“I’m calling herThe Cleopatra. She’s our chariot to Nora House.”
“Permission to come aboard?”
“Granted.”
Joe and Tag both offered Viv a hand to climb on. She took both because if this was a Queen of the Nile kind of deal, why not?
“Now, be careful. You need to ease out. This isn’t for peeling out.” Joe told Goldie, who waved him off like he was a gnat.
“I’ve got the hang of it now.”
“She nearly took the dock out over at Keith’s when we picked it up,” Joe told Viv under his breath.
Keith owned Steve’s Marina now, and she could envision the scene.
“You’ve gone from limos and Ubers to driving your own pontoon boat, wow.”
“Oh, I used to do this? Remember?”
“I do.”
“I better hang on to something. I sense she’s a speed demon.” Tag sat next to Viv on the cushioned seats under the canopy of the wide porch-like boat. Viv had never seen a pontoon boat this luxe.
“Takes one to know one,” said Viv.
The Cleopatra pontoon boat gleamed black and gold in the sun. Speakers embedded into the seats played The Chicks. Three shiny pontoons held the vessel on top of the water, and Viv did wonder how Goldie was going to avoid hitting things with it. The boat was enormous. The floor looked like real wood, for goodness’ sake. Everywhere Viv looked, there was a cup holder. Or something glinting in the sun.
Joe opened a door to reveal a beverage fridge.
“Can I offer you some wine? White? Red?”
“Uh, Boone’s Farm, maybe. Some Country Kwencher?”
“Ha! You’re not quite as classy as you put out,” Tag said.
“What, white wine seems appropriate to the day. Kwencher is a white.” Viv shrugged. She had no idea what was actually appropriate for this floating palace.
“Classy, this girl hurled her guts out for the entire night when we were, what, seventeen, after Keith got us Bellagio?”
“Shh, do not tell Siena these awful lies,” Viv said. That experience cured her of binge drinking.
“We did have some fun,” Goldie said.
“We were lucky, the trouble we narrowly avoided in those days.” The memory of those summer nights warmed Viv.
Joe handed her a glass of white, decidedly a few steps up from Boone’s Farm.
“So, international superstar Goldie Hayes used to tool around the lake, raising hell?” Joe asked, and you could see while he liked teasing Goldie, he also just liked Goldie. He was not in awe of the star but charmed by the person. Goldie deserved that, finally.
“Oh, we all did. Libby had a pontoon back then, but she also had a little fishing boat that we all crammed into most of the time,” Viv said.
“I only ran it aground once. I think that’s pretty good.”
“Oh, man,” Joe said and shook his head.
“She ran it aground once and also got it stuck in the sandbar for half a day once.”
“Pfft.” Goldie waved off the old stories.
