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Scene 3: 6:00 pm aboard the Soaring Mackerel, a 118 ft. motor yacht cruising on the Intracoastal Waterway near Technopolis.

Kevin is alone again.

From the poop deck, Kevin McGruder looked down over the nearly deserted lower deck and wondered where everyone was. He could hear Hattie shrieking from somewhere inside the ship. Most of the office people were hunkered down in the game room where there was something to do between drinks, but Kevin couldn’t spend his time with them. Not tonight.

Danielle had already gravitated to the upper serving deck, which was partially open to the clear sky. On the nearby shore, houses sparkled with holiday lights as the sun set behind them.

Marshall Prescott did this every year, invited his staff at one of Technopolis’s leading business, FutureSoft, Inc. On this one night, the staff, usually sartorially office casual, dressed up and rubbed elbows with the newly rich Technopolis crowd, those guys and women who got rich and getting richer exploiting the nation’s craving for even more information that technology mines. At FutureSoft, the Prescotts were smart enough to deliver some ways to use this technology in ways that were indispensable to the modern business. And make a fortune while they were at making the world a better place.

The water roiled around the stern of the boat as they cruised slowly down the Intracoastal Waterway, past Titusville towards Technopolis. Afternoon was turning into evening as a weak sun sank behind the large Technopolis business towers. A fish jumped, showing its silver underside catching the sidelights from the yacht. Kevin watched two more mullet jump, and then leaned over the side to look closer at the deck below him for what was stirring them up.

Ahead, the lights of Technopolis Harbor glowed brightly the closer the yacht came It was there they would pick up the Italian delegation and continue sailing slowly toward Vero Beach and back.

He knew what he’d see and he reluctantly forced himself to face the unpleasant reality that Dirk was there with Danielle. A light breeze stirred her blond hair. The crumbs Dirk was tossing overboard were teasing fish and though mullet were small fish, the disturbance they made, snapping at anything that moved, seemed to Kevin to be as violent as a shark attack.

Kevin watched Danielle and Dirk, not wanting to intrude, yet drawn to Danielle with the same undertow that was always present whenever she was close by.

Danielle was laughing at something Dirk had said and Kevin felt that familiar pang of loneliness. That he was alone at this party, came alone, and would leave alone, didn’t half depress him as much as knowing he wouldn’t be going anywhere with Danielle. Probably not ever. It wasn’t that she didn’t like him. It was just that there were so many more interesting men in her sphere. Dirk, for example. Kevin she thought of as a younger brother, there to be teased and tormented. And protected.

Kevin knew she sometimes saw an inner light in him that went past his shy exterior, past his ordinary appearance, his usual tan or khaki pants with a golf shirt, and the white socks he wore with everything, even tonight’s tux. He wanted so much for Danielle to see beyond the deliberately bland exterior he fought every day to maintain.

Over the piped in music, Kevin heard Danielle calling to him to come down and join them. Kevin hesitated. He had a good look now at the dynamics between Danielle and Dirk and he didn’t like what he saw. Even though there were other guests were milling around the bartender who had set up strategically near the middle of the room, the two seemed alone. Danielle was smiling and Dirk was smug in knowing he had Danielle’s attention.

Still, with the setting sun tingeing the few high clouds with a deepening pink, the color of Danielle’s dress, she had become even more enchanting to Kevin. The east has turned to purple, and now the uninhabited western shore was disappearing into the coming night.

Kevin thought about Dementia, the club tucked away on the western shore, hidden from boats like this carrying people who made places like Dementia necessary just to restore the equilibrium between business and those who were forced into its involuntary servitude. Kevin longed to be there now, where the crazies were out in the open, and where he would not be tormented by Danielle.

Kevin made his way down and through the gangway to the main deck wondering if anything would ever change for him.

He heard Hattie shriek, “Where the x@$% is a waiter when you need one!” followed by raucous laughter.