hannah had no clue where she was. That was until she looked beside her and saw Lance sleeping soundly, his arm placed on her stomach.

        “Oh shit,” she said, remembering what had happened earlier at the lounge. “I got drunk,” she realized, but laughed at the realization. “God, I can’t believe I did that.”

        Lance still had his eyes closed, but he was awake. “I can’t believe it either,” he muttered into the pillow.

        Hannah grabbed her coat and scarf off the side table and tried to get up off the bed with not much luck.

        “Take me back to my room,” she demanded.

        “No.”

        Hannah raised an eyebrow at his sleepy form beside her. “Excuse me?”

        He grabbed her arm and sat up slowly. “You’re not going anywhere. Not before we talk about this.”

        “What’s there to talk about?” She knew getting drunk was a mistake, but was it really worth talking about? It wasn’t like she was going to do it again. “It won’t happen again.”

        “You bet it won’t,” Lance muttered. “But that’s not what we have to talk about.”

        “What do you want to talk about then?”

        “What you said before you fell asleep,” he told her. “You know about how it’s because of me that you drank yourself into oblivion.”

        Hannah stared. Had she actually said that? Oops.

        “I didn’t mean----”

        “Yes, you did. But I need to know why. What did I do?”

        “I…umm…” How could she tell him that she was jealous because he saw her kissing Janine? And how could she tell him that she had wished it was her, and how badly she wanted him to kiss her?

        “Well?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “And why didn’t you show up on the deck? You know how long I waited for you?”

        “How long you waited for me?” Hannah laughed and hit her arm on the mattress. “I waited for you by the ladder for an hour!”

        “We weren’t supposed to meet by the ladder, Hannah. We were supposed to meet by the stairs that led to the Forecastle Deck.”

        “No.” She shook her head. “I told you to meet me by the ladder. That’s where I was, waiting for you. But then I found you. By the looks of you, you weren’t even thinking about coming to look for me.”

        Hannah tried again and managed successfully to get off the bed without falling or feeling at all dizzy.

        “Oh,” he said, realizing what she’d meant. “Oh my God.”

        “Yeah.” Hannah shrugged it off and grabbed her coat and scarf again. “So I’ll just be going. But thanks for pulling me out of there. I could have embarrassed myself a lot more then I did.”

        “Hey,” he said softly. “Aren’t we going to talk about it? Aren’t you going to ask me why I was kissing her?”

        Hannah closed her fist around the doorknob, her back to him. “I don’t have to. I already know.”

        “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

        “No?” Hannah turned around and faced him. Her hands were shaking so she stuffed them in her pants pockets so he wouldn’t know how nervous and scared she was.

        “No,” he told her. “I told her that I would never be with her again. And it’s the truth. She hurt me, I’m not going to go back just to get my heart broken again.”

        She searched his eyes for some explanation, but found none. Nothing but a soft face with cold eyes, anger shining through.

        “Then why?” she asked.

        “She kissed me,” was his explanation. There was no other way to say it. “I pulled away as soon as I could get a hold of my emotions.”

        “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m asking you this. It’s really none of my business.”

        “You can stay here tonight, if you want,” he said softly, praying that she would stay.

        “I’d like that,” she said and smiled, walking back towards the bed. “Can I ask you something?” she asked as they layed next to each other in the bed, a few inches apart.

        “Yeah?”

        “What’s going to happen when we get to New York?” she asked quietly.

        Even though they were in the dark, he knew she wasn’t smiling. This was serious. Lance didn’t know what would happen when they arrived in New York. But he was starting to see that his world would never be the same now that he had met Hannah Jobane.

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