Decorate My Palm Tree Read online

  She was one of the last out of the building, following two of the computer geek guys, and Doug who was holding the back door open. He usually locked up and set the outside alarm code on the key code box next to the door lock on the outside wall. Her company also gave her the alarm code in case of emergencies.

  The two guys stepped past Doug and there seemed to be enough room, but when she went to go out, it seemed that the space between his large body and the doorframe was barely enough for her to slide through. She tried to step quickly, but she swore she felt his erection. Damn that couldn’t be possible. Without turning around, she clutched her oversized bag, hiding the fact that her nipples had tightened to nubs that would show through even the heavy top she wore.

  She got a salad and diet ice tea at a drive thru, and went home past all the holiday lights to her dark home. Balancing her food, drink, and oversized bag, she got the door unlocked and stumbled in, kicking off shoes, then dropping her armload to the small kitchen table. She hit the wall switch to turn on the overhead light that she had put a smaller bulb in so that she didn’t go blind by bright lights.

  She took time to take a short shower and get into loose soft men’s shorts with an over large shirt. She was halfway through her salad when her cell rang. She dug through her big bag past the papers she had brought home. She never got calls at home so she expected this one to be some sales or political related nuisance.

  “Ms. Henderson, this is Cynthia Majors. I represent Events, Inc. You left a message needing to have an evening office party on December twenty-second. I think I might be able to help you out.”

  Gigi took a deep breath and grabbed a pencil and paper. “Yes, I had just about given up hope. What do you have available?”

  “Good, I have a dinner cruise contracted for that night just north of Sarasota. It is a lovely boat and holds one hundred fifty, very comfortably. My group is around one hundred so we would have room on this trip for another group. The boat is set up so that we could make a separate section so that your group could have a private section just for your own party. The boat leaves the dock at six-thirty and makes a nice trip up the inner causeway to view the lights and, depending on the water, it may go out John’s Pass. During the trip, a wonderful hot meal is served and I can email you a choice.”

  “This sounds like it will answer exactly what I need,” Gigi said as she was taking notes. “What is the price?”

  Gigi filled the full page on what the woman told her. This was going to work. She got the woman’s email, phone, and web site. She also had the woman send a contract and menu to her at the fax at work.

  She slept restlessly and could hardly wait for the weekend to finish to get into the office on Monday morning. She sat in her car and waited until Doug unlocked the door. When a couple of other workers entered, she hurried across the parking lot to go into the building and head to her office.

  She dumped her items quickly so she could head for the copy and fax room. Yes, the papers sat ready for her on the machine. She grabbed them and began reading as she started towards the door. She slammed into Doug, almost knocking both of them against the opposite wall.

  Doug chuckled as he held her with his hands on her upper arms.

  “Good morning, and what a nice way to start the day. Is that fax good or bad news?”

  Gigi frowned up at his smile that showed the white teeth against his tan. Did he live at the beach? Probably lies around letting bikini-clad beauties rub suntan lotion—wait where was she. He was holding her against his long body. She jumped back, surprised and grateful that he let go immediately, staying with his back against the hall wall.

  “So good or bad?”

  She took a deep breath. He was such a threat to her calm interior. “I beg your pardon?”

  His pleasant smile changed to the wicked one. “The fax, what did you think I meant?”

  She moved to get away, heading to her office. “Good news, I have the party finalized.” She ducked into her office, dropping into her chair to catch her breath. What was wrong with her? She was not interested in men any longer, especially someone like Doug who probably was the type who would kiss and tell. She was sure he carved notches on his bedpost. Damn. She had to quit saying that cuss word as mom had never liked it when Dad had used it.

  When she finally quit trembling, she leaned forward to read carefully, the contract. It was straightforward and exactly what Cynthia Majors had promised. She signed it so that she could scan it, then email it back to the event planner’s web site. She would run a copy and mail out the original this afternoon with a check. She looked at the menu and selected a buffet, thinking this would be better than waiting for the arguing over who wanted what.

  Next, she began to type up an announcement on the party to post in the break room. It wouldn’t be a fancy one with colors and holly leaves. It was just large type telling the date, time and place of the company holiday party. She printed out two copies on plain white paper and headed with her cup to the break room.

  She was properly trained, so she checked to make sure Doug wasn’t in the hall. She carefully made sure he wasn’t in the break room before she entered. She put the two notices up with the self-stick tack she had placed on the back of the paper, one of each side of the room on cabinet doors where her coworkers would see them.

  As she was filling her coffee, the first couple of workers came in and saw the notices.

  “Hey, this is great. I heard these dinner cruises are really nice.”

  The other person agreed. “Yes, we need to arrange to have some type of transportation home so we can drink as much as we want.”

  Then they saw Gigi and got quiet.

  She was pleased though that the venue was acceptable. Still she kept her composure along with her usual stone-like appearance as she left with her coffee. A quick glance seeing no Doug in the hall let her get back to her office. Once there, it was time to dig into her processing since she was behind due to the stupid party planning that now was behind her.

  Chapter Three

  What to wear, what to wear? It was Friday, December 22, and Doug had officially closed the office all day, with pay to his employees. Hooray for everyone. Well, Gigi would have preferred to stay and work to get ahead on her processing, but everyone else talked about shopping.

  They had drawn names to exchange gifts and she had drawn the name of Charles, one of the computer geeks. Gigi went to Radio Shack and bought a desk set recommended by a pimply-faced kid who looked too young to work, but she figured he would know his business. It all had different smiley faces printed on it. Some of the faces smiled, some frowned, and some were even crossed eyed. The set included a thumb drive, a stacked note block, and a couple of pens. The present was the first she had bought in three years. She bought one of the simple decorated bags to put it in so that she didn’t have to think about wrapping it and having left over Christmas paper in her house.

  She had hours before the party, so here she stood in front of her barely filled closet, trying to think what she would feel comfortable in at this party. She really wanted to put on one of her work outfits, but knew it wouldn’t be appropriate. She pulled out a plain blue dress she usually wore with a jacket and tried to dress it up with a scarf and a belt. It still looked like a plain blue dress.

  She let out a heavy sigh, looking around. She finally went out to the garage to join the chameleons. She moved a couple of boxes and found the one she wanted, taking it back into the house. She opened the box and spread the clothes in it out on her bed. They were mostly outfits from her college days. She had packed them away when she had gained weight, but after the funeral, she had lost weight as food along with most other things held no interest for her. She pulled out a short full skirt and a long sleeved white blouse that had lots of ruffles around a low cut neckline. Okay, she could still wear her low-heeled comfortable shoes since she was going to be on a moving boat. Good excuse.

  She took the two pieces and put them in the dryer on refresh.
While that worked, she hesitated about repacking everything else. She waited a moment, looking at the bright colors and then opened an empty drawer at the bottom on the big dresser and laid everything in there.

  With that settled, she spent the afternoon cleaning her clean house. This was a weekly routine. She finished, then worked nervously on herself. Shower, wash hair, shave everything important, powder and lotion and then down to the serious business. Could she do makeup? A little, but not much, maybe some mascara on her lashes would be okay without making her feel uncomfortable. She also found a lipstick that had a little more color, not bright red but a deeper pink.

  She was not going to wear her hair down, so she put it into a ponytail instead of the tied knot she wore at work. She had forgotten how long it was when the brown hair hit below her shoulder blades. She pulled on the short full skirt finding that the zipper and button closed with ease. The blouse fit loose, so she had lost enough weight. She pulled and tugged at the low neckline and finally found some pins to attach the ruffles to different areas of her bra so that if she leaned over no one would get any more view than what was showing, which was quite a bit compared to what she generally provided. She grabbed an old fashioned cotton knit scarf to put around her shoulders and then with a small clutch bag and in her comfortable shoes, she was off to the location to attend a party she dreaded. She just didn’t do parties anymore.

  * * * *

  It was raining when Doug got to the boat. The craft was in good shape and a couple of crewmembers were standing on the dock under umbrellas, holding out tall glasses of Champaign. He was one of the first to arrive and explained which group he would be joining. He also explained that he was the manager so he wanted to stay with them for a few minutes.

  Actually, he wanted to watch for her arrival. The female crewmember was flashing eyes at him as she directed people from the two groups to the different sections of the boat. This, basically was that the big group had the use of the entire boat except the top rear deck. The insurance group, being small, was in that area. The woman with a big smile told him that see-though covers had been zippered down to protect the top deck from the rain and small heaters were already running. She assured him they would be very comfortable and that the captain would keep a close eye on the storm.

  Then he saw her running in and out of the lights on the wooden dock. Her long legs flashing below the flipping black skirt. It happened that fast. He had an erection thinking how easy it would be to slide that skirt up to expose whatever he wanted. What he wanted was her. This was something that hadn’t happened to him. He had assumed he was born to be a bachelor. Now, he was having sexual thoughts about the same woman all the time. This cruise was going to answer some of his problems.

  * * * *

  Gigi let Doug help her up the ramp of the boat. She was lucky going up the steps as they were too narrow so that only one at a time could take them to the area set aside for their group.

  The party was not too bad for Gigi. She put up with the compliments, ate the food, and tried to keep people between her and Doug. The storm seemed to get pretty rough to her, but to the rest who were taking in a lot of liquor it wasn’t a problem.

  It was during the time when they were exchanging their gifts that she found a chance to get down the narrow hall and into the tiny restroom. She was not seasick, but she soon realized she couldn’t stay in this small room with the boat rolling so much from side to side in the storm. She came out of the room backwards, hanging onto the door for support as she pulled it closed.

  Before she could turn, she was in the arms of Doug in the dim narrow hallway.

  “Are you okay?” His voice was low and close to her ear.

  She hesitated, wanting to get away from him, yet uncomfortable with the way the boat was tipping. She leaned against the door with his hands on each side of her head.

  “I’m okay, I guess. What do you think? Will the captain be taking us back because of this storm?” She couldn’t see his expression with the dim light behind him keeping his face in darkness.

  “I could go and check. But you would owe me a small gift.” He actually chuckled.

  So he wasn’t afraid of the storm if he could make a pass at her, but she had to admit, the primitive feeling of a big male backing her up during a force of nature was causing some unusual heat in her body.

  Without putting his hands on her, he slowly moved forward and lowered his head. She felt his hot breath and didn’t move. No, that was not true as she tilted her head back enough so that their lips would meet if he were going to kiss her. She didn’t even ask herself why.

  * * * *

  Doug didn’t hesitate. He knew an invitation when he saw one and, with the dim light over his shoulder, he saw her eyes half closed and her mouth half open. He started slow, but when he tasted that soft mouth along with her response, it made him take over with a need to taste and feel all of her.

  He had a gift that he hadn’t expected. She responded fully, pushing her body against him, opening her mouth, and pulling on his tongue. He shoved her back against the door, hoping it held against both their weights as he felt the length of her against his body, especially against his erection that was shoving upward into her stomach. He put his arms around her and turned them both in the small hallway, pushing her against the wood-lined wall.

  God he was surprised at how much she gave back. How much she had kept locked up and was willing to unleash to him now. He wondered if they had cabins on this boat?

  It was at this moment that the boat groaned and tipped first over on one side and then on the other, deciding to stay and settle as it was rocked and buffered in winds and rain.

  Doug reacted on instinct, without thinking. He grabbed Gigi tightly and jerked his feet up, placing one on each side of her hips, pushing his own hips against the narrow hallway holding them both in place as he heard the loud noises around him as the boat tossed.

  In the distance, he heard screaming and yelling. An alarm began to sound, drowning out everything. He also heard someone making announcements, but the words were lost with the noise of the boat being tossed and the alarm shrieking.

  Chapter Four

  Gigi spit the salty water out of her mouth as she tried to help Doug keep her afloat. It was obvious even in the rain and wind that he was a strong swimmer. As he pushed so that he could direct her to the back of the hallway, she fell into the water where the back room should have been.

  Doug joined her as she struggled to swim, pushing unknown floating items that jumped and rocked as the boat continued to shift back and forth, as it seemed to be falling apart. Suddenly, Doug pushed a floating life jacket at her.

  “Don’t worry about putting it on. Just use it to help keep you afloat.” He had evidently found another life jacket as he pushed against her back to direct her towards the only opening from the back of the boat. Under the water, there were small red lights still blinking, evidently lit by separate back-up batteries.

  “When we get out of the boat, the waves will be cruel.” Now he spoke with authority and she heard his words over the noise of the storm. She heard voices screaming in the distance, but there was no one in this area. Where were her co-workers?

  She wasn’t sure how long Doug had braced them in the hallway as the boat shook around them. She heard the sound of people crying and she knew from the announcements that some had been able to get on either rafts or lifeboats. The wind was so violent that the rain was actually tossing sideways. She guessed the winds would throw any rafts away in the darkness, moved by the surf or the tide.

  Doug had them both outside the shuddering boat, but there were still a lot of items butting against them. It had been difficult as the wash of water kept trying to push them back under the canopy that had broken sideways.

  “Gigi, hang onto my belt with one hand and your life jacket with the other. It is important we not get separated. In the pitch black of this storm we will never find each other.” He pulled her against him.

&
nbsp; She tucked her arm over the life jacket, pulling it to her armpit. With her free hand, she felt along his body as he held her until she found his strong leather belt. She hooked her fingers into it with life-fearing desperation. Nothing was going to separate her from this man in this storm.

  “Gigi, are you strong enough to help me swim? We need to get away from the boat and swim across the current.” He was yelling, but his words were torn away by the wind.

  She tried to nod at first, but realized he couldn’t see her unless a brightness of lightning hit just at the same time.

  “Yes, but shouldn’t we stay with the boat?” She screamed the words, catching both rain and sea water in her mouth. She felt the pull as he began to kick in an attempt to swim away from the boat that was breaking apart. She kicked also, but finally heard his words.

  * * * *

  “In a small boat, yes, stay with it even if it tips over.” He took a breath, careful to keep his face away from the wind. “In big boats, it might pull you under. It can ram you with debris.” He paused for a clean breath as he kicked with strong legs, pleased that she was also kicking. “Its fuel floating on the water can eventually catch on fire. There can be an explosion in the engine room.” Another breath. “No, we must get away from this wreck and away from where the water might carry the fuel.”

  So they kicked in the blackness of the storm, interrupted only by lightning high in the clouds. He had no way to tell how long they made their way through the up and down of the waves, but he did feel his legs tiring. He knew she had to be giving out also. He felt they were far enough from the boat, so now they just had to hang on until the blasted storm faded.

  “Relax, baby, just hang on. We need to save ourselves and hopefully wait out the storm or get blown into something larger to hang onto.”