storm surge | Page 3

pooters, Dar! You’re naked!”

Blue eyes appeared above the waterline, blinking innocently.

“You are naked!” Kerry hissed, glancing around. “What if one of those fishing charters comes by? Or a dive boat?”

Completely submerged aside from the top of her head, Dar started moving towards her partner.

“Dar.”

A puckish grin appeared.

“Shit.” Kerry ducked her head under the water and swam forward, kicking in a frog kick with her hands outstretched to grab whatever they had a mind to.

She found them clasped, and the next thing she knew she was being hauled up half out of the water, ending up landing on top of Dar as her partner flipped over and came up under her.

Abruptly, Kerry wished she’d forgotten her suit as well. She could feel skin everywhere she touched and she almost breathed in a mouthful of salt water as her body reacted.

Then she was flipped over again and dunked, and she could only manage a quick breath before she was under the water again and being pinched on the butt. She flailed around and tried to grab Dar’s arm, but as she surfaced, she found herself alone as she turned in a circle. “Hey!”

Dar surfaced on the other side of the boat, snickering.

“You’re such a punk.” Kerry let her catch up and they were nose to nose, just off the stern of the boat. “Just for that, I hope a cuttlefish nibbles you.”

“Ready for breakfast?” Dar batted a piece of seaweed away.

“Well, now..” Kerry laid one hand on her cheek, leaning forward to let their lips brush. “Depends on who’s cooking.”

Dar licked a drop of salt water off her nose. “G’wan.” She indicated the ladder.

“Oh no.” Kerry shook her head and smiled. “You first.” She rolled onto her back on the surface and put her hands back under her head, watching her partner with a wicked twinkle. “Little Miss Exhibitionist.”

Dar stuck her tongue out.

“You’re just sooo lucky I didn’t take my camera in the water.”



* * *

“Hi, Kerry.”

Kerry looked up from her computer screen, and waved a few fingers. “Hey Mari.” She greeted the Vice President of HR for ILS. “What’s up?”

Mariana entered and crossed over to Kerry’s desk, taking a seat in her visitor’s chair and settling herself. “Good morning, Kerry.”

“Uh oh. What did I do?” Kerry turned away from her monitor and rested her elbows on her desk.

“You? Not a thing.” The HR VP smiled.

“What did Dar do?” The blond woman replied, with a wry grin. “That I have to explain?”

“She volunteered you to be captain of our new softball team, and before I sent out a memo with that delightful information I thought I’d check with you first.”

Kerry leaned back in her chair and chuckled. “Nah, that’s fine. I actually did volunteer for that.” She told Mari. “I figured if I was going to do this, I’d do it right. So what’s the deal with all this? I didn’t know we had such a demand for intercorporate sports in the company.”

“Well.” Mari sighed. “I don’t know, really.” She crossed her ankles. “You know the suggestion box down in the café?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, we usually get the usual. Less chicken in the café, lower the air conditioning on the sixth floor, raise the air conditioning on the 9th floor, change the dress code.. you know.”

Kerry nodded. She did, in fact, know, as she was the representative from Operations to the Employee working group sessions that took place monthly. “Change the coffee. Don’t change the coffee, bring bottled water in, stop using bottled water because of the environment, yeah.”

“Exactly.” Mari said. “So anyway, the last couple of times I opened the box, we had requests for more group activities, more employee activities, and stuff getting involved in the community. So I put out feelers, and this league’s what I came up with.”

“Ah.”

“People activity, sports activity, charity activity, all rolled into one. I figured it was at least worth mentioning.” Mari went on. “However.”

“Yeah?”

“When I mentioned it, everyone went batty bonkers on me.”

Kerry blinked. “Really?”

“You’d think I was suggesting we go to the Olympics.” The HR VP shook her head. “So anyway, I thought I’d ask the poobah if she wanted to participate, since we all know you both are big into sports.”

“We’re..ah..” Kerry paused. “Yeah, okay.” She said. “We’re not really into sports, per se, but we do like being active, and I think Dar’s intrigued since she’s never done team sports before.” She considered. “And I never got to play in school, so I have to admit I’m kinda looking forward to it too.”

Mari’s face split into a pleased smile. “Great.” She said. “I know Dar can speak for you, but I just wanted to make sure this wasn’t something you felt obligated to do” She explained. “We’ve got so much of that around here. Y’know?”

“I know.” Kerry played with one of