Chapter 1

"Is anyone sitting here?" asked a soft, but very pleasant female voice from behind me.

I swiveled in my stool, "No, the seat is yours if you want it."

My first thought when I saw her was, "The kids will be basketball players for sure."

Why was that my initial thought when I met this female for the first time? Well part of the reason had to be physical-she was at least six-feet tall, and was wearing a modest halter-top that showed a very flat stomach working up her slim figure to extremely nice breasts. She had soft brown hair and brown eyes that stared through me. Her voice obviously had triggered some sexual signal within me that also contributed to the thought. Finally, I was sitting at a bar with ten stools that overlooked the ocean, and I was the only customer-nine empty chairs beckoned her and she chose to sit next to me!

I stood up quickly to pull her stool away from the bar so she could sit, and the last element of the thought came into play-I was looking down at her since I am six-feet five-inches tall.

She flashed me a quick, happy smile that accentuated her even white teeth and high cheekbones. I smelled a slight, but very definitely female fragrance as she sat on the barstool.

I thought, "Children? The sun must be getting to you. Sexual etiquette insists you at least find out the female's first name before you start making little kids with her."

She saw I was flustered and quickly said, "I'm sorry if I startled you. My name is Jennie McQuiston and I drove eight hours today to get to Key West. I just arrived two hours ago and this is my first attempt to explore the city. I was hoping you could give me some tips on what to see."

I recovered and said, "I'll be glad to tell you all the good places to go on this two-mile by four-mile fantasy island, but first I insist that your first drink in Paradise is a gift. What can I get you?"

She gave me a nervous grin and replied, "Your Corona and slice of lime looks great. I think that would be nice."

I waved at the bartender who had watched the exchange. I pointed at my beer and signaled for another. This was an island where time was not relevant-the bartender might be over immediately, but if the waves looked interesting, it might take longer; that there were no other customers in sight had nothing to do with his urge to serve. The waves were obviously boring today since he came over and presented Jennie with her Corona and lime.

As she drank from the bottle I looked at her more closely. She really was very pretty-not classically beautiful, but a wholesome, fresh-scrubbed kind of pretty with a light Mediterranean complexion that would turn into a beautiful tan. Her bare shoulders were broad and square with no hint of a slouch that sometimes infects females who try to hide their height. And, of course, those exceptional breasts didn't hurt her looks either.

I let her finish the first swallow. "I'm Rick Harris and I better confess to you right away that I'm flying under false colors. I'm not a local, and I've only been here four days. But before you get too disappointed, I've spent twenty hours a day exploring this town and by now you might consider me a semi-local-at least where bars, bands, and restaurants are concerned.

"The first thing you have to realize is that Key West is really a goofy little town-the locals, who are called 'Conchs' refer to it as their island. For example, the work uniform here means you have to wear some clothes, but even that rule is ignored during the last weekend in October, which they call Fantasy Fest.

"Half of the Key West population has bikes instead of cars and they consider it wimpy to have lights on their bikes at night.

"The Bourbon Street of Key West is called Duval. You might find one real store for every three bars, and if there aren't ten bands playing on any given night, there must be a hurricane heading towards us.

"Another danger is the little signs-there are 'men only, ' 'women only, ' and 'clothing optional.' I missed the 'men only, clothing optional' signs yesterday and went into a courtyard bar for a beer and faced nine naked men! I think the ninth was disappointed when I made a somewhat frantic tactical retreat."

Jennie was giggling now and asked, "And if the sign only says 'clothing optional' that means"... she blushed as she quickly realized what it meant.

She waited a second and then asked, "Now that you've given me your warnings I have my first question. If you were taking a couple to dinner tonight and they were paying for it and they liked good food, where would you go?"

"It depends Jennie. If they were from the Midwest like Chicago, then to take them to a meat place would be foolish, because Chicago has the greatest beef places in the world. So it should be a fish restaurant. But if they came from Florida or the southeast, a beef place might be great. There are two very nice beef restaurants and two very nice fish restaurants in town. All four of them are relatively expensive, but much less than a New York restaurant. So that's a long way of saying you have to tell me more."

Jennie answered, "They're from southern Georgia; I know they like beef, and it should be a quiet place where you can talk."

"Then the answer is easy. Richard's is a very small restaurant with just eight outside tables on their patio; they only serve meat that they fly in from Chicago. The locals I talked to say it is by far the best for food and atmosphere."

Jennie nodded and changed subjects as she asked, "Tell me about yourself Rick... why did you come to Key West?"

She stared at me as if each word I uttered was fascinating to her. Her serious brown eyes were focused on mine; I felt like a teenager trying to talk to a girl on his first date.

"I went to a small engineering college in the Midwest-you earn a Master's degree in five years. It was called the 'three-two program, ' which meant that all the undergraduate courses were taken in the first three years, and then you started the graduate courses. At the end of the fourth year I received my undergraduate degree and one year later I received my graduate degree. My emphasis was on desalinization and distillation of seawater into fresh water. It is a specialty area that I always liked and it is in high demand. Thank God I didn't become an aeronautical engineer-there are thousands of them looking for a job now. Anyway, I was offered a job before I graduated and I start in Tampa next month. My new company gave me a thousand dollar signing bonus; my college gave me a ten thousand dollar student loan that I have to pay back; and at least five banks gave me a free credit card, which I have yet to use.

"This is my one fling before I start my career. Five of us guys came down in two cars and rented a large, beat-up suite in a bed and breakfast place. There are two beds; two pull out couches and the floor. The cars' owners got the beds. We drew cards for the rest-I got the lumpy couch! So I'm living on the cheap for another week."

I paused and then said, "Jennie, that's the short and dull version of my life. I think it's your turn."

She smiled and responded, "I graduated from Florida State a year ago and went to work as a Human Resources administrative assistant for a large company in Orlando. I thought it would be the perfect job for me-I could help the employees with their career path and help the company find and promote the right people at the right time.

"I was so naïve. At my company there is open warfare between the employees and management. I never knew it could be so vicious. The employees want to take every sick day in the world and then use phony doctors to get them more paid days off. Management never wants to give raises and always cut corners with the labor law. If an employee works ten hours in one day, they deserve overtime for two hours. My company makes them take comp time, which is wrong. They take a foreman who gets overtime and promote him to supervisor doing the same thing, and then don't pay him overtime. The law says it isn't the job title; it's what you do. If the government ever audits my company, they will nail us.

"Anyway, I'm looking for another job. I had two weeks vacation coming and decided to take one of them in Key West to just relax. My girlfriend was coming with me, but her little boy got sick and she backed out; so I came by myself."

Jennie paused and shyly asked, "Do you have a girlfriend Rick?"

I blushed a little and then admitted, "My ex-girlfriend is probably with my ex-best friend trying to decided what day they are going to get married. I should have seen it coming months ago, but I guess I was brain dead on how she really felt about me."

Jennie gently touched my arm and said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be pry. It's just that... well I wanted to know whether...

"Oh shit! Rick, I have a problem and I need help. I'm a little desperate. I told just one little old white lie, and now that lie has mushroomed into a major embarrassment for me.

"I'm not saying this right. Will you take me to dinner tonight?

"Shit. That's not right either... I feel like an idiot!"

"Jennie," I said. "You are in Key West, which is Paradise. Nothing can be that bad. Why don't you take your time and tell me how I can help."

Jennie sighed and looked at the bar as she said, "My big sister in college was a girl named Lisa. She was wonderful to me. I was always a little shy and didn't date much and she was the opposite-a date every night. She teased every boy in town. Many times she forced her current boyfriend to find a date for me so we could double date.

"Lisa is very outgoing; she is almost an exhibitionist, and never found a party she didn't like. She always tried to include me. Finally she found the right man and married him a year ago. It was the perfect fit; he is quiet and confident, which offsets Lisa's wildness. They really love each other, and like a fairy tale, he is fairly wealthy and works in the family business-they own six auto dealerships in the Southeast.

"Since I have been working, she calls me every month or so to see how I'm doing-she is still looking after me. A month or so ago I got really embarrassed when she asked how I was doing in the man department; so I told one little old white lie. I made up a boyfriend on the spur of the moment. She called again last week and I implied the boyfriend was still with me and we were doing fine."

I was puzzled and asked, "I still don't see your problem Jennie. What am I missing?"

Jennie's face had a look of anguish on it as she replied; "Last week I told Lisa I was going to Key West with my boyfriend. I stupidly told her we were staying at a bed and breakfast place called 'The Little Gecko.' When I checked in today I changed my room to a cheaper one since my girlfriend didn't come.

"As soon as I started unpacking the phone rang; I thought it was the front desk on the room change. It was Lisa. She and Jim have a forty-six foot yacht and they were going to take it to the Bahamas for three weeks. The weather forecast was so bad that they had to delay their crossing; instead they decided to surprise me by coming here for a day-they dock in one hour!