The south Florida air caressed my skin with its sticky kiss as I stood on the hotel balcony and watched the activity on The Strip. Spring Break '85, Ft. Lauderdale FL. I was here, my first 'adult' vacation. Fun, sun, alcohol and women, a college boy's dream come true. We left cold, gloomy Boston behind and traded it in for the land of bikinis, Miami Vice and reverse Margaritas.
I heard my roommates laughing loudly in the hotel room behind me. I turned to see what the commotion was about. Murph, true to form, had brought a stray home.
"Hey guys," he announced, "This is Cheryl!"
I stepped into the room to check this out. Murph stood there a possessive arm around a tall blond, a typical Murph find. Stunningly beautiful, thin but not skinny, ash blond hair framing big blue eyes and high cheekbones. If she had a fault, it would be that she was fairly flat-chested. I was willing to overlook that. Yeah right, my first coherent thought was She's out of your league Bobby Boy.
"Cheryl and her roommates just got in today! They're staying just down the hall from us!" Murph happily informed us.
That is why I loved to go clubbing with the Murph, he had an uncanny knack for ferreting out beautiful women. To this day I have no idea how he did it, but I was always happy to take advantage of his particular talent.
Cheryl looked embarrassed. "Hi guys," she said giving a little wave and blushing.
Actually, it turned out that she was very nice. We found out that she was here from Wisconsin with her sister and two friends. Considering there were five of us guys down here together and four of them, I thought there was some potential in the situation. Eventually, her friends came looking for her and we got to meet them all. There was this one redhead named Patty I thought looked pretty promising, not as pretty as Cheryl, but very cute. We all chatted and got to know one another. Things were looking pretty good, it seemed everyone was having fun. I was optimistic.
We had plans to go out for dinner that night and I was all for canceling them and doing something with these girls, but I couldn't convince the others. We WERE here as a group, solidarity and all that, but I was careful to find out where the girls were going to be that night before we said good-bye. They were a good looking group of ladies.
We went out to dinner as planned, it was very nice. This was our final year of college and the trip was a sort of last hurrah for the crew. Two of us were ROTC and so would be going into the service upon graduation and the rest would be going off to law school or out into the 'real world' to root, hog or die.
After a nice, leisurely dinner, we drove our rental car back to the hotel. We were staying right on The Strip and it was packed with the typical Saturday night crowd of Spring Breakers. We ditched the car and I suggested we head to Penrod's, the club the girls said they were going to. We had been to Penrod's the last two nights running so the guys weren't too hot on the idea. We eventually wound up on a terrace bar at some pirate themed hotel on the strip.
I thought it was pretty lame. There weren't a lot of people there (read unattached women) but my roommates seemed to be having fun. They had set up a scam where they pretended to be bouncers and asked for id's from all of the pretty girls in the bar. Surprisingly enough it seemed to work as all of them got paired off except yours truly. Unfortunately for me, the four of them getting paired off used up all of the single women in the bar - I told you, the place was pretty dead. I was bored so I announced I was going to Penrod's. No one seemed to care. So much for solidarity.
I walked down The Strip the two or three blocks to the Sheraton Hotel where Penrod's was located. The Strip was mobbed with drunken college kids having a good time. Add in the people there to help them have that good time while painlessly parting them from their spare cash and you have quite a crowd. Snake charmers posed for pictures with pretty coeds - for a small fee. Vendors hawked sunglasses, cheap jewelry, T-shirts and food. Mounted police watched over things and kept the crowds confined to the sidewalks by herding them with their horses like so much human cattle. By the time I reached the club, I was almost overloaded by the sights, sounds and smells around me.
Speaking of sensory overload, Penrod's was the quintessential '80's party center. It sprawled like a chrome monster in the middle of the main artery of the dream destination of every American college student. I grinned as I happily forked out the cover charge to the tuxedoed bouncer. Once inside I had the choice of going up the winding stairs to the club playing techno dance music, left out to the patio where the waitresses were administering reverse Margaritas, downstairs to the club playing live Reggae or to my right into the video dance club playing the latest pop. Figuring that since my quarry were twenty year old collegians of the female persuasion, I turned right into the video club.
This part of Penrod's was by far the largest room and it looked full to capacity. The music hit me like a fist as I opened the swinging doors. 'Don't You Want Me Baby?' was playing as I walked in and I took it as a good omen. It was confirmed literally seconds later when I saw Cheryl at the bar. I started to walk over to her when she saw me. Cheryl jumped up from the bar where she had been sitting with some frat boy types and ran to me.
"Bob!" she shouted. OK, this was good, she remembered my name. I was just about to ask her where Patty, the redhead, was when she grabbed my arm and said in a low voice, "Get me out of here please!"
Ever willing to rescue damsels in distress, I replied, "Sure!" and lead her out of the room onto the patio. It was much quieter out there but just as crowded. "What's the matter?" I asked.
"Those guys wouldn't leave me alone! They were being really obnoxious. I'm really glad you came along, I was hoping you'd come by."
I had to fight the urge to look over my shoulder to see if she was talking to another guy. Don't get me wrong, I had a healthy ego and no problems with women, but I also knew my limitations. Cheryl had to have been one of the most beautiful girls I had ever met. It was a natural law that women that lovely didn't just up and say they were hoping they would run into you.
"Why?" I blurted before I could stop myself.
She looked at me kind of funny and I figured I had blown it but she just replied, "Well, you seemed like a nice guy."
"Fair enough," I smiled at her. "Let me prove it, can I buy you a drink?"
"OK," she smiled back. Devastating dimples. "I had to abandon mine when you rescued me."
We snagged a drink order from one of the waitresses and since there were no open tables we picked a spot of rail to lean against. We started to talk and I found that beyond her obvious physical beauty, she was a wonderful person. She was a twenty year old Junior at the University of Wisconsin majoring in meteorology. Her ambition in life was to be a TV Weatherman.
"Don't laugh!" she smilingly admonished me, wagging her finger in my face. "What's so funny?"
"Well, you're a hell of a lot better looking then Willard Scott!" I laughed. She hit me on the arm, but not hard, laughing with me.
We spent what seemed like a lifetime by the rail. One drink became two, then three as we got to know each other. She was a nice girl and I was really enjoying myself. Even better, she seemed to be enjoying herself too. The space between us shrunk as we stood closer and closer. Her hand rested innocently on my arm as she made a point, the contact electric.
We braved the crowd into the video club again and danced. She looked like the image of wholesome, midwestern beauty with her blond hair and clean-scrubbed freshness moving and twirling in her short denim skirt and pastel sleeveless blouse. I did recognize the frat boys from the bar looking at us with envy. I felt ten feet tall.
After a few dances, we retired to the patio again. Cheryl was feeling adventurous so we decided to do a reverse margarita. For those of you who have never experienced this little bit of class, the recipient kneels at the foot of the waitress and tilts their head back with mouth open. The waitress then pours Tequila, Triple Sec and a squirt of lime juice into the victim's open mouth. You must then swallow this without spilling it all over you. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I got mine down OK, but Cheryl gagged a little while trying to swallow and wound up with more then a little Margarita running down her face. We laughed and I wiped her face with a napkin as she smiled at me. Our eyes met as I mopped her face. Her pupils dilated. She looked confused, a little scared. I had never felt such an instant connection before or since.
