Chapter 52

About twenty minutes after the powerboat sped off across the lake, Becca pulled us into another shallow bay. This one wasn’t as hidden as the last, but it had a sandy beach that we were able to pull up close to and drop anchor. JC finally emerged from below - from the grin on his and Terra’s faces, I had a feeling they’d taken their time alone down on the main deck for some personal time. With JC’s help we got the houseboats together again with the gangplank lowered between the upper decks.

Everyone started to merge and mingle, and I noticed Becca organizing a crew of girls to help with lunch. I went to offer some help, but Becca saw me coming and waved me off.

I ended up sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs on the Singles Boat talking with Ami about the last few Marvel movies and how disappointed she’d been since Endgame when Cassidy came and joined us, handing me a cold beer and sliding in to sit on my lap without breaking the conversation. She joined in, immediately ganging up on me with Ami playfully as they swore up and down the movies had been better than the Disney+ shows, and once in a while would lift my beer to her lips for me to give her a sip. Every time she did it, and I tilted the bottle for her to get some, Ami would give us a look like she was in an anime - I could practically see the big heart eyes at how cute she thought we were being.

Our conversation was interrupted, however, by Heather.

“Um, hey,” she said, coming over from the Couples Boat. “Ami, could I talk to these two for a minute?”

“Sure,” Ami said and just sat there for a long moment.

“Alone?” Heather prompted her.

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Ami said and stood up from her chair. “I’ll talk to you guys later.”

“See you,” Cassidy said warmly, then turned to Heather. “What’s up?”

Heather had thankfully changed since her photoshoot and was now wearing a bikini bottom with a white sleeveless tee, though it looked like she hadn’t bothered with a bikini top under it as her nipples were making big bumps in the shirt. Her hair was also a little more tamed down and the heavy makeup had been replaced by her usual amount.

“So, first I wanted to say thanks for helping earlier, Cassidy,” she said. “I appreciate it, even if my kind of content isn’t your usual thing.”

“It was no problem at all,” Cassidy said. “Happy to help Cattie and you out.”

“Right,” Heather nodded. “And on that note ... It’s been brought to my attention that I may have overstepped yesterday when I was encouraging you to sunbathe topless with us. I’m sorry you were offended, I was only trying to encourage you to feel free with your body.”

Cassidy hesitated for a long moment, blinking slowly as if she expected Heather to say something else. The taller woman was standing over us looking uncomfortable with the whole situation.

“Well, thanks,” Cassidy finally said. “I appreciate the thought.”

“Cool,” Heather said. “And, I mean, you should feel comfortable with showing off your body.”

“Oh, I am when I think it’s appropriate,” Cassidy said. “But I respect my fiance, and I’ve given myself to him. He gets to decide if he’s comfortable with that or not, too.”

Heather screwed up her face a little bit. “You’ve given yourself to him? That sounds like some pretty oppressive patriarchal bullshit. What, when you get married are you his property or something?”

“No, that would be ridiculous,” Cassidy scoffed. Heather looked slightly appeased, but then Cassidy shifted and took my hand in hers and lifted it to her lips, kissing my fingers and continuing. “I swore I was his already happily. He owns me. I’m his, and he’s mine.”