Love in a Changed World Ch. 14

"I didn't just come over her to make fun of Simon," Midge wink at me, "Not that it wouldn't have been worth the trip," the girls laughed again. "And David Hasselhoff over there needs, well, a minute." Midge gestured toward the pool. The lifeguard type who'd tried to dunk her and nearly got drown for his effort was sprawled out on his back on the side of the pool.

"Well, at lease he still has his swim trunks," I thought. Then the guy rolled over, and I could see the at the front a had been ripped open -- presumably to give Midge ample access. I shook my head. "We're never going to survive these women. Men are doomed," I thought.

Midge continued, "Hey the girls want to go out to Dry Tortugas tomorrow; you guys should come with."

Dry Tortugas is a US National Park about 70 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico from Key West. There are three islands, one of which has a big fort on it. From what I'd read, there was nice snorkeling, and several pleasant beaches. The islands are accessible by sea plane or high-speed party boats that go out from Key West once or twice a day.

"I asked Manalo to check with Commodore Steve, and he said that Dulcinea is here in Key West whenever we want to go." Midge said.

"Who is 'Commodore Steve' and what's a Dulcinea?" Pudge asked.

"The Dulcinea is a ridiculous 85-meter yacht that Nadia's family owns," I said with a proletariat's disdain for such egregious wealth -- I'd spent lovely trips on four of the five such yachts in the family armada. The Dulcinea split time between Key West and the Bahamas. It was nicely appointed, had several shore boats and a couple of jet skis.

"Yeah, and Commodore Steve is a pirate," added Midge.

"He's not a pirate, Midget," I corrected. This got me a pantomime her fingers "running", then slamming into her other hand, and falling over.

"We're leaving tomorrow," I said I needed to leave tomorrow -- I had five more days before school started and I would need all of that time to recover from this "relaxing" vacation. That was assuming I lived that long.

Nadia cut me off -- she did love an adventure -- saying, "We have a few days before you need to be back, professor. We can change our flight no problem."

"Pudge already had to change her flight once -- that could be a problem." I was grasping at straws.

Pudge looked at Nadia and cut off my last hope, "No, it should be fine. I'm sure we can swing it."

We weren't leaving tomorrow.