"Do you have any more burgers?" Lin asked politely, a paper plate in hand.
I stood guard over a large BBQ grill made from a 55 gallon oil drum that had been sawed in half. A dozen hotdogs sizzled away at the grill. All of the burger patties I'd made earlier though, were now gone. The burger/beach/bash was going well. The researchers had come out in surprising numbers to my party on the beach and all appreciated the food and complimentary drinks. The red daysailer sat at anchor not far offshore, serving as a mobile diving platform.
"No," I answered flatly.
It had been two weeks since Lin had run her tests on me. My genitals were no longer sore to touch, like they had been. But my pride and trust in the woman had been irreversibly damaged. To make the pain even more prominent, Mae Li had returned to China over a week before the beach party. As such, Lin had no opening to make introductions. The pretty Chinese girl had been bait that I apparently was never meant to bite into. I had no desire to be around Lin, in short.
"Mike, can we talk?" Lin pressed.
I flipped a few of the hotdogs, then looked around to ensure nobody would overhear what was coming.
"About what Lin? You drugging and sexually assaulting me?" I hissed.
"It...It wasn't like that Mike."
"It was exactly like that. Now please, for love of all that is holy, leave me alone," I said.
Lin narrowed her eyes at me. She was grouchy as usual.
"I have a gift for you," the girl said.
Lin held out a plastic jar. Against my better judgment, I took the jar from the girl's hand. I opened the top, revealing several large pills inside. I had a suspicion as to the contents of the jar. After closing the top, I looked at the hand written label to discover that yes, Lin had given me a bottle of her cursed Insertia pills, complete with handwritten directions on administering the drug.
"Just in case you wanted to have a little fun," Lin said with a wink that made my skin crawl.
The girl sashayed away from the grill, trying her best to tempt me. I shuddered at the idea and dropped the pill bottle in a canvas bag beside the grill. I took a long swig of cold Singha beer, cursing the thought of having ever touched the treacherous woman.
"Are there any hamburgers left?" a male, nasal, voice asked.
"No!" I snapped.
The source of the interrogative was a Jewish American kid from New Jersey. The young man was about twenty, had freckles and had worn a button up shirt to every function since birth, as far as I could tell. Marvin and I had spoken a few times in the past. He was a good, if slightly overweight, guy. Marvin's two best friends, a chemical researcher from Trinidad and a lanky looking youth that studied particle physics were nearby as well. All three looked a bit shocked by my response.
"Sorry. No. We just have hotdogs left. Sorry."
"No problem Mike. We really like the party, by the way," Marvin said in reply.
The beach party did seem to be a hit. There were people swimming, laughing and throwing a frisbee. Nobody was drunk, but the two cases of beer I'd bought were quickly being consumed.
"I'm glad to hear that."
"What did she want with you?" Marvin asked.
Uh oh.
"Who?"
"Lin. I thought you two hated each other. Or at least, that's what I'd heard," Marvin offered.
"Uh...rumors spread all over any workplace. She just wanted more food," I replied.
Marvin eyed me suspiciously. He and his gang of super nerds collected a few hotdogs and retreated.
Nobody else seemed interested in the food. I set the last of the cooked wieners on a plate and abandoned the grill. I was making my rounds, greeting and generally being friendly when I encountered somebody that I DID want to deal with.
"Sasha, you made it!" I declared with a beer in hand.
A tall, thin, blonde woman sat in the shade of a palm tree with a large plastic cup in one hand. Sasha was a nuclear physics specialist that had grown up in St. Petersburg. I was completely enamored with the young woman, her build, her intelligence and her manner. She had been on the island for a few months, predating my arrival. I did not know when she would return to Russia, but I wanted to be around her in the meantime, for sure. The woman had donned a two piece, yellow, bathing suit.
"Mickelle, I congratulate you on this day," the woman said in her thick Russian accent.
Oh, and I thought the accent was the hottest thing ever.
Small talk ensured after I selected a patch of sand nearby and plopped down. Sasha's cup, I found, contained vodka that she had brought from the mainland. I discovered this after I was offered a sip of the beverage. The infusion of alcohol on both parts seemed to make me bolder than usual and certainly urged Sasha towards being a bit more social than her usually aloof self.
"Conichua...uh...hello," a small voice called.
Both Sasha and I turned to find a small framed Japanese girl standing nearby. Dressed in a black blouse and blue jean shorts, the girl had dark hair and large dark eyes. I recognized the girl as Lin's friend. Or ex-friend, if the rumors were true. I'd heard that the two had had a falling out in the past month. One theory was that the girl, whose name I finally remembered as Aiko, had stolen Lin's boyfriend. The man in question had finished his research and returned to his home in Tokyo so anybody's guess as to the validity of these claims was equal.
"Aiko! Come join us!" I beckoned.
The girl smiled and joined us on the sand, beneath the palm tree. Sasha visibly ruffled at the newcomer but did not comment on Aiko's arrival. The sun was lowering in the west and the heat was finally reducing. The crowd was thinning as many of the researchers returned to their dormitories. A few people continued splashing in the ocean and occasionally, the frisbee would fly by still. My duty as a DECA seemed to have been fulfilled for the day. I felt that I'd earned the opportunity to have fun for myself.
I was now quite fuzzy as both Aiko and Sasha vyed for my attention. I had casually flirted with both women in the past few weeks, but had never done so at the same time. I certainly never expected to have both beside me on a beach while drinking. The devil inside me smiled when I considered the possibilities and the level of interest from either woman. I'd spent a fair number of nights running "game" on the streets and bars of Honolulu, Houston, Manhattan and the Jersey Shore. If there was anything that I'd learned, it was that women talked to interesting men and the easiest way to make a woman want me was to talk to another woman.
At one point, Lin walked by, now dressed in a bikini top and shorts. She saw Aiko, Sasha and myself together and grimaced in...jealousy maybe? Marvin and his compatriots slunk by a few minutes later, eyeing me with a mix of admiration and awe.
"There's still some beer by the grill. Ya'll are welcome to it!" I offered.
The three men seemed to perk up a bit and make for the BBQ pit further down the beach.
You may be wondering how I, an otherwise unassuming individual, had somehow managed to garner the attention of two attractive females on such a small island with such a small population, of which only a scant few were close to my age and weighed less than the a blue whale. Well, at TITS, I was the village idiot by default. I was funny, in that way, which was helpful.
Also, I was one of the few males on the island that wasn't suffering from Asperger's, chronic asthma, or being an asshole.
Eventually, the crowd truly died off. I ensured that the grill was secured, collected the last of the food and beer and led the way back towards the main compound, along a foot trail through the woods. Sasha seemed a little less upset with Aiko's presence than before, fortunately. Aiko, meanwhile, seemed to be quite content to socialize as best as she could in her broken English as we walked along. Suddenly, I heard a squealing giggle followed by a groan that could have come from a cow being murdered.
Wait a minute, I knew that sound...
Suddenly, a figure burst from the undergrowth beside the path. Lin was stark naked and smiling like a lottery winner as she bowled myself and the two girls out of the way.
"You're going to have to try harder than that if you want this again boys!" Lin declared, running ahead of us.