by Mia Ford
‘You never told me you worked in intelligence, Darlene,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, returning his smile though seeming a bit shyer of him than her appearance suggested.
‘How would you know I was here otherwise?’ he asked.
‘Oh! This is where everyone comes,’ she replied.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘It’s just an observation people have always made. Anyone who arrives in Portland from the west always chooses to stop in the Pearl District.’
‘No kidding.’
‘No one knows why, but I thought I’d come here and then call if you were elsewhere.’
‘Well, it was a good call,’ he told her, ‘here I am – and here we are.’
‘Yes,’ she replied, sounding a little giddy as she failed to sound casual – a response he could not help but love.
‘I hope it wasn’t too difficult getting around your parents?’ he asked.
‘Not so hard,’ Darlene replied, with a shrug.
‘Did you have to give someone the slip to get here?’
‘No, a trusted friend dropped me off,’ she revealed. ‘She owes me a few favors.’
‘Well, good! That’s come in handy,’ he said. ‘Means we can enjoy a nice evening together. Shall we?’
Darlene accepted his invitation and they were soon in the front seat of his Toyota, heading back to the freeway and the coast. Kurt had always avoided going for the flashiest cars. In part, it was unnecessary when you had access to a fleet of luxury yachts, but he also thought it a good move in showing that he did not feel the need to be really flash (even though the truth was he would have preferred a Jag). His date did appear impressed enough by his motor, however, though he did wonder if that was more because she had never gotten into the front seat of some guy’s car and been whisked away in this fashion before.
With his anticipation for a fabulous evening stirred, Kurt simply had to find out the truth about her, but knew that patience was a virtue (so they say). Hopefully there would come a time for more interesting questions later. For the time being he just had to make sure she was comfortable enough in his company and set about helping her to relax and trust him.
‘So, we didn’t really get the chance to talk the other day,’ he began. ‘I guess we can make up for that this evening.’
‘Without our parents listening in,’ she agreed, still looking unsure of herself.
‘Absolutely! Are you really pleased to be back? I know people can feel a little lost after finishing education.’
‘Oh, I know what you mean,’ she agreed, responding well to his hint of compassion. ‘There are a lot of decisions to take and my dad’s talking of a job in his office, but…’
‘But you’re not sure about accepting an easy route via your parents.’
‘Yes, but–’
‘Ha! It’s OK,’ he said, reading her mind. ‘You can’t offend me. I love life on the ocean so joining the family business was an easy decision for me. But each to their own, if you want to follow your own path I’d say go for it.’
‘You’re right. The problem is I’m not completely sure about what I want to do, it’s just that…’
‘That you don’t want to be railroaded by your parents.’
‘I worry if I make the wrong decision I’ll be stuck there, or else I would have accepted by now. What do you think?’
‘No one should feel trapped. Do you have any idea what else you’d prefer?’
‘Only vaguely. I think I’d prefer something more expansive. More… adventurous, I guess. Like what you do – but I’m not sure my parents will be very supportive about that.’
Kurt loved that she had used the word ‘adventurous’, suggesting there was something inside her yearning to break free. The evening was getting better by the minute, as his earlier summations of her character were being proven sound (he had been guilty of imagining such things before).
‘Are they a little overprotective of you?’ he asked.
‘In a sense,’ she admitted. ‘They’ve never been outwardly strict but I get a lot of silent pressure from them.’
‘Because they know you can read their minds?’
‘They’re pretty good at that,’ she nodded, acknowledging the weight of expectation upon her never to do anything that brought shame upon their orthodox ways. Presumably sneaking off with a young gentleman without getting their approval for whom he was came under that banner, but Kurt resisted saying anything to cause her further dilemma. Darlene was rebelling against her parents later than most but he was not about to be playing Devil’s advocate. He might be the temptation, but the risk was all hers to take.
There was something he was dying to ask about though and, feeling he could not do so directly, he used the context of her parents to give her the opportunity.
‘Were they supportive when you were with that guy at college?’ he asked, wondering if she would reveal more about why that had not worked out.
‘Erm… well, that was a little funny,’ was her curious reply and he sensed both a reticence to discuss the subject and also a need to explain something.
‘You mean they didn’t come around to the idea?’
‘No, I mean the circumstances were… untypical.’
‘Untypical?’
‘Yes, because it was his mother who masterminded the whole thing,’ she revealed.
‘Oh, really! How does that work?’
‘It’s weird, but I think she was on the lookout for a good Christian to be wed to her… to her precious son.’
‘That does sound weird.’
‘It was. Looking back, I can see that when he first asked me over to dinner it was at his mother’s suggestion. It was then that she urged me to tell my parents and invited them over – of course they got right on a plane and came around to stay.’
‘No kidding?’
‘Before we had even… before we really knew each other properly, our parents were organizing things.’
Kurt had been aware that she had been about to say something different then and had to bite his lip for want of asking what it was.
‘I guess it’s something to learn from,’ he suggested instead.
‘You got that right! I’m not making that mistake again,’ she insisted, and he could tell there was much more to it. However, he interpreted the discontent that had driven her away from… from whomever it was, to be something to do with religious habits. Though not anti-religious in a passionate sense, Kurt had heard numerous stories about people acting wacky because of their faith – even those who, to an outsider, might appear a bit harmless and boring.
‘Well, you’ve met my mother already,’ he told her. ‘So you know she’s a bit barmy but at least there’s no surprises there.’
Darlene offered him a big smile to acknowledge that and appeared to be relaxing a little as they headed towards the coast. Kurt was a little wary of himself from that point on, however, as eluding to some form of long-term intention so early in a first date was really not his way. Even though he had only mentioned the idea that their parents might one day find out about them in a light-hearted manner, he would have to keep an eye on what he was saying. Having never gotten to know her very well, the fact that they did go years back did clearly mean there was some familiarity there all the same. Which meant that his usual relaxed sweet-talking was subject to a few pitfalls. He would have to be on his guard and look out for them. As hot as Darlene was, thinking on bigger subjects, like long-term relationships, was just not his way.
Fortunately, if he guessed right, she was a little unused to the whole going out on a date scenario to pick up on subtle hiccups. Which meant that he could set the standards, without fear of not measuring up to whatever had come before.
It was all too easy, in fact. Despite that they belonged to very different families and lifestyles, the complicated part – in getting her to step out and meet him – had been achieved. A girl like her would not have been coerced outside of her comfort zone if
she was not attracted to him in some way. As long as he did not behave like a complete letch there was no reason the evening could not be a success – though the question remained as to how far Darlene was willing to go. Was she going to slap him around the face and run to daddy the moment he tried to run his hand up her skirt, or was she a secret sex fiend who would teach him a thing or two?
For the rest of the way there he decided not to pry anymore, instead allowing her to pick his brain about some of the places he had been and what he got up to out on the ocean. Again, such a line of questioning made everything seem all very easy, because he knew his responses would inevitably be so impressive. Even a girl who wasn’t into him would have to consider being so in order to put her feet up and sail out on a luxury yacht every weekend.
It was a good job his work / hobby was so impressive because, as he had indeed predicted, his bowling was not. Kurt supposed he would at least beat Darlene – and she was not particularly good – but that was not what happened. Admittedly he had not been on a bowling alley for a while, but when he used to occasionally head there with friends he had been good enough to pick up one or two strikes. Instead almost every ball he sent down there veered off to the right and he was at a loss to say why he had suddenly become so bad.
‘I feel like my right arm must have been knocked out of line and I haven’t noticed,’ he said to Darlene, as they neared the end of their second attempt to build up something like a score.
‘It must be the gentleman within you, letting me win,’ she replied, quite a way off the mark herself though her aim with the bowling ball was better. For sure, watching Darlene go back and forth as she practised her technique was inspiring quite the opposite to gentlemanly thoughts within him. The way her curves approached the task was certainly distracting more fellow bowlers than he alone. So much so that he decided that must be why his aim was so bad – the ten-pins down the end of the lane were not really what his aim was focused on, but another score entirely.
Playing bad was no loss, after all, especially after Darlene changed the subject and said ‘You know, I think I’d love to be out on the open ocean like you someday. Sounds dreamy!’
Picking up a date without an alternative plan was not really something a man like Kurt would ever consider. It was a devious and convenient ploy to have, but he would have thought a guy who failed to take advantage of it a bit dense.
Why else was it so easy to shrug his shoulders and say ‘fine’ when Darlene turned up her nose at a fancy restaurant? The fact that their date kicked off in some dive of a bowling alley did not matter when you had a luxury yacht or two just a short walk away to make up for it. Of-course Kurt had made sure that a vessel was available for his use and that one just happened to be Arial.
‘Why wait for some day?’ Kurt replied to Darlene’s speculation. ‘If it’s something that you’d like then we can make it happen now.’
‘If it’s something you would like’, he had said, as if it could possibly fail in sweeping a girl off her feet. In this, he would have to admit, he had Mr Clive Furse to thank. Though Darlene would have been on numerous ocean voyages when her parents had taken advantage of the fleet themselves and taken her on holiday, the reality was that they had always been family affairs. She had never been out on the ocean with friends, or with a date for that matter – and so the idea was still exotic to her.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, showing genuine surprise at the idea. ‘You can’t be taking out the company’s yachts.’
‘What do you mean, Darlene?’ he replied. ‘Of course I can.’
‘You… you can’t do that?’
‘I can.’
‘How?’
‘Darlene, if there’s one person who’s able to take the yachts out whenever he likes it’s the guy whose job it is to maintain them. Unless you think there’s someone else around here who would do a better job?’
‘But what about fuel and stuff?’
‘Where are you expecting me to take you? Hawaii?’ he said, laughing as he deliberately misunderstood.
‘No, it’s just… isn’t everything audited?’
In your dad’s world, he nearly found himself replying.
‘Sure, but there’s always a bit of leeway,’ he explained. ‘Part of maintaining the fleet means taking them out for test runs every now and then. If you think you’ll enjoy it why don’t we head on out there now?’
Darlene remained in protest for a bit longer, pulling a face that suggested they would be doing something naughty. That only encouraged him more; there are few things that turn a guy on more than being able to demonstrate to a lady how free his lifestyle is.
‘Come on,’ he said, after she had been wavering for a while and just needed a bit of a push. ‘If we get out there in the next 40 minutes we’ll be able to watch the sunset. Always beautiful to see.’
Sporting a furrowed brow, undoubtedly the whole idea of being out on the ocean remained surreal to Darlene. She allowed her to lead him nevertheless; that was all that mattered.
After getting hold of some takeaway fries and a milkshake, they were soon trotting off down the harbor, chatting away about some of the memories they had of being at sea. Kurt found that Darlene had become steadily easier to speak to all evening and sensed that she was relaxing in his company. That was probably a significant step considering she had very little experience of coercing with the opposite sex, and the idea that his invitation was helping her to come out of her shell somewhat was a pleasing one. Even though it came via an ulterior motive, it felt good – for some reason.
As usual the harbor was fairly busy. Lots of people licking ice creams and eating donuts while, for a most part, the yachts were largely coming in rather than setting out. Experienced as he was, however, Kurt knew where the best spots were to avoid any incoming traffic. While also knowing that, as long as conditions were favourable, and there were no clusters of islands to look out for, manning a vessel is actually easier at night so long as everyone remembers to turn their lights on. That was only because he knew what he was doing – and he was looking forward to impressing Darlene by showing her how capable he was.
‘Here’s the one for us,’ he announced, much to his date’s surprise as they came upon Arial.
‘This one? You’re joking, aren’t you?’ she asked, genuinely astounded. He could tell what she was thinking; this yacht is far too big and impressive for just the two of us.
Exactly!
‘Or we can go find a bigger one, if you like,’ he feigned, pretending to misunderstand again.
‘What? That’s not what I meant. Surely you’re not going to take this out on your own?’
‘Not on my own – with you,’ he replied, resisting looking up at her to see the look of shock on her face and adding, ‘Come on then, hop on.’
‘With me? I’m of no use, believe me,’ she warned, though accepting his hand and stepping on board.
The next half an hour progressed just as Kurt had envisioned. Him appearing deliberately far too laid back about taking the yacht out to sea, in order to keep Darlene permanently poised between being impressed and alarmed. Watching her shoulder some of the responsibility was also fun, as he casually requested she take over the controls for a couple of minutes on their way out. Of-course he was not giving her any real command, only the illusion of it, but it was enough to make her feel high with having the control of a luxury yacht at her fingertips. At the same time, taking the controls back off her just as the panic was about to become unbearable made him feel heroic.
Soon they had negotiated their way passed all the other vessels, then subsequently the navigational buoy that indicated they were out on the open ocean. Kurt didn’t happen to mention that aiming for the buoy allowed him to be confident that none of the incoming vessels were going to hit them, only saying ‘Trust me, it’s all going textbook’, every time Darlene tried to call for caution in case one of the other yachts suddenly swerved their way.
‘I do this all the time,
’ he assured, wondering whether having her put so much trust in him would lead to her letting him man another kind of ship before the night was out.
Eventually he stopped trying to make her nervous and, taking advantage of a calm and open water, shut the engine off so they could float and take in the view.
‘Come on, let’s take in the open ocean,’ he suggested, with Darlene having been hovering over him in the control room up until then, too nervous to throw caution to the wind and stand out on deck. His ruse seemed to have the desired effect. Darlene stooped looking like a frightened bunny the moment they stepped out from cover and took in a wider view. He had yet to meet anyone who didn’t enjoy being at sea once you got them out there. Especially on such a glorious day. The waters around them were taking on many irresistible shades, thanks to the dying light that, for some reason, often makes color appear more vibrant. Kurt had thought of everything, however, taking advantage of his date’s speechless state and disappearing into the cabin, only to reappear with a couple of cocktails.
‘Oh, my!’ was Darlene’s response as she took hold of the beverage, which he handed over without asking whether or not she wanted one. He thought that the best way considering how timid she was, though usually he would have had a hard time getting the girls not to drink. ‘Is this strong?’ she asked.
‘It’s a Sea Breeze,’ he told her. ‘I thought it might be ideal.’
‘What’s in it?’
‘That would be telling,’ he teased, feeling that a bit of mystery would sound more impressive than replying ‘vodka, grapefruit and cranberry juice’.
Watching Darlene take her first sip of the concoction, while holding it with both hands as if it might explode, Kurt tried his best not to laugh. He was liking this girl, he realized, more than most. There was nothing pretentious or fake about her and, though she was nervous of the adventure, she clearly looked determined to defeat whatever intimidation plagued her. Most probably she had been dreaming of stepping out for some time and his free spirit was just what she needed.
‘So does it beat the East Coast skyline?’ he asked.