Onboard Dottie's Pride, Key Largo, Florida, Monday Evening

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison lounged on the deck of Dottie's Pride, sipping at a beer and watching the sun set over the water. Next to him, Megabyte and Stance snoozed next to his chair, tuckered out after a long day of romping about in the sea air. He wasn't sure where Eliot was--doing something nautical, no doubt--and the last time he'd seen Parker, she was clinging to the side of the boat and giving him a heart attack, but he figured they'd be joining him soon enough to enjoy the last vestiges of the day and looking out towards the gorgeous expanse of ocean. Tellingly, his laptop was still in its bag in the cabin; he hadn't even pulled his phone out, except to take pictures every so often.

Don't tell anyone, but sometimes it was nice to be unplugged for a bit. Long enough to appreciate warm weather, the rocking of a gentle ocean, and the company of the two loves of his life.

...Though he was starting to get hungry. One and a half days of sailing to get to the Florida Keys would do that to a man. Maybe he should needle Eliot about letting him starve at the very beginning of their vacation to see if that would turn into dinner for all of them.

Oh yeah, vacations were great.

[NFB and for thems what are with him, please!]

Comments

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Ain't like I'm tryna disturb nobody in the woods! I just ain't, you know, a forest ninja or whatever."

And, let's be real, if Hardison found himself alone in the woods, he'd disturb anybody he could to get help back to civilization, where the electricity and internet lived.

"An' I'm just sayin', you're more likely to get a higher concentration of racists livin' out in their little prepper wood-bunkers than you would in a samplin' of people in the city, where, you know, minorities live."

He'd seen Deliverance, Eliot! Seen it!

[vdistinctive]

"Right." Eliot rolled his eyes. "'Cause there ain't any minorities out in the sticks. I never saw a black man till I headed northeast. . . ."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah an' how many of 'em did you see livin' out in the woods," Hardison muttered. "Or joinin' a paramilitary group out there?"

[vdistinctive]

"Believe it or not, that job was the first American paramilitary group I'd come across." Eliot sounded a bit surprised by that himself. "I mean, I saw plenty of 'em overseas. . . ."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Really?" Hardison asked. "Huh."

A second later, he was grinning again. "So, 100% of the American paramilitary groups you've interacted with are made up of racist rednecks then, huh?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot put his hands up. "I ain't gonna argue about the make-up of your average paramilitary. But the percent of land they were occupyin' ain't even big enough to register."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Yeah well, I--" Hardison's next incredibly detailed and well-thought out argument was forestalled by his stomach rumbling. Loudly.

"I'm apparently hungry as hell."

[vdistinctive]

"And lemme guess, you're expectin' me to do somethin' about that." Not that, you know, Eliot wouldn't. But it was nice to get to not cook sometimes, too. "Whatcha in the mood for?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Are there still sandwiches in the cooler?" Hardison could go for a sandwich. "Oooh, we're in the Keys! I bet people totally get delivery to their boats. can we get boat takeout?"

[vdistinctive]

"You wanna hunt some up, be my guest," Eliot said. "We can do fish tomorrow."

After Eliot had the chance to catch some.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You want anythin' specific?" Hardison asked, busily pulling up restaurants on his phone. "Looks like I ain't the only person who thought of boat takeout. Some of these places have their own boats! This one'll deliver up to a quarter mile out to sea!"

[vdistinctive]

"Should go with something islandy," Eliot mused. "There any jerk chicken places on that list?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I dunno where I can find some jerk chicken," Hardison teased, glancing up from his phone to wink. "But yeah, I can get us somethin' islandy. Mama Leveau's Caribbean Cuisine?"

[vdistinctive]

Eliot snorted. "You know, when the opening's too obvious, you just sound silly."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"We're on vacation an' I can be lazy if I want," Hardison told him, putting in an order full of moddable items.