Rob idled the cruiser into the lagoon, searching out his friends. There were a couple of young girls, looking to be in their early twenties, floating on inflatable rafts. Not wearing their bikini tops, their breasts were exposed for everyone to see. Rob glanced at them but only for a second or two. A number of young men, wearing everything from swim trunks to Speedos, shouted off-color remarks and waved as we passed by them.
"Just ignore them." Robbie asserted. "It's the beer talking."
I wasn't taking their rude comments to heart, trying me best to shrug them off. A group of boaters, mostly women outnumbering men two to one, waved at us to pull in beside them. Robbie waved back at them, steering the cruiser towards their position. My feelings of being uncomfortable increased when I saw they looked to be in their mid-twenties, a good ten years younger than me.
One of the girls tossed me a line to tie off with. Her bountiful breasts nearly spilled out of her bikini top when she tossed the rope. Robbie cut the engines, while I tied the line to one of the cleats.
"Hey Rob!" A young man shouted, holding a beer bottle in each hand. "That the new babe?"
"Hey Glen!" Robbie responded. "Hope one of those beers is for me!"
We joined the young girl and guy on their boat, a nice looking pontoon boat with a canvas top for shade. Glen handed both of us cold beers without asking if we wanted one. I could tell he'd been drinking from the swagger in his step. He eyed me up and down like I was a juicy steak.
"Damn! She is fine!" The young man remarked with a grin. "She's all you said she was!"
I was blushing, wondering what Robbie had told him about me. The young girl saddled up next to Robbie, blatantly reaching down and squeezing his cock.
"You taking care of business?" She laughed, grinning my way. "She looks like she could handle it!"
"Whoa! Hold on a minute!" Robbie exclaimed, sensing I was growing uncomfortable. "This is Valerie Marlowe. She's the new owner of Thunder Bay. AND my new employer!"
"Oh....ok." The young girls mumbled. "I didn't mean to piss you off."
"Why don't you lie down on the couch and take a nap?" Glenn angrily suggested, pulling her away from Rob. "You're making an ass of yourself!"
The young girl jerked free of Glen's grasp, then sauntered off to the front of the pontoon boat.
"You'll have to forgive her." Glen grumbled, putting his arm around my waist. "She likes to mouth off when she's been drinking."
Before long we were joined by several other couples. The talk was casual, which helped me relax and have fun. The guys stole glances at every female onboard the boat, more so at me than any of the other women.
"You really think you can pull Thunder Bay out of the ditch?" One of the men asked. "Ole Frank's got her buried pretty deep."
"I've got too much money invested in the business not to make it successful." I responded. "I hope to see it back on track by this time next year."
"A year!" One of the women exclaimed. "You think you can sell that many houseboats in just a year?"
"With lots of promotion and the right financing, I plan to sell every houseboat we've got." I answered, sounding somewhat boastful.
"Good Luck!" Glen exclaimed, handing me another beer. "The damn banks won't go more than ten years on a houseboat and the bastards want ten to twelve percent interest to boot."
"I'm knocking fifteen to twenty-thousand off each houseboat plus offering a twenty-five year loan at six percent interest." I proclaimed. "That should bring in enough customers to dump the whole lot!"
"Sounds good but you've got to have damn good connections with a bank to be able to offer that kind of financing." An attractive blonde in her early thirties remarked.
"I've got the connections." I bragged. "All I've got to do is hook the potential buyers."
"We've been interested in buying a houseboat for the past five years but we can't afford the payments." The woman's husband avowed. "Coming up with the ten percent down payment makes it even harder to buy one."
"I'll go five percent down and finance the down payment on a signature loan if I have to." I quickly responded. "I'm not going to let a buyer get away simply because he thinks he can't afford it."
"WOOHOO!" Glen shouted. "You must have good connections with a bank!"
"I need to recoup my investment so I'm going to be aggressive when it comes to selling off Thunder Bay's inventory." I declared, glancing over at Robbie. "I can't afford to fail."
"So, when you sell all the houseboats, what're you gonna do next?" Another guy inquired, stepping towards me. "You gonna close down Thunder Bay once and for all?"
"I'm....I'm not sure." I stammered, noticing the concerned look on Robbie's face. "If the market's still strong for houseboats, I may keep on building them. Otherwise, I'll probably sell off the assets, including the real estate."
"We've got one left to build." Robbie spoke up. "She's gonna be a hundred and ten foot long and twenty foot wide. The biggest and best Thunder Bay houseboat we've every built."
"You know what they say. Size does matter!" A young woman in her late twenties smarted off. "Isn't that right Rob?"
Robbie blushed, embarrassed by her remark. The others laughed, which added to Rob's humiliation.
"It's not the size that matters. It's the quality that goes into it that matters." I quickly remarked, wiping the smirk of the woman's face.
"Sort of like Robbie." I added, clasping his hand in mine. "With his help, I'm confident we'll have lots of satisfied customers."
"Hmmm. That alone would make a good salespitch." The blonde woman laughed. "I'm ready to buy a houseboat if you'll throw Robbie in on the deal."
"Robbie's not for sale." I responded, pulling his hand behind my back. "I'm only selling houseboats."
Robbie squeezed my hand, letting me know he liked what I'd said. I knew I'd made comments that I shouldn't have but I wasn't going to stand there and let his so-called friends make fun of him.
Thankfully the conversations turned to subjects other than boating. We spent the rest of the day in the lagoon, watching the people and enjoying each other's company.
With the sun starting to set, we left the party revelers to return to the marina. Robbie had long since stopped drinking so he was sober enough to drive the boat. He didn't say much as we cruised along the lake but I caught him glancing over at me several times with a smile on his face.
Back at the marina, Robbie guided the cruiser into its berth. I slipped the ropes over the cleats to secure it to the dock while Rob hoisted the cooler over the side.
"Helluva day!" He laughed.
"Yeah." I muttered, helping him carry the heavy cooler. "I really like your friends, especially the little dark-haired girl that squeezed your dick."
"That's the way Beth is after she's had a couple of beers." Rob asserted, trying to calm my anger. "You oughta see her out on the dance floor. They don't call her the Bone Breaker for nothin'."
"Is that dancing in the vertical or horizontal position?" I retorted, glaring at him.
