Gerri-Anne Hughes swallowed as she opened her stateroom door on the River Cruise Ship The Scenic Diamond. The bed was covered with rose petals and a bucket of champagne rested on top of the small table, perfect for the honeymoon this wasn't to be.
She had done a bridal runner a day ago, leaving Robert at the altar. She'd caught a plane to Amsterdam, taking hers and Robert's airline tickets from Boston to Amsterdam, where she just boarded the ship that would take her 700 miles to Budapest with stops in cities she'd dreamed about visiting.
She had emailed her parents that she was alright, but she needed to be on her own and think things over.
She didn't tell them, that she had already thought things over and the one thing she didn't want to do was what was expected her of any more. She'd jumped to her parents' tune all her life, including university and her engagement to Robert, her father's partner. Their plans for her included a large house, children, and a financially comfortable lifestyle without soul.
Could someone find soul on a 14-day cruise? She was going to try.
She'd read up on the average passengers that usually took this type of cruise, which were mostly wealthy and half were retired. She was looking for stories. Stories of people's lives. Stories she would fashion into books. She would wander in 14 different cities to see how other lives were different from her own.
At the end of the trip, she would return to New Hampshire, where she had rented a Tiny House in the woods and write, write, write.
Why had she gone thru pretending to get married? It was only in the final five minutes as the organ was playing the Wedding March that she knew for sure. She had called the owner of the Tiny House she had looked at three days before to say, she'd take it for a year, took off the veil, called a cab and with a quick stop to change and pick up her suitcase packed for the cruise she was off for the future she chose for herself.
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