We were drunk, all of us. Best of friends on vacation. Together on a small houseboat anchored in a small offshoot of the upper Mississippi river.
My husband at the time, Jim and I and our best friends Justin and Claire had been drinking literally since breakfast, fishing, playing cards and just generally having a good time under the hot sun of an early June. We had no place we needed to be and plenty to eat and drink. It was just so relaxed.
Justin and Jim worked together, Justin being a big buyer for the clothing lines that Jim sourced designs for in Europe and had made in Asia each year. They had been friends forever – long before Jim and I married – and Claire was Justin's bride of just over a year.
Justin and Jim were very similar people really, both educated businessmen in their late 30's who enjoyed golf, tennis, fishing, skiing and anything else outdoorsy. Both going a bit gray at the temples, with grey piercing eyes, they looked the parts they played in their businesses. Jim was always smiling – a consummate salesman – and Justin looking just a bit harried and impatient as the big retailer who bought clothing for four different retail chains all owned by the same big conglomerate.
Claire and I couldn't have been much more different. A dark haired beauty raised in Paris and New York before going away to college at an Ivy League school, Claire was tall, thin and sophisticated with a models build and quiet sexy presence. She looked stunning in a swimsuit, preferred a crisp white wine to beer, and tended to talk about things like coming interest rate changes and the latest trends in consumer confidence. She and Justin could have been described as a perfect "power couple" as her daddy's money and degree in finance complimented his power as a major buyer and they got invited to all the right parties and spoke at all the right conventions.
I, on the other hand, grown up on a farm in the Midwest in a no-where town and my education was the school of bad decisions. There was lots in my past to be embarrassed about – even ashamed of – and I didn't talk about it much as there wasn't much good to tell. I was quick with a joke, not afraid to ask the dumb questions and a good listener legitimately interested in the answers, and I like to think that I was smart but never given the opportunity to learn and better myself. I met Jim through a love of on-line poker rather than at a dinner party in the Hamptons. Jim loved me because he had a thing for brassy blondes with big tits and I was okay with that. I didn't need to be his intellectual equal as long as he treated me right, and I had known enough bad men in my time to spot a good one when I saw him.
Claire and I hadn't clicked when we met, but I had grown on her and vice versa. I sensed she lived in a very competitive, cut throat world and I was not of that mould, so she learned she could relax around me and have fun. At first thought she was a bit of a stuck-up twat, but once she relaxed and let her guard down I found a partner in crime. She legitimately enjoyed getting drunk, loud and obnoxious as a change of pace from her real world, and drunk, loud and obnoxious were key qualities that had made me who I was as a person.
We had been on the water for three days and still had another few more before we needed to get the houseboat back up to the docks before heading back to the real world. It was long enough to get used to the confined space of the floating condo and drop our inhibitions and pretense. We had started in formal resort wear and now it was jean shorts and flip flops. It was all total relaxation and no worries about things like putting on make-up or making the beds.
The boys had been up early that morning to fish, something they loved to do. They had headed off in a little boat we'd been tugging behind the floating Winnebago, so that they might get into those tight little finger tributaries that were home to the big prized catches.
Claire and I had been sleepy heads and both rolled out of bed well after the sun had warmed the decks, we met on the back deck of the boat over coffee. It was a sweatshirt and cutoffs for this bitch and Claire had the face of an obvious hangover sufferer over a thin tank top and gym shorts. Bras were for working people and we were on vacation.
"Honey you look like I feel."
"What possessed us to open up that bottle of Absinthe? I thought that shit was illegal here?"
"Good thing it was a small bottle. I think they thought it was mouthwash when they saw it in my luggage or I never would have been able to get it into the country."
It had been cool on the water overnight but was warming rapidly as the sun started to do its job and the coffee worked its morning magic. At some point Claire was industrious enough to get up and toast up a few bagels and I eventually had enough energy and control of my motor skills to fish a few Tylenol codeine tablets I'd hoarded from a recent doctors visit. We washed down the bagels and happy pills with another round of liquid job and watched the river go by.
We didn't say much for a while. I put a lot of value in a person who can sometimes just shut the fuck up and I think she did too. Coffee is a morning sacrament made better by baked goods and low level painkillers, and a quiet enjoyment of the going sideways experience brought us closer together I think. Finally, I felt like things had kicked in a bit, and I got up and started collecting the empty beer bottles & full ashtrays and doing all the small domestic duties.
Claire's morning caffeine and codeine was still doing its work so I let her heal. A hangover is a horrible thing and I had been there.
As I was washing up a few things in the sink, I mistakenly splashed a lot of water onto the front of the sweatshirt I was wearing. It felt heavy and soggy, so I simply took it off and threw it aside.
I didn't figure Claire would even see as I was going to go in and change into my swimsuit after a few more dishes, but didn't realize that Claire had brought in the mornings coffee cups and was standing right behind me.
"Oh, goodness. Didn't see you there." I was just a bit embarrassed being topless.
"No problem dear. Nothing I haven't seen before."
I had never been naked of near naked around Claire – she just meant that she had general experience seeing others undressed as she was very active at the country club and did Yoga, tennis, golf and just about anything else that was young, expensive and fabulous.
Claire handed off the cups and they went into the dishwater long enough for a rinse and then dry and put away. Claire tossed out the crumbs and wiped the tables and we were essentially done.
"Well, that was a lot of work. I'm exhausted." (It had been like 10 minutes of work.)
"I told Justin we should have brought the maid, but he said the whole point was that we should be roughing it and learning about nature." She said this as she was clicking off the tv that had been providing background noise all morning and grabbing a diet coke from the refrigerator.
"Time to go get some morning sun wouldn't you say?"
"Top deck?"
"Let's go."
Normally this would have been a signal for us to go get our swimsuits and a 55 gallon drum of the sunscreen we'd been using all day every day, but for some reason we simply climbed the stairs and wondered over to the deck chairs. I was still topless – it didn't matter as we were in the middle of nowhere and I hadn't even thought about it – and Claire stripped off here tank top before lying back on her chair, giving me a quick view of her little boyish nipples and small yoga toned belly and chest.
"Real sun worship today, right? Topless tanning?"
"Justin isn't going to like this. He loves the tan lines."
"Me too. A visual guide for Jim. If he licks the white skin we'll get along okay."
