Chapter One
The story below is a work of fiction and contains erotic and/or sexually explicit behavior between consenting males. If you find this type of writing offensive, or if you are underage and it is illegal to view it, please do not read further, but exit now. The author reserves all copyright privileges. This work may not be reproduced, except for personal use, without permission of the author, and many not be linked to any pay sites.
Sojourn - Chapter 1
He couldn't help himself. No matter how many times he saw these things he still stood in awe. It was a sunny and warm February day and he was at Port Everglades in Florida. In front of him was Sojourn - seventy-five thousand tons of steel, glass, wood, fine art, luxurious fabrics, and gourmet food. Sojourn was the newest ship in the Compass Cruise Line fleet. Sojourn was christened a mere 6 months ago in Germany and joined Quest, Freedom, Spirit, and Harmony in providing a luxury cruise experience for a population craving the benefits of cruising. Time at sea, shopping, fine dining, dazzling entertainment, exotic ports, and only unpacking once! No arguments about where to eat, what to do at night, worrying about the kids, etc. He loved ships, loved the sea, and was about to get to know Sojourn real well.
Sojourn had been delivered on time and on budget. The christening went well. Sojourn made her crossing from Europe to New York with no major problems. She then sailed down to Port Everglades and had settled into her regular run. Eastern Caribbean one week, Western Caribbean the other.
Compass was well known for being the best in the business for employees. By far the most generous employee pay and benefit programs - in fact they did more than they needed to. Compass felt that the employees were family. A ship staffed with happy employees usually meant for happy guests. And Compass had grown from 1 ship 3 years ago to 5 ships now with one more coming in a 9 month.
Last week, he went into the manager of Human Resources and said that he thought it time for him to spend 6 months onboard Sojourn so he could learn about life onboard the newest ship. He had done this once before, on Quest when she was the one and only ship in the Compass fleet.
The new assistant purser onboard Sojourn, Jason North, had arrived at the passenger terminal at 10am. Sojourn sailed that day at 5pm. Passengers from the cruise that ended that morning were still leaving the ship to head home at the end of their vacation. Smiles, tans, boxes of booze, and good spirits seemed to abound. The pier was busy with semi-trucks delivering food for the upcoming week cruise. The amount of food consumed on a one week cruise by 1800 passengers and 900 crew was staggering. Jason knew that most people believed that food was the largest expenditure for a cruise line. The ships themselves cost $400 million, but putting that cost aside, fuel and personnel were the highest costs. Sojourn was now ingesting tons and tons of the fuel she would need as were all the other activities needed to get Sojourn ready to sail again. These days, known as turnaround days, were very busy. Extremely long and hard days for the crew of Sojourn. Jason knew that it would be a busy day and, after passing through security, boarded Sojourn and went to work.
He decided he would find his cabin later and went straight to the Purser's Office. Well, it was called Guest Services but Jason liked the nautical sounding term better. Jason was greeted by Peter, Chief Purser and welcomed aboard. Peter didn't know much about Jason. He didn't even know he was coming until last week. Head Office in Ft Lauderdale has sent an email and said a new assistant purser would be arriving. No resume on Jason North was available. Peter thought is all a bit odd. But he assigned Jason to work the first few hours of check-in on the pier. Usually it was a constant flow of people for the first couple of hours. Very hectic as people were usually very anxious to board. Peter always chuckled to himself at the difference between the guests on Sunday morning and those arriving on Sunday afternoon.
Those leaving on Sunday morning weren't in a hurry. They were relaxed and had made new friends they didn't want to leave. Those arriving on Sunday afternoon were anxious, restless, demanding, generally showing all the reasons why they needed a vacation!
Jason left, and went to his cabin. He went up to Sun Deck, far forward to a door marked Personnel Only. Leaving the plush carpets, indirect lighting, and soft Muzak, he entered into the area for lower level officers. The area was very quiet with signs posted enforcing the "quiet zone". This was because people were sleeping at various hours since Sojourn required officers to be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Jason knew the deck plans of Sojourn by heart and quickly found his cabin. Jason's cabin was small but clean and he knew it would be like home before long. The cabin had a double bed, a small TV, an ample sized closet, a dresser with 3 drawers, mirror and a sink. The cabin shared a toilet and shower with the cabin next store. This would do just fine. Jason changed into his uniform and stopped to look at himself in the mirror.
Jason was pleased. There always something about a uniform that made even the ugliest of people look better. Jason looked at himself. He was 37, had brown hair that was quickly being overtaken by silver. People said it looked distinguished, some even said sexy. Jason wasn't convinced. It reminded him that time was passing quickly. The hair did work with his sparkling blue eyes which he felt were his best feature. Standing only 5'7" he certainly wasn't tall. He had a good build which had been improving over the last few years. He had started running again and had strong legs and a flat stomach. No six pack, but firm. Taking one last look, Jason headed out to greet Sojourn's latest group of guests.
The increased use of computers meant check-in went smoother than in the past. When Quest was launched, the guest comment cards were filled with complaints about check-in. Compass had taken this seriously and now had perfected the process. Now people even commented that the process was relatively painless. Photo ID cards were issued to each passenger, their luggage was screened, and charge card imprints were taken so that customers could charge things to their onboard account during the voyage. The ID card also worked as the key to the cabin. Simple. Easy. The one annoying point was that for security reasons, the cabin number was not printed on the ID card. The first few days of the cruise always had people coming to Guest Services asking what their cabin number was!
By 4pm, 1756 people had passed through check-in. Sojourn was due to have 1790 onboard this cruise. A flurry of last minute arrivals was normal and everything was under control so Jason went back onboard and went to Peter for further instructions. Jason was to work in Muster Stations A and B during the mandatory lifeboat drill at 5:30pm. Then he would be off for dinner and return to working the main desk at Guest Services from 8pm until 11pm. After today, Jason would work the main desk every day from 2pm-6pm, and then again from 8pm until midnight. During port and turn around days, Jason would receive the mail for the crew and ensure it was distributed. It would be that schedule every day except turn around days when his schedule would be slightly different. All in all, it was a good schedule and Jason was pleased.
So, things settled into a routine. Jason loved working with the guests. His colleagues in the purser's office were a lot of fun. The food for the officers was very good. He was able to have a nice workout each morning, a 3 mile jog around the deck, some time in the sun, lunch and then work. On days in port, he could do all of this on a beautiful island. But Jason was lonely. He was allowed to go to any of the guest facilities, except the casino, so many nights he would go to the disco and have a drink after his shift ended at midnight.
His uniform always ensured someone would talk with him. Where was he from, what was life like on a ship, where was the best shopping, and so on. Women were drawn to him. He had a warm smile and was a good dancer. But Jason wasn't interested. Jason was gay and there weren't a lot of single gay people on these cruises. Besides, Compass frowned on the staff getting too close with the guests.
On the start of the his 4th week, Jason noticed a new bar manager in the disco. He was about Jason's height, maybe a little taller, looked to be in his early 20s, and seemed a bit shy. Strange job for a shy person. There was something about this guy. Jason watched him for the next 2 weeks. He didn't seem to talk to many of his colleagues. He was very good with the guests and was always receiving extra tips. Women were always trying to chat with him. He was friendly but never went beyond the typical small talk.
One night, Jason stopped by for his evening after work drink. He noticed some trouble at the bar. It appears one of the guests card wasn't working properly. Jason went over to see what was wrong. It was then that he saw that the guy he had been watching for the last few weeks was actually gorgeous up close. His name was Rick. He seemed to have a Southern US accent. He was explaining the card wasn't working and that he would give him a written bill to sign. The guest thought he was being accused of something - clearly having had a few too many. Jason stepped over and asked Rick to charge the drink to the Purser's account and told the guest that he would go and get a replacement card and bring it back to him. Rick was relieved and the guest took his drink and went back to his table.
When Jason got back to the disco, he gave guest his new card and looked for Rick to thank him for being so patient with the guest. He wasn't there. Jason asked the other bar manager and he said that Rick was off at 1am tonight since it wasn't too busy.. Jason felt his heart sink. He wanted to see Rick. His goal was to make him smile and to take some of the sadness out of his eyes - even for a moment.
Author note - I hope you enjoyed this story. I have written several more chapters. Let me know what you think and if you would like to see more. Thanks
pnskid61@hotmail.com