"Strength and honor are her clothing: and she shall rejoice in 
time to come." 
-The Bible


**********



My father is the Service Manager for a Motorcycle / ATV / 
Watercraft (little boy adrenaline junky) Store. 

While in High School (and some in College) I spent some time 
working behind the Parts Counter to earn a few extra bucks. 
Beats the hell out of retail, and department stores...or so I 
thought. I was hoping it would be easy street and I could get 
allot spare reading/studying time in, but that was rarely the 
case.

Guys were always in there, packs of them, something I used to 
poke fun of. I'd be sitting at my terminal, reading a textbook 
when I would look up and there would be like six or seven guys 
standing there from my school, or just from the area. That 
always killed me, there are like two or three other part reps 
behind 
the counter, why come bug me? Yeah...yeah...I know why...I'm 
just bitching as usual.

"You guys always travel in packs?" I would smirk and close my 
book.

"You been riding this summer Corbin?" I would always get 
asked. You see, my father had bought me a 2002 Kawi KX125, 
but I rarely rode it. It was fun the first summer but just not my 
thing. I would just shake my head 'no'.

I never did girly stuff (mainly because I don't usually pal around 
in large packs of girls), and I kind of avoided the ultra feminine 
route with the jobs I took and the sports I played. These 
choices always put me in frequent contact with 'Cool' guys in 
the area, who were always involved in the 'cool' sports and 
activities, like motor cross, watercraft and other outdoor 
activities.

The hilarious thing was this, most of these guys were rugged, 
athletic, good looking and pursued by most of my female peers. 
Yet, here they were, always coming into store to buy stuff for 
their ski's, bikes, ATV's...you name it. All I had to do is sit at my 
station and they came swarming around. That made me 
real popular with the other girls (NOT!). 

I bet some of you gentle readers are fairly bright...so here is a 
pop-quiz:
After I am done helping some guy and I ask "Is there anything 
else I can get for you?", What response am I likely to get;
a.) 'Just your phone number'
b.) 'A date would be nice'
c.) 'Dinner and a movie'

If you picked any of the above you got the answer right. See, 
that's wasn't so hard, I hope it didn't overtax your brains. :-)

Young...old....you name it, but the older guys were much bolder 
with asking me out.

One mouthy brunette girl came tagging along with her boyfriend 
and a few of his friends one day. She's cutting me these looks 
all the while I am sitting there looking up parts for the guys until 
some guys start asking me to go riding that weekend, when I 
decline 'Ms. Mouth' speaks up; 
"I guess blondes don't really have more fun."

"Actually...." I say, while still typing, "....blondes are more fun. 
That's why your boyfriend and his buddies always come asking 
me to hang out with them." A few muffled laughs later and she 
is fit to be tied.

"Dream on you muscle head jock. At least I got a boyfriend." 
Well, now her boyfriend is asking her to cool-it. I stand up to get 
the receipt which is getting spit out from the printer behind me 
and now she gets a good look at my height and build. She must 
be 5' 2" max, so my 5' 11" frame kind of towers over her, and 
she's getting a bit more quiet. I hand the receipt to the guy on 
my right as I smile, thanking him for the purchase.

I look at the girl, while giving my best customer service smile, 
"We'll there be anything else." She just gives me this eat shit 
look, but I can tell she's biting her tongue. I brace my hands 
against the counter top making sure they get a good look at the 
muscles running up the length of my arms. I normally despise 
showing off, but now seemed like a good time as any.   

I was biting my tongue real hard because I didn't want to get 
fired by my Dad, of all people.

Maybe next time I'll tell about one of the first times I went riding, 
I was getting the hang of things on some pretty rough terrain 
and ended up beating the crap out of some guy because he 
was razzing my riding skills in front of everyone, which I can 
take....be he kept going and going and going and going.....I had 
him eating dirt after I got done with him. 


**********


Sometimes I can't believe my eyes. I'm reading this article 
about how to help women break their men of bad habits. The 
list includes:

1.) Leaving the toilet seat up.
2.) Drooling over the Victoria's Secret catalog.
3.) Driving like a maniac.
4.) His inability to focus on anything else (i.e., you) when a 
game is on.
5.) Burping the alphabet (and other bad manners).
6.) His insistence on wearing his favorite ratty T-shirt to any and 
all social events.
7.) Leaving dirty dishes in the kitchen sink (and other cleaning 
issues).

Okay, first of all, you have to break the man, not the habit. 
Once he's put in his place, the habits will also disappear. 
Dealing with the habit itself is a waste of time. But maybe the 
bigger problem is that if you're a woman who dates one of 
these fools, then not only is he a LOSER, but so are YOU! 
Thus I suppose you deserve each other.

I then tossed the magazine in the trash.


**********


During the trip to the beach house, there was not much talk. 
The windows were down, the wind in our hair, the sun was 
shining and the temperature had risen to the upper nineties. I 
was nodding off in the passenger seat until I felt a faint nudge 
on my firm shoulder, "Where almost there!"  Sharon sat up 
excited as I blinked awake, a few clouds had rolled in but I 
could tell we were close, traffic started to pick up. At every turn, 
stoplight, street sign I felt the anticipation build within me, why 
was I getting so excited? I guess everyone gets that feeling of 
anticipation that something great is about to happen, and that 
was the feeling that I had. Combine that with the now thick 
humidity, visions of sand, surf, tan bodies and sweat over the 
next seven days, you get the picture I think. 
 
I perked up even more as the house started to come into view, 
it was at the end of a cul-de-sac, a short boardwalk made it's 
way up to the dunes, and beyond that the Atlantic Ocean. 
Sharon kept grinning and pointing at the house with excitement, 
as if the first five times she pointed weren't enough. 
 
A bit eerie at first, walking into such a big house with three 
levels to explore. The odd layout made sense after awhile, 
when on the first floor you look for the kitchen...but no, now we 
are on the second floor and still no kitchen. We climb the stairs 
and are greeted by this great room with a magnificent cathedral 
ceiling. To the left was this enormous kitchen with large 
windows on every wall. The view, from anywhere in the room 
was amazing and although a short dune separated the house 
from the beach, we were high enough up to have an incredible 
ocean view. 
 
I felt Sharon's arm rest over my shoulder and then she was 
standing to my left. My left hand came around Sharon's waist 
and we enjoyed the moment just a bit longer. 
 
"Let's go on to the deck." I suggested. 
 
"Let's" Sharon smiled. 
 
And what a deck it was, wrapping around the entire third floor. 
We stood in the glow of the late afternoon sun, leaning against 
the railing and watched as people had their fill of sun and sand, 
heading home. 


********** 


After lunch I was able to snag one of my other girlfriends 
staying with us, Jenn, and walked into Duck to scout some 
places to eat for dinner and maybe hit a few surf shops 
(although I chuckle at that, surf in Duck? More like a giant lake).

It's always interesting to go into the local shops, the guys that 
try to act all cool and laid back with that joe-surfer attitude while 
hitting on you.

(Like the time a few years back when some guy behind the 
checkout counter asked if I had a chance to see "Pearl" when 
they were in town. HUH? Who the hell is 'Pearl'? I asked with a 
puzzled look. 'Pearl Jam' he said with an amused smile. "Oh, 
I'm not fluent in the language of cool-abbreviated-lingo." I 
replied.)

The heat and humidity had not let up, so we were good and 
drenched with sweat by the time we started walking back.

"Thanks Corbin." Jenn said, patting me on the back, "This was 
a great idea, getting all hot and sweaty, trekking up and down 
the road here."

"Suck it up wimp." I said with a smile. "but fine lets take a 
break?" I pointed to a Cafe and Raw bar nestled in a tiny 
shopping strip.

"Yeah, at least it will get us out of the heat."

Jenn was right about that, the cool air in the restaurant was 
nice and we sat at the bar. Although lunch time had come and 
gone, the place was still full, there wasn't much to brag about, it 
was a nice little place with your typical beach type decorations 
and such, some slow moving overhead fans did an adequate 
job of circulating the air and of course the bar had some TV's 
tuned into the usual sports news.

"Hey, mind if I ask some nosey questions?" Jenn taps me on 
the wrist with her straw and I know where this is going.

"Fire away." I say and raise a knowing eyebrow at her.

"So who came onto who first?" Jenn was now giving me this 
gossipy, curious smile she gets as she leans over to sip on her 
diet coke.

"Nikki hit on me." I said and did my best to keep from grinning 
like some idiot.

"How did that go over? I mean, were you both sober and were 
you offended when she made a pass at you?" Jenn asked. She 
seemed really interested, or maybe it was just nosey gossip, 
but either way I didn't mind sharing a few things with her. Might 
as well get used to it, it wont be the last barrage of questions I 
ever have to face.

"Yes we were both totally sober and no I was not offended, just 
freaked out, we both were afraid of what the impact on our 
friendship would have."

As with any occasion, whenever I try to have an in-depth 
conversation I get interrupted. I am looking to my right, talking 
with Jenn when I sense someone is standing to my left, very 
close to my left. Now I am getting Irritated!

"Hold on Jenn." I sigh and twist my head to the left, and the 
second I glance over this guy begins speaking to me...

"Can we buy you girls a drink?"

Oh what the hell! Can't I sit down and have a minutes peace!!

I casually leaned back in my chair and didn't even crack a 
smile, "Thanks, but 
were just hanging out and chatting, maybe some other time."

Thankfully Jenn just looked away, not giving him the time of 
day. I really was more annoyed then anything. When we left the 
restaurant my mood perked up tremendously as I realized that 
it wouldn't be that long before Nikki would be here. We text 
messaged back and forth several times and talked later that 
night. 


**********


The idea to go out to dinner was scrapped because the girls 
had invited some guys over to dinner at the house, dinner as in 
ordering pizza. Such a healthy selection of food! *Yuck* Well, I 
don't mind pizza all that much, it's just that it always tastes like I 
am chewing on a big wad of dough, that's all, as my mind 
begins processing the calorie intake.

I had a small slice and then had some fruit and some left over 
baked chicken. I cannot stress how eating small portions is so 
important, don't buy into these bullshit news articles that there 
are FAT genes or a FAT virus going around, the responsibility 
resides with YOU AND YOU ALONE!

Eat less and exercise more, it's as easy as it gets.


**********



  
Corbin_Chapter_16