“How interesting, you have twins on the payroll?”
Michael pretended to know what the man standing beside him was talking about and nodded enthusiastically. He laughed along but gave away his confusion when he responded, first thinking it was Kevin and Dwight, whom the boat captain was referring to because of the three-hole, full face mask covering the large accountant’s face.
“Kevin and Dwight, no not twins, but sometimes I think they share the same brain.”
“No, not the big guys.” Captain Jack, turned back to the gangway that led up to front of the small ship and looked again at the passengers boarding.
“The one you dubbed Marianne; didn’t you introduce me to her sister earlier when we first met? But I think you confused one of them. You also called the one from before, Pam.”
Now Michael was really befuddled. He’d never met the captain before and Pam, he was pretty sure she wasn’t a twin, although the thought of it brought some wild visions to his imagination. But he was more concerned with what the man beside him said before that about the ship’s leadership hierarchy. He had his captain’s hat and his heart set on being the skipper and absolutely did not to be Gilligan. Dual captains however, now that was an idea he could get onboard with.
“Well, speaking of twins. How about you and I be twin skippers tonight?”
“Nope Michael, not going to happen. Only twins here tonight are your employees.”
Katy and Pam, he decided. It was those two the befuddled leader was suggesting were indistinguishable from one another. Captain Jack was likely doing this circling round the harbor thing for a long time now and between the sea air, the cruising and the boozing, he was mixing up his dates and the people he met and had an acute case of double vision. Due to this, Michael felt it was justifiable for him to take charge, at least of the revelry part of the night, which he was determined to do as soon as possible.
“Not twins, but I can see why you would think that. They do look a bit alike. The prettier one doesn’t even work for me. She’s just a stowaway,” Michael lightly punched the arm of his neighbor. Then he quickly rubbed the spot where the captain looked down to before he glared back at Michael again, clearly not happy about being touched, even in jest.
~
Captain Jack raised his eyebrows at the strange man beside him. He was annoyed at being punched, even light as it was, but it was the bizarreness of this Michael that mostly had him aggravated and apprehensive.
Prettier one, he mused to himself, the woman he observed walking up his gangway and the one from earlier were carbon copies. This man next to him was an idiot and it was going to be an interesting night.
---
“What the hell, Pam? I thought you were going to the bar for our beers.”
Shit, shit, shit.
Pam thought she had more time before she had to find a place to hide.
What the heck was he doing by the girl’s bathroom anyway? The men’s room was around on the other side and there was little to no reason for him to be over here. Her other self maybe, but she knew where she had gone after boarding the first time she’d taken this cruise, right to the bar to get them drinks while Roy relieved himself.
As Pam tried to recall the events of the night and find a way to get away from her fiancé before he figured out something was different about her, a leggy blonde stepped out of the bathroom and crossed between them. Pam followed Roy’s eyes from the blonde’s legs to her ass as she walked back to the main section.
Well, that’s just great, revisiting tonight was off to a smashing start.
Annoyed, but trying to think of how happy he made her later in the evening, she constructed her response once his eyes returned to her face.
“I did, I mean I am, but I also had to go the bathroom.”
She tried to keep the bitterness she felt toned down even though she was pretty angry about his roving eye. Wondering now, had he noticed the legs headed to the restroom and followed them here knowing he’d sent her off to get something from the bar? She further speculated what he might have done had he not been surprised by her appearance. Probably nothing, she was used to him and his ‘come on Pammy, I can’t help but notice a good-looking woman, but you know I’d never cheat.’
Still, it was only in thinking about what was coming later that calmed her ire but even so her next words still came out with a touch of attitude.
“And the men’s room is that way.”
She pointed him towards the other side of the ship, hoping he would head right off so she could too.
She now realized this was going to be harder than she anticipated. On the boat less than 20 minutes and she’d already been seen by her fiancé and lost track of Michael, because he also had to pee, oh and shit now Roy might run into him. She was going to have to be more careful and keep a closer eye on where her boss went. Thankfully, she hadn’t shed her new coat yet. The striped shirt she happened to have on today was close enough to the one she wore before; it might have even been the same one. However, the cardigan she had on over it was vastly different.
Not that Roy was likely to notice. Oblivious that one was to her wardrobe, except to gripe once in a while that she should dress sexier.
Roy would never pick up on the dissimilar sweater, but Jim might. He’d complimented her in both of them at one time or another. The gray, he’d said looked pretty on her and the chartreuse one she had on today, he’d said matched her lively green eyes. Jim, she realized, had been noticing what she wore way back since he first questioned what happened to her bright blue cardigan, back when he was first getting to know her, and she him.
It was that sweater and the secret she shared when he asked where it went, that brought them closer and ever since changed them from merely friendly co-workers to close friends, one that would unquestionably notice she was wearing something different.
So, while she proved she could run into Roy without him picking on anything strange, he would be pretty drunk soon too making it even easier to fool him, she’d have to be extra careful not to be seen by Jim.
Roy didn’t leave though, just looked at her peculiarly as if he was beginning to notice she wasn’t the Pam he boarded with. When his brow began to furrow though, she understood he wasn’t suspicious but he was a little miffed from her touch of tone.
Anxious to find Michael and find a place to hide she smiled sweetly at him and playfully pushed him away, blowing a kiss to make up for her brashness.
His brow smoothed back and she knew it was safe again.
“Yeah okay. I’ll meet you at the table.”
He kissed her flippantly on the cheek before he took off in the direction of the men’s room calling back to her as he walked away.
“None of that light shit either. Thanks, Pammy.”
---
“Oh hey, which one are you?”
In her haste to get to the bar, she nearly crashed into Randall. She wasn’t exactly sure why Roy couldn’t go for the drinks after he, as he so eloquently put it, hit the head, but it wasn’t like she was a stranger to getting the beers.
She spied Jim who was headed in from the bow with a delighted grin on his face but no Katy hanging on his arm. Anxious to learn what the self-satisfied mug was all about—she had a feeling he won a particular bet—and knowing back at the table, in front of Katy and Roy it would be rude to laugh about their little inside jokes, she increased her pace so to arrive at the same time as her friend.
Her sight focused high, on the even more than usual, wind-swept hair that sat way above her eye level, she didn’t notice the cameraman until she was right upon him
It was a strange comment for Randall to make, one she would more likely expect of Creed and not Randall who had been filming them for long enough to know all their names by now.
“I’m Pam,” she responded while stepping out of his way. “So, are we going to do interviews tonight or are you just here to capture the insanity?”
“No, it’s just me on board tonight. No interviews planned, unless you have anything to share.”
“Me, no, but I think Jim might.
---
Annoyed by the nickname she told him repeatedly how much she hated, yet relieved to see Roy leave, Pam took off before anyone else would run into her and mistake her for herself. She was becoming a little light-headed and it had nothing to do with the boat’s motion and more to do with the fact that the ship had unmoored and was off on its small voyage. There was no getting off it now, not for three hours and there weren’t all that many places to stay hidden for that time, at least not that weren’t outside in the bitter cold. What was worse, she couldn’t figure out where Michael had gotten to already.
---
Randall noticed how she lit up as she mentioned his name, as she often did when she spoke about him.
“I think he caught someone pretending to be Leonardo DiCaprio,” the Pam in front of him said with a bit of a giggle before she practically skipped off adding, “Excuse me, I’ve got to get to the bar to get drinks for me and Roy.”
The brightness in her smile dimmed somewhat as her fiancé’s name passed over her lips. It was curious how she still didn’t recognize it herself but as was said ‘love is blind’. He watched her flitter away as she made her way to where Jim was waving happily, having just spotted her.
Jim, he knew he was smitten, no matter what he tried to pull off in his talking heads. He could pretend to be involved with that Katy he brought along tonight, but nothing made his face brighten like when he was in the presence of the woman who just raced off to greet him at the bar, seeming more anxious to get to him, than to get drinks for Roy.
As she had reached him, Randall could only see her from behind, but he even so he could sense her luminosity and hear her delightful laughter as they talked while waiting to be served.
He also got his answer. He would have to look around some more for her time traveling twin.
---
Their meeting with the captain earlier went somewhat smoother than expected.
This time he and Michael got off on a better foot, thanks to her lecture on the drive over that he needed to respect him and his rules if he wanted to make any change to the evening’s results.
She was pretty confident the other Michael would still screw up the good relationship they established with the captain, likely within minutes of meeting him, again. There was virtually no way anything they did or said in the brief talk they had would prevent the hurricane that was also on board from creating an absolute disaster of the events of the evening.
Deep down, she knew it wasn’t possible to keep the other Michael out of trouble by night’s end but she also knew if her escort did anything to piss him off before his people even showed up, they might not even get to board the boat that night. If their booze cruise didn’t happen, neither might her June 10th wedding and she’d waited long enough to set a date. She was determined to keep that particular forward momentum on track. Ultimately, it was why she agreed to go aboard early with Michael to make nice with the captain and his crew. What he might have thought when she boarded again with the rest of the office, she wasn’t sure, but it was long past now so she supposed it went smooth enough.
Besides, her mind was preoccupied with trying to make her way through the crowds of boat guests, herself included, and get to the upper deck.
She spotted herself walk back from the bar with Jim and saw her chance to dash upstairs. She knew, at least for now, everyone was situated downstairs as the night started, except hopefully for her Michael.
The space upstairs seemed even bigger than it had from land and with its many tarp-covered contraptions, giant storage pillars and sunken floor sections. It was a hide-and-seek player’s playground.
Michael, she knew loved a good game and was surely giddy thinking of the night ahead as a chance to play all night, at least until later when, and she still wasn’t sure what he imagined he could do to stop it, he would try to keep the guest from going overboard.
She wished he’d have told her where he was going beforehand, but he was likely waiting excitedly for her to find him.
She traveled the length of the boat, checking obvious spots first, behind posts, under large plastic sheeting and inside crates she herself wasn’t sure she could fit in, but Michael might somehow find a way to squeeze himself into.
It wasn’t long before she heard something that had her cautiously making her way to the front of the bow area, where she came upon him vomiting over the side of the boat.
He seemed to be all puked out by the time she got to him, but his limp frame stayed hovered over the safety ledge, his head hung low resting on the upper bar. She quietly spoke his name and he looked up at her for a moment.
The indent from the metal pole formed a sort of crown across his forehead but his face looked anything but regal. His normally vivid eyes, were cloudy and washed out and a gray pallor enveloped his whole face which at seeing her was amplified by alarm. Fear, she assumed at not knowing which timeline she was from, triggered his gag reflex, and he turned back to the seas and retched again.
She’d warned him about the meat-lover’s slice he’d insisted on having at Alfredo’s, with its gray meatballs, slimy looking ham and unappetizing pepperoni. His face currently looked a lot like the meat that topped his pizza.
It could have been the slice, or the old granola bar he found in his car on the way to Burlington or simply that boat travel and time travel didn’t mix. At least not for Michael who had turned back to her again, no longer looking old-meat gray but green to the gills.
But Pam was fine so far. Aside from the flux brought on by thoughts of what may lie ahead, she had no nausea or dizziness or any kind of motion sickness at all, which was strange because she did remember experiencing a bit of it while waiting at the bar for the drinks with Jim. The other Pam that is. The one that was down below presently getting used to the ship’s movement, the wave of queasiness passing once they sat down.
The only thing this Pam was feeling was highly anxious. She had this sinking sensation something about tonight was going to change everything that came after and there would be nothing she could do to prevent it.
