Devonne Brown

Drat, dammit, and O hell, my plans to go to the Baltic Sea for vacation had fallen through. I was at the pinnacle of despair, flustered to the very bone. It was the coffee klatches fault. 

Susan’s husband had put his foot down, he said flat out “No.” He wasn’t about to let her go. That caused a landslide of my other five friends to back out. She’d been saving money for a year to visit the coasts of Germany, Sweden, and a bit of Denmark. God she was pissed. We’d planned on trains, boats to the fishing villages, and lesser known towns along the coastline. We wanted to go off the beaten path and see what other tourists missed. Freakin’ husbands. 

She thought her  husband trusted her and believed in her safety, or at least that was his story. He told her as long as she could pay for the trip, she could go. She had worked two jobs, sold some of her books even.  He was surprised when she told him she had amassed the funds to travel Northern Europe, he even told her he was proud of her. 

She didn’t realize he’d breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t about to  agree to it even  if the others were cool with it, but all the husbands had been meeting at the local bar. Bill had drawn the straw to say it was ok, John, Susan’s husband had drawn the one to be the the asshole to say and adamant “NO.” The others were to follow suit. The trip wasn’t about to happen. They would all take a trip to Vegas instead. Susan be damned. 

They met in the evenings when the wives  met. Worked out the details and began their manipulation tactics. Though Susan was livid, he figured he could seduce the disappointment right out of her and begin to work the Vegas trip right into her psyche. Perhaps they would renew their vows with Elvis presiding, what if it were a group wedding? 

The plot thickened. They began to plant the seeds of the alternatives, with subtle hints of Vegas in the forefront. They were sure they could win the wives over with their masculine wiles.

Susan was the only roadblock. She had had to work for the privilege of the trip and with the tenacity of a turtle, wouldn’t let go of the Baltic Sea, until it thundered. She even suggested the captain of a ship renew their vows. Bill had some had work to do, but he was up to the challenge, even if he had get Elvis to make a house call.