Down the hall, the air was cooler on my damp skin, and my ears rang with muffled throbs. It was comparably quiet. I held onto Andrea’s arm, still feeling slightly off-balance.

“Whew! That was fun,” she enthused as we pushed open the door. There was a small sitting area before the bathrooms.

A girl was fixing her hose and gave us a once over.

“Haven’t had a good old dance like that in ages,” Andrea said as the other girl left.

“Those two young guys were fun.” I peered into the mirror and wiped at the mascara shadow under my eye.

“Ahh, he was whispering and begging me to “bring him to heaven.” She laughed, raising her fingers in quotes. “If I were ten years younger,” she crooned. “Your guy was stunning.”

I chuckled. “And also twelve.”

“Yeah. Makes an old maid like me feel like she still might have it though.” She made her way to the mirrors to join me and grabbed a tissue to blot her glowing face.

“You aren’t an old maid!”

“Josie. I haven’t had sex in over ten years,” she said at my reflection. “I’m as old maid as it gets. And the last time I did it was … well, I left him, didn’t I? So that’s that.”

The mood plummeted.

I squeezed her arm, and she sniffed, turning around. “Argh. Look at me—a sorry-for-myself wreck after champagne. It’s always made me gooey. I just miss it, you know? The intimacy. The tenderness even, not that I got much of that.”

“You’re fine. You can feel sad about that if you need to. I mean, ten years?” I exclaimed in a teasing tone.

She leaned away and punched my arm good-naturedly. “Hey.”

“I’m kidding.”

“I’m not. I’m … lonely. The boat and all the people on it are lovely, family, almost, and I feel safe, I love my work. I feel valued but … I also feel invisible. Like there’s this whole other life out there I’m supposed to be living and that bastard stole it from me.” She sighed as she turned back to the mirror. “I’m a hologram in this life.”