It seemed my alarm went off just 5 minutes after I hit the bed, but I wasn't complaining. This was going to be a very interesting day.
I had a quick shower, and shaved -- my face, around my nipples and farther down. Being grubby today -- even if we were just "going fishing" -- was not an option; also Hal had said we were going to stop for breakfast, and I wanted to at least look presentable this morning.
I got to the office parking lot at 5:56, but there was no sign of Hal, his car, or anyone else, just me. I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes.
TAP! TAP! ... TAP! TAP!
I jumped, startled, and glanced to my left. There was Hal, dressed in a golf shirt and Dockers, tapping on my car door window. I had obviously dozed off. I opened the door, glancing at the dashboard clock as I got out -- it read 6:11.
"Good morning sleepy. Been here long?" he asked, obviously in a good mood.
"Good morning to you too, I got here just before 6, but I guess that was long enough to doze off. Which car are we taking?" I asked seeing his tiny Spyder, and thinking of all the fishing gear and stuff I thought we were going to need for fishing.
"Yours." He opened his trunk, and grabbed a small gym bag, shut the trunk and came over and dumped into my trunk.
"That's it?" I asked a little surprised that he didn't seem to have any fishing gear.
"That's it. All the stuff I need is already on the boat. No reason to haul more junk around," he said opening the passenger side door.
"OK. Then we're ready to go?" I asked as I got in the car.
"Let's go. First stop is Denny's at the Mall and the highway. We'll meet our guest there."
"Who is it?"
"You'll have to wait and see. I'm not exactly sure who's going to show up. There could be more than one." He said grinning.
"Do I know them?"
"I think so." He said in a positive tone but with a deadpan expression.
"What's with all the secrecy? Do I know 'em or not?" I asked, his evasive answers raising my curiosity and my suspicion I did indeed know them.
"Yeah, you know at least one of 'em," he said with a wicked grin, "I'm just not sure how well you know the second one. But I'm sure you're gonna know both of them very well by the end of this trip."
"Wanna tell me where I know any of 'em from?" I didn't have any trouble sounding curious -- the suspense was making me crazy.
"No. I think you can wait another 3 minutes till we get to Denny's and we both know who is actually going with us. No since telling you who didn't show if they don't show, is there? Gotta maintain the client 's confidentially, you know."
I wanted to yell at him that this secrecy and client confidentially bull shit was adolescent nonsense, but I was the one that was having trouble acting like an adult, so I kept quiet. I'd find out when we got there.
I pulled into the Denny's parking lot, found an empty space near the door and parked. The lot was moderately full, I didn't see any cars that I recognized, so I kept quiet and we went in.
At the cashier's desk, I looked over at the far corner and saw Bryan and Bill sitting at a table for four, obviously waiting for us.
I looked at Hal. He was studiously ignoring me, pretending to look for the waitress, but I could see he was trying to stifle a grin. Judging from the way Bill looked at Hal and Hal looked back, my guess had been correct. There was something going on between them. But I was really curious about how Hal found out about me and Bryan. I was guessing Bryan had told them, and that was really getting me excited.
I said quietly to Hal as we walked toward them, "Smart ass. How long have you been sitting on this?"
"No long," he said grinning, "Really. I just found out about a month ago from Bill that you knew Bryan, so I asked Bryan and he said he knew you -- really well. So I though we should all do a little fishing -- just to get acquainted. Honest."
We reached the table and sat down.
"Good morning, I see you've been here awhile," I said judging from the empty plates and several empty coffee creamer cups on the table. I nodded to Bill and slid my hand across Bryan's shoulders. "This is certainly a pleasant surprise."
"Good morning to you too," Bryan answered, "I'm pleased you approve. I was wondering how you would react to meeting us all at once without any warning."
"Well I am curious" I said to Hal, "How did you put this together?
Hal looked at Bryan, and asked, "Do you want to tell him or should I?"
"Go ahead," Bryan answered with a grin, "I want to hear your version. If you leave anything important out I'll fill it in later."
"Well this goes back to the Company golf tournament at Foxtail last year when Bruce introduced you to Bill in the parking lot. Bill knew about your affair with Bruce from his own relationship with Bruce, but he didn't know you worked at the Company. Bill didn't think anything more of it till he met Bryan on a fishing trip with me and Bryan mentioned he knew you and that you liked to fish. We started talking and here we are."
"He left out a few of the more interesting particulars, but I'll tell you on the way. Let's get on the road. We should get out of the harbor before nine, or we'll get caught in the rush," said Bryan getting up.
"What about my breakfast?" I whined, "I'm hungry; and what about Hal? Doesn't he get to eat either?"
"We ordered for you, before you got here," said Bill, "We'll take it to go and you two can eat on the way. I agree with Bryan, we need to beat the rush out of the harbor, or we'll all be seasick bouncing up and down over all those power-boat wakes in the channel."
In the parking lot, Hal said to me, "Bill's going to drive us in his Navigator, so we need to get the stuff out of your car. We'll be back here tomorrow night to drop you and Bryan off at your car."