Title: Vacation

He grabbed a cold one out of the mini-fridge and stepped out onto the
private balcony. The sun's heat felt good on his bare chest sending
tingling warmth through his body. The pounding of the waves on the
sand relaxed his mind

He sank down into the chair and propped his feet on the railing,
crossing his ankles. Flipping the top of the bottle, he took a long,
deep swallow of the refreshing liquid. Releasing a satisfied sigh as
the cool beverage slid down his throat and settled in his belly.

He scanned the horizon looking for boats. Then his gaze traveled up
along the sand, first one way then the other. That's when he spotted
her or rather her ORANGE bikini.

His gaze never left her as she walked along the BEACH. She was the
most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Endlessly long legs, trim waist
and flat stomach. His eyes remained glued to her tummy. Something
flashed in the sunlight. The little FLIRT had her bellybutton pierced.

His gut clenched. There was something about a woman's stomach that
turned him on. Maybe it was the softness, or the hint of the
forbidden, whatever it was he really didn't care. He just knew he
liked hers.

She neared his hotel and he had a better look at her. Graceful arms
ending in sexy shoulders. Her breasts were perfect, not too small and
not large enough to overflow his hands. His palms ached to feel their
weight.

The ocean breeze teased her long flaxen hair. She dropped to the sand
and stared out at the water. She'd been sitting in the exact same
spot as he had earlier today.

He took it as a good sign. Leaving his bottle on the table, he went
back into his room, grabbed his SHIRT off the bed and hurried down to
the beach.

As nonchalantly as he could, he walked across the sand and stopped in
front of her. She turned to him, using her hand to shade her blue eye
from the sun, and smiled. He smiled back and gave her a quick once
over. A PALM TREE, her belly ring was a gold palm tree.

"Hi, my name is Jamie. May I sit here with you?"

"Hi. I'm Heather and I wish you would."

End

She strolled across the white sand BEACH.

Upon arrival, she'd staked out the perfect spot where she would wile
away the day. A chair under a PALM TREE, one that she could move in
and out of the shade at her hearts pleasure. She planned to do nothing
but relax, read, sunbathe and swim.

She placed her tote bag next to the chair and took off her SHIRT
revealing her ORANGE bathing suit. She sat down and eyed the men on
the beach. So many to chose from and all single.

Dotty planned to FLIRT a lot on this vacation.

Lee Stetson exited the Daytona International Speedway and maneuvered
his car into the bumper to bumper traffic.

The road lined with PALM TREES would lead him to his wife in their
hotel room on the BEACH.

He just finished explaining as much to her on the car phone.

". . . Who knows what they were thinking, setting up the meet there
and then? I'm standing there in my civvies, surrounded by the pit crew
guys who had to wear the brightest ORANGE shirt in the entire state of
Florida."

"That's when the TV crew showed up?"

"Yeah. I thought that I was done for. Then one of the race mamas
approached me and, well, uh-"

"She started to FLIRT with you."

"Amanda, please! She started to FLIRT with me and it was just a
diversion to get me away from the public eye. She took me to my
contact and that was that. Case closed."

"Call Billy while you're stuck in that traffic, Lee. I've got plans
for us that don't include a debriefing."

"Anything you say, Amanda."

the end

Very Lucky

4247 Maplewood Dr.

Sunday, April 12, 1998

4:30 PM

"But Mom—"

"Sweetheart, I don't know what else I can say," Amanda put the grocery
bags on the table. "I told you what a wax was."

"You said it's when someone has hair removed from their body," Jenna
took the milk and ORANGE juice, putting them both in the fridge. "But
why do they call it a Brazilian wax?"

"It's just –um—it's a certain name for a certain type of wax." Amanda
said. "Now are you sure this poster board you picked is the right size
for your project?"

"It's perfect—I like the pink a lot," Jenna took the poster board and
the glue stick that Amanda gave her. "What kind of wax is it? And
why'd that girl Candi think it would make things more interesting?"

Two straight hours of this. Amanda closed her eyes and wondered
whether interrogation techniques might actually be an inherited trait.
Striving for calm, she took a deep breath and mentally counted to ten
before answering. "Sweetheart, listen to me. That letter was from a
long time ago—way before your father and I even met one another. It's
nothing that should worry or bother you."

"I'm not bothered, Mom," Jenna said. "I just want to know, that's all.
No one will tell me anything."

"Jenna shouldn't you get started on that collage before it gets much
later? It is due tomorrow. "

"That's changing the subject!" Jenna accused. "Why can't you just tell
me? Please?"

Looking into her daughter's face, Amanda knew what she had to do. She
took a deep breath—

SMK SMK SMK SMK

"I really wish you had destroyed that letter," Amanda grabbed Jenna's
SHIRT, the pink one with the PALM TREE on it—from the hamper, putting
it into the already-overflowing laundry basket.

"I thought I had destroyed it. I thought I'd destroyed them all along
my black books years ago," Lee followed his wife down to the utility
room. "That letter must've been at the very bottom of that box— I
don't even know how Jenna managed to stumble across it."

"Look at whose daughter she is."Amanda pulled out the laundry,
double-checking the pockets for objects. She found a tube of
chapstick in Jenna's pocket and set it aside.

"Yeah—good point." Lee ran both hands through his hair, letting his
breath out in a giant whoosh. "I'd almost forgotten about Candi—there
was never really a relationship there. She was a real FLIRT— she came
on to any male with two legs."

"Well she was serious enough for you to go sunbathing on an Australian
BEACH with." Amanda opened the washer and popped the clothes inside,
adding detergent and starting the cycle. "Quite a trip for someone
that you never had a real relationship with."

"A-man-da! Look, like you said, it was all a long time ago."

"Relax, Lee—I'm not jealous of Candi," Amanda said. "It's just not
every day that you find yourself trying to explain a Brazilian wax to
your own child."

Leaving the utility room they entered the kitchen. A pot of chili
simmered on the stove, the aroma filling the room. Amanda took a
wooden spoon from the overhanging rack and slowly stirred the mixture.

"Well what exactly did you explain?" Lee asked, not sure if he wanted
to know the answer.

"I explained that people used wax to remove body hair."

"And what did Jenna say?"

"That it sounded like it would hurt."

"So did that satisfy her?"

"Not exactly," Amanda took some thyme out of the cabinet and sprinkled
a small amount into the chili. "She wanted more details."

"Exactly how much more detail are we talking about here?" Lee said.
"She's only nine years old."

"Well I started to explain about what body parts they remove hair from—"

"Amanda you didn't—"

"Lee, relax," Amanda said. "As soon as I started to explain Jenna was
the one putting her hands over her own ears."

Lee let out an inward sigh of relief and smiled. "Good to hear. So now
that's the end of it, right?"

Amanda smiled. "Almost."

Lee's smile vanished. "Almost?"

SMK SMK SMK SMK

Jenna was sitting on the floor of her bedroom, blond hair curtaining
her face as she bent over the poster board. As Lee entered she looked
up and smiled at him.

"Hi Dad."

"Hi there." Lee kneltdown beside his daughter . "Still working on
your collage?"

"I'm almost finished." Jenna said. "It's supposed to be all about
things I love—mom let me use some family photos too—see? There's
Philip and Jamie--grandma, you and Mom--"

"Yeah I see—it looks beautiful." Lee paused for a moment. "Listen,
Jenna—about that letter and about what it said I—"

"It's okay," Jenna said. "I've been thinking about it and I think I
understand now."

"What do you understand?"

"Well—I think that before you were with Mom you were with some very
strange people," Jenna said. "And that you're very lucky you ended up
with us and not with Candi."

Smiling, Lee pulled Jenna into a brief hug, kissing the top of her
head. "Yes I am, munchkin," he told her. "I'm very lucky indeed."

The End

Amanda woke with a start. Memories of her dream flooding back to the
surface. She wished she finally remember everything and end these
stupid fragments of memories. As it was now, memories assaulted her
at the oddest moments.

She clearly remembered bringing an ORANGE to work and Lee
unconsciously taking it. He graciously gave her his chicken sandwich
when she'd told him he inadvertently ate her lunch. Then wandered off
to FLIRT with the new girl in the steno pool.

After that, everything else all jumbled together. Tonight's dream had
her and Lee on a BEACH somewhere, standing under a PALM TREE. She'd
fisted her hands in his SHIRT and he gently kissed her on the
forehead before pulling out of her embrace and fading away.

She wondered what the dream meant. If it was her subconscious trying
to tell her something or just another crazy side effect of the drug
she'd ingested. Only time would tell. She glanced at the bedside
clock; it was still too early to get up. Tugging the covers around
her shoulder, she lay back down and drifted back to sleep.

End

Mother Knows Best

Amanda King let out a long breath, after four days of running up and down the luxury resort they finally got their man and the case was solved. They arranged with the local police to keep it until a special plane from The Agency will come for him. Unfortunately or better fortunately, Dr Smyth could send the plane only next week, and that allowed her and Lee a few more days to relax on the BEACH.

Standing on the little balcony facing the beach, Amanda closed her
eyes and let herself dream listening the sound of the waves
caressing the shore.

Amanda's thoughts went back to the words of her mother. A deep sigh
left her chest aching, she was in love with Lee and she doesn't know
what to do.

To take her mother's advice was a big step for her, Dotty can be
right but she don't know the string of beautiful women who adorned
Lee's arm in time, but on the other hand lately she didn't knew
about any new conquest. More; he declined Leslie's invitation to
that Embassy party to invite her, Amanda, to dinner and above that "No
Shop-talk!"

"Ohhhhhh, that is nothing I want more then to get lost in his eyes,
to feel his strong arms around me keeping me safe without being in
danger!"

"Should I listen to mother? Should I risk letting him know how I feel
when he looks at me, when he think I don't see (mom was right here,
his looks made me shiver)?"

Frustrated Amanda decided to take a walk and maybe a swim in the
ocean. She change into her new bikini, took a towel and the
knock at door startled her. Her lungs seemed to forget how to breathe,
on her doorstep, leaning on the wall, stood Lee Stetson. White
Bermuda shorts and an open sea-green SHIRT made him look even more
breathtaking then he usually was.

His eyes half hidden by long eyelashes roam her body and little
electrical charges explode on every spot of skin "touched" by his
gaze. A towel clutched in his hand told her once again that their
minds were connected.

"Were you on the way to the BEACH, Amanda? We can go together, we
can and we should relax after the last days. We deserve a dip in
the waves after days of only see and hear the water."

"That was I thinking too, so let's go Lee!"

Waiting for the elevator to arrive Amanda spied a fruit basket on
the little table near a window. It was clear that this resort has
only the happiness of the people as first law: there were fruit
bowls and baskets all over the place. Without thinking or better not
wanting to think, she took an ORANGE and offered it to Lee.

His eyebrows almost touch and then wiggle a little:
"Wow, Mrs. King are you trying to seduce me? But I think it was an
apple in the original story!"

Decided to take a plunge, decided to know up close and personal all
the things that made the women faint at his feet Amanda start a
shameless FLIRT. For the first time in her life, she wanted something
and she wasn't afraid to try and take it. If it will be a success she
will be happy, if not she can blame the sun, the beach the warm
night, everything around.

Taking a step closer to him, almost touching his body, Amanda raised
her lips to his ear and asked in a sweet whisper, "Does it matter what fruit is it?"

Taken aback by her little blow in his ear Lee let a shiver be noticed and his arm snake around her waist keeping her glued to him.

The distance from the elevator, out of the lobby and the beach was
like a second for Amanda, the feel of his arm around her, his body
touching hers, the smell of his cologne made her head spin and her
heart to skip a beat once in a while. She couldn't believe that it
was actually Lee the man who was keeping her so close, close enough
to feel his heart beat in her blood.

On a mutual thought they laid the towels on the first lounger
and hand in hand began a stroll on the sandy beach or maybe on the
way to the future. There was no need for words, both could feel
that "That's right" kind of feeling.
The waves, the breeze, the almost sunset time, the couples strolling
near the water, watching to sky or simply each other add to the
atmosphere that impatience, that waiting for something extraordinary
to happen.

The solitary distant frame of a curved PALM TREE call them silently
to use his seat shape trunk to rest.
Lee never release Amanda from his arms, and took a seat on the Palm
trunk. Amanda's body was between his legs; she took advantage of
the position and wound her arms around his neck. The light from the
sun flecked his hazel eyes with gold ,the warmth of his body and all
the love she was feeling were enough: Amanda slowly closed the gap
between their lips and suddenly an entire fireworks show explode not
on the sky but in their hearts and both gave in the delightful
sensations created by the kiss.

Before loosing herself in his kiss, Amanda's thoughts made her smile
against his lips: Once again, her mother was right: nothing to loose
and a life to win!

The bar on the BEACH had a PALM TREE on each side shading it from the
sun. She unbuttoned her SHIRT to show a hint of cleavage before she
sat down on a barstool.

A gorgeous, tanned man sat down next to her. Immediately, she knew
he would FLIRT with her.

"Can I buy you drink, Gorgeous?"

"I'll have an ORANGE Rita."

"What's your name pretty lady?"

"We should keep our identities secret. I've always wanted to be a
woman of mystery."

"Like we're spies."

Dotty nodded. She'd learned to pretend from two of the best, her
daughter and Lee.

Note:

Orange Rita recipe:

1 oz Tequila
¾ oz Triple Sec
1 oz (freshly squeezed) Lime Juice
½ oz (freshly squeezed) Orange Juice

Shake all ingredients together in a cocktail shaker, and strain into
cocktail glass. Garnish with fresh orange and lime slices.