"Pretty serious huh?" She asked.
"Very." I confirmed.
She sighed. "That's what I need." She told me. "Someone to be serious with. Having different boyfriends every month used to be fun but it's getting kind of old. And now with AIDS and all that shit, well, you know?"
I nodded and then an idea suddenly hit me. It was an impulsive decision, one that I did not have time to think out carefully, but I went with it.
"Hey Maggie," I said. "Do you like to water-ski?"
She looked at me, wondering what this was about. "I've done it a few times." She said. "It's fun."
"I just fixed up my Dad's ski boat." I told her. "Nina and Mike Meachen and I are taking it out on Saturday. You want to come?"
She grinned knowingly. "Are you trying to fix me up with Mike Meachen?" She asked.
"No." I protested. "I just thought you'd like to come, that's all. What's wrong with Mike anyway?"
A giggle. "You are." She accused. "There's nothing wrong with him I guess.
He's kinda cute, but he's younger. I don't go for younger guys."
"You don't have to go for him." I said. "I just wanted to know if you'd like to go skiing with us."
She considered for a moment. "Okay." She finally said. "What time?"
That evening after work Nina came over for a visit. We did the obligatory time chatting with my parents and then we went out front to sit in the porch swing with our arms around each other, watching the sunset while we rocked slowly back and forth. I told her that I'd invited Maggie to go boating with us and felt her tense up.
"Maggie Bartlett?" She asked carefully. "You invited HER to go?"
"Yeah." I answered, wondering suddenly if it had been such a good idea after all. "I ran into her at the gas station. I thought that maybe her and Mike might hit it off a little."
She looked over at me. "She's very pretty." Nina said.
I shrugged. "I suppose."
"You've uh, done it with her before." She said. It was not a question.
"Nina that was the past." I said. "And it was a long time ago." Which wasn't exactly true, Maggie and Cindy had been the last two girls I'd slept with after all, but I didn't think that little fact needed to play a part in this discussion.
"Bill…" She started worriedly.
"Those days are over." I told her. "I promise you that. I'm committed to you completely. Maggie is just a friend and I thought that maybe her and Mike would maybe make a good couple. Mike needs a girlfriend and Maggie needs a boyfriend. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. If you want, I'll call her up and tell her we cancelled the trip."
She considered this for a moment. "No." She said finally. "Let her come. It's very nice of you to try and fix Mike up. It's just weird to think that I'll be spending the day with someone that you used to… you know?"
I nodded. "Are you sure?" I asked.
"I'm sure." She told me. And then softly, "Was she good at it?"
I nearly choked. "What?"
"Was she good at it?" Nina asked. "In bed?"
I shook my head. "No." I replied. "Terrible."
Nina smiled a little. "You're not a very good liar Bill."
My mother was still not in on the secret of my recycling and so she naturally questioned my Dad's decision to allow my friends and me to take out the boat. I can see her point of view well. Somehow, how I know not, Dad convinced her that it would be all right. She didn't like the idea but she consented to it. And since she'd consented to it she made it her mission to make sure we were suitably supplied for a day at the lake. She packed a picnic basket with enough fried chicken, homemade potato salad, chips, and pork and beans to kill us all. She filled up a large ice-chest with soda. After a stern, motherly warning to be careful and to bring back her silverware, we were allowed to proceed with the loading of the boat.
Things were a little awkward at first. Maggie was wearing cut-off jeans and a T-shirt over her bikini top. Nina was wearing a pair of cut-off jeans too. They were pulled over her one-piece bathing suit. The two girls sized each other up for a few moments, exchanging only polite pleasantries with each other, both of them wondering what I saw in the other.
Mike was also surprised, although pleasantly so, to find Maggie there. I'd decided that the best course was not to tell him beforehand. If there was chemistry to be found between the two of them, then so be it. I did take one step in order to help the chemistry along.
"What's she doin' here?" Mike asked me when we were out of earshot.
"She's an old friend of mine." I told him.
"She's fuckin' hot." He proclaimed. "I used to see her at school."
I nodded. "Don't get your hopes up." I told him. "She's got a boyfriend. She's just along for the ride."
"She does?" He asked, disappointed.
"Sorry dude." I told him. "She's off the market."
"That's the shit." He pouted. "Oh well, she's nice to look at anyway."
"You got that right." I nodded.
By telling Mike that he didn't have a chance with her I figured that I was actually giving him his best chance. If he knew that she was available he would have been hitting on her like mad and I knew his lines and techniques would have been immature enough to drive Maggie away. But if he thought she was already spoken for he would tend to be much more like himself. That was what I wanted.
Mike and I, shirtless for the occasion and wearing shorts, finally picked up the tongue of the trailer and placed it on the hitch on my Dad's car. I was gratified to see that Maggie was taking in the bulging leg muscles of Mike as we did this. I suppressed a grin.
We connected the wires for the trailer lights and, with a last farewell to my parents, pulled out into the street and headed for the freeway. We got on I-90 heading east for Idaho, Nina and I in the front, Mike and Maggie in the back. My plan was working so far at that point. The two of them were talking easily in the back, discussing the merits of Spokane's community college. In the front, Nina rested her hand on my bare thigh and occasionally gave me a little squeeze.
Our first stop was a grocery store just outside of Coeur d Alene. The drinking age in Idaho was nineteen years old at that time. In a few years it would be raised to twenty-one thanks to the efforts of the group that my Mom and Dad were supposed to be part of.
"Okay Maggie." I said, handing her the cash that we'd pooled. "Go do your stuff."
She smiled sweetly and stepped out of the car. "You wanna come?" She asked Mike. "I'll need help carrying everything."
"Sure." He barked, stepping out with her.
While they were inside Nina and I went back to the boat and opened up the ice chest. We took out all of the soda my Mom had placed in there and tossed it into the trunk of the car. When Maggie and Mike returned they had three twelve packs of Olympia and two bags of ice. This was placed in the ice chest and we headed North.
Lake Pend Oreille, our destination, is a huge lake, the third largest West of the Mississippi. We paid our money and pulled into a launching facility at the south end of it. The facility was crowded with other boaters out to take in a day on the lake and we had to wait in line for about twenty minutes. The air was festive as we watched people scurry here and there, watched the sun beat on the blue surface of the water, and listened to the gunning of boat engines. Finally it was our turn. It had been a while since I'd done such a thing but I managed to back the boat into the lake without breaking or hitting anything. We detached it from it's trailer for the first time in years and I parked the car while Mike held the boat to the dock with a rope.
We climbed into the boat, Nina sitting next to me in the front while Mike and Maggie sat directly behind us. The engine fired up at once and I took a moment to praise Mike's mechanical skills.
"You fixed the boat?" Maggie asked Mike, her eyes shining at him. It seemed she was warming up to the possibilities he represented.