Kyle came running, nodded to each of us, then asked what we’d like. “We got beers, sodas, water, fruit juice, wine, and liquor. What’s your poison?” he said.
The guy first turned to Timothy, probably figuring him to be the big shot of the group. (Does rich shine from the pores? Is it something in their eyes? Do the rich carry themselves differently than us poor folk?)
Timothy glanced down at me. “What would you like, darling?” my fiancé asked, ignoring the fact that Kyle had been addressing him.
Wow. Now I’d thought that word twice. Fiancé, it did sound nice. I almost purred around the word, rolling it about my tongue.
“A bottle of water, please,” I said, realizing that everyone was staring at me.
“Do you guys have coffee?” Timothy asked. “My girl always wants coffee.”
“Sure,” Kyle said. “We’ve got a coffee pot, but coffee sometimes makes folks seasick. I don’t recommend it unless you’ve got your sea legs already.”
“Just, water,” I repeated, not wanting to risk that. Vomiting over the side of the boat definitely didn’t appeal.
Terry and Bob both asked for a beer. Timothy, like me, requested water.
“Okay, now that we have all that settled,” the captain continued. “Where were we? Oh yes, Mammals,” he continued.
“Look,” Terry suddenly called out.
And there they were, not whales, but dolphins, an entire school of them. Probably twenty or more, if I could count that fast, because they were spinning and walking backwards on their tails, then whirling around, and diving under the yacht, only to return in seconds. It was so cool.
These weren’t the tamed or trained dolphins of Sea World, but wild animals that had come up from the depths of the sea just to flirt with us. Some of them were doing the same spectacular jumps in the air we’d watched the day before in the Dolphin Arena. At the amusement park, those dolphins had worked for fish and were given whistled prompts to do their tricks. These wild dolphins were doing their fancy moves just for the pure fun of it.