The Woman in Cabin 10 Ch. 7 - 9

Okay, Chapter 7. 

Apparently being silly rich also means making impractical design choices? 

The dining/drawing/meeting room on the Aurora is all white. Even Lo calls this out as impractical and you know that some poor members of the cleaning crew have to go over this place any time someone so much as breathes in its general vicinity. 

But I guess it's just a symbol of wealth and power. 'This is ridiculous but I can afford to have a ridiculous room/thing/outfit that cannot possibly be used in a regular manner.' *waves fancy baton*

We get to meet Mr. Lederer properly this time - turns out he's a photo journalist of the kind that normally does endangered species and at-risk environments. But he took the invitation to do this job for reasons that do not get disclosed. Cole. Cole Lederer. 

It's all just a meet and greet and we get some more characters. Tina West, a writer for Vernean Times (not gonna lie, I like the name); Alexander Belhomme who does foodie related travel apparently and Archer Fenlan representing the 'extreme travel' grouping. 

We also meet Ben Howard who I believe is a dick and would like to push over board. He used to work with Lo, but has moved on to other magazines. He is also, seemingly, rather good at his job. Still want to push him overboard. 

Anyway. It seems like a good chunk of the guests are travel writers of one flavor or another, which makes sense as a publicity tour. The rest are Lord Bullmer level rich people and Lord Bullmer and Lady Bullmer herself. It seems as though Lady Bullmer is very ill, however, breast cancer from what Ben says. Turns out one of the two of them did their research and it was not Lo. 

I'm going to not accept judgment on Lo since she has been having a very harsh couple of days. Though maybe research should have been done before the last minute? But maybe she did and it just slipped her mind. Not just because of stress but because Lo is back to drinking to medicate her anxiety and I'm just going to sit here and breathe calmly for her, okay? 

Lo gets propositioned by a drunk Cole who would like to get revenge on his cheating wife by also cheating. I like to think that Lo wouldn't have taken him up on it, she doesn't seem like she's into it, but luckily we're interrupted by the call to dinner so that'll be a problem for later Lo, maybe.

Dinner is in another tiny yet super impractical room. 

Alright, so there are two tables set up for 6 people each but both tables have an empty setting when everyone is seated. The one at Lo's table is for Mrs. Lederer who will most definitely not be joining them and the assumption is that the one at the other table is for Lady Bullmer who was not feeling well and decided to eat in her room. So we get a final passenger count at 11 people - not counting however many crew there are supposed to be. Two reserved attendants per passenger, so 24 of them and then the rest of the crew? We're already at 35 people - I still don't think the ship is as small as Lo thinks it is. 

And Madam Cabin 10 is not among the guests. 

Lo is having a nice little chit chat with the people at her table, Chloe who is a model and maybe actually in love with her husband, given them holding hands beneath the table when Chloe asks about the bruise on Lo's face. She tells them the story rather than have them think she's in an abusive relationship and Archer McWilderness Man decides that dinner is a great place to show off some self defense techniques. He gets Lo to stand up and before she can do anything he grabs her. 

Chloe calls him off and of course he tries to play it off like 'ha ha hope I didn't scare you little lady' and Lo is very much trying to play it off too but I think Chloe sees through it. I like Chloe. I hope you're not murdered, or the killer, Chloe. 

Apparently they rotate seats after the different courses which is a good way to get the guests to talk to one another I think. Lo never seems to be near Lord Bullmer, who is sort of her reason for being there but after dinner Cole startles Lo and then tries to get her some time with Bullmer to make up for her spilling her coffee because of him. 

Doesn't quite work but Bullmer agrees to talk to her tomorrow and we find out that he and Cole went to school together so Cole is doing this photo shoot thing as a favor to a friend. 

Lo heads back to her cabin, so very, very drunk around 11 pm. And Ben Fucking Howard comes up and gropes her and she knees him in the balls. Overboard with this asshole!

Please just imagine me rage screaming a while here for this next part. 

Ben Fucking Howard and Lo used to date, a million years ago, and he left and somehow he regrets this and so drunk gropes her like it's a romantic fucking gesture?!?!! And then she tells him he doesn't need to apologize because it's her stress, not the fact that she told him to go away and then he reached into her dress and grabbed a boob that is the problem here?!?!?!

And then she tells Ben Fucking Howard about the robbery and things she didn't tell Judah and I WANT TO STAB HIM. 

He doesn't need to know these things. He doesn't deserve to know shit. 

He deserves to get that knee to the balls and then to be chucked into the ocean.

It would be one thing if Lo was inviting his attention and was willingly participating and then freaked out because of a flashback. No one to blame there, both of them thought it was okay until it wasn't. But she told him to go away. She did not say 'hey, Ben, Ben old buddy old pal you know what would be great? If you could grab my breast!' No. She told him to go away and he SHOVED HIS HAND DOWN HER DRESS!!!

He gets no sympathy. 

He gets an anchor to the face. 

UGH. 

We hates him, precious. 

He leaves, eventually, with Lo having flashes of fear about 'what if he doesn't leave what if he turns around and I can't fight him off' and have I mentioned wanting to throw him overboard? And Lo goes to sleep eventually. 

She wakes, later, shocked out of sleep. 

At first she decides that it's just her paranoia, she talks herself down but then as she's trying to read or do anything to try and fall back asleep she keeps going over the awakening in her mind, wondering why it felt like she'd woken up to a scream. 

Then, laying there, she hears to door to the veranda in cabin 10 slide open. 

And then she hears the splash. 

Like a body hitting the water. 

Maybe it's Ben. 

We could only be so lucky.

There's a bit of Facebook style comment/posts with Judah asking if anyone has heard from Lo. The date stamp is September 24, and people who reply say they haven't heard from her since the 20th so that's four days with her not reaching out to anyone. 

And that's three days after she just heard a body go overboard by my estimation. 

No reason for concern at all...