A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Reminder to my readers: the characters in this story will all be meeting one another for the very first time so, in the beginning, there will be potential wrong ships, but in the end, everyone will end up with the right partners, so please be patient until the right pairings happen.

Third Person POV

Copter adjusted his hair in the narrow but full length mirror of his cabin before heading down to the breakfast room located on the lower deck of the cruise ship.

He was an early riser so he knew that he would be enjoying the chef's first fruit of labor of the day.

As he stepped out of his cabin, he did not notice someone walking at high speed down the same path he was in.

The stranger bumped hard into Copter, making Copter almost lose his footing but fortunately the stranger broke the fall and caught him just in the nick of time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," the culprit was full of contrite apologies, "are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm alright, I guess," Copter replied, examining his hands, "all my fingers are intact, my head is still on my shoulders..."

The stranger laughed.

"Thank you for making light of the situation," he said to Copter, then extending his hand to Copter, the stranger said, "I'm Max, by the way."

Copter took the hand that Max offered, "Nice to meet you, Max, my name is Copter but friends call me Cop for short."

"Where are you headed?" Max asked.

"Oh, I was heading for the breakfast room," Copter replied.

"That's where I'm headed," Max informed him, "let's go together."

"Okay," said Copter, "but why were you in such a hurry?"

"The assistant cook is my cousin," Max explained, "I promised him that I was going to taste his very first strawberry waffle of the day. He wants me to be the very first to taste it and he said to be there at seven sharp."

Copter looked at his watch.

"Uh-oh, it's thirty minutes past seven," said Copter, "you're in trouble."

"Shit," Max muttered under his breath, "he's so gonna kill me. He's a stickler for punctuality."

"Good luck," Copter laughed as they continued walking.

When they reached the foyer of their deck, Max pressed the elevator button for service.

When the elevator doors opened, he stepped aside to let Copter walk inside first before walking in himself.

Copter pressed the "B" button. As he did so, he had to lean a little bit towards Max The manly fragrance of Max's cologne wafted to Copter's nose

"Thank you," Max said, flashing a white toothed smile at Copter.

"For... for what?" Copter stammered.

"For pressing the button," said Max, still smiling.

"Oh, that... that... that was nothing," Copter hated himself for appearing to have lost his cool.

His friends and family had warned him about shipboard romances, but already he felt his heart beating fast at the nearness and disturbing proximity of this attractive hunk of a man.

When both men reached the breakfast room, to their surprise, they saw that they were not the only early birds. Several tables were already occupied by people enjoying their breakfast.

"Oh, shit he has seen me already, and he's sending dagger looks at me," Max whispered to Copter.

Suddenly Max had an idea.

"Copter, can I introduce you to my cousin as my boyfriend? That way he would not be inclined to curse at me and scold me for being late."

Copter started to blush.

"If that's gonna help you, it's okay," said Copter, suddenly starting to feel shy.

"It definitely will," Max whispered, taking Copter's hand and making a beeline for the area behind the serving counter where Max's cousin was standing.

Max's cousin had a tall white cloth cap with the words "sous chef" embroidered in blue thread on the front of the cap.

Max's cousin stood waiting for Max to approach. He was wearing an obvious look of displeasure which instantly disappeared when he saw that Max was approaching with Copter, holding Copter's hand in his.

"Hi, cuzz, I'm sorry for being late," said Max, "I want to introduce my boyfriend Copter to you."

Copter extended his hand to Max's cousin and Max's cousin took it.

"And, Copter, I want to introduce my cousin, White, to you."

"I'm guessing you're the reason that my cousin found it hard to get out of bed early enough to get here at seven sharp as we had agreed upon," said White, looking appreciatively at Copter, noting that Copter had such cute dimples when he smiled shyly.

Copter blushed a bright red but did not set right White's embarrassing assumption.

"Well..." said White, "I guess I will have to forgive my cousin and hand him the very first strawberry waffle that I made for him."

White turned around and took out a small plate of strawberry waffle from one of the lower metal cabinets behind him and handed the plate to Max.

"I kept it warm for you," he said to Max, and then looking at Copter, he asked, "would you like a plate for yourself, Copter?"

"Yes, I would love that, thank you very much," Copter replied.

White took out a small plate and using a small stainless steel food tong, scooped up a strawberry waffle from a pile that was spread out behind the glass counter, and handed it to Copter.

"You can take other breakfast items from the set of tables over on that side, and you can have your choice of coffee or tea or fruit beverages on the other side," White told Max and Copter.

"Thank you again," said Copter, while Max said, "I owe you, cuzz."

"No problem," said White before turning away to walk towards a set of metal double doors behind him.

"Thanks for saving my life," said Max, smiling widely at Copter, "I owe you big time."

"Don't worry about it," said Copter, as he took a tray from one end of a long table and got a bigger plate from a stack close to the trays.

He set the small plate of strawberry waffle on one side of the tray and placed the big plate on the center of the tray.

Max did the same.

Together Max and Copter headed for the table that had an array of appetizing bacon strips, generous slices of glazed ham, assorted sizes of sausages, and choices of either scrambled eggs or sunny side ups.

Both Max and Copter took one of each, except for the eggs. Copter chose the scrambled eggs while Max chose the sunny side up.

Again when it came to the beverages, Copter and Max differed in their choices. Copter chose a hot cup of green tea while Max chose a cup of strong black coffee.

They chose a corner table and sat down to enjoy their breakfast.

At first they ate in silence, and then Max spoke up.

"Are you here alone or with friends?"

"I'm alone," Copter informed him. "I needed a break from work and not one of my friends were into the idea of going on a vacation on a cruise ship. How about you, Max?"

"Thanks to my beloved cousin whom you just met, I was given a fifty percent discount to go on this cruise, otherwise I would have had to settle with a staycation," said Max.

What Max had omitted to tell Copter was that Max was nursing a broken heart from a recent breakup with his love partner and Max's cousin White was trying to help him. Both Max and White had hoped that he would meet someone on the cruise ship with whom Max could start a shipboard romance to forget his heartache.

Smiling at Max, Copter temporarily forgot about his friends' and family's warning about the pitfalls of a shipboard romance.