Chapter 2113 Guilty Pleasures:>19

To say that the end of the cruise was weird was underselling it. It was almost entirely surreal. Dinner together that last night had been terribly uncomfortable for everyone, as far as I could tell. Not one word was spoken about what had happened. My eyes even managed to behave themselves for the first time since Anne had walked into my stateroom.
But there was this almost hysterical edge to the evening, with every joke, every funny story getting gales of borderline desperate laughter.
I sat with Becca on the flight back. Anne and Mary's parents had used miles to get them to Ft. Lauderdale and back, and were on another airline. Carol sat a row ahead and on the other side. Becca and I had a tranquil ride, mostly reading our books. We did spend about a half hour talking about her classes for the Fall, and the internship she had on campus for the summer. It meant that she was staying on campus, instead of coming home. Neither of us commented on why that might be a little more... tranquil.