I Can be your Boyfriend

21 – Florida, Georgia, Jamaica, California, London, North Carolina

I turned 21 in Florida. It’s supposed to be a big birthday in the US when you can start drinking alcohol legally. I didn’t like alcohol and I wasn’t intending to start drinking now. So turning 21 was no big deal for me. 

While I was in Florida, I got to go see the Good Samaritan again and was especially happy to see my good friend, Ted McKenzie. I also had some time before I had to get to the Anastasis in Brunswick, Georgia where it was preparing to sail to an outreach in Jamaica. 

There was a guy I knew in Florida who was a friend of the Good Samaritan. He worked in the construction business. He let me stay with him and work for a few weeks to make a little money. Once again, I’m not so sure I was really helping him but somehow I kept finding these people who were so generous to me. Then I took the bus to Brunswick to board the Anastasis.

As I was there for Heidi Stephens's graduation, I went into her cabin where some of her friends were hanging out. There was a girl in there I hadn’t met before named Susan whom I thought was another high school graduate. I found out that she was actually part of the ship’s staff who was in her twenties. She was one of Heidi’s good friends and I later discovered that she was there to watch out for her. She thought I was some kind of player and was going put some moves on Heidi.

Even though I had become more of a social person after my brother left home, as I have grown older, I seem to be reverting more and more to my introversion, becoming more and more socially inept. At the time, I had been less outgoing as I had been living pretty much on my own for a while. But given the right circumstances with the right group of friends when I feel very comfortable, I can be very outgoing. During this time on the ship, the circumstances were right but I was certainly not a player. 

As Susan got to know me, she realized what I was really like and we became friends. Yet there was another girl on the ship in her twenties with whom my interactions did make me look like a player but who was about to turn everything on its head.   

Soon after I got on the ship, I was walking into the Aft lounge and ran into Laura Tuohy, Paul Tuohy’s sister. Even though I had only met Laura a couple of times, I was really pleased to see her because I knew Paul so well and felt like somehow, I knew her as well. I exclaimed, 

        “You’re still here?” and gave her a big hug. 

She was kind of taken aback but told me she was the preschool teacher onboard and had been for a couple of years.

Later that day, I was passing by a reposto and saw Laura again. Repostos on the ship were interior rooms with small burners where people could heat up some food and irons where they could iron. Since it had been an Italian ship, they had an Italian name. Laura was ironing so I stopped and started talking to her. 

Given that I do not believe in girlfriends and boyfriends, I kind of astonished myself with what I said next. I was in a very jovial mood and because of my friendship with her brother Paul, I just felt very comfortable with Laura. I asked her if she had a boyfriend. When she said no, I jokingly said, 

        “I can be your boyfriend”.

I had always liked girls younger than me and although Laura was attractive, she was four and a half years older. I didn’t even think of her as being someone I might have that kind of relationship with. What’s funny is that Laura hung out a lot and got along really well with all my younger friends on the ship. But she told me she had recently called her mom to ask her if it would be okay if she never got married. We bantered a bit more before I moved on.


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