The Ship Engineer
Workplace Encounters #3

Excerpt

Nathan Kappas marched along the corridor on deck zero, his newly acquired British pounds obtained for his upcoming excursion in Southampton safely stowed away in his pocket, only one goal in mind. He'd had to go to the purser's office to get the foreign currency since this ship was too small to have a separate purser for crew members. Now he was intent on returning to the relative safety of the crew area as quickly as possible since he hated the idea of having to interact with passengers. People weren't his strong suit anyway, and, in his experience of four years on the Star Princess, the passengers on a cruise ship could be particularly--challenging.

The little boy came from nowhere. In a flash of movement Nathan saw a tuft of spiky dark hair at just above knee level and some very disheveled clothing. Following the boy's gaze he discovered that he was pulling some sort of yellow wooden duck on bright red wheels behind him. The toy and the odd quacking noises it made as it was pulled along, was clearly more interesting to the kid than checking to see where he was going.

"Ouch." The boy fell on his ass, his gaze shot upward to Nathan's scowling face, and after a second of stunned hesitation tears sprang from his eyes as if from a fountain. "Mommmie!"

"Can't you watch where you're going?" A young woman with a baby in her arms rushed up to them.

"Who, me?" Why was the woman staring at him?

The little boy was the one who'd caused his own problems by looking behind him rather than in front of him. How was that suddenly his fault?

"Yes, you!" The woman's indignant look made it clear she blamed him somehow.

"But, madam--

"Don't madam me!" The woman shoved some of the blonde curly hair which had escaped her pony tail out of her face, shifting the baby up on her hip as she held her free hand out to the little boy. "We were told this was a family friendly ship, so I expect the crew to be careful and watch out for my children."

Oh, please!

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the guest relations manager approach from the passenger reception area he'd just left. She had clearly decided abandoning her post was the lesser of two evils. She was right. Leaving him to deal with an upset passenger was a major incident waiting to happen.

"May I be of assistance?" The manager, Judy according to her name tag, looked apologetic and authoritative at the same time.

How the hell did she do that?

"This-this man ran into my little boy, making him fall and hurt himself. And he won't even apologize!" The woman huffed as she lifted the still wailing boy to his feet, pulling him to her.

"I am very sorry, madam." Judy turned to Nathan, anger radiating from every pore in her body as soon as she faced him. "I'm sure he will correct this immediately."

He would?

Judy widened her eyes in a clear gesture for him to get on with it.

"I'm very sorry your little boy fell and hurt himself, madam." That was as good as it would get. He wouldn't lie and take the blame for the child's stupidity. Granted, the boy was young, well, as far as he could tell, but his age didn't mean a basic inability to look where he was going was excusable.

Judy rolled her eyes before she turned back to the woman, her friendly passenger-only smile returning as if by magic.

"May I add our official apologies?" Judy pulled a card from her uniform pocket and held it out. "Please consider this a token of our sincerest regrets. I will organize a babysitter at our expense for any nights you require one. You'll also have the opportunity to sit at the captain's table whenever you want for the remainder of the cruise. Just show the Social Hostess my card, and she will set everything up for you."

"Really?" The woman stroked the little boy's head, quietly hushing him. Her smile was radiant, all anger clearly forgotten.

Thank God, another human relations disaster had been avoided.

As soon as the woman was gone, Judy turned around to him, looking reproachful.

"That was a really stupid mistake to make." She shook her head. "You should know better than to run around the passenger area without being extremely careful."

"I'm sorry, okay?" What else was he supposed to do? He couldn't really turn back time and make the incident un-happen.

"Yeah, well, maybe you should think about transferring to a ship catering to older passengers? Without children? Might be a little less risky for you." Judy smiled.

"Maybe." He'd been thinking about a transfer anyway. He'd done four years as third engineer after graduating from the US Merchant Marine Academy as a Marine Engineer. Now he was ready to move on, but there was no hope of doing it on this ship since the second engineer had transferred in only a year earlier and wasn't about to leave.

He said goodbye to Judy and continued his walk to the crew elevators at the end of the corridor. Maybe it was time to consider a change?

Shit, but he hated the idea of having to find his way all over again. Both the thought of a new ship, ideally a larger one, and new crew mates made him feel uncomfortable as hell.