The end of this weekend was also going to be the end of a long, long road trip. I don't often travel in my business, but this current project had been a little out of the ordinary and had required me to pitch the proposal, in person, to a number of board members around the country. I didn't mind the travel, and luckily the proposal itself was everything they had wanted and my trip really just a formality. Still, the formality seemed like it was taking a large chunk out of my life.
This last flight, to Phoenix Arizona, had been delayed three times before it finally got off the ground in Chicago. The plane was packed it being the start of a weekend, and the poor gentleman beside me spent the entire flight trying to sooth his colic ridden infant who decided about 20 minutes after take-off to show everyone what it had had for lunch. I was lucky enough that most of it landed on the guy and the seat in front of us. So I didn't have to wear it... but trust me, the smell lingered for the entire flight.
By the time I got to the hotel I was a bit cranky and tired of traveling, ready to rest. I phoned the board member as I got off the plane and was informed by his secretary that due to the delays in my flight, he presumed I was not coming and had gone to his vacation home for the weekend, He would be happy to meet me on Monday at my convenience.
Great, well... now I had nothing more to do but relax at the hotel for the entire weekend All I could hope for was that the streak of bad luck had passed, that the hotel was comfortable, the shower was good and the place had a pool. If I could achieve that, I would be happy.... Little did I know just how happy I would be, or how far, far away my streak of bad luck really was.
The hotel was pleasant enough. It had a spacious lobby, 3 restaurants, a couple of bars, one of which was by the pool, a workout room, and an attractive woman behind the counter. She smiled a great deal and assured me that she was there to serve me should I need anything. At the time I was tempted to tell her all the things I thought she could do for me, but why ruin a good start to a long stay.
I dropped my stuff in the room, hung my clothes in the closet, took a short shower to freshen up grabbed a towel, and headed for the pool. I had about 2 good hours of sunshine left and I wasn't about to allow anything to interfere with that.
The pool itself turned out to be one of those large amorphous shaped things with lounge chairs scattered around it each with a large, white, (or red, very, very red) body laying whale-like across it. Each that is except for one chair which I found around the corner and which seemed to be the only lounge chair that was unoccupied. I tossed my towel onto the chair, paced over to the pool and dove in. The water was cool and refreshing and even though I had just showered, the silky feel of water streaming over my skin as I swan the length of the pool underwater was just what I needed. I surfaced at the other end, grabbed a few breaths and made the return trip. Once on the other side, I rose out of the water, went back to my chair and grabbed my towel. In what had been an occupied but vacant lounge chair next to me lay a slender, tan, dark haired woman in a black bikini pink toenail polish and her nose deep into a book. Her legs were toned very attractive, and the first thing that caught my eye. She had the legs of a gymnast I noticed, then reasoned that she might be indeed as she appeared to be a bit small. Then I realized that not only was she petite, she was likely only about 20 years old. I turned away before I got any further ideas. At 43, and married, its not that I don't appreciate the feminine form at that age, its just that it has mostly turned into a "window shopping" experience for me. You can look but you had better not touch if you know what I mean. Even if the interest was there, and sometimes there was plenty of interest, the likelihood of a woman in that age bracket feeling the same way was slim to none. So, I shopped on occasion. Nothing wrong with that.
As I was drying my head a waiter appeared at my side and asked if I something from the bar. I ordered a scotch, and was turning away when he said "and for your daughter?" I turned back and he was looking at the black bikini-clad gymnast.
"I'll have a Pina Colada please" she said.
Mr. waiter turned to me with a questioning look on his face, as if to say 'Sir, is your daughter old enough to have a drink?' I began to point out that she was NOT in fact my daughter, but before I could get three words out of my mouth I heard her say "Oh Daddy! Don't be such a spoil sport!
Now I will be honest here and say that this lithe beautiful girl, smiling up at me and calling me daddy quite took me by surprise. I stammered, looked at the now smirking waiter, and said "whatever the lady wants. Put it on my room" and gave him the number and he walked away.
"Thanks" she said. "But you don't have to pay. I have money and she reached for her bag next to the lounge.
"Don't worry about it" I said, its an expense account. Really."
"Are you sure? I really can pay".... She looked up at me from her lounge and for the first time I noticed that her shoulder length dark brown hair and smooth skinned tan framed a pair of crystal blue eyes and a smile of beautiful white teeth.
"Trust me, its not a problem" I said as I dropped into the lounge next to her and finally laid back to rest. The drinks came a short while later, she smiled and said cheers, clinking her glass to mine and thanked me again for the drink. Whatever she was reading must have been very good because she kept her nose buried in her book and said little more the rest of the afternoon. While I would have liked to strike up a conversation, I found myself mostly waiting for her real father, or boyfriend to wander by and so had written her off. I spent the rest of the afternoon sipping my scotch, thinking about my week ahead and wondering what I was going to do for excitement for the next two days.
As the afternoon sun faded, she rose from her chair set her book aside and too a final sip from her drink. Though young, she moved with an elegance and poise usually found in woman somewhat older. She pulled her hair back and gathered it on the back of her neck the way woman often do, ran her fingers around the elastic in her suit, and bent over to brush something off of her little pink toes. My eyes were mesmerized by her movement, and I couldn't keep them off of her. I could now see that she was likely 5'-5'most, and couldn't have weighed more than 105 pounds. I wouldn't have called her athletic, but there was little fat to be found on this slender body of hers. As she rose back up she noticed my stare and blushed. I didn't, couldn't say a word. I simply smiled. She blushed, turned her eyes away, then looked back and said "um....Hi" and smiled.
"Sorry," I said and began to blush a bit myself, ...."I didn't mean to...."
"Its okay" she interrupted, " I guess it's a compliment". Then she turned and walked to the pool, dove of the edge and the clear clean water enveloped her body.
I wanted to wait around a bit for her to come back, but after a while I saw that she had started a conversation with some girls at the far end of the pool and after a few moments got out and joined a group of people closer to her age in laughter and conversation. Feeling like an old man again, I gathered up my things and headed back to my room for a well deserved nap before dinner.
I woke at about 8, showered again, put on some jeans and a loose button down shirt and headed for the lobby. Only one restaurant was open at that hour for some reason, though it appeared that most people were just coming down to eat. I found a table close to the back, ordered another scotch and opened the magazine I had bought in the airport. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and assumed the waiter had come with my drink. I didn't bother to look up, and after a moment I heard a soft voice say "Um..... Hi.... Remember me?"
I looked up to find my poolside "daughter" friend standing in front of me in a pair of white shorts and a dark blue cotton camisole. She had little else on that was certain. Certainly there was no bra underneath her camisole and it clung to her body like a second skin. I noticed now that her arms, neck and tummy were as tight and shapely as her legs had seemed earlier. Her shoulders were delicate, but made wider by her slender waist and flat tummy.
"There don't seem to be any tables left, they said it would be about a 10 minute wait, but I thought, if you were alone, that perhaps I could share your table?" Her voice was soft and shy, and her sentences ended on an up-note the way many young people speak these days. She was intelligent, I could tell that much, and not afraid to take care of herself. But approaching a strange man in a restaurant had made her a little uncertain. All I knew was that I was quite happy to have her join me both for the company and well, lets be honest, any man would love to have this beautiful woman sitting across the table from him. It would however be difficult to keep my eyes off of her and I made a mental note not to get caught staring as I had at the pool.
"Please, sit down. Of course you can join me." Always a gentleman, I stood as she took her seat. At that point the waiter DID come with my drink, and I ordered another Pina Colada for my new dinner guest. This brought a smile to her face. "You remembered."
"well sure.... Suddenly having a beautiful daughter by the pool in a hotel in Phoenix is not something I am likely to forget very soon" I said. She blushed again as she slid into the booth. "I hope you didn't mind that. I really am old enough...." She looked up and met my eyes and I didn't turn away. "well.. okay almost old enough, but its not like I'm driving anywhere. I mean I am stuck in this hotel, so why not enjoy it?
I agreed, and when her drink came we clinked glasses again and began what turned out to be a delightful and charming dinner.
I learned that her name was Marinda, that she was in town interviewing for schools, and that yes, she was traveling alone. She was from some small town in Florida (thus the beautiful tan), had interviewed at three schools already and no, she was not really sure what she wanted to study yet though it was a close race between journalism and law.
Her father had died in a military accident three months before she was born, and she and her mother had traveled from town to town for a bit before finally landing in the Florida panhandle. She seemed bright, independent, intelligent and capable. She turned out to be very well mannered, polite, and I learned, not really very shy at all. She had an easy way about her, sometimes coy, sometimes flirtatious. She had a wonderful giggle that was perhaps the last vestige of this girl turning into a woman. We talked about school and her grades, music, (a very different subject for each of us), travel and sports. In the end she tried to hook me up with her mother who she said had never re-married.
I told her that I was already in fact married, no I had no children, yes I was happy in life, and what it was I was doing here in this hotel at this time.
"Didn't you want kids?" she asked me.
I related that we did, and may still actually, my wife is only 37 after all, but we just haven't gotten there yet it seemed.
"Would you want sons or daughters?" This question came out of the blue, and I could see or thought I could see a sparkle in her eye when she asked it.
"Well Marinda, I guess I have always wanted a son. Someone I could take camping and fishing and watch baseball games with."
"You could do that with a daughter as well you know. We like all those things too. I wish I had had a father to teach me about camping baseball and dancing all of that stuff."
