Storm Surge
By Melissa Good
The sun peeked over the horizon, lighting up an already coral pink sky with the bland yellows of morning. It’s rays spread over the flat calm water, faint ripples brushing only lightly against the hull of a motor yacht bobbling quietly at anchor.
A seagull circled overhead, its white wings outstretched to catch the slight breeze as it watched the water’s surface carefully, hoping for an easy breakfast while the air was still comfortable, before the sun started really heating things up.
Inside the boat’s cabin, it was equally quiet and peaceful. The main living space was dark and cool, sprinkles of light coming in past the curtained windows to illuminate a blue and tan interior and splashing over the body of a half asleep woman meandering around the counter into the kitchen.
Blond, sun bronzed, and dressed in a sleeveless shirt that came to her mid thigh, the woman stopped to yawn and stretch, rubbing her eyes as the boat rocked a little and she leaned against the counter, waiting for it to stop.
Eventually it did. “Hope that wasn’t some dude with a couple of waveriders and a six pack.” Kerry paused to peek out one of the windows, drawing aside the curtain to let the light in, before she ambled over to the small refrigerator and removed a bottle of juice from it.
“Did you just say you wanted a six pack for breakfast?”
Kerry turned and leaned against the kitchen counter as she watched her tall, dark haired partner climb the steps from the forward cabins into the living area. “ Have you ever seen me have beer for breakfast?”
“Always a first time.” Dar squeezed into the kitchen area with her and ducked her head down, taking a drink from the bottle Kerry offered her. “Besides, it has grain or wheat or whatever in it, doesn’t it?”
“Hm.” Kerry took a sip from the bottle herself. “You know, it’s probably healthier than those Frosted Flakes you’re about to pour in a bowl, matter of fact.” She bumped Dar with her hip. “Glad it’s Sunday?”
“Always.” Dar leaned back and gazed around the interior of the boat. “Sometimes I think my parents had the right idea.”
“Living on the boat?”
“Mm.”
Kerry felt the motion as the sea rocked gently under her. “Well, now that you got that satellite dish installed and we can get TV and internet….”
“Slow internet.”
“Still.”
“It’d be tough on Chino.” Dar mused. “Think we could teach her to use the head?”
Kerry took another swallow of juice. “She’s a Labrador. Anything’s possible. I keep expecting to walk into my office any day and see her sitting at my desk sending email.”
Dar chuckled. “Maybe we should try taking her out on one of these overnights first.” She eased past Kerry and went over to the door that led to the back deck. “I’m going to kick over the engines to charge the batteries.”
“Want me to bring your coffee up there?” Kerry called. “I may jump in before breakfast.”
“In my coffee? Fabulous. Bring it up then.” Dar winked at her on the way out the door, letting it close behind her as a shaft of bright sunlight appeared and then disappeared.
“Punk.” Kerry chuckled to herself, as she put her bottle down and turned to the coffee pot, hearing the rumble of the diesel engine and the vibration of it through her feet as Dar settled it into idle. She whistled softly under her breath as she scooped fragrant ground beans into the basket, and poured water into the machine.
She turned as the coffee started dripping, and headed down the steps into the front part of the boat. She ducked into the comfortable master cabin and pulled off her shirt, trading it for a one piece swimsuit. “Living on the boat. Hm.”
Kerry regarded her reflection in the wall mounted mirror and paused to imagine what that would be like. “It sounds good.” She informed herself. “But I think I’d miss the broad band.” She wrapped a towel around her neck and went back up into the main cabin, where the coffee was almost finished dripping. “Not to mention Starbucks.”
She took two cups, appropriately milked and sugared, and emerged onto the back deck to find Dar loitering there, bathed in the early sunlight of a late August day. “Rats. I wanted to climb the ladder with this tray in my teeth.”
Dar tipped her head back and watched as her partner set the tray down on the outside counter. “Nice morning.” She commented. “Want to go down near Pennecamp later for a few dives?”
“Sure.” Kerry handed Dar her coffee, then took the seat next to her with her own cup, putting her bare feet up agains the transom and enjoying the pretty day.
It was warm, and humid, expected weather for the time of year, and on the edge of the horizon she could see the faint gathering of clouds that towards the afternoon would likely result in a thunderstorm.
Expected. Very normal. Kerry exhaled and flexed her toes. “So, how did the meeting with Hans go? I never asked you about that on Friday.”
Dar had her sunglasses on, and she was sprawled in the chair in tank top and a pair of cotton shorts. “Pretty good.” She said. “I really wanted to be there when those ships got into port, but now I’m glad I postponed going over until week after next.”
“Big scene?”
Dar chuckled. “Hans said it was the most excitement in those parts since World War II, and not in a good way. I’d rather wait and meet with their executive board. A lot more fish to fry and the European sales team is drooling so badly we had to send three cases of old lobster bibs to them.”
Kerry sipped her coffee. “Well, you get one week to shake them all up, then I’m heading over there. That’s a lot of infrastructure we’re going to need.”
“No kidding.” Dar wiggled her toes. “Sure you don’t want to come with me?”
Kerry sighed. “Stop teasing me, Dar. I told Angie I’d go up there and help her pack up to move. I can’t back out on her now.”
“I know.” Her partner relented. “Sorry.”
“It’s not like I want to go to Michigan, y’know.”
“I know.” Dar repeated. “Hey, but it’ll give me a week to scope out the best beer spots for you.” She added, resting her elbows on the deck chair arms. “Hey, what do you think about softball?”
Whiplashed into a completely unexpected redirection of their conversation, Kerry nearly choked on a mouthful of coffee. “Bw..” She swallowed. “Huh?” She turned her head and looked at her partner. “What brought that on?”
The taller woman shrugged. “I bumped into Mariana in the hall Thursday and she said she had a bunch of people asking her if we could form a softball team to play in some half assed corporate softball league or something around here.”
“Ah.”
“I didn’t think it sounded all that stupid, and the league raises money for charity.” Dar reasoned. “And we’re done with that other stuff for now.”
“So, she asked you because she expected you to play?” Kerry put her cup down and half turned, resting her chin on her fist.
“Us.”
“Ah.”
“The other choice was bowling.” Dar said. “I don’t know about you but for me the biggest draw of the bowling alley is the cheese fries.”
“Hmm.” Kerry wrinkled her nose. “I think I’d like to try softball.” She decided. “I never played it in school, and I wanted to.”
“You said that once.” Dar remarked. “I think you look really cute in a baseball cap.” She added. “Sounds like it might be fun.”
“You want to do it?” A little surprised at her anti social partner’s sudden interest in team sports, Kerry watched her profile out of the corner of her eye. “I didn’t think you were into that sort of thing.”
Dar blew bubbles into her coffee, making a very odd gurgling noise. “Yeah, I know.” She admitted. “But I’ve never tried this, so what the hell. Why not?”
“Works for me..” Kerry got up and went over to the transom, sitting on it and swiveling so her legs were on the outside of the low wall, above the platform they stepped off of when diving. “Tattoo, motorcycle, wife, softball.” She glanced over her shoulder at Dar. “I think my rebellion is complete.” She turned around and dove into the dark blue water.
Dar smiled, and toasted Kerry with her coffee cup, content to remain in her deck chair as the sun slowly lifted higher over the horizon. She could hear Kerry splashing a little over the sound of the idling engines, and after a moment, she moved the deck chair closer to the back of the boat so she could keep an eye on her partner.
Kerry was doing the backstroke, swimming a few body lengths away from the boat and then coasting, putting her hands behind her head and floating like an ottter in the warm water.
“How is it?” Dar asked.
“Bathtub.” Kerry stretched her body out. “Big enough for two.” She gazed up at the pink tinged, fluffy clouds overhead as she floated on the surface, enjoying the peace and quiet for about ten seconds when a wall of water swept over her. “Hey!”
Dar bobbed up a moment later, shaking her dark hair out of her eyes. “You invited me into your bathtub.” She grinned at Kerry, stroking through the water towards her. She ducked under the surface as she came closer, grabbing at the blond woman as she backpeddled rapidly through the water.
“Hey hey hey!!” Kerry twisted and reached out to grab Dar’s shirt, finding only smooth skin under her fingertips. “Holy pooters, Dar! You’re naked!”
Blue eyes appeared above the waterline, blinking innocently.
“You are naked!” Kerry hissed, glancing around. “What if one of those fishing charters comes by? Or a dive boat?”
Completely submerged aside from the top of her head, Dar started moving towards her partner.
“Dar.”
A puckish grin appeared.
“Shit.” Kerry ducked her head under the water and swam forward, kicking in a frog kick with her hands outstretched to grab whatever they had a mind to.
She found them clasped, and the next thing she knew she was being hauled up half out of the water, ending up landing on top of Dar as her partner flipped over and came up under her.
Abruptly, Kerry wished she’d forgotten her suit as well. She could feel skin everywhere she touched and she almost breathed in a mouthful of salt water as her body reacted.
Then she was flipped over again and dunked, and she could only manage a quick breath before she was under the water again and being pinched on the butt. She flailed around and tried to grab Dar’s arm, but as she surfaced, she found herself alone as she turned in a circle. “Hey!”
Dar surfaced on the other side of the boat, snickering.
“You’re such a punk.” Kerry let her catch up and they were nose to nose, just off the stern of the boat. “Just for that, I hope a cuttlefish nibbles you.”
“Ready for breakfast?” Dar batted a piece of seaweed away.
“Well, now..” Kerry laid one hand on her cheek, leaning forward to let their lips brush. “Depends on who’s cooking.”
Dar licked a drop of salt water off her nose. “G’wan.” She indicated the ladder.
“Oh no.” Kerry shook her head and smiled. “You first.” She rolled onto her back on the surface and put her hands back under her head, watching her partner with a wicked twinkle. “Little Miss Exhibitionist.”
Dar stuck her tongue out.
“You’re just sooo lucky I didn’t take my camera in the water.”
**
“Hi, Kerry.”
Kerry looked up from her computer screen, and waved a few fingers. “Hey Mari.” She greeted the Vice President of HR for ILS. “What’s up?”
Mariana entered and crossed over to Kerry’s desk, taking a seat in her visitor’s chair and settling herself. “Good morning, Kerry.”
“Uh oh. What did I do?” Kerry turned away from her monitor and rested her elbows on her desk.
“You? Not a thing.” The HR VP smiled.
“What did Dar do?” The blond woman replied, with a wry grin. “That I have to explain?”
“She volunteered you to be captain of our new softball team, and before I sent out a memo with that delightful information I thought I’d check with you first.”
Kerry leaned back in her chair and chuckled. “Nah, that’s fine. I actually did volunteer for that.” She told Mari. “I figured if I was going to do this, I’d do it right. So what’s the deal with all this? I didn’t know we had such a demand for intercorporate sports in the company.”
“Well.” Mari sighed. “I don’t know, really.” She crossed her ankles. “You know the suggestion box down in the café?”
“Uh huh.”
“Well, we usually get the usual. Less chicken in the café, lower the air conditioning on the sixth floor, raise the air conditioning on the 9th floor, change the dress code.. you know.”
Kerry nodded. She did, in fact, know, as she was the representative from Operations to the Employee working group sessions that took place monthly. “Change the coffee. Don’t change the coffee, bring bottled water in, stop using bottled water because of the environment, yeah.”
“Exactly.” Mari said. “So anyway, the last couple of times I opened the box, we had requests for more group activities, more employee activities, and stuff getting involved in the community. So I put out feelers, and this league’s what I came up with.”
“Ah.”
“People activity, sports activity, charity activity, all rolled into one. I figured it was at least worth mentioning.” Mari went on. “However.”
“Yeah?”
“When I mentioned it, everyone went batty bonkers on me.”
Kerry blinked. “Really?”
“You’d think I was suggesting we go to the Olympics.” The HR VP shook her head. “So anyway, I thought I’d ask the poobah if she wanted to participate, since we all know you both are big into sports.”
“We’re..ah..” Kerry paused. “Yeah, okay.” She said. “We’re not really into sports, per se, but we do like being active, and I think Dar’s intrigued since she’s never done team sports before.” She considered. “And I never got to play in school, so I have to admit I’m kinda looking forward to it too.”