The Tiki Bar

"K" was a female friend from work who was temporarily living with the company General Manager, his wife, and their two young daughters. I spent a great deal of time with "K," both at work and away from the office. It was a very small office staff, so we worked on many things together and often covered for each other when the other was off handling one of their numerous duties.

As time went on, we came to trust and rely upon each other and became very good friends, nothing more. From time to time we'd go out for a drink together at a local watering hole. It was always very informal, and inevitably we would bump into mutual friends making it more of a group outing than just the two of us. I had always considered "K" an attractive woman. She was athletic and had long blonde hair which she usually wore pulled back into a ponytail. She was probably a little less dedicated to the job than I was, but she was serious about excelling at it.

It was a cold January weekend afternoon in 1995. Cold is a relative term seeing as how it was South Florida and probably in the 50's. But for those of us who lived down there year round, it was bitterly uncomfortable. The GM was out of town on a road trip. His wife was suffering from a migraine headache, so "K" volunteered to look after the girls for the afternoon. She was always very comfortable around the girls, almost like a big sister to them. "K" called me and asked if I wanted to tag along with them as they went to the beach. It was a bit too chilly for my taste, but she talked me into it and I headed up the road and joined them. Out in the sun, it actually wasn't too bad. The warmth of the sun on the sandy beach and warm ocean water were the recipe for a nice afternoon. As the afternoon started to wind down, we walked what would have been a few blocks along the beach to the large beach resort. The hotel was a U shaped property, with a swimming pool and outdoor tiki bar in the middle of the resort looking out toward the ocean. Although it was the peak tourist season, there were not many people out by the pool as the sun was setting and the temperature was starting to dip again.

The girls wanted to go swimming in the pool, so "K" took them over while I settled in at the Tiki Bar to get a tropical rum drink and watch the late NFL playoff games on TV. I tried to situate myself in one of the last slivers of sunlight slipping between the hotel buildings while still having a view of the television. It also afforded me an indirect view of the pool. As I sat getting increasingly colder from the combination of a wet swimsuit and a chilly breeze, I lost interest in the football game and spent most of my time watching "K" and the girls in the pool. I watched how she took time with both of them, paying equal attention to both. I saw how she was patiently teaching the younger of the two how to swim. Slowly, the way I had viewed "K" for all those months was being transformed in one afternoon. She no longer seemed like the girls older sister, but appeared more like a motherly figure. I began to see "K" as a woman who I was becoming more attracted to and one who could be a wonderful mother to her own children someday. In that one moment at the Tiki Bar, I knew I wanted "K" to be a girlfriend, not just a girl friend. I knew, for the first time, I would take that chance. On an afternoon that I needed to be talked into, my life was changed for all time. Things have not been the same after that weekend. The memories of that afternoon and what resulted from it are woven into my history like the palm leaves that made up the Tiki Bar.