Chapter 3: We Have Dinner and Start to Learn About Each Other.

With some light classical music playing for our background, we were sitting in the cockpit enjoying the sunset and the early twilight while talking after our dinner. Kaitlyn had put on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt she pulled out of the bag she was carrying when I helped her onboard and she showed she was capable with the simple dinner I had the makings for. She put together the sandwiches while I made the soup. Cooking on an alcohol stove can be tricky if you are not used to it. We had already done our cleanup, not that there was much to it, the knife and cutting board Kaitlyn had used, the pot and stirring spoon I had used, those and the spoons we ate with were all that had to be washed since we used paper plates and bowls for the food. My boat has a table that can be mounted in the cockpit so we ate there instead of in the cabin. If I had been alone I wouldn't have bothered with the table but since I had company I broke it out and set it up. My boat is self-contained and can actually be lived aboard by up to four people (if they are friendly) for a couple of weeks. My fresh water tank and my holding tank will stretch that far and my cupboards and chill box will hold more than enough food for that period.

"Well I know your name and that you are a college student but not much more. Would you care to fill in the picture I have of you?"

She said "Sure, let's see, I turned twenty this past May and I've finished my sophomore year at San Diego State. I am in the Aerospace Engineering program and have all my basic requirements done now. I was cheerleading because I needed the P.E. credits but cheer really isn't my thing so I won't be doing that anymore. It is how I met that dumb jock, Todd and without doing cheer I doubt I'll run into him again. He was cute, on the football squad and seemed to be an okay guy. Boy was I wrong about that! So it is safe to say I don't have any current romantic connections, I've only had a few anyway and none that went beyond the third date. I'm not real big into partying; I know I need to concentrate on my education. My parents, Robert and Janice, have a farm in Kansas but I never could get into farming, its 24-7-365 and there is always something going wrong. It's okay though as I have two brothers, one older, one younger and they are already talking with the parental units about taking over the farm. Junior, my older brother, graduated this year with a degree in Agronomics and a minor in Soil Conservation while Tommy, my younger brother, is starting this fall in an Animal Husbandry program. Between the two of them, the family homestead will be in good hands and as long as they can find suitable mates I see things going on successfully for a long time to come. My parents were hurt that I was leaving the farm and farming but we're still on good terms and I know I can always go home. I'm not home now in the middle of the summer because I'm trying to sock away some money for a car and I have a job waiting tables at the Outback, the pay sucks but the tips are good, particularly now during the tourist season, and every now and again the manager will let us take home things he would have to throw out otherwise. I live in a two bedroom apartment near the campus and the restaurant with one roommate, Robin, but I don't think she will be returning for the next semester, she was having a real hard time with the curriculum so I see a headache coming. It is doubly a problem because she and I were the only women in our class in the Aerospace Engineering program and other than her I don't have anyone I can say is even near close. I don't know yet what I am going to do about my living arrangements but I know I don't want a college guy for a roommate. I'm afraid I'll end up having to fight him off or interfering in his love life, eww. Now what will you tell me about yourself?"

"I have to say that is a good biography to just rattle off. You do a good job talking off the cuff as that was the second little speech you've made since you came aboard. It's a good trait to have and I'm favorably impressed. Now, about myself, I told you before when you first came aboard my name is Robert Lister and I go by Rob. I was 44 at my last birthday, this past spring and that makes me old enough to be your father. I am a computer specialist and take care of both hardware and software. I work for myself and companies all across the country hire me to come in and straighten out their-in house networks, usually after their own IT department has screwed things up. I've developed a good reputation and there are several companies that keep me on retainer. Between my regular clients and the ones who hire me to come in on a one time basis I make a decent living. I'm not independently wealthy and I do have to work to maintain my lifestyle but I have no complaints about what I bring in. I own outright my home, my car, my big SUV and this thirty foot sail boat, plus I have a bit put away for the future. I do a lot of my work right from my home, at least the software side, but I also have to travel fairly frequently, mostly for new clients, or to fix hardware problems. Once I have a client up and running I don't usually have to visit their sites, but every now and again it happens. I have a real good relationship with the airlines as a result of all my travel. Of course it doesn't hurt that one of my regular clients is the corporate parent of a major airline. My parents, Phil and Danielle, are both still alive and on the East coast. They were in New York, which is where I grew up and was a nerd, but have retired to Florida. I'm trying to get them to move to Arizona so they are closer but they have friends around them and are reluctant to leave them behind. I'm an only child and their health is still good but I am concerned about them being so far away. I am single and always have been, not even a live in girlfriend, ever. For that matter I really haven't had a "girlfriend" since college. It's not that I'm not interested; I just haven't met anyone I would be willing to bring home and introduce to my parents. Most of my dates end up being one-offs. The women I have met so far just don't measure up to what I know would make my parents happy. The ones who haven't previously been married seem like light weights incapable of holding up their end of an in depth conversation and the ones that have been married are mostly carrying a lot of baggage, some with and some without children, it isn't the children that put me off. Maybe I haven't been looking in the right places but I don't know where those right places might be. I live alone and always have, other than with my cats, since I moved out here. My house has four bedrooms, two on each side of the house. One side has the master suite and the bedroom closest to it is my home office. The other two bedrooms, on the other side of the house, are about the same size and I use the back one for storage. It's amazing how much stuff I've accumulated I'm sorry to say. The only woman who is a regular in my life is the house keeper who comes in twice a week to clean the house. She also watches over my two Siamese cats when I'm gone making sure they have food, fresh water and a clean litter box whether I am there or not. When I have to travel I don't usually have a lot of planning time before I go. It's more like I get a call and I have to be there yesterday because their network is down and they can't get one side of the office to talk with the other side. One other thing, you need to know and can feel confident in; you are safe with me now and for as long as you care to stay with me. While you are onboard my boat you are under my protection both by me and from me." After a moment I added "Now that the sun has gone down shall we go below?"