A short silence followed that she finally broke by asking him what he thought they should do. "Clearly this isn't going to be a cruise for mothers and sons," she said. She started talking about Mike getting a refund on his plane tickets and canceling the whole trip.
"Hold on," Mike interrupted. He then suggested that maybe they could still go. She initially protested at the very idea but Mike asked her to just hear him out. "So it is a couple's cruise," he reasoned, "that doesn't mean that we would have to do any of the classes or that sort of stuff. We could just go on the cruise and do our own thing on the ship. Why would it matter if we relaxed by the pool of a couple's cruise or a regular cruise? I wasn't expecting to do a lot of organized activities anyway, so I don't think we would be missing out on much."
"I guess..." she answered uncertainly.
They talked more and eventually she agreed with Mike that they could probably have just as good a time on this cruise as on any other sort of cruise. She said over and over that it would just feel weird to know that it was that type of trip. Mike finally agreed with her that it would be a little odd, but he reminded her that nobody on the boat would know that they weren't a couple.
"Won't people think our mismatched ages are strange?" she asked.
"No way," Mike said, "as long as we don't act odd about it nobody will even blink an eye."
They finally agreed to go ahead with the trip, but Mike did have to admit to himself that the idea of going on what could turn out to be a swinger's cruise with his mom was pretty bizarre. He kept reassuring himself that it would be fine and eventually began to get more comfortable with the idea.
"I think we might have one more problem," his mom said as they talked again about a week before the trip. "I called the cruise line to try and get a room with two beds but they said that they don't have any on this trip. All of the rooms are set up for couples."
"What about roll away beds or cots?" Mike asked.
"They said that there would probably be a few on the boat but that we would need to request that when we boarded. They said there wasn't any way to request them at this point," she said.
They talked for a bit more and Mike assured her that everything would be fine. "I spent many a weekend in college sleeping on the floor of a hotel during road trips," he said truthfully. "There were times when we had 8 guys in rooms designed for 2 so I have no problem grabbing a blanket and sleeping on the floor."
"OK," she agreed, "but lets make sure to request a cot when we board so you don't have to be on the floor."
The rest of the time before the cruise passed quickly. Cindy gave Mike a ride to the airport and gave him a big kiss before he got out of the car. "I'll miss you," she whispered in a sexy tone that she knew drove Mike crazy. He had asked her before why she always used it when he was on his way out of town for a trip. She had replied that she wanted to make sure she was on his mind the whole time he was gone so she wanted to leave him looking forward to coming home. Mike kissed Cindy again and then walked into the airport.
The cruise started very early in the morning so Mike had scheduled a red eye flight. His mom's trip was much shorter so she was catching an early morning flight to the departure city. She would arrive about 30 minutes after Mike and they had planned to meet in the luggage claim area. The cruise company would take their luggage directly off the belts, but this would give them somewhere to meet and they could hop on the bus to the ship right away.
As his plane landed Mike adjusted his watch to just after 7AM local time. He bought a magazine and walked to the luggage area before finding a bench and sitting down to wait for his mom. About 45 minutes later he sat completely engrossed in his reading when he heard his mom's voice say, "Hey stranger."
He looked up and said, "Mom!?" The woman who stood before him now looked very different from the mom he remembered from previous visits.
"You like?" she said with a smile as she twirled around before him.
"You look great," Mike said. The first thing he noticed was that since he had last seen her she had changed her hairstyle. Before her hair had always been long and straight and a plain brown sort of color. Now it was cut short enough that it just barely touched her shoulders. It also had curls to it that had never been there before, and her hair was bleached a slight reddish tone that really looked good on her.
In addition to the hairstyle change, she had lost some weight and looked much fitter than Mike remembered. As they sat on the bus to the cruise ship she explained that after Tom left she had decided to make some changes to herself. "It was time to start fresh," she said. She joined the local gym and worked about nearly every day now. She had lost a bunch of weight and generally said she was feeling much better about herself than she had in a long time.
The final touch was that she had finally lost the thick glasses that she had always worn when he was growing up. Her frames were always a little out of date but she always insisted that they were comfortable. When he asked her about the change she said that she finally decided that it was time to update her look and got some contacts.
She had gotten pregnant with Mike very young and had him when she was only 19. Now, at 43 years old she said that she felt like she had the body and energy of a 30 year old. Mike had to agree and complimented her repeatedly on her new self.
Mike was proud of her for coming out of the divorce so well. She had never been too far out of shape, but her new dedication to fitness, her new hairstyle, and her new contacts left her looking great. Her shirt hugged her new frame closely and beautifully showed off her tits. They were just a little larger than average for her 5'7" frame and didn't appear to have been affected at all by her being 43. To finish off her outfit she wore a tight pair of jeans that hugged her ass. Mike noticed the bus driver staring at her ass as she had climbed on the bus back at the airport.
They pulled up to the dock next to the huge ship and everyone climbed out. As the driver took her hand and helped her off the bus Mike again noticed him staring except this time he stared at her tits. Once off the bus they were told to follow the ropes over the check in area at the bottom of the ramp that lead up to the ship. On the walk to the check in area she leaned over to Mike and softly said, "We should be careful about saying mom or son from now on. I don't want people to think we are weird."
Mike nodded and was glad that she had thought of that. It probably would have been really embarrassing to call her 'mom' while on this type of cruise. When they got to the check in table his mom stepped up and said, "Wendy Rogers."