Author's Note: Thanks to Sexy Geek for editing the manuscript. A second pair of eyes catches a lot of mistakes. Commentators on my first effort were correct on this point.
*****
Ten on Saturday morning at Sail Bay in Mission Bay in San Diego was a standard meeting time for the little group to assemble. They towed their catamarans, set them up and launched them, sailing around the point to beach them in front of their friends who were setting out towels and coolers to get them through the day. They took turns sailing, chatting, napping, and of course having a beer or two, though after a weekend or two of too much beer[,] water was preferred most of the day.
They were not full time beachgoers, but engineers who had been hired by a big aerospace company to develop an unmanned aircraft project. This little bunch was mostly software and computer engineers, in their early or mid-twenties with not much experience in work or life. Bud is 6'5", 230 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. He came from a little town in West Virginia, went to a college in North Carolina on football scholarship (then he weighed almost 280 playing offensive line), earned a degree in computer science and followed that with a Master's degree in computer engineering.
Most were unattached, though Bud has a live-in girlfriend named Lacey he met while in grad school. She is more than girlfriend. Before they left for North Carolina, Bud gave Lacey the wedding ring he inherited when his grandmother died a decade before. Of course the first thing Lacey asked was, "Are we engaged?"
Bud's response was, "Nope, not yet. This is an 'off the market' ring. After we live out there for a while we'll know whether we should get married or not. Until then, it will keep from guys hitting on you. If you hand it back to be, it will mean we are over. But I hope you end up wearing it for a while." Needless to say, enthusiastic love-making ensued.
The rest of the group came from all over. Bill is from Michigan, Mark is from Arizona, Mike is from Arizona too, Pete is from Connecticut, Ed is from North Dakota, Veronica is from San Diego, Elaine is from Los Angeles, Sandy is from somewhere in the Midwest, Peggy is from Seattle, and Jing-Wei is from Hong Kong but grew up in San Francisco. She long ago anglicized her name to Jinny.
Normally Lacey is the first one at the beach and the last to leave, but she had problems on her project and her group was asked to work Saturday.
As a country boy from the east, Bud did not meet many Chinese people, so Jinny was interesting and exotic to him. She was just over five feet tall, round face, curvy body, and dark tan from the beach and sunbathing on her condo's porch. They were all rather tan from summer in San Diego and were to young o worry about the scare of skin cancer.
Jinny had flirted with Bud as she had all the other men, but she never accepted a date with any of guys. No one knew why, but she was funny, sexy, and bubbly and everyone accepted her as part of our group.
Bud thought she was sexy and loved here round firm breasts that filled the top of her two piece very fully. She was always ready to be his crew on his catamaran. She loved to fly along the water as the wind pushed the sails with enough force to get one pontoon out of the water and balance on its edge, water splashing into their faces. It was exhilarating.
Bud had beached his boat after launching and walked up and arranged his stuff next to Jinny, who was already laying face up, sunglasses on, sunscreen slathered over every square inch of her, soaking up the warm July sun. The marine layer called June Gloom disappeared in July, so by 10:30 it was sunny. Fortunately the water temperature of the Pacific and the coolness of the bay kept temperatures below 80 at Mission Beach.
Jinny asked, "Where's Lacey?"
"She had to work today," Bud said.
"Bummer," she acknowledged. I could have sworn a smile ran over her face.
"I'm going to go get the trap suits and stuff. Want to go out for a while?"
"I thought you'd never ask," she said, smiling excitedly. "Come and get me when you are ready to shove off. Right now I'm too comfortable in the sun to get up."
Bud retrieved the trap suits and floatation vests from his truck and put them on the boat's trampoline. He figured they would be out for a while so he went up to his cooler to get some water. As he walked up the sand he almost fell over when he saw Jinny. Her tanned legs were spread and the loose cotton bottom of her suit had exposed the smoothest, creamiest oriental peach he had ever seen. (Of course it was also the first oriental one he had seen, though he had seen quite a few others.)
He stopped in his tracks, unsure of what to do. No one else had the view point he did so no one else could see this vision. She must have been waxed for there was not a single hair to be seen. It was round and plump with a slit running down. She was not aroused so there was no swelling or color, nor the ambrosia of a woman ready for sex. It was a little less dark than her exposed skin.
His twenty something mind stopped working rationally as he tried to devise a way to exploit the situation. Finally he convinced himself it must be accidental and decided to change her to a more modest position without her knowing it. He flopped down on the towel and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. He opened it and drained about half of it, then touched her arm with the cold bottle, which was enough to startle her and she shifted position.
"Want a drink before we go out?" he asked.
"Thanks." she took the bottle and drank from it then raised herself to her feet.
"Let's hit it!" she said exuberantly, kicking off her flip flops and trotting to the boat barefoot. She was putting on her gear as he started pushing the boat into the water. When it was floating he donned his gear.
She waded gingerly into the water to get on the boat. Bud grinned at her and grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the boat. She gave a delighted squeal. He pushed them out and the sails caught some wind and they were off. They rushed across the bay back and forth for almost an hour and decided to just float around for a while. He loosened the sails so they would just drift with the wind and they stretched out on the trampoline with their heads on the floatation gear for a pillow.
They chatted idly for a while, exchanging work gossip and rumors, the general state of the world, and plans for upcoming vacations. Bud's curiosity got the better of him, and he asked her about not dating.
"Jinny, how come you never go out with any of the guys? Do you have a secret boyfriend or something? I suppose it's none of my business, but I'm curious. You are a really beautiful, sexy, and fun woman so I know lots of guys would love to go out with you."
Her face quickly tightened into its serious thoughtful mien. She tried first to parry with humor, "It's because I want you, and you're taken," she said with a forced chuckle.
Bud countered, "Lacey wouldn't mind a day off from me every once in a while. Maybe you could work out a time share with her."
Jinny laughed, recognizing she wasn't going to be able to dodge the question, and turned serious again. "OK. This is between you and me and Lacey, since I imagine you'll tell this to her anyway. Please don't tell the others though.
"You know that I moved to America from Hong Kong when I was very little. It was just my sister, my mother and I. I am not sure what happened to my father. She said he died, but something never added up about that story, and I wonder what really happened. I was young enough that starting over in America was not too hard after I learned the language. The Bay area is great because there is such a great mix of Anglos, Chinese, Hispanic and just about anything else, so we are all 'normal' and used to being with each other.
"My mother is very traditional about matters of family and marriage. She thinks marriage combines families. She does not want to be joined with an Anglo family, so she expects me to find a Chinese guy and marry him.
"Here's my problem. I don't like Chinese guys. I don't think they are sexy. I like big strong Anglo guys that are at least six feet tall. You are the best example I've ever known well. Tall, strong, smart, more or less handsome," she grinned as she made the dig.
"I hang out with you guys because everybody gets treated the same- teased, supported, helped, hurt, whatever. No hierarchies about who is the best, smartest, richest, toughest, prettiest. When I hang out with Chinese people they are always comparing size of wedding rings or who got promoted or whether his BMW cost more than your Mercedes or stuff like that. I want to work with you guys, play with you guys, but I can't be intimate with anyone of you." She was tearing up.
"I don't go on dates because I don't want to fall in love with someone my mother will not allow me to marry. I respect my mother enough I would not marry without her approval. Can you understand that?" she was weeping, and he reached over with one arm and slid her to him, to cuddle with her to comfort her. She was sobbing into his chest.
He gently lifted her face to his and began kissing away the tears. Her convulsive sobs subsided and he held her.
She lifted her mouth to his and kissed him. "Thanks for understanding Bud." She kissed him again with passion. She started probing with her tongue and he had to defend with a counterattack. They were kissing, groping, and had forgotten where they were. He slipped his hand to her chest and slipped it under the fabric of her top, feeling her nipple harden on his fingers. She stiffened and pushed away.
"No Bud, I can't let this go too far. Besides, look how close to shore we are." They were about fifty yards from shore drifting towards it. He was flustered, aroused, and a bit confused on what had happened. Jinny was too.
They hauled in the sheets so the sails could propel the boat and began tacking upwind until they got to sail bay. He dropped her off with instructions to get his truck keys and meet him at the ramp. He was going to call it a day. It was around 3 pm and he wanted to be home when Lacey got back from work.
He had the boat on the trailer and was preparing it to haul home. Jinny was helping, putting things in the back of the truck and helping with the straps that secured the boat to the trailer. Their conversation was focused on the task at hand.
"Can you give me a ride home? I think I want to get back too. I came with Mark and those guys will probably stay until dark," Jinny asked.
