"What are you doing here?" Mike and Valerie asked each other at the same time. The crowd had started to disperse around them, moving on to other activities.
"Well?" Valerie asked.
"If its any of your business I'm here on a gig. Its one we've had scheduled for months." Mike said. "Whats your excuse?"
"Vacation." She replied.
"Oh so you get to find out how many people you alienate off shore?" Mike muttered.
"It was Chris's idea." Valerie said to Chris who had shrunk behind a life preserver. "How nice she managed to get the same cruise you are on."
"If I know your friend, and I think I do, I'd say it was more than a little curious." Mike said.
"I would too. But she wouldnt try to do that. Try and bring you and me back together." Valerie said. "I am soooooo over you." She punctuated the remark by pressing her hand to his chest. He was wearing deck shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt. She let her gaze wander for a second, she could almost see his chest hair....stop that! Mike raised an eyebrow as she pulled back her hand quickly. Had she let it linger a little too long?
"Completely over you." She said quickly. "Come Chris, we have a swimming pool awaiting us."
"I hope you didnt eat in the last hour." Mike said. "Awful cramps." He stuttered. Valerie ignored him and walked down the hallway with Chris waving politely.
"What was all that about?" Davy asked.
"What was what all about? That was nothing." Mike said. "Shes her usual charming self. Little miss sunshine takes a cruise." He turned on his heel and followed her.
"Batten down the hatches, I think a storm is brewing in." Micky cracked
Val and Chris's room
"So wheres the key?" Valerie said as Chris ran ahead to open the door.
"Key?" Chris asked. "I thought you had it."
"Me?" Valerie replied. She then thought for a minute. The dull clinking sound she had heard when she threw her bags down. "Oh darnitalltoheck." She said very quickly. She looked behind her and saw Mike and the guys approach. "Look busy."
"Doing what? Being locked out?" Chris asked. "We can ask them for help."
"Oh no, we are not asking him for help." Valerie said. "I am not letting him back into my life."
"This isnt about your life!" Chris said. "Do you really feel like standing out here for the whole cruise? All our coupons are in there. And our bathing suits and all our nice stuff." Valerie moved to say something else but Chris put her foot down. "I'm asking!" She stepped in front of Mike. "Hi, can you help us?"
"Well how about that guys," Micky said. "A damsel in distress." He rubbed his hands together. "Two of them in fact!"
"Dream on Monkee boy." Chris said waving her left hand in front of him. "Still married."
"Darn it, am I gonna meet a single chick on this cruise?" He whined.
"They're all married." Davy said mournfully.
"Ba da bum bum." Peter said while imitating one of Mickys "dumming" poses.
"Whats the problem here?" Mike said pointedly talking to Valerie rather than Chris.
"No problem here." Valerie said. "We like hanging out on the hallway." Chris rolled her eyes.
"We're locked out." Chris told Mike. "Can you help us find someone with a spare key?"
"What key?" Micky said. "You are about to meet George Michael Dolenz, master of magic and mystical stuff."
"You dont have that monkey paw on you?" Davy asked. "Remember last time?"
"My trick will not need anything like that, but thanks for the reminder." Micky poked Davy. "I need a simple credit card. I'm sure it works..." He paused dramatically. It was Valerie and Mikes turn to roll their eyes. "...I've seen it happen all the time in the movies. Citbank? Diners club?"
"We've got all that." Chris cried happily.
"Can I have one of them?" Micky asked.
"Sure, its in the red purse...which also happens to be in the room." Chris blushed as she remembered this. Valerie sighed with dispair. Mike was so close to her, she thought she could hear a small thudding noise. She paused as she realized it was her own heart beat. Calm down girl, maybe its better if you get away from Michael.
"Whats that?" She said pointing at Peters chest.
"Oh no, I'm not gonna fall for that." He said clutching his chest. "The guys pull that all the time."
"Not that, you ninneyhammer." Valerie said. "The chain you have on, it has a pointy thing on it." She said as she grabbed it.
"So does Peters head." Davy said. "What are we talking about?"
"This." Valerie said jamming the pointy thing into the lock. Peter objected loudly as she did this. The lock turned with ease.
"See, I can be helpful!" Peter smiled.
"Call Guiness!" Davy joked.
"Hello, I'd like several kegs delivered to room...." Micky started to say.
"Wrong one." Mike said. "We got you in your room. Do you need anymore from us?"
"Yeah, to like go away. Seeing you again is not the top of my must do list." Valerie said as she went in.
"Mine either honey." Mike said.
"Dont call me honey!" Valerie called as the guys left to go to their own room. To Valerie and Chris's amazement, it was down the hall. The next room in fact.
"Want to go swimming now?" Chris asked distracting her.
"In a minute, I have to make a phone call." Valerie said looking around the room for a phone. Finding one she looked up a list of numbers.
"Why? Is there a toaster at home you miss?" Chris laughed as she closed the door. She started to change into a red white striped one-piece.
"Whoever runs this ship." She said. "I want to find out where the next stop is."
"Why?" Chris asked.
"I want to get off." Valerie replied. "I can't be on the ship with him. Any of my ex-boyfriends would have been fine but I can't be on the same boat with Mike Nesmith." Valerie spotted Chris watching the waves out the port hole that served as their window. "Don't watch the waves, honey, you can get sea sick."
At the scheduled rehearsal for the gig that night, Mike was tuning his guitar. The other three looked at him.
"Want to try a new song?" Davy asked.
"Sure." Mike said distractedly. Davy leaned over to Micky and Peter and whispered the name of the song they were about to try.
"Shouldnt he know what it is?" Peter asked.
"He'll catch on." Davy said. They started the song, and Mike absent-mindedly played along till a group of lyrics caught his attention.
"Cause there's the girl that you were after. Feel your heart beating faster now
There's the girl that you were after. Can you say that you don't want her anymore?" Davy sang. Mikes playing came to a stop.
"When did you write this song?" He demanded of Davy.
"Sometime last year, when we were on tour." Davy said.
"He said your love life was a kind of weird muse for him." Peter noted. "You don't remember 'Valerie', do ya?"
"Where you think most of the songs came from? Her!" Micky said. "And you wrote a lot of them, and you had no clue."
"I might have had a clue." Mike said. "My feelings for her are different."
"Sure, and what about when she touched you?" Micky asked. "He almost blew his lid!"
"I did not. I don't.." Mike started to say. Davy sang a little bit of the song for him.
"I believed you once when you explained, that it wasn't so tough to forget her name." He smiled at the end of it.
"I can get along without her just fine." Mike said. "I'm going to rest, wake me later, ok?"
"Okay." Peter replied.
As Mike left the room, Micky looked at the other two.
"There, you see a man who is so completely whipped by a single female, that even he cant admit it." Micky sighed.
"Can we do anything about this? There is something still there for him, clearly." Davy said.
"We can't." Micky said. "But maybe in a way we can help it happen."
