Carey Lain looked over the trays of food set up in the dining room her long multi colored sundress running all the way down her body to her knees. The space was lit up by the sun beaming through the large windows. Carey loved the Ruhame's brunch. It was always held on the first weekend in May and to the tall brunette it signaled the official end to the cold New Jersey weather. The scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns were in separate trays heated with sternos. Carey bypassed them and landed at the fruit salad. She loaded a couple of spoonfuls of the berries and pears onto her plate and then gave her husband a raised eyebrow as he put one too many sausage links onto his plate.
Carey counted herself lucky to be living in this part of the South Jersey shore, amongst the friends she had and with her husband, Dennis. Despite the endless snarks and jokes about New Jersey being a huge refinery this part of the state couldn't be further from that. The area was beautiful with their houses near to or right on an ocean beach or a spacious high grassed marsh. Like her, Carey's friends were in their early to mid thirties and to varying degrees quite successful. Most had bought their first houses after marrying down in this beach community a little over 20 miles south of Atlantic City. Only five to ten years earlier old run down beach homes were relatively cheap and those younger people who had grown up in the area with a love of the beach and some vision had bought. Houses were remodeled, expanded and redone and the neighborhoods turned into middle to upper middle class enclaves along the Atlantic Ocean.
Carey and her husband Dennis both worked in the insurance industry. She was an underwriter at a marine insurer and he managed claims for another. They had met when Carey was called on to be an expert witness for a claim that Dennis was handling. During the trial they had gotten to know each other and began dating. The truth was that Dennis was taken by the gorgeous brown haired witness and horrified at the thought of asking her out so he was dumbfounded when she asked him out to lunch one day during the trail. Not that Dennis was some sort of troll. He was actually a pretty handsome guy. Yet he was never an athlete and had an average build so when he walked into a party with Carey people couldn't help but notice the guy with the statuesque athletically built beauty. Dennis wasn't fat he wasn't even chubby but he was soft. He had a physique that looked as if no amount of weight lifting or sweat would harden it. This was in stark contrast to his wife. Carey had short brown hair, big beautiful blue eyes, the long full muscular legs of a swimmer and a body that seemed to lack a single imperfection. She was drop dead gorgeous. She had even once been asked by an acquaintance who was an executive at a local Philadelphia television station to do occasional spots related to insurance for personal consumers. Never mind that she didn't handle home and auto insurance she had the look and the executive knew that sex sold and Carey Lain could make any red blooded male think about sex.
Jon and Lis Ruhame invited the whole neighborhood and some of their friends and filled their house. Then after a few hours of eating, mimosas, bloody marys and merriment the whole party marched from the waterfront home down the beach to the boat club for some more drinking and a rather raucous ping pong tournament. It was the first big social event of the year for the neighborhood and everyone made sure that the weekend was free on the calendar.
The Lains liked to show up early and help the Ruhames set things up. Dennis and Carey lived just down the street and were best friends with the Ruhames. Then there was a chance to be spectators at the drunken competition down at the club which was a simple cinder block building with a large main room for parties, dressing rooms for the beach crowd and a small lattice of docks protected behind a breakwater where members could dock their boats most of which were less than 30 feet in length.
This year Dennis was going to have to leave after making a quick appearance. He was catching a plane to Chicago to work on a large liability claim. As the young executive became more and more important to his company he was travelling more often. This particular trip was especially painful for him as he so loved this event. So he was getting as much out of the party in the hour or so that he had before he had to leave.
"Johnny you've out done yourself again with these cinnamon rolls. I'm sure that Lis had absolutely nothing to do with them." The playful Dennis winked and smiled at the blonde haired Lis who was in fact the source of anything that tasted good at this party, including the cinnamon buns.
"Yeah that's me Denny slaving away as usual." Jon Ruhame chortled his slight frame shaking with laughter as he mixed a Bloody Mary for a party goer.
"My apologies Carey. I should have just had the granola and fruit out until the cookie monster took his leave." Lis replied with a broad smile.
The house filled with about a hundred people. The din of voices excitedly chattering and the roar of laughter buzzing about the house made it hard to hear someone right next to you at certain points. Carey worked the room saying hello to all those she hadn't seen in a while. So many of the people in the area seemed to hibernate during the colder months and now they were coming out. At one point she noticed a very dark skinned man in the room. The place was mobbed but he stuck out and not just because he was a black man. There was something about him that seemed different. Carey had no idea where he had come from but there he was and she had a creeping feeling that he was staring, looking her over, checking her out. Yet despite the pair of eyes on her the feeling wasn't an uncomfortable one. Carey was intimately familiar with that feeling. She experienced men ogling her every time she stepped out of her house. As the party progressed she even found herself looking for the man around the room. She got a couple of good looks at him. He was tall and older but very handsome, extremely good looking. He seemed to have a solid frame inside the expensive white dress shirt and charcoal grey pants. He definitely had something going on and Carey couldn't figure it out. He was the only black man at the party but that didn't affect Carey. She wasn't prejudice but she'd never had a case of jungle fever either. Black men had never done it for her but maybe this was an exception. She just couldn't figure out why.
The statuesque brown haired beauty was standing with her husband Dennis as he said good bye to everyone. For the insurance executive it was like pulling teeth getting him to leave one of the best parties of the year but he had already shaved as much time off of his buffer to get to the airport and he had to go. Carey suddenly had the now familiar feeling of a particular set of eyes gazing at her and a tingling sensation traveled up and down her spine. It was then that she saw Lis and the dark skinned man standing in front of them.
"Hey everyone I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine from work, Amaro Da Silva. He's from Brazil and is living here full time now." Lis introduced the black man to the small group of people with a smile.
Everyone shook hands and said hello. Amaro went around the group with a smile until he got to Carey and then he did something that was different and for a man just meeting a woman pretty obnoxious. He took Carey's hand and kissed it. He also held the hand longer than he had anyone else's and although it was very subtle he gave her a lascivious look when their eyes met. He also had the nerve to make this quick advance on Carey Lain right in front of her husband. She tried to concentrate on not exploding right in front of everyone and slapping the man. Still her knees went a little weak when they touched and goose bumps sprouted on her skin when his lips pressed against the back of her hand. With all this going on she was somehow able to maintain her composure and tried to rationalize what was happening to her. Why was this man making her feel this way, so angry and yet there was something else.
"Amaro it was great meeting you but unfortunately I have to run. I've got a plane to catch." Dennis announced suddenly jerking Carey back to reality.
"I know how you feel Dennis. I've commuted from Brazil many times over the years. I'm glad to have been able to settle here finally. It can be painful." Amaro laughed.
"Ah so you're Brazilian. Well good luck up here Amaro." With that Dennis made his exit. Carey followed him out the front door happy to be able to break up the moment.
"He seems like a good guy. I heard that the firm was reaching out to some South American clients. I guess he'll be Lis' boss then?" Dennis mentioned as he walked to the driveway with his wife.
"Yeah he seems alright." Carey lied. She gave Dennis a long kiss and told him to be safe and call when he landed and then went back into the house.
Carey roamed the living room in a daze. Most of the party goers were getting ready for the walk to the boat club. Meanwhile she was torn between leaving and retreating to the safety of her home which would have been a good idea or heading down to the boat club and hopefully avoiding the obnoxious Brazilian something she knew would be impossible. He knew that her husband had left and that she might be tempted, all men thought that women could be taken even the happily married ones. So why was there even a decision to be made? She knew she belonged on the road down to her house. She decided to run some water on her face which she figured must have been flushed red.
