“Thank you.” It was a handsome apartment, without question, but recently, he had found it depressing. Everything seemed so tired and old to him, and the place was always so deadly silent whenever he came home. It was odd, but lately he'd been happier on his boat. Except for the time he spent with her.
Carole stopped and looked at a table full of photographs, while he went to get them a glass of wine, and turned on the rest of the lights. There were several of his parents, a beautiful one of Ellen, and a number of other friends. And there was a funny one of him, Gray, and Adam on the boat that summer. It was while they'd been in Sardinia with Sylvia and her friends, but only the Three Musketeers were in the picture, and no one else. There was another photograph of the
“That's quite a boat,” she said, as he handed her the glass of wine. He still hadn't told her about the boat, he had been waiting for the right moment to do so. It was embarrassing, but he knew that sooner or later he'd have to tell her that he owned a yacht. At first it had seemed pretentious to him, but now that they were seeing so much of each other, and exploring the possibility of dating, he wanted to be honest. It was no secret that he was a wealthy man.
“Gray and Adam and I spend the month of August on her every year. That photograph was taken in Sardinia. We had a great time,” he said, somewhat nervously, as she nodded her head and sipped the wine, and then followed him to the couch, and sat down.
“Whose boat is it?” she asked casually. She had told him earlier that her family were all sailors, and she'd spent a lot of time on sailboats in her youth. He was hoping she'd like his boat, even though it was a powerboat, and generally sailors called them “stinkpots.” But there was no question that his was a beauty. “Do you charter it?” She was acting normal, and he smiled at her green face. His lion suit looked just as silly, as he relaxed on the couch and crossed his furry legs, while his lion's tail stuck straight up behind him, and she giggled. They were quite a pair.
“No, we don't charter her.” He answered her second question before her first.
“Is it Adam's?” Charlie had mentioned that he was enormously successful, and that his family had money. He shook his head. And then took a breath.
“No. It's mine.” There was dead silence in the room as she looked into his eyes.
“Yours? You never told me that,” she said, with a look of total surprise. It was an enormous yacht.
“I was afraid you'd disapprove. I'd just come back when we first met. I spend three months on her in Europe every summer, and a couple of weeks in the Caribbean in winter. It's a wonderful place to be.”
“I'm sure it is,” she said pensively. “Wow, Charlie … that's a big deal.”
It was such a visible sign of Charlie's enormous wealth, and in sharp contrast to the way Carole worked and tried to live, and all that she believed. Charlie's fortune was no secret to her, but she lived far more simply and discreetly than he. The hub of her world was the center in Harlem, and the people in it, not a yacht, floating around the Caribbean. In spirit, Charlie knew she was more spartan than he. And he didn't want her to think less of him for his extravagant indulgences. He didn't want to frighten her.
“I hope it's not a deal-breaker for you,” he said quietly. “I'd love you to come on her one day. She's called the
“How big is she?” Carole asked out of curiosity.
“Two hundred and forty feet.” Carole whistled in response, and took a long sip of her wine.
“Jesus…I work in Harlem… and you have a two-hundred-and-forty-foot yacht … there's a discrepancy for you. But on the other hand,” she said, excusing him for the extravagance of it, “you just gave me a million dollars to spend on my kids. I guess if you didn't have that kind of money, you couldn't help us either. So maybe it's a wash.”
“I hope so. I don't want something stupid like a boat to come between us.”
She looked at him solemnly, with loving eyes. “It won't,” she said slowly. “At least I hope it won't.” There was nothing showy about him otherwise, and she could see that it was important to him, and how much he loved his boat. It was just a very, very big boat. “That's a long time to be gone in the summer,” she said pensively.
