drinking with the guys (the men's version)

[NOTE: This chapter happens in parallel with Staci's story.]

Jake watched Abbie confidently stride to the far end of the boat and immediately strike up conversation with the assembly of women hanging out together. She's overwhelmed? he thought with a grin. If Abbie is overwhelmed by this adventure, she couldn't comprehend how I feel. Despite his cool demeanor, Jake truly was out of his league here. Other than Abbie, the only person he knew at all was Staci, and only distantly. Trying to mingle with a bunch of strangers was not his idea of a good time, even if it was on a cool boat, even if it was a gorgeous day, and even if he was surrounded by some of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen.

That was the twist. He thought back to life at his office, or even life anywhere -- nothing compared to this weekend. He'd taken Abbie on a flirty and frisky getaway weekend, and a couple days earlier, he imagined that he'd suffer through boring family functions by day and fool around with Abbie by night. But somehow, not only did the intense and extreme sexual adventure of Abbie Andrews go far beyond the evening hours inside the privacy of their hotel room, but it seemed that the entire weekend had some kind of a filter on it, and that everywhere he went, people were just more stunning, more alluring, and more sexual than he ever had noticed before.

He'd learned that Abbie herself had a different way of seeing the world, a different way of finding the truth in people. Was he changing as well? Was he beginning to see things in a different light, as if Abbie's influence somehow altered his perception of the world around him?

"Heh," Jake scoffed. "Maybe."

He certainly didn't want to dismiss anything about Abbie -- she was magical. Figuratively magical, at least. But just maybe she had found some way to cast a spell on him so that he also could start seeing the world the way that she did -- endless opportunity, endless optimism.

He gazed down the length of the boat. Abbie just blended right in with Staci and her friends. Jake chuckled as he watched each of Staci's friends, one by one, show up in a bathing suit, and Abbie was stuck there with a t-shirt. Regardless, she still managed to glow. That girl could make a t-shirt look like a million bucks, he thought. I mean ... she is doing exactly that.

Of course, even with his fixation on Abbie, Jake couldn't ignore the other women (whose names he was working hard to remember, especially since things had gotten pretty steamy on the limo ride to the pier). Melanie is the other redhead in the white bikini ... Taylor is the thin blonde in the blue-ish one ...

Jake sighed. His glance moved around -- the women, the water, Abbie, the picturesque day. He turned his attention to the other end of the boat where a handful of the guys were bantering about something, the drone of their collective voices just a dull buzz in his ear.

"I should just get a beer and ... try to fit in."