The Float Boat – Part 2

His creativity had taken a huge spike up since arriving at the lake. Wonder if he could write off the cost of the new house as a business expense? James was now confident enough in his use of the kayak that he would bring his journal and was slowly circling the lake. He would stop and sketch a bit of something that caught his eye, or jot down random thoughts. He found it a good opportunity to let his mind wander and got many of his best ideas just floating around the lake. Some of these ideas had been very lucrative in his consulting business, to the point that he had more money than he really needed.

It was on his evening tour of the lake that he ran across them. There were four people sitting on the float boat, still on the dock, wine glasses in hand enjoying the slowly setting sun. Of course he recognized Camilla and Miranda, and he could figure out which was Worm and which was Weasel, but had no idea what their real names were.

A round of introductions later and James had met Larry and Sam, as well as Camilla and Miranda. They were able to identify the house he had moved into, it wasn’t a huge lake, about 300 acres, so most people knew the others on the shoreline. Larry and Miranda lived a short distance away, without any lakefront. And the two ladies had gone to school together and it was common for Larry and Miranda to walk down to Camilla and Sam’s place to get some lake time. He learned that both Larry and Sam worked for one of the major manufacturers in the area, Sam as an engineer and Larry as a program manager. Camilla was an executive with a large placement agency and Miranda was a project manager for a local IT provider. And with the goodbyes came an invitation to join them and some of their other friends on the lake for a party on Friday night.

As he paddled away, Sam said something about introducing James to someone. Hmm, that could be interesting, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone that wanted to dominate him the way those two were controlled. He admitted to liking the control they had taken over him during the two sessions so far, but certainly didn’t want to go the full route. A little bit of mild bondage was fun, but he had no interest in getting his butt beaten or being caged.

By the time Friday arrived, James was getting pretty worked up. Tomorrow he’d get a chance to bury his shaft into Camilla. In the meantime, he was going to have to be careful not to give away anything that would allow Sam or Larry to identify him as the mysterious other man. After thinking about it he decided to drive over to the party rather than risk getting dumped into the water by taking the kayak.

The party was fun. There was a college football game that had most of the guys pretty centered, the first of the season. Evidently more than half the crowd had attended the school and it was the main purpose of the gathering. He guessed that there were about 20 people there, other than the four he’d already met. James determined that there were two distinct groups represented. Most, probably six couples, were neighbors on the lake and he tried matching them up with their boats and homes to help remember their names.

The remainder were connected through the university and being classmates. Two of them were couples. James watched to see if there was any indication that they were in a relationship like Camilla and Miranda had with Sam and Larry. He really didn’t see anything obvious, but the men were pretty attentive to the ladies, and responded to requests a bit more promptly than seemed normal, but not enough to really call attention to it.

He wasn’t the only person there alone, there were four others, two guys and two girls. So he suspected that he was the odd man out but soon realized that they weren’t matched up, they were all solos. Evidently the women had all been in the same sorority. The one that stood out was Jennifer. A sprightly redhead with green eyes and lots of freckles, she had been a classmate of Miranda, all three had been in the same sorority and Camilla had been president their freshman year. Both the other two guys appeared to be trying to make a connection with her. Sam even commented to James that several of them had been trying for quite a while. But Jennifer kept flitting around, keeping things clean and restocking snacks and beverages. He noticed that Camilla would make a subtle sign and Jennifer would take care of things.

Whenever one of the guys tried to get too intimate, Jennifer would excuse herself and help Camilla with something, getting more snacks or refreshing drinks. James tried not to insert himself into any particular group. The other girl chatted with him a bit, but he really wasn’t too interested, she was attractive enough, but too skinny for his taste. And she didn’t seem to have much to talk about beyond rather vague comments about the lake and the weather.

The game finished up around ten, the alma mater succeeding in squeaking out a win with a last minute field goal. James started to help with the clean up and soon there were only the five of them left. After getting all the empty bottles collected for return, he went to excuse himself and thank them for an enjoyable evening.

“Good, I’m glad you had a good time!”

“I did. It was certainly nice to meet more of the neighbors, I’ve kept pretty close to home since I got here and haven’t met a lot of folks on the other sides of the lake. Thank you for including me! ”

“We’ll have you back again. Um, so, what did you think of Jennifer?”

Miranda’s direct question was a bit of surprise, but he responded, “She’s very pretty. She also seems to be a bit shy, I noticed that whenever the other guys would try to talk with her, she’d find other places to be.”

“Miranda, I knew this guy was pretty sharp. He even picked up on her shyness.” Camilla used some air quotes when she said shyness.

With that, and no mention of the following day, James took his leave. He was really looking forward to the morning. While Jennifer had been a focal point, he probably watched Camilla more than anyone, with the understanding that he was going to get to know her a lot more intimately very soon.

The next morning finally came.