Chapter 1 introduced the main characters, Mike, Monica, and Cheryl. Mike ends up leaving his job working as a bartender for Monica to work as a mate on Cheryls charter sailboat.
In this chapter, Mike and Monica's relationship moves from casual sex to something more.
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After my first trip out as the mate on Cheryl's charter sailboat, I was back at Monica's beach bar to grab some dinner and see if Monica could shed more light on Cheryl for me. It turned out to be a busy night at the bar and the new barmaid wasn't up to speed yet, so Monica didn't have time to chat until after closing. "Where are you staying tonight?" she asked.
"Is that an invitation?" I countered.
"What do you think?" she replied coyly.
Against her protests, I helped her cleanup and then we walked back to her place. A couple nights before, we had slept together just as we had countless times in the previous six months, but something about that last time was different and we both knew it. Monica wasn't quite old enough to be my mother, but she always treated me as if she was (if I didn't counted having sex with her). Sometime in the previous 72 hours, I felt we went from being friends with benefits to being lovers. I wondered if she was having similar thoughts.
As we strolled through the half-empty streets, we chatted about my experience on Cheryl's boat. I told her that after a slightly strained beginning, I was getting used to Cheryl and thought she was starting to warm up to me, as well. "Cheryl's a good kid," Monica said. "She hasn't had it easy and worked hard for everything she's ever gotten."
"Tell me something," I asked. "I invited her to join me at your place for dinner and a couple beers, but she said it would ruin her reputation as a hard-assed, dyke bitch, man-hater." Monica couldn't suppress a grin at that last statement. "She tried to make it sound like she was joking, but I could tell that she really thinks some people believe that and it bothers her. Why would she think that?" I asked.
Monica didn't respond for a while as we continued walking slowly together. Finally, she answered, "I don't know where she might have heard that, but like I said before, she's had a hard life and made some bad choices. Before coming here, she was badly abused by a boyfriend years ago and the break-up didn't go well. He put her in the hospital for a couple of weeks. When she got out, she took some martial arts training and was a quick learner. The, she had trouble with one of her mates a couple years ago and he tried to get physical with her. She may look like a little wisp of a girl, but she's tough and strong. She managed to put him down and in the process, nearly killed him. He was not a little guy, either." Monica paused her story to eye me carefully. "She's never dated another man since she got out of the hospital, so I guess that's the source of at least part of that rumor. She can be tough to work for, but she isn't that way for some kind of power trip. She found out quick that if she wasn't tough, guys wouldn't respect her. After all, she works in a job area that's pretty much all men. That's something I can understand real well myself!"
I nodded. "That's too bad, because I think she's a very warm and funny woman under that faΓ§ade."