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Cherise shed her rain slicker, revealing a tight baby-doll T-shirt with, weirdly, a cartoon drawing of a toaster on it, complete with toast The toaster had solow that looked like an eye

"Let led out of my slicker as well "Star Trek?" She rolled her eyes "Do you not own a television? No Not any flavor of Trek, and oh ? Oh honey No"

"Shut up It’s borrowed"

"From who, a homeless person?"

"No, from the Jean Paul Gaultier fall collection"

She accepted that with a straight face "Oh, that explains it Hoht now"

We were jabbering because ere afraid Because the world was coraveyard is literally the only thing that gets you safely through the experience

And I’ about Fashion Week

I looked down at ed that Cherise did have a point The white ht and too short, even by incredibly lax South Beach standards

The top would have been rejected by Frederick’s of Hollywood as too trampy, and by Wal-Mart as too cheap The shoes were plain battered deck shoes, which at least were a safe choice, if not styling

"They have shops on board," Cherise assured me, and patted me kindly on the back

"Cherise, do you really think they’ll be opening thefor our lives?"

"Why not? People got to shop It’s like breathing" It was to Cherise, anyway "Okay, fine

I’ll tell myself that it’s a costume party and you came as a drowned rat" I smacked her She pretended it hurt "Cher," I said, and put an arm around her shoulders

"I really love you, you know I don’t knohat I’d be right now if I didn’t have you around to keep me sane"

We weren’t in the serious-talk business, ood hed it off; I wouldn’t have been upset if she did, because I just needed to say it

Instead, she fixed those deep blue eyes on me and said, "I don’t knohat I’d be without you, either Probably nothing half as good as I am" She smiled faintly, and for just a moment, the storm lessened Her smile was just that powerful "Love you, too, you skanky, no-style traain Moment over

We went to try to solve the first-class problem

Chapter Two

The very rich are like everyone else, provided you classify "everyone else" as "spoiled rotten brats with vast incomes and little sense of responsibility" There are exceptions, of course, but ets you excused from all kinds of social constraints, just as faood

We had a whole cadre of spoiled rotten brats holed up, refusing to leave their stash of gold bars, drugs, or folding money - whatever they had stored in the ship’s hold and safe I wondered how they’d feel using it as life preservers

The harassed Chief Steward pointed e area, where apparently a lot of our troubleathered to jointly declare their displeasure at being inconvenienced You’d think that anyone could see it wasn’t a good idea to be riding out a storain, people do dumb crap all the time, and they always seeerous Seriously Look at YouTube

My first brush with the Richie Riches caer, with aspirations of being an equally fa orders, believe it or not, and she was on her way out, practically clawing the expensively paneled walls with frustration She was surrounded by a le her coffee, BlackBerry, bags, appoint as much as Botox would allow, and had her Swarovski crystal- encrusted cell phone at her ear

"I’ "I want a lawsuit in place before I hit the limo, do you hear me? I want to own this stupid ship, and then I want to use it for target practice Just do it, Steve And , it’s five star I a to soory the storm is, you find me a suite! What do I pay you for, idiot?"

I suddenly had a great deal more sympathy for the business-suited corporate drones who had no choice but to smile and take it for the paycheck Once the flood of minions was past, I approached an immaculately white-uniformed steho stood helplessly at the entrance to the first-class lounge, looking in