Alan Bryant emerged from the cabin of his boat to see Joseph, the local lad who he employed part -time, turning his charm on another teenage tourist. Alan smiled to himself, while restraining a twinge of envy; Joseph was thirty-five years his junior, but that wasn't the only reason why the kid was so good at getting into the skimpy bikinis of young female holiday-makers. Joseph had an athletic physique, lean but muscular, but more importantly, he had an easy smile and a quiet, seemingly diffident charm that made every casual chat with a woman or a girl into a seduction that the target didn't even recognize as such.
So far as Alan could tell, Joseph also delivered the pleasure that his smile promised, too. At least, the girls generally came back for more. He didn't even have to promise much beyond simple fun; many of the girls knew that Joseph was working his way along the beach, often keeping multiple affairs on the go simultaneously, but they didn't complain. And when their holidays ended, they went home with many longing smiles but few tears. Joseph even had a knack for making them think that these short flings were their own ideas.
Joseph's latest target looked to be in her late teens, wearing a slightly less skimpy bikini than some and a gauzy sarong. She had dark hair falling below her shoulders, and her eyes were fixed on Joseph's face as she talked. Alan idly wondered what her name was...
"Caroline!
Margaret
!"
Well, that almost answered the question. One of those names had to belong to the dark-haired girl; the other had to fit the second girl who Alan had barely noticed, sitting on a nearby bollard with the air of patience of a plainer sister who had learned to live with this situation. Joseph was the first to look around, though, redirecting his smile – only to have it bounce right off a sour middle-aged maternal scowl.
Alan recognised this situation, too. Impressively, when Joseph's conquests came with parents attached, around half of those parents tolerated, even liked him; some were sensible enough to recognise that holiday romances were inevitable, to see that Joseph was polite and thoughtful, and to trust their daughters to show just enough sense, while some mothers simply fell for his sexual charm. In fact, some mothers had taken him to their own beds.
This one, on the other hand, was clearly in the other fifty percent – the half of parents who guessed correctly what he was up to, and responded with hostility. If she felt a twinge of desire, it doubtless just made her bitterly jealous of her daughter. She was a little too heavily dressed for the Caribbean sunshine, with a floppy-brimmed hat which kept the sun off her face but which contrived to make her look ridiculous, and she was bearing down on the three youngsters at a fast walk.
Then Alan saw who was trailing behind her, and winced for himself; he suddenly realised that lunch might be even more boring than he'd feared. He clambered onto the jetty and strolled over to where the woman was now quietly berating the girl about nothing in particular, while Joseph retired from the scene without a word. Sometimes, in these situations, he continued the chase; sometimes he didn't bother. There were always plenty more fish in the sea.
Alan caught the name "Caroline" several times – so that was the long-haired girl's name, so her sister, with the practical page-boy bob and the slightly plumper figure must be Margaret – and then the girls' father, the woman's husband, finally arrived on the scene.
"Hello Alan. Nice to see you."
"Hello, George. Good flight?"
Alan Bryant had known George Peterson as a business contact for twenty years, and somewhere along the line, they'd started exchanging Christmas cards as a courtesy. Then Alan had retired, bought his dreamed-of boat, and moved to the island – but twenty years of habit died hard, although he'd never considered George a close friend, and the exchange of cards had continued, now by air mail. Then, George had sent a letter announcing that he "and the family" had booked a holiday on the same island, and Alan, on reflex, had suggested lunch.
"Who was that boy?"
Alan turned to the woman. "You'll be Irene? Please to meet you; George has told me all about you. That was Joseph. He's a nice lad..."
"Local, I take it. He looked like trouble to me. He was... he
smirked
."
Alan recognised this situation, too. Few parents, even of an older generation, would be so crass as to mention Joseph's skin colour outright, but the families who were wealthy enough to book into the grander tourist hotels were generally also conservative by nature, and the thought of their daughters becoming friendly with Joseph reduced the worst of them to seething panic. Alan couldn't think of any way to handle this that wouldn't lead to him becoming angry, so he changed the subject.
"Lunch, then? There's a very good restaurant just down here."
The meal wasn't quite as boring as Alan expected, as it turned out, but that was mostly thanks to the girls. While Irene remained largely wordless and George rambled about old colleagues who Alan had been happy to escape, their daughters at least seemed bright and interested in the world around them; both tried local seafood dishes at Alan's recommendation, while their parents stuck to chicken and chips and Irene dropped dark hints about food poisoning. Margaret – who winced twice when her father addressed her as "Maggie" – had finished school the year before and had been working at short-term jobs to make some money before starting at university, Alan learned, while Caroline had just finished her final year at school and was prevaricating about what to do next. Both, in fact, were fully old enough to holiday alone, but as with many others in the hotels, the chance to have parents pay for such a trip was enough to make them put up with having those parents along.
Over coffee, Alan remembered his politeness again, and decided that the girls at least deserved a good holiday, and suggested that they spend the afternoon on his boat, sailing around the island.
"Well, I'm not sure..." murmured George.
"We both get
seasick
" snapped his wife. "That's why we're not taking a cruise."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps the girls feel up to a little sailing?"
See how you feel about that
, Alan thought; being older than George, he felt safely categorised as a father figure, so there'd be few excuses to veto the suggestion.
As it turned out, the girls liked the idea a lot – Alan had no doubt that they were anxious to get away from their parents for a few hours – and despite some further grumbles from their mother, they accepted the offer. Then, as George was, to his credit in Alan's eyes, insisting on paying the bill, a couple of thoughts struck Alan. Some people would have called the second malicious; he, on the other hand, thought that it was kindly.
"I'll just nip back to the boat," he said, "make sure it's all fuelled up. You can catch me up."
He reached his vessel with a few minutes in hand, and ducked into the engine compartment for a moment. Then he emerged smiling calmly as the Peterson family arrived. "All good to go" he announced. The girls climbed aboard amidst final stern commands to take care from their parents, and Alan cast off, trying not to look hasty.
He steered away from the jetty, and then, as the boat moved beyond earshot and almost out of sight of George and Irene Peterson, he turned to Caroline. "You might want to look back there" he said, indicating the engine compartment. With a puzzled look, Caroline obeyed, then issued a squeal of sheer glee as she came face to face with Joseph, who had remained quietly hidden where he'd been working, at Alan's suggestion. Caroline instantly flung her arms around Joseph, and Alan felt another twinge of envy at the sheer speed of Joseph's effect on the opposite sex. He continued to steer for a moment, then looked back to see the pair still embracing – and Margaret Peterson looking bemused.
"You two might want to move to the cabin" Alan said, with the jetty now safely out of sight, and Caroline and Joseph quick obeyed. Alan was slightly startled to see Caroline leave her sarong draped over one of the outside seats, and as Joseph began to push the cabin door shut, he glimpsed her reaching up to unfasten her bikini top.
"She's impossible." Alan glanced round to see Margaret now sitting beside him.
"I must admit – I was just thinking – Joseph is a charming boy, but he's not normally that fast..." Alan trailed off as it occurred to him that this might be more than Margaret wanted to hear. She smiled, though, albeit a little darkly.
