"Nice digs." Markus looked around the apartment, surveying the collection of posters, second hand furniture, and really nice bar chairs that made up the girls interior decorating. At least they had their priorities down.
"You want a beer, or something?" Amber seemed nervous, and he could only smile at the girl. Despite her ongoing relationship with his best friend, she could never really relax around him, or his wife for that matter. Little Jonathan reported that on the weekends when his godfather picked him up to hang out, she was a much more carefree spirit, the kind that would roll down the hill at the park with him, who would do cartwheels in the shopping mall, and eat ice cream with him until their tummies hurt. So he nodded, and watched her pop the top of the Corona bottle, and slide the slice of lime into the neck.
"I need your help. Ahem…Jonathans birthday is coming up, and I was just wondering what you guys normally do. I mean, he never talks about birthdays, and when I ask about it, he always gets really defensive."
"He's not a big BD fan."
"I can tell. Why is that?"
"The root of all evil." That's what they called Angelina amongst friends, and she picked up on it. Nodding her head slowly, she had to admit that the revelation was not all that surprising. The woman had an amazing ability to get under his skin.
"So…do I ignore it? Do I do something special for it? What?"
"Well…Margie and I usually take him out to dinner, since he can get a bit depressed. Sam always made a huge deal of his birthday, and so he really misses her around those times."
"Well…I don't think he knows that I know that his birthday is coming up. I had to look on his drivers' license to figure it out. So I want to do something special for him."
Markus nodded, taking another pull from his beer. The whole situation was a bit surreal to him, standing in the young woman's apartment, discussing how to pull of a surprise for his friends' birthday. Wow. It was like something out of a bad book, except that his friend was not married, and Amber was what he would genuinely consider a good girl. Despite his earlier misgivings about her accepting money for sex, basically.
"Well, I tell you what." He dropped the empty bottle into the trashcan, coming to a decision. "You been down to his place on the beach?"
"No. I knew he had a boat, he didn't tell me about a beach house."
"Boat?" Markus smiled. Yacht did not adequately describe the custom made vessel that graced a custom built slip down on the coast. "Yeah, well, we haven't been down there in a while. Used to be…in the days prior to your magic…that when he wanted to relax and get away, he would go down there. Last year we went down and fished the weekend after his birthday. There's a little island out of the coast, have a barbecue, hang out, do whatever comes natural." Which meant running in circles for his kids, and drinking beer for him. Until his wife winked at him, and they tried to see if they could have another one.
"So…I could propose going down there, he won't think anything if it's coming from me. But we won't make it. So you guys can go down there and…well…I'm sure you can handle the rest of the plan." He grimaced at her, and she smiled back. He understood how Jonathan could have fallen for those eyes.
He watched her hands, the clenching and relaxing of the muscles in her beautiful calves, the shifting of her eyes across the road, listening to the engine roar and growl under her instructions as they flew down the interstate. She saw him watching her, and blew him a kiss, but then her focus was back on the road.
The BMW owned the left most lane, racing down the interstate at well over eighty miles per hour. His eyes regarded the radar detector for what was probably the hundredth time, still trying to decide if he had made the right choice in letting her buy it.
When Markus had approached him about the trip, he had been weary. He could tell by the unrestrained energy in his little call girl that something was up. She was not very good at the whole secret thing, her boundless ambition and uncontrollable giggling giving her away. But he had played along, even acting surprised when Markus begged off at the last minute. So when he came home that day and she was sitting on the stairs to his house with their bags already packed, he just threw them in the trunk, let her slide into the driver seat, and let her go.
He must have coached her pretty well, or she had been to one of the nearby beaches before, as she navigated the concrete cloverleaves that lead into downtown Charleston with no problem, having hoped interstates with practiced ease, and shaved a full forty-five minutes of his normal trip time. But she was relentless, and apparently pee breaks were not required for the two hundred mile journey.
They came out on the other side, hoped the new bridge out onto one of the barrier islands, and she rolled to a stop at the Marina gate. Finally he felt like a part of the game again, having to hand over his membership card. The security guard nodded at them, then the metal slid aside, and they rolled past rows and rows of vessels.
"Which one is yours?"
"Go all the way down to that big building." He pointed it out, and she almost floored it, but then thought better of it. He thanked her silently, and then indicated a parking spot with his name on it.
"You have your own spot down here? Let me guess, you own part of this place, too, don't you?"
"Not directly."
"Such a cutie man." She grabbed his face, kissing him hard on the lips, leaving him gasping for air. "You sure you can handle a weekend with just me out on the water?"
"I don't know, you might kill me."
"I'm going to try my best!" She hoped out, and he took her hand, leading her inside.
The building was easily three stories high, and the length of two football fields. There was a small office in the front, but the rest of the cavernous interior was filled with boats of all shapes and sizes, sitting in large racks that kept them out of the water and elements. Down at the far end huge bay doors stood open, and a steady flow of boats was floating down the canal in the center of the concrete pad, coming in and out, the massive overhead cranes sliding back and forth moving boats to and for, in and out of their beds.
He walked past the office, and down past the racks. She had never seen so many beautiful boats before, but to him it was all routine, and she realized that he did not even notice anymore. She kept up, figuring they would be back at some point.
On the other side of the building, a large lagoon had been made through the addition of an artificial levee, where owners could climb aboard their just released yachts.
"There she is."
He pointed to the gleaming white boat sitting in the water, her long, low slung form elegantly swaying back and forth in the water. Even sitting still it looked fast, the hull and topsides formed to reduce drag and air resistance, with the chrome fittings and trim that shone brightly.
"Wow." She walked up to the railing, and looked down at what looked like a massive cigarette boat. The top was painted the same white, with a flame motive along the edges. The word "Ambition" had been written in highly stylized writing on the back, beneath what looked like some kind of radar dome.
He took her hand, and they walked down the plank, stepping onto the aft deck. There were stairs on either side leading up to the open bridge, with what looked like a massive roll bar above and behind it, with more antenna looking thingy's. There were benches, and what looked like two huge storage lockers recessed under her feet.
"Permission to come aboard?" Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him on the lips again, and he held her close, laughing at her request.
"Be honest." He kissed her back, and the realization that he knew was written in her eyes.
"What, I wanted to do something nice for your birthday!"
"I love you so much."
