The Surfer Dude and the Soccer Mom

They were catapulted high in the air, flying as a single projectile, fastened together with an eight inch rivet sticking into Gina from behind. They flew in a rainbow arc, screaming, and splashed down about fifty feet away, still in one piece, scared shitless, but miraculously unhurt.

It didn't take Jake long to lose his erection after an unplanned flight and jouncing in the cold sea. Jake was a strong swimmer, had lifeguarded and taken lifesaving courses in high school, so after their initial plunge, and some coughing up of salt water, he kept their heads above water. Gina had started to panic but Jake tried to keep her calm, and she did settle down some when they heard a boat motor fire up nearby.

Jake's boat was floating on its side, a cracked and broken mess, about forty yards away and sinking fast. The whales seemed to have moved off again.

They could hear the sound of the boat was getting nearer and they could see it carefully approaching and heard shouting voices muffled by the purr of the motor. It was about a hundred yards away and as they bounced up and down in the waves they caught glimpses of people scanning the water, one man with binoculars.

"They're looking for us!" Jake said excitedly.

Jake started screaming and waving one arm, the other arm tightly around Gina. 'Help! Help! Over here!' Jake hollered over and over, timing it with their upward swells.

In a few minutes, which felt like hours to Jake and Gina as they treaded water, they were at last spotted, and they could see the excitement on the peoples' faces as the boat headed toward them. Jake recognized it as one of the boats they had spotted earlier.

"Oh God, Jake," Gina said. "We're naked! This is going to be embarrassing!"

"I know. Beats the alternative, though," Jake answered.

"Hello!" came a booming voice over the boat's speaker. "Hang in there! We saw what happened. We see you!"

The boat bore down on them slowly, forty, thirty, twenty yards, and when it was finally close enough they threw them a line. It landed six feet to their left so they side-paddled over and Jake grabbed it. They pulled themselves in to the port side and the boaters were soon pulling Gina's naked body aboard, and he could see the guys checking her out. There were three couples, probably in their forties, Jake guessed.

Jake watched Gina's ass vanish over the side and saw one of the men wrap a beach towel around her. He heard them ask her is if she was alright and she nodded and thanked everyone profusely. He started to pull himself up and got a hand.

"Thank God you folks were nearby," Jake said, as he wrapped a towel around his waist. "You saved our lives!"

"We saw the whole thing!" one gal said. "The whale was between your boat and ours', so we were looking your way. It went underwater, and when it came back up, Oh My God!, we couldn't believe it! Are you sure you're okay?"

"Are you okay?" Jake asked Gina; she nodded. "Just kind of shaken up is all," he said to the lady.

"Coast Guard's on the way!" the captain-looking man said.

"Coast Guard?" asked Gina. "Oh, no." She looked at Jake and shook her head. They knew the situation was about to become much more embarrassing.

––

The Coast Guard response boat arrived within fifteen minutes. Once the Coasties determined that there were no injuries they provided Gina and Jake with dry clothing and started asking questions. As they were being helped aboard the Coast Guard vessel they could overhear some of the questions being asked of their rescuers, and parts of their answers. Gina heard words that sounded like 'naked' and 'sex' and 'fucking' along with 'whale' and 'boat' and knew they were in for a grilling.

The questions were easy at first, names, addresses, what kind of boat, registration information, things like that. Then they got into more detail about their relationship, their boat ride today, their intentions, the whales, the whale hitting the boat, how long were they in the water, etc. They told them yes, they had taken their clothes off to sunbathe since no other boats were nearby. Yes, they had had sex too. The questions went on for a couple of hours after they returned to the Coast Guard Station and reports were filled out.

Finally, after a lecture about safety and the importance of wearing clothes and life jackets, they were free to go and they called a cab to take them back to the marina. As they walked out to the taxi they saw a TV news van driving onto the property. They sat in stunned silence during the fifteen minute ride. Most of Jake's belongings were by now under a thousand feet of water, but fortunately Gina had left her purse in the car. She paid the cabbie, said goodbye and drove off. Jake started trying to find his brother. He needed to find a place to stay.

––

It made the news of course. Television, radio, newspapers, internet, you couldn't miss it. There were no photos, but their names were mentioned time and again, and it seemed to be 'Breaking News' for days.

Jake spent the next few days getting a replacement drivers license and debit and credit cards, getting a new phone and computer, and filing an insurance claim. He played his gigs too; he'd stored his music gear in the back of his car. In fact, he had gained some new notoriety because of the incident. People had started calling him Captain Ahab instead of Captain Jake.

Gina took it a little harder and didn't deal with the notoriety very well. Her husband was up in arms, called her a whore and an unfit mother and she figured he'd use it any way he could against her in the divorce. At the library she tried to stay back in the offices and out of the public eye as much as possible because she could feel their stares.

Gina didn't try to call Jake, but he tried to call and text her. She didn't answer or return his calls at first, but finally did return one of his texts and typed only. 'I need time'.

After about two weeks Gina called him.

"How are you doing, Jake?" she asked him.

"Okay, I guess. Trying to get my life back together."

"I know all about that. Where are you living?"

"In one of the RVs stored at the marina. It will be a couple more weeks before I get the insurance money for the boat. It won't be that much but hopefully I can replace it with something livable. Are you okay?"

"Uh, not really. It's been very hard. My husband is making things very difficult on me, and my kids are taking a lot of shit at school, and at work and socially...it's all been very embarrassing to say the least."

"I know what you mean..." Jake said.

"Do you, Jake? Do you really?"

He didn't know what to say.

"I'd bet it's been a little bit different for you."

"How so?"

"Jake, we had some fun, let's face it. But do you know how it looks to people? People look at you as the young, cool, hip musician surfer dude who was doing the soccer mom and helped save her; but they look at me as the still-married, mother-of-two, naked slut you were screwing.

"But my life is all screwed up right now, and you can't be in it. That whale has changed a few things. We could have died out there."

"I know."

"Bye, Jake."

––

A few weeks later on a Friday after getting off work at the library, Bridget went to the Sandcrab for a drink and a little live music. The live music was Captain Jake. She took a seat at the end of the bar, ordered a vodka tonic for herself and asked the bartender to send Jake a drink on her.

Jake was playing 'Into The Mystic' when the drink arrived. The server told him it was from the gal at the end of the bar. As he played he looked over at Bridget and their eyes met and she smiled at him. He remembered her, Gina's friend, the hippy Rita Coolidge-looking-chick from the library. She looked pretty good too, a few years older than Gina perhaps, but good: long and lean and hair down to her ass.

The song was over before he remembered her name: Bridget. He played 'Delta Lady' and dedicated it to her.

He went over to her and they talked during his break. They made catching-up small talk for most of the twenty minute break, dancing around any mention of whales or their mutual friend at the library.

"So, how is Gina?" Jake finally asked.

Bridget sighed and said, "It's been tough, but she's going to make it. She's been laying low." She paused and added, "She knows I'm here."

It was time to go back to work. Jake said, "I have one more set to do. Can you stay? Maybe we can get a drink together afterwards?"

"I'll stay. But no boat rides," she said with a smile.

"I promise. No boat rides!"

After the set it only took Jake about five minutes to break down his gear. He walked over to Bridget as she was putting the finishing touches on her drink and asked her where she'd like to go. She asked him if he had any ideas.

"Well," he said, "If we go to any of the places where I play music, people will know me and come up and want to talk and we wouldn't have much privacy..."

"We could go to my place," she said, surprising herself. "I have a condo on the river. It's only a couple miles from here."

"Okay," Jake said, "That sounds good."

Bridget helped him lug his equipment to his car, and then she got into her car and pulled away. He followed her down the beach boulevard.

Ten minutes later Jake was inside Bridget's condo. Twenty minutes after that he was inside Bridget.

They knew Gina wouldn't mind.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-

The end