The Windseeker bobbed gently in the still waters. Fog enshrouded the sailboat. Melissa knelt next to her husband.
“Well, can you fix it?”
Alan Carter was covered with streaks of grease. “Not without a parts store or a machine shop. The bore on the main gear is totally shot.”
Melissa sat back. “Welcome to the Bermuda Triangle. Where it never rains but it pours.”
“I guess we should have stayed at the island.”
“The weather looked great when we went to bed last night. The front that was supposed to blow through must have stalled.”
“And left us here in the fog.”
“We’ll just have to wait for the wind to pick up, then.”
“Help me wash up, will you?”
“I don’t want to use up the fresh water,” she said. Alan looked at her and she shrugged. “Just in case it takes a while.”
“Get me some soap, then, I’ll just have a quick swim.”
Melissa shook her head. “I just spotted a shark over there. Stand on the dive platform. I’ll give you a shower.”
Alan sighed, but released the platform and stepped over the side. Melissa got a bucket and drenched him. She handed him a washcloth and soap, let him wash off, then rinsed him with another bucket of salt water. She handed him a towel as he climbed back onto the deck.
“I’ll fix us some coffee,” she offered.
Alan nodded and headed forward to put on dry shorts and a shirt.
The baby, Geoff, was sprawled across the mattress in the forward compartment, napping soundly. Alan tucked the blanket around him. He was nearly eight months old, and already an experienced sailor.
Alan moved aft and sat on the sofa across from the galley. He watched as Mel prepared the coffee.
“There wasn’t any wind the first time you brought me out on the boat,” he remembered.
“The night we met,” she said, turning toward him with a smile. “You sat right there and fixed the light.”
“And you put your hand on my thigh, so I could hardly concentrate on what I was doing.”
She sat next to him. “Oh, really? You seemed quite cool to me.”
“Only on the outside, love. When John introduced me to Helena, I thought she was hot, but then I saw you and I knew you were hotter. I also thought you might be trying to get me into that bed that night.” He pointed toward the bed where their son was in residence.
Melissa smiled and shrugged. “For a first time? Neutral ground is much better. That way I could break things off if it wasn’t working out.”
He leaned over and nibbled at her neck. “When you left so abruptly, I wasn’t sure if it had worked out or not.”
“That was a test. To see if you wanted more.” She settled into his arms.
“Oh, I wanted more, all right. A lot more.”
“And you passed the test. You called me the next time you were in town.”
“And man did we sail then.”
“Mmmm. And still sailing a baby and a half later.”
Alan moved his hand down to her belly. She was just beginning to show. “This one is certainly not napping right now.” The baby moved beneath her skin.
“He never naps.” She laughed. The coffee maker dinged and she stood up to pour. “Obviously, it was a very successful first time.”
Alan smiled back at her and took the large mug she held out to him. “So, did you give that test very often?”
Melissa’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, a time or two. Some passed the test, some didn’t.”
“You are a devious female.”
“All females are devious.” She sat at the other end of the sofa, and tucked her cold bare feet under his thigh. “Of course, the test altered a bit as I got older. I didn’t always sleep with them.”
“As I recall, we didn’t sleep at all.”
Melissa giggled. “We didn’t, did we? You know what I mean.”
He massaged her ankle, moving a finger under the ruby anklet she always wore. “Yeah, I know.”
“When I was a teen, I might just engage in some heavy necking then see if he would call me back. For one thing, it was sometimes tough to find a private place for a good screw.”
Alan rolled his eyes and propped his feet on the cabinet across from him. “And where was the first place you ever found like that?”
“You really want to know?” Melissa asked, amused. Alan usually didn’t want to hear about her love life before him.
“Yeah, I do. I have a hard time imagining you as a virgin.”
“Me either. I was a very horny teenager.”
“Aren’t all teenagers?”
“I bet you were.”
“You’d win that bet.”
“All right, I’ll tell you about my first time, and you tell me about yours.”
“Deal.” His hand moved up her bare leg to her thigh.
“You know I skated competitively while I was in high school?”
“You’ve told me about it a couple of times. I’ve seen pictures. Tell me it wasn’t that pimple faced kid in the picture on the wall at your Mom’s house.”
“Fred? He was a terrific skating partner, but he had horrible bad breath. Believe me, skating face to face and smiling at the same time required great acting skills. He actually went on to skate professionally, after his face cleared up. But no, he didn’t even get the kiss test.
“But there was this guy from Kenosha that was at most of the meets. His doubles partner had a voice that sounded like nails scratching on a blackboard. She skated like a dream but you didn’t want her to open her mouth. He had this long blond hair that was always in his eyes, and incredible lips. The first couple of times we saw each other we didn’t even speak, just checked each other out. Then he came over and complimented my performance after one meet. We talked about skating a little bit. But there were crowds of people around; teammates, coaches, parents.”
“So how did you use the screw test on him?”
Melissa laughed. “The screw test. I like it. The next time we competed, I went over to him after his performance, told him how impressive it was, and kissed him.”
“Knowing you, it was tongue and all.”
“How did you guess? He looked like he’d been hit with a stun gun. Before he left that evening, he passed me a note asking to see me at the next meet. He put the dates of all the meets they were going to. I was already scheduled for most of the same meets. The next two, we found ways to see each other, and find a corner for a kiss or a fondle.”
“Or a quickie?”
“We got pretty good at finding a reason to step away for a minute, and some of the arenas were pretty big. By the fifth or sixth time we met we were getting pretty hot. He couldn’t go on the ice with a woody. In those costumes it was just way too obvious. We’d already reached the point where our hands were inside each others’ clothing. I was wet and he knew it. He had even brought a condom, although we were pretty clumsy at getting it on him. We were underneath the bleachers, and the couple on the ice were skating to the 1812 Overture, for goodness sakes. He sat on the floor and I climbed on top of him. That seemed to be the best way to keep our outfits from getting dirty, and we both had to perform yet.”
Alan chuckled. “That’s my girl, always practical.”
She poked him with a toe. “It was important to us. Hell, if he hadn’t lived an hour and a half away from me I would have asked him to partner me. But the sex would have gotten in the way then.”
“Well, we couldn’t have that,” Alan said sarcastically.
“Skating was serious to us! Really! I even had a tampon with me. I had heard that the first time, you end up bloody, and I didn’t want that to show. But, maybe it was all the horseback riding I did in Texas, or the exercises for skating. He just slid right in and it felt natural.”
Alan chuckled.
Melissa laughed with him. “I like having sex. So sue me.”
“Seems like I come out the winner. So did he perform to your satisfaction?”
“Well, we were both pretty inexperienced. I kept him inside me and moved up and down on him, and he came pretty quick. Then, there I was, still waiting to come. But he was a great kisser, and I just sort of hung on and pressed hard. It wasn’t my best orgasm, but it was my first with a guy.”
“So you’ve had better?”
“And many of them with you,” she assured him.
“Whatever happened to him?”
“At the end of the season he moved to Oregon to train for the Olympics. Then he became a sports commentator. I see him on skating shows every once in a while. Now your turn.”
“Mine sounds so dull compared to yours.”
“Oh, probably not. Come on, you promised.”
“How old were you?”
“Fifteen. Why?”
“Just wondered.”
“How old were you?”
“Fourteen.”
“Good lord! You were eager!”
“We were living in a suburb of LA. There were a lot of kids there. There were about five of us who were all in the same grade. We were buddies through middle school, rode the same bus, took a lot of the same classes. There were three of us boys and two girls. One was a really pretty blonde, and she knew it, too. The other girl, Selina, was her best friend. Her mom was oriental and she had long silky jet black hair. I dreamed about that hair. The five of us would gather at one person’s house or another nearly every day. At the end of our eighth grade year we got in the habit of going to Selina’s house every evening after supper to swim. We’d swim until after dark. By the time it got dark there was usually a lot of teasing and touching going on.
“The week after school got out, I went over after supper, like usual and no one was there but Selina. A couple of the boys had gotten tickets to a Dodgers game. The others had gone on vacation. Selina’s parents had gone to a concert or something. She invited me in to swim, and then we decided to take off our swim suits. And one thing led to another…”
Melissa laughed. “You were both pretty young. Did you know what to do?”
Alan grinned and blushed. “We managed to figure it out. On the patio furniture there by the pool.”
“So, did you get a repeat performance?”
“We never had the chance!” Alan shrugged. “The others were back the next night and she pretended it didn’t happen. Her parents were around too. Then a week later, we went home to Oz for a month and a half. When I came back, we started high school and everything was different. She went to a different school than the rest of us, one of those high academic programs. I never saw her again.”
“And I thought you always had a thing for blondes.”
“I do.” Alan put his mug down and reached out for her.
“How often do you dream about that jet black silky hair?”
He buried his face in her blonde hair. “Hardly ever.” He kissed her neck.
From the bed, the baby groaned and rolled over. He pushed himself up on his knees and called out, “Maaa?”
“Bad timing,” Alan growled.
“Very bad,” Melissa agreed. She stood and headed forward. The boat swayed more than it had before and Melissa picked Geoff up and turned around. “Or, maybe not. I think the wind is picking up.”
“Then let’s trim the sails and get moving.”
Maureen J. Long