Tragedia Et Amor - 21. Chapter 21

Summer has come and gone. I was very busy the entire time. Quinn was bringing in the donations and I was spending them just as fast. Much to his displeasure. I had to explain that I was almost done. The last set of parts for the underwater garden was being delivered and set by a company out of Alabama. They built the pieces and had a repurposed offshore platform supply vessel with a crane. This would make the fourth set they had placed for us. Bringing the total to 80 large and 70 small pieces that were placed strategically around the rig we had received. The University came through with the funds needed to match ours for the renovation of the rig to our specs for use as a marine lab. Combine that with the funds I used for the infrastructure itself and I had put just over one million dollars into the project, not including the 300 thousand that was spent in the bay. The shellfish I seeded last year looked good. We lost only 30 percent, where we projected a 50 percent loss. I counted that as a win.

Tanner and Quinn were with me on my boat as I guided us out to the rig. Neither of them have seen it since I started work on it. We already had one dive boat out there and the University boat. They had a team that would stay overnight on weekends while working on projects with students. Which explained the load of food I was hauling out there. Quinn had the wheel and leaned against Tanner, who sat in the seat. I stood behind the seat, holding them both. Tanner’s head shifted, and he nuzzled the side of mine. I kissed his neck, which prompted him to lean forward and kiss Quinn’s neck. Twice. To say it was from both of us. Like pushing over the first domino, that had the desired effect as Quinn turn his head and returned two kisses to Tanner. Who… you guessed it. Kissed me.

“Thank you, babies.” I said as hugged them tighter as Quinn reduced throttles while we turned towards the platform in our approach lane.

A series of buoys I set to mark areas boats were allowed. It took 5 minutes before we were walking along the platform and talking with the research crew. Tanner and Quinn were impressed with how the platform looks now. We went down to the research dive platform and checked that out. Stepping back onto my boat as we suited up. I was still using double tanks. Much to Quinn’s dismay, but they were c60’s instead of c80’s. We would only be down for thirty minutes at the most. The best sights are here on the platform’s legs at the moment. A few years from now, that would be different. We dropped in and made our way in a circle around the legs as we dove deeper to stop at 40 feet. We swam together, with one on each side of me. Even holding hands a few times before we surfaced and returned to the boat. We were lucky the water quality was good today and we could see the forest of projections below us we had deployed. I pointed to indicate the open path that surrounded the platform’s legs. It was wide enough to accommodate a submarine. One of those tourist subs.

Once we surfaced and climbed back aboard our boat to remove our gear. I pulled out the plans from the tube they were stored in and opened it on the table. Tanner and Quinn looked at it before Quinn leaned into my side.

“You want to build a submarine? A tourist sub.” Quinn said.

“Yes. There is a new company out of Florida that is designing and building tourist and scientific subs. Clear acrylic viewing and 100 meter depths. Triple the depth we need here and the American Bureau of Shipbuilding class certification.”

“That’s interesting. How much?” Quinn asked with all the authority of a manager he could muster.

“Don’t know yet. Rough estimate is around 5 million for the vessels needed and the sub. It doesn’t matter as the Foundation can’t pay for it. I just need it to create another, larger site closer to the cruise port at Galveston.” When I finished speaking, Quinn let out a small sigh. I’m sure he thought our drive for donations was over and we would just coast on sporadic donations now that we had the platform in our possession.

“More donations than what we brought in for this?”

“Twice as much, at least.” I replied as I pulled him close to me. Placing my lips over his with a gentle kiss. “Something I know my beloved husband and manager can do.” TJ had moved in and hug us both as Quinn laid his head against my chest. Effectively pinning him between us. I leaned forward and kissed Tanner, too.

In November, we had a quiet anniversary to celebrate our first year. It was spent up in Houston and we went to a gay bar Eric had suggested. It was fun, and we danced together. One thing we learned. Young, hot guys are magnets to every available guy looking for a hookup in the club. That experience colored our expectations of the coming cruise we booked. It was just 7 days in the Caribbean, repeats of some islands we already saw, but it was a full ship LGBTQ trip. Now I was not happy, as all the problems I could envision were starting to stack up. That meant I needed to talk to my mentor, in many things, Eric. That was a thirty-minute call that yielded a few ideas. Even he said, mostly, people will recognize we are together and won’t bother us, but there is always one. He floated the idea of a necklace for each one of us. Quinn’s and TJ’s would be different from mine. I ruminated on that for a few days before I made some calls up to Houston and Dallas to jewelers that advertised to be gay friendly before I found one that made a suggestion that sounded nice. Two weeks later I they arrived at the condo and I presented them to my husbands as a Christmas gift.

“You know. These are actually nice. Not what I was thinking when you explain it to us.” Said Quinn as he modeled it for us. The twisted leather choker style necklace with the small heart-shaped lock that was maybe a half inch high hung off it. Tanner modeled his too, and I smiled appreciatively. They looked good. The silver lock, in contrast to their tanned skin with the black and tan of the choker, really did look nice. Then they made me model mine. I had the silver skeleton key instead, and they said it looked nice. Looking in the mirror for myself, I pulled each to my side. They stood out enough they would be seen and mark them as someone else’s. Just as I had intended. I snapped a picture with my phone and sent it to Eric. Who in turn sent it to Amanda. Both replied they looked very nice.

Eric, Amanda, and his new boyfriend Robert had arrived after Christmas to stay for the New Year. Then they would head back to Houston. Our cruise was headed out the first week of February 2008. And we were ready for a vacation. Tanner was especially happy when I booked it for us after he had done all the research and showed it to me and Quinn. I am hoping this will work for him as Quinn and I love cruising. Different ports only unpack once, good shows, a variety of restaurants and private balconies. Our flight was a little aggravating to book, but we are flying commercial. I couldn’t justify the cost of a private charter, even though I liked it. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to fly out of Houston. That made me rethink the private charter route. Especially since the flight is less than 3 hours. A flurry of calls and I settled on spending twelve thousand for a small jet out of Corpus Christie. It just meant we would have to leave the condo by 6 am at the latest. Our flight was at 7:30, with an arrival at 10:30. Transport from the airport to the cruise dock puts us there at 12 noon. Which is when the suites may check in. Regular passengers have to wait until 1 pm to start check in.

“Did you use that charter service?” Asked Eric as we set the food on the table.

“I wasn’t going to, but did it. It was almost costing me the same for the hotel and flights, plus the drive time to Houston and back was longer.” I said. My eyes glanced at Robert, who was checking out TJ. I almost said something, but didn’t as Quinn brought him into the conversation with Amanda about the trip.

“They are good and I can understand not wanting to drive up and back. That’s why I fly a puddle jumper down here. What about the new plan I looked at? Is that going to cause the three of you to move?” My head swung around fast to face him.

“I haven’t brought that up yet, as I don’t think we’ll have to. Just drive up to Galveston once a week to check the management team.” I said, just above a whisper. That caused Eric’s eyebrows to lift slightly.

“They wouldn’t want to move?”

“I don’t think so. It’s something I will ask about when we are closer to working up the final plans. We have a good management team here now, and Mom discussed it with me. She thinks we could move, and she is thinking of heading up to Colorado in a few years to be near grandma.” I said as we sat down.

“Might work.” He said as we switched topics and joined in on the cruise talk.

February 2008

It was nice to be on the high seas again. It was a little bit of shock at first seeing all the different people that were all interested in same sex boyfriends or girlfriends. Mostly male, not nearly as many females. We had a nice chat with a female group out of Massachusetts. The four of them lived in a closed relationship. Much like us. The ship itself, Liberty of the Seas, was larger than the Celebrity Lines vessel we took for our honeymoon, and there were a lot more people. One thing that I especially didn’t like was I paid for an owner’s suite. While not being the largest, is large. And we had no Butler service. That irked me to the point I went down to talk to customer service and the travel team from the company that ran the cruise. The travel team told me that next year’s cruise was going to be on Celebrity Solstice. Even handing me a brochure as well as crediting us 100 dollars for each of the three of us. As Quinn said later, it’s a marketing ploy. They know we have money and want us to book for next year in advance. Preferably before this cruise ends and we might. If Tanner and Quinn are happy. We had the king sized bed, and that was good enough for us. We still messed up the couch bed, just for the fun of it. Actually, the first night Quinn pushed me down on it and fucked me first. Then we went out to the hot tub on deck and had a nice soak. After that. I took care of the two of them. It was late as we hit one of the parties after dinner, but it was too loud for Quinn. As far as dinner went. I wasn’t impressed. The food was good, but not on par with Celebrity.

Our first day was a sea day and that meant parties on deck during the day, plus whatever the cruise line had for entertainment. The second day was Grand Turk. We had a dive planned and left the ship early to do that. Like what we did on our honeymoon, we had lunch ashore and did some shopping before we returned to the ship. With a late dinner reservation, we relaxed in the hot tub, followed by our sexual escapades before we took a nap. Dinner was better in the specialty restaurant, and we went with our new friends from Massachusetts. Peggy, Tina, Rachel and Lori. We had a very nice conversation about how Quinn, Tanner, and I met. Then they told us how they met. Peggy and Tina have been together for 22 years as they met in college. Rachel and Lori joined within the past ten years. Much like us, they have a very loving household. We did the late show with the girls. They too had an Owner Suite. And like us, they like Celebrity better. I mentioned our location and the noise above us and they explained I should look at the deck plans and see what is on the deck above us. Where I thought I did a good job choosing a stateroom away from the elevators, it didn’t matter because the entire deck above us was the pool area and restaurants. Which meant nightly parties hosted by a DJ. Another strike against Royal Caribbean. The girls also made another suggestion about a company out of New York that does gay group cruises. Specifically, the one that is called the post-Thanksgiving cruise. Usually the week after Thanksgiving. Instead of a full ship charter, it’s just a large group. With a few group events.

Our third day was St. Thomas. US Virgin Islands. Quinn and I had already been here and took Tanner to Magens Bay Beach for the morning and ended up in a volleyball game before we had lunch. We headed back into town to check out the stores before returning to the ship.

Quinn

I didn’t like this cruise. Yes, we could hug, kiss and hold each other openly, but there were also the people that kept eying us up. There were few people here that were under thirty. Most were in their forties. We were, obviously, the grand prize if someone could catch us. Tanner always stayed close to me, even when Orion was around. Twice I saw Orion position himself between us and someone that was watching us. Shielding us with his taller body as I watched his hands clench twice into fists. Tanner wrapped his arms around me as he saw it, too.

“Orion doesn’t like this cruise?” Tanner’s whispered question had me shake my head no.

“Orion doesn’t like these people looking at us. Likes it even less when they do stupid crap, like trying to get close enough to cop a feel.” I whispered back.

Peggy moved over by us with a few of their friends. Almost like they were trying to make a protective cordon around us. Which was good, as Orion was talking to one of the couples we had met this morning. I was paying attention to him and missed the approaching person.

“Are you two up for a three way?” Came the alcohol slurred bad breath.

“No.” I said forcefully. He reached out and grabbed my arm with a leer. Tanner went to move when a shadow fell over me. I knew that hand that slapped down on the drunk’s wrist and the fingers that drove themselves into pressure points as said had been twisted off my arm.

“Obviously, you need to go sleep it off. How many times did he say no?” said our Orion. The guy was already trying to pry his fingers off, but Orion works almost daily lifting 40 and 60 pound tanks. Which is done with your fingers.

“I can talk to them if I want.” He slurred out again.

“Not if I say you can’t,” Orion said, and I grabbed his other arm as I saw that smile. The same one he had just before he broke my nose.

“He’s drunk ‘O’, don’t hit him.” I said, as Tanner looked between me and Orion.

“Touching my boyfriend. Asking my two boyfriends for sex. Sounds like I should at least break his nose.” And I knew that tone too. If I let go of Orion’s arm, this guy’s nose is broken. Just then, one of his friends came over.

“Come on Tony. You’ve had enough fun for one day.” He said as he tried to pull him away. Then noticed Orion hadn’t let go of his wrist and ‘Tony’ was still trying to get his fingers off, which were leaving an interesting set of marks. “We’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you guys again.” Orion’s head tilted slightly.

“See that he doesn’t. Next time, I won’t be as nice about it.” Orion’s growl was so nice to hear on many levels. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fueled by our sexual intercourse this time, so I wasn’t about to let go of his arm yet. But at least he released the guy’s wrist.

“Jesus. Look at the marks, man. That hurts.” He said to the other guy as they walked away.

“It was a nice try, Peggy.” He sighed. “Thanks for doing it, but I think this is our last cruise like this,” Orion said.

“Yeah. I can understand that. But it’s your own fault for being so cute.” She said, and her friends chimed in with agreements.

“True.” Then he turned to us. His hand went out to cup the side of Tanner’s face. “We will figure something out for our vacations. That allows all of us to be happy.” Orion said before he kissed both of us.

We stayed with Peggy and her friends for another hour. Both myself and Tanner were holding Orion as we listened to the music.

Tanner

Our next day was a sea day. We went down to the main restaurant for breakfast. My eyes went cold as I spotted the asshole from last night. Thanks to him, we probably won’t ever do one of these cruises again. And I was enjoying it. Even made some new friends with a few of the other subs as my necklace caught their attention. Orion didn’t control us and let us do what we wanted. Which meant that I went out a few times without them. Sometimes it was just me and Quinn, as Orion was talking business with a few people we had met. We mostly hung around the lesbian group. It was the only time I saw Orion truly relax. He didn’t like when people started making suggestive comments about sleeping with us or one of us. Which, if you had a brain in your head, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out we were together. As we usually were in public. And here that meant we could hold hands while walking or pull our chairs together and feed each other at the buffet. Or my person favorite. I hold Quinn from behind, and Orion holds both of us from behind me. It works well because of the height differences. The girls loved it. I sighed internally as I turned and moved to their table. Heads came up as I cleared my throat next to them. Eyes boring into Tony’s.

“Thanks, asshole, for ruining our cruise. Now our boyfriend won’t take us on next year’s cruise, as he doesn’t want to deal with idiots like you.” I said as I turned around to walk away to find Quinn looking at me and Orion moving fast towards me. I moved towards Orion holding up a hand to indicate stop. He eyed me as he did.

“Tanner. Are you being naughty again?” he asked with a tilt of his head as he looked over my shoulder at the table I just came from.

“Just voicing my opinion.” I said as watched his nostrils flare before I took his hand in mine and gave him a peck on the lips before I turned him towards Quinn. And we moved to our table.

We had just about finished breakfast as I saw Quinn’s head shift slightly and his eyes rolled. Just before Orion turned to look over his shoulder behind us. The sound of his fork clanging on his plate as he stood garnered the attention of people dining around us. Quinn sighed, standing to move in front of Orion. I moved to his side. I watched as Tony and two of his friends approached. His hands raised in surrender.

“Peace. I just want to apologize for my actions last night.” He said. Orion placed a hand on Quinn’s shoulder.

“You may, but my decision has already been made. I am unhappy with our suite and the services provided to suites. This cruise is nothing more than a nonstop floating hookup dance party. Obviously not the environment I feel safe in bringing my family to again. We’ll continue to search for a vacation that satisfies all of us.” That caught the attention of two people seated next to us. He apologized to me and Quinn before he left. We returned to our seats. And I reached across to take Orion’s hand.

“Can we talk about this later?” I asked. Orion thought about it for a heartbeat.

“Yes baby. We can.” He replied as his thumb stroked my hand.

Orion

Since my submissive husband wants to talk about this, that means he actually likes this floating man whore palace. As we walked back to our suite, I thought about that. And he did make a few friends on board that he told us about. Back in the suite, Quinn made sure the Do Not Disturb tab was up at the door as Tanner stripped out of his clothing. I could almost hear the sigh of relief once he was naked again. I sat on the couch and he sat on my lap as Quinn was leaning up against my side.

“Why don’t you like it here, Orion? Besides the stateroom not having a Butler.” Tanner asked me.

“I don’t like everyone gawking at the two of you all the time and the non-stop comments from guys thinking we would sleep with them. I certainly don’t like any of them touching either of you.” I said. Tanner nodded and lowered his head onto my shoulder.

“What about you Quinn?” He asked.

“I don’t like that. Orion won’t relax until we are alone or with the girls. Otherwise, he is always watching and reacting to people around us. Did you notice how he moved between us and various people during the last few days? I don’t like he doesn’t get time to be with us, not just watch over us.”

“Oh. OK.” He said with just enough of a hint of sadness I picked up on it.

“And you liked it except for the times we were disturbed?” I asked. He nodded his head.

“Yes. Orion.” I pulled my arm tighter around him and kissed his head.

“It’s absolutely annoying that we are together, and everyone can’t respect that.” I heard the soft sigh from Tanner.

“I know my husband, but I made friends here too. I would like to try it again next year on the Celebrity vessel. Maybe we can try the post-Thanksgiving Day cruise too?” He asked as he lifted his head and looked at Quinn.

“If that is what you and Orion want to do, then I am OK with it.” Quinn said. Tanner turned to look at me with his big puppy eyes. I could hear him begging me to take them. Leaning in, I kissed him slowly and then kissed Quinn.

“OK. If that is what you want to do?” He nodded and hugged me tight.

“Yes please, Orion.”

We had one more stop at the cruise lines’ private island hide-a-way at Labadee. It was nice, and we stuck with the girls. They had about 34 total and it was a fun time. Tanner was acting a little strange until I realized what he was doing. I walked up behind him, wrapping him in my arms as he sunk back against me.

“You don’t have to stand watch TJ. Come on and have some fun with us.” Turning his head to look back at me, he smiled.

“I just wanted you to have fun on our last day.”

“I know, baby. I’ll have fun with the two of you tonight after dinner.” I said as I watched his smile broaden with the implications. Spinning to kiss me before he moved to kiss Quinn.

* * *

It’s been two weeks since the cruise. Even if I didn’t like it. Tanner did. And Quinn said that I’ll like the next one better as we’ll have a Butler. We even coordinated with Peggy and her group to be next door to them on deck 10. No pool deck above us this time. And in November we have booked Serenity of the Seas for the post-Thanksgiving cruise, which is out of San Juan. Peggy said she reached out to some of her friends that are going to be there.

Here in the household, Tanner is back to his usual self. This cruise was better for him. So I guess I will have to work on my own issues and make sure we can do them with him. Quinn and I still want to check out other places. Next summer, we might take a short mid-week excursion up Boston to visit Peggy and her family. They want to take us to Provincetown. We’ll discuss that on the cruise with them.