Copyright Jan Wayne Fields
“Where’s the bathroom, then?”
Joseph sighed. He’d realised when he saw Phoebe tottering down the jetty, dragging a Louis Vuitton behind her, that quite unjustifiable expectations had been invested in his suggestion “let’s weekend on my boat”.
“This is a day-boat, Phoebe, it’s a ‘bucket-and-chuckit’ job.”
“Ergh!” Phoebe shuddered. “So where will we sleep?”
“Here,” he said, patting the splinter-ridden deck, “beneath the stars.”
Now Phoebe sighed.
“I’ll put my case here then, shall I?”
“My bait-box goes there, Pheebs.”
“Bait-box… that’s a music-system, right?”
Joseph climbed out of the boat.
“I’ll book us a room somewhere, shall I?”
(You’ll never know how hard it was for the OCD side of me not to straighten up the horizon on this photo-prompt.) 🙂
An apology for fellow participants in the Friday Fictioneers community. If your website insists that I complete a form to comment on your story, you might think I don’t return your visit and/or read your story. I do. But for people with time and internet constraints, (that’s generally me), this procedure seems an irrelevant time-consuming exercise. My name and website url are available via the linky and/or gravatar, and due to an unmanageable heap of spam/spoof/pornographic junk filling up my inbox right now, I’m reluctant to give my email address where it’s not needed. I hope you’ll understand.
Thanks once again, Rochelle. I truly appreciate the time you put into this every week.
castelsarrasin 
What fun!
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Troubles with communication from the start, I wonder what the future brings to those two birds. Nice clash of characters.
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Thanks. I’m not holding out a lot of hope for them.
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Dear Sandra,
I wonder how this will play out. Obviously there’s been a failure to communicate. Perhaps things will work out in the end. I enjoyed the dialogue. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle. 🙂
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Hee-hee-hee-heeeeeee! Now THAT’S a fun one, Sandra. You have a flare for really good dialogue and you integrate it so well with the economy of descriptions.
Five out of five Kate Spades.
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🙂 Thank you Kent.
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How not to communicate! Good write, Sandra 😀
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Thanks Sue. 🙂
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😀
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Unusually light for you, Sandra, but quite charmingly developed.
And I like your postscript, I confess I usually don’t bother either.
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I found this a difficult prompt last time, and I think I opted out altogether as I couldn’t find one in my index for this. So it was a bit of an off-the-cuff attempt – just so I could get my attendance mark, as we used to say. 😉
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Fantastic story – I could see both these characters so clearly. I don’t think they’re destined for each other somehow.
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Thanks Claire. I don’t think I’ve ever had a character called Phoebe before. 🙂
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I can just see it play out… Great piece as always.
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Thank you Emmy. 🙂
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Phoebe get your act together, drop his bait box over the side and take control🙂
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ah… YES book a room and next time communicate the difference between a yacht and a day-cruiser… boat is too subtle sometimes.
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Oh dear, not the weekend either of them hoped for.
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Haha! NOT a match made in heaven. They have very different expecations of a weekend’s fun, don’t they? Super story, Sandra, with some cracking dialogue. There are so many strong stories this week! 🙂
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Ha! This amused me! The importance of communication and setting expectations is very apparent!
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Loved it! Their conversation made me laugh out loud!
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I loved the ending!
Frustration expressed very convincingly!
Wonder if he was the one to deceive her by not being plain spoken before!
Goes to show that men are practical women are romantic!
Guess he didn’t understand the difference!
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I love these characters. A nice mis-match of expectations. She doesn’t strike me as the bucket squatting type.
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Slightly different worlds…. I’m sure once out the next line would be, “Beer? I don’t drink,” shudder, “beer.”
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Maybe he should book her a room for the night and sail off with someone more suitable to his interests 🙂
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First and last date?
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Maybe he should have thrown the word ‘fishing’ in somewhere when he invited her on his boat. Fun story, Sandra.
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rightly titled
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he was such a gentleman. 🙂
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No reason to write these two off, I’m a confirmed princess and T is a “bucket and chuck it” sort of guy but three decades later I book the room and he can pee outdoors if he feels the call of the wild. Ha ha
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She’s going to have to lower her standards if she wants to enjoy the weekend. Fun dialogue and characters.
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I like the different characters and expectations you’ve created in this small space!
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Joseph and Phoebe don’t seem too compatible! I think he made the right decision in the end. She’ll be soooooo much happier in a hotel.
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I think I would have a hard time sleeping on the bait box. Give me some pillows. Great piece, Sandra.
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This is delightfully light-hearted. Thanks for the smile (she reminds me of my sister-in-law, who I love but . . . .)
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Joseph, it seems, understands women; all women.
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I agree it was great dialogue, Sandra. I love the term “bucket and chuckit”. It doesn’t sound like my idea of a perfect weekend either. Good writing. 😀 — Suzanne
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