Melinda opened her eyes and looked around. The sun was rising in the east. Seeing it, she sat up. A small breeze caused her to look down at her nude body. The events of the previous night came rushing back to her. She groaned, "Oh my God. It wasn't a dream."
"Good morning," Mike said. He was lying on his side watching her sleep.
Frantic to get in the protective cover of clothes, Melinda asked, "Where's my dress?"
"I think you are sitting on it," Mike answered watching her try to cover her body with her hands. She wasn't being very successful. It made him wonder if she was really trying all that hard.
Melinda shifted and grabbed her dress. She nearly tore it in her chaotic rush to put it on. With the dress still covering her head, she said, "You cheated."
"I did?" Mike asked amazed at the difficulty that she was having in getting dressed. He would have offered to help her, but he had a feeling that would only make her angry.
"Yes, you did."
"How?"
"You talked about my mind rather than my body," Melinda said. It even sounded lame to her.
"I didn't know that was cheating," Mike said with a grin. He wondered how long it would take her to realize that she was trying to put the dress on upside down.
"It is," Melinda declared. She gave a small scream of frustration when she realized that the dress was upside down.
"I must admit that you have a wonderful body," Mike said.
"Don't talk to me about my body," Melinda said. She finally got the dress mostly covering her.
"You're right. I'd rather talk about your mind," Mike said.
"Don't say a word about my mind. That's cheating," Melinda shouted. She finally got the dress so that it covered all of the parts it was meant to cover.
"You're right. I'd rather talk about how much fun it would be to work on a submarine with you," Mike said.
"Do what?" Melinda asked looking around for her underwear.
"I bet that working together, we could build a submarine that would put all of the others to shame," Mike said.
"A submarine?" Melinda asked forgetting about her underwear for a minute.
"Yes. I keep imagining a submarine with a transparent front that would let us watch the sea life while we're cruising through the Galapagos Islands," Mike said.
"There's a reason why submarines are built like tin cans," Melinda said.
"I must admit that it would be a challenge. I was thinking of something about a hundred feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and about ten feet tall," Mike said.
"Not a cylinder," Melinda asked finding that she was interested in the idea.
"I was looking at making something a little more unusual than that. I was thinking of something along the lines of a manta ray in shape although not quite as wide," Mike said.
"You wouldn't be able to take something like that too deep. It would be kind of too large for shallow areas," Melinda said.
"It just needs to get deep enough to avoid the turbulence of storms and we could add a small run-about for shallow areas," Mike said.
"That's true," Melinda said.
Knowing that he had her well and truly hooked, he said, "I'd love to take it through the region around the Galapagos Islands. Can you imagine watching the diversity of aquatic life in their natural habitat?"
"That would be wonderful," Melinda said. She always visited aquariums whenever she had the chance.
"It would make a nice trip for our fifth anniversary," Mike said.
Melinda snapped out of her daydream and shouted, "Stop doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"Cheating," Melinda said. It seemed to her that he was always keeping her off balance. Last night, he had talked about her accomplishments as an engineer. It had been so easy to talk about it that she completely dropped her guard. The next thing she knew, she was taking off her dress. Things got real fuzzy about that time.
"I wasn't cheating. I was talking about you and me designing a fully functional touring submarine," Mike said pleasantly.
"Where is my underwear?" Melinda asked. She had to get herself together before she lost it completely.
"Hanging off the cactus over there," Mike said pointing to a plant a dozen feet away.
"Oh, God."
"I never saw anyone so eager to get out of her panties," Mike said.
"I don't want to hear about it."
"You do let your passions get the better of you at times," Mike observed.
"Shut up."
"You are quite vocal too," Mike said. He was enjoying the moment.
"Don't say another word."
"That was the best night of my life," Mike said.
Melinda practically whimpered on hearing that. She hung her head and said, "That's it. Torture me some more."
"I'm serious. I've never been with a woman like you," Mike said while getting up to walk over to the cactus on which her panties hung limply.
"Rub it in."
"I can't wait to work with you," Mike said. He got the panties off the cactus and held them up for her to see. Making a production of it, he lifted the panties to his nose and sniffed. Smiling up at her, he said, "Someone was excited last night."
"That's disturbing," Melinda said staring at him.
"I can't wait to see if you are half as passionate when working as you are in bed," Mike said tossing the panties to her.
"Kill me now," Melinda said. She couldn't even say why she had done what she had done the previous night. It was very rare when she let loose like that. The idea that she would do that with Mike O'Connor was so foreign to her that it felt like it was happening to a stranger.
Mike crouched down by the blanket and picked up his clothes. He said, "Let's get to the barn and eat."
"Aren't you going to get dressed?" Melinda asked. She kept finding her eyes drawn to his pride and joy.
"You've seen it all. In fact, if I remember correctly you've handled the interesting bits quite extensively," Mike said. He grinned at the sequence of expressions that crossed her face.
"I was drunk at the time," Melinda said.
"You had one glass of wine with dinner and nothing else alcoholic for the next four hours," Mike said pointing out the weakness in her excuse.
"Can't you let a girl retain her dignity?"
"I'm just keeping you honest," Mike said.
Melinda led the way to the building. She had thought it preferable to lead than to follow the naked man back to the building until Mike said, "The view from back here is wonderful."
"Ugh! I want to kill you."
"No need to wait up for me. I'll just follow along behind you," Mike said when she stopped to glare at him.
Turning, she stomped towards the building. His laughter added fuel to her anger. She muttered, "I just need ten minutes alone to collect myself."
Mike followed along appreciating the way that her dress showed off her body. He nearly burst into laughter when she shouted, "I can't believe that I slept with him."
He called back, "On the first date no less!"
"Argh!"
Mike laughed at her reaction. He knew that she was going to marry him despite her constant denial. He followed her into the building. Without waiting for him, she made her way to the stairwell. She wanted to get a shower. It wasn't until she reached the bottom of the stairs that she realized he would be able to watch her wash. She wanted to cry.
Mike passed by her before calling over his shoulder, "Let me wash up first and I'll start breakfast while you take your shower."
"Okay," Melinda answered.
Five minutes later, Melinda caught herself watching Mike lather his body in the shower. She mumbled, "God he's a good looking man."
Mike paused in his shower and looked over at her. Seeing that she was staring at him, he sent her an exaggerated wink. Realizing that she had been caught watching him, she spun around to face the other direction. Mike said, "Damn, she's a fine woman."
After rinsing off, Mike stepped out of the shower. He called over to her, "The shower is all yours."
"Thanks," Melinda replied wondering how she would get the nerve to strip in front of him.
"How do you like your eggs?" Mike asked.
"Didn't my mother tell you?"
"I didn't ask."
"Over easy."
Mike was about to make a joke, but held off. He said, "Just so that you know, I like mine over hard."
"Oh," Melinda said. She wasn't quite sure what that meant. She was going to say something else, but he had walked over to the kitchen area. It dawned on her that he was letting her know that he expected that she would be preparing breakfast for him sometime in the future.
"Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes," Mike said.
In a supreme act of courage, Melinda undressed and stepped into the shower. She kept glancing over at Mike to see if he was leering at her, but he was busy in the kitchen. Keeping an eye upon him, she washed her body. She nearly died when he glanced in her direction. She got angry when he laughed and went back to work while shaking his head.
After rinsing off, she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. After she had dried her body, she wrapped the towel around her body. It was just big enough to cover all of the important bits. After picking up her little black dress, she looked it over. It was covered with sand and stains that bore visual evidence of what they had done the previous evening. It was ruined.
Mike said, "Mycroft."
"Yes, sir."
The disembodied voice coming from nowhere startled Melinda. She looked around trying to see who else was in the room.
"Display the plans for Manta One on the wall, Mycroft," Mike said. A projector displayed the plans for a submarine on the wall across the room. Even as the display slowly came to full brightness, the voice said, "Yes, sir."
"Thank you, Mycroft."
"What was that?" Melinda asked.
"Why don't you check it out?" Mike called over to Melinda. He cracked an egg into the frying pan without looking up to see what she was doing.
Feeling like she had entered a science fiction film, Melinda walked across the room staring at the plans projected on the wall. The plans were not very well developed. There were major regions in which boxes were drawn labeled with the function that was to be installed. She could see the shape of the hull and major support structures, but there were a lot of features missing.
Her mind started filling in the details. There were areas where greater support was needed to counter the pressures that any depth of significance would put upon the hull. Mentally she changed a little of the design wishing that she had a computer to help perform the stress calculations.
Mike appeared by her side and said, "Breakfast is ready."
"Already?"
"Yes," Mike said. He handed her a cup of coffee. Once she had taken it from him, he slipped a finger in the top of the towel. With a gentle tug, the towel dropped to the floor. He said, "You don't need that here."
Wide-eyed, Melinda couldn't believe that he had done that. She would have hit him, but he had stepped back. He said, "Don't worry, I won't attack you."
She followed him to the dining table. Much to her surprise, he pulled the chair out for her. She sat down and stared at the breakfast plate. There were two eggs, bacon, hash browned potatoes, and whole wheat toast. Next to the plate was a glass of orange juice. Her stomach growled in a very unladylike manner. She said, "It looks good."
"Thanks. Dig in before it gets cold," Mike said.
They didn't talk while eating. About midway through the meal a chime sounded. Mike looked up and said, "Yes, Mycroft."
"A call for you."
"Put it through, Mycroft."
"Yes, sir."
A woman's voice filled the air. "Mike?"
"Hello, Mom."
"Can you clear the runway? I'll be there in an hour," his mother said.
Melinda's eyes nearly bulged out upon hearing that. Here she was sitting naked with the son of Elizabeth Lee and the queen of engineering was on her way there. Even if she put on her clothes, her little black dress was completely ruined. The woman would see the stains and know exactly what had happened.
"No problem, Mom."
"Is she there?"
"Yes, Mom. She's here."
"That's good. I can't wait to see her again."
Melinda was waving her hands and mouthing, "She can't come here and see me like this."
"She says hello," Mike said.
"Can't she speak for herself?"
"Her mouth is full at the moment."
"Ah, having a little morning fun. I'm sorry to interrupt."
Melinda squeaked.
"We're just having breakfast," Mike said.
"It isn't too late for a little morning fun."
Melinda squawked.
"I'll keep that in mind, Mom."
"Is there a bird there?"
"No, Mom."
"I keep hearing squeaks and squawks."
"That's Melinda, Mom."
Melinda squawked again.
"Odd. I thought she was a more articulate woman than that."
"I think she's a little scared of meeting her future mother-in-law."
Melinda squawked.
"No need to be scared. I haven't bitten anyone in ages."
"What about Dad?"
"Okay, I bite him all of the time. He's an asshole."
Melinda squeaked.
"Now you've scared her, Mom."
"Sorry, Mike."
"I'll see you in an hour."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Now that the conversation was over, Melinda recovered enough to say, "You asshole."
"Uh," Mike said raising a finger.
"I'm naked and your mother is coming here."
"There's..." Mike said.
"My only dress is stained with you know what!"
"I'm still here, dear," Mike's mother said.
"Oh my God," Melinda said. She wanted to crawl in a hole and die.
"She just turned so red that all of her freckles disappeared."
"I'm sure if you search for them, you'll find where they went."
"Good idea, Mom."
"I'll let you go then."
"Bye."
"Happy hunting."
"Thanks, Mom." Mike paused for a moment and then said, "Hang up, Mycroft."
"Yes, sir."
"Send out the drones to clean up the runway, Mycroft."
"Yes, sir."
"Thank you, Mycroft." Mike looked across the table at Melinda. She looked mortified. He said, "You're in luck. Mom likes you."
"I have never been so embarrassed in my whole life," Melinda said. She would have run off to hide, but there was no place to hide in his house.
"That was nothing. Stick with me and there'll be plenty of other occasions to be embarrassed," Mike said.
"You're not comforting me."
Mike said, "Mom did have a good suggestion, though."
"What?"
"I really should search for your errant freckles. We'd had better find them before they have a chance to disappear for good."
"I just made a complete ass out of myself and you're talking about freckles?" Melinda asked.
"Of course," Mike replied seeing that he was getting a rise out of her. "I haven't had a chance to play connect the dots yet."
Melinda screamed, "You asshole!"
Mike leaned forward and made a production of studying her chest. Looking up, he said, "They're back. I guess you aren't embarrassed anymore."
"I'm angry."
"I noticed."
"You did that on purpose."
"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't."
"Which is it?"
"Do you know where I live," Mike asked changing the subject.
"You live in Lockwood Estates."
"Yes, I do," Mike said. "What do you know about Lockwood Estates?"
"It is a nudist colony," Melinda answered. She found the idea of people setting up a clothing optional community disgusting. "There should be laws against it."
"Would you like to know who my neighbor is?" Mike asked.
"Who is your neighbor?"
"Mom," Mike answered.
"Oh God."
Mike said, "Sitting around the house with naked people is not atypical behavior around my neighborhood."
"I'm a normal person. Really, I am."