Jake had worked as a top representative/ salesperson for Extreme Highlights for over 15 years, beginning his position there when he was 25. When he began, he was happily married to Claire for nearly five years, but that marriage was tragically ended when she was killed on their tenth anniversary when a drunk driver struck her down on her way to meet Jake for their anniversary dinner celebration at their favorite restaurant. Jake took this tragedy badly, and responded by totally immersing himself in work, becoming the highest volume producing representative in the company's history. Only in the last few months did Jake even begin to take any time off, and generally went camping or boating alone. Jake owned a 30 foot long motor cruiser that he bought a year before Claire's death, and he renamed it Remembrance after her death. Jake decided that he was going to take this Friday off, since it was a holiday weekend, and he would travel from his home marina in Long Island, New York, and cruise over to Block Island. His plan was to boat to Montauk, stay over for the night, and then go onto Block Island, leaving his marina early Friday morning, leaving Montauk early Saturday morning, leaving Block Island for the return on Sunday afternoon, and leaving Montauk on Monday morning for the return leg. He was so looking forward to the journey that he mentioned it to his only three friends at the company.
Almost all the representatives of Extreme Highlights were women, not surprisingly since the company's two divisions were hair dye and extreme sports videos. The company's owner felt that women would be more effective with the hair dye, and that me always preferred buying things from women. Jake found most of the women annoying because either they were always gossiping or complaining, or would try to hit on him thinking he would help them make sales. Jake had figured that out early, and therefore only had any type of relationship with three of his co- workers.
Jake was a better than average looking 40 year old, approximately 5'10" tall and weighed about 175 pounds. He enjoyed golf, boating and action sports, but was certainly no superstar athlete, although he was decent at all of them. Most of the time, Jake was very easy going, minding his own business, and not interfering or judging others. He was pleasant, but was no fan of small talk,
Jake liked Lisa the best of his co-workers. Lisa was quite petite, somewhat attractive, in her late thirties, divorced with an 18 year old daughter. Lisa must have been around 5'2" tall, but was about a Size 2. She had a good sense of humor, was a good salesperson, and even though she was sometimes moody, she was rarely unpleasant.
Carla was the funniest of the co-workers, and at about 5"6"tall, was the tallest of these three. She enjoyed showing off the size of her bosom, usually either wearing something low cut, or unbuttoning the top three buttons of her blouse. She was a widow and had remarried to her high school sweetheart. Unfortunately for her, her husband appeared to never have grown up, and you could tell some mornings that there was friction at her house.
Terri was the youngest of three women, barely 33 years old, and was also rather short, barely five foot tall. She was neither thin nor heavy, and some days looked quite nice and other days, looked overly stressed and tired. Terri had a 6 and a 2 year old daughter, and that probably explained a lot.
Jake was getting antsy as it was noon on Thursday, and he was really looking forward to going away. Most of the representatives ate in the small coffee/ lunch room, and while he was eating Lisa, Carla and Terri came in and joined him at the table (that looked like a kitchen table). They could tell he was really excited to be going on his trip, and they began asking him about his plans, and who he was going with.
"I'll be going alone. A couple of friends were going to join me, but they backed out a few days ago. So, I'll just do it alone."
"Would you like company?" Lisa asked casually.
"It's usually better on the seas when there's other people, but I've done it alone before."
Carla jumped in, "Would it be okay if the three of us joined you? We'll be no problem, share the costs with you. It just seems like a fun weekend and the forecast for the weekend is great!"
"Well, how about work? Don't you have to go in tomorrow?"