Summer Swap 6-12

Early evening, full bellies, sun going down, drinks in hand, everyone aware that tonight they would play some games together. He was sure they would be naughty games, all their business out in the open and no one to protect anymore.

Byron sat on the sofa, assessing his friends. Scarlet and Chey weren’t talking. Scarlet was mad at Chey for something, and Chey was mad at her. Chey was mad at him, too, though she wouldn’t admit it. Paloma and Philippe were giving Sully and Scarlet the cold shoulder. It was theatrical and performative, but it was based on honesty. Philippe mimed Paloma’s coldness, but Paloma’s coldness seemed very real and Philippe maybe only followed Paloma’s lead. Some people could handle swinging and others couldn’t. That seemed obvious now. The whole swinging thing had gone off on the yacht like a hand grenade thrown into the group. Some of the group got tagged by shrapnel and they staggered around in the aftermath, bleeding out emotions all over the expensive teak decking. Messy, messy emotions. He’d been hit by the shrapnel. He’d been hit bad. But if you didn’t get a tourniquet on that shit fast, like he’d done, there were only bad outcomes available to you.

Lily’s change was most surprising. They’d all thought of her—and Arlo, too—as innocents. Decent people best left out of adventurous activities that occur in the unseemlier sections of society. They’d been patient troopers, but now it was Lily leading tonight’s festivities, arranging a game for them all to play.

Instead of everyone sitting at the table playing cards, Lily had them gathered in the outdoor lounge on the sixth deck, right under the yacht’s communications stack and the helipad. They’d hardly come up here before, and now he wondered why. It was really comfortable. Still open to the sky, though only through a square above their heads over the coffee table, starlight twinkling above them in the not-yet-dark, pinholes of light in a deepening purple, orange still hugging the horizon. The furniture was black wicker, the cushions some soft and fluffy kind of cotton. Around the low center table there were three sofas for two and one couch for four. Lily stood while the rest stayed seated, Lily explaining the game under the soft amber light coming from the brassy overhead arcing struts that were the yacht designer’s beautification of some maritime structural element.

“Everyone gets a color,” Lily said, then passed around plastic badges in bright primary and secondary colors, shaped in bars, like name tags but with no names on them. “You pin them on your shirts so we know who’s who.”

Sully looked confused, saying, “Scarlet and I both have red badges.”

Byron said, “You’re on the same team, you idiot,” holding up his and Cheyenne’s blue badges before passing one of them to Cheyenne.

“Byron, be nice. You don’t have to call Sully an idiot,” Lily said in a kindly first-grade teacher tone.

Both Byron and Sully chuckled and mouthed “fuck you” to each other, pinning their badges on their shirts.

“But Byron’s right,” Lily said to Sully. “You guys are teams of two.”

“Idiot,” Byron muttered.

Lily said, “So now everyone has their color and I have the spinner”—she held up a cardboard square with a color wheel and a black spinning watch hand—“and the color is random, and then I read a question off the—”

Sully interrupted her. “What is this game? Is this like a kids’ game?”

Lily showed a look of mild offense. “No. No, it’s not a kids’ game.”

“Well, what is it?”

“I’m explaining it.” Her brow lowered, annoyed with Sully. Then to clarify for him, “It’s a bad game for bad people. Grown-up people.”

“But you’re playing with us, aren’t you?”

“I’m the game master.”

Byron said, “And what about Arlo? Who’s he?”

She looked over her shoulder at her husband, then said, “He’s the game master’s husband, Byron.”

Byron didn’t understand. “Aren’t you playing?”

Arlo leaned his head back like he was exasperated, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Yes, we’re playing.”

Sully said, “But Lily—”

“She’s just being difficult,” Arlo said. “Trust me.”

“So you guys are playing?”

Lily gave him an impatient look. “You’re slowing this down, Sully.”

Sully put up his hands, showing his palms, indicating he would present no further problems.

Arlo and Lily were an odd couple. Lily an upright and proper lady who dressed like a devotee of Martha Stewart before Martha Stewart went to prison. And Arlo was hip and artsy, with longish curly locks and Zappa-like facial hair, with the mustache and a triangular divot under his lower lip. But a kind and gentle guy despite the tattoos and all. Lily had been at art school as well, if he remembered right, but taking pottery or something else homey.

Lily said, “This is a get-to-know-you kind of game. An ice-breaker. Which is great, because I think there’s some ice to break.” Her eyes darted from Scarlet to Paloma. Byron chuckled. He wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.

Paloma looked at her badge. “So we’re just green team? We don’t get to choose, like, how we play...” She looked to Philippe for the word, then remembered it herself. “Monopoly? Top hat, race car?”

“It’s not a board game,” Lily said. “There’s no board.”

Sully said, “Who wins?”

Lily shrugged. “You don’t win, you just...”

“Break the ice,” Philippe said.

Paloma said, “Is there money?”

Sully said, “We could play for money. Bets, anyone?”

Paloma said, “Is there game money?”

Lily snapped out her arms like a crossing guard, done with the chatter. “Maybe everyone could keep the questions till I’m done explaining. Maybe we could do that?”

Arlo looked around Lily’s hip to all his friends. “She’s an only child, and she always gets her way.”

Philippe said, “Spoiled?”

Lily looked at him, shocked.

“It’s worth indulging her,” Arlo said, showing a shy but knowing smile.

Lily looked back at Arlo. “Aw, thank you, baby.”

Arlo blew her a kiss.

Lily explained how there were colors and questions and how if the spinner landed on black, it was an all-play and not a challenge.

Sully asked, “Then what is it if it’s not a challenge?”

“I’ll do an example,” Lily said. “Say the spinner lands on black. Now it’s an ice-breaker question. She selected a card and read it. “Who here has watched porn with...” She frowned, then turned to show Arlo the card. “What is this word?”

Arlo squinted and read the card, then said, “Bukkake.”

Everyone chuckled.

Lily sounded it out, eyes on the card, “Boo-caw-key. Bukkake.”

Arlo rolled his eyes and laughed. “She knows how to pronounce it. She’s only pretending.”

“Ar-lo,” Lily said, admonishing her husband for his rude indiscretion. “What is it even? You don’t know what it is, do you? Is it bad?”

Arlo regarded her with patience. “Lily, you introduced it to me.”

They all showed a measure of gasping shock, blown away if that was a true statement.

Lily smiled and left Arlo alone, and Byron swore her cheeks were blushing. “I don’t think I did,” Lily muttered to herself.

Scarlet said, “What is it?”

No one wanted to tell her, everyone looking around at each other waiting for someone else to do it. It should be Sully’s job.

Sully realized it, and shifted in his seat, saying, “It’s uh, like, uh... I guess... Japanese?” Then looked to Byron for an escape route. “It’s Japanese, right, Byron?”

“Don’t look at me,” Byron said. “Hey, you’re doing fine, buddy. Keep at it.”

Scarlet looked grossed out. “Oh, is it like tentacles or something weird like that?”

Sully stared at her, stalling, wanting the hand of god to reach down and yank him out of this predicament. Then he sighed, resigned. “First, it’s boo-caw-keh, not key. And it’s, um, where there’s a girl and like a bunch of men and the men do stuff on her...”

He let it hang in the air, hoping he wouldn’t have to spell it out for his wife. But Scarlet looked confused, crossing her arms, a little bothered looking, waiting for the rest. Then she looked disgusted. “Shit on her? Sully, you watch this?”

“No, hey, whoa, no. No, what are you, crazy? Who would watch that?”

She looked mad now. “Tell me what it is.”

“They, uh, they, like, fucking... God, they jerk off on her. On her, you know...”

Scarlet was horrified. “They jerk off on her face? They come all over her face?” Her voice was rising, tinged with outrage.

Sully didn’t know how to respond and everyone’s eyes widened, the smiles on their faces growing hesitant. Sully looked around for help and no one helped him. Then he regarded Scarlet, his mouth hanging open, the two of them staring at each other.

It was too early for a fight to break up everyone’s evening fun.

But Scarlet cracked and showed the tiniest smile and Sully was the one mad now. “Oh, you’re fucking kidding me. You’re such a bitch.” He collapsed in the sofa like he was exhausted.

Scarlet leaned toward Carla sitting next to her, sharing the couch with Cody and Carla, saying out of the side of her mouth, “Who doesn’t know what bukkake is?” Carla burst into laughter and fell against Cody, who enjoyed it, too, putting his arm around his sexy, jiggly, tanned wife.

Sully covered his face and shook his head.

Scarlet took a sip of her drink and said, “Okay, this is fun. Let’s keep going.” She laughed at her own meanness and took Sully’s hand in hers, lacing their fingers together.

Lily said, “So it’s safe to say everyone here has watched something like that, something with boo-caw-key or -keh or whatever? Raise your hand if you haven’t.”

Only Chey raised her hand. Everyone looked at her and Chey said, “I mean, I know what it is, but I haven’t watched it.” She looked at Byron. “You’ve watched it?”

Byron looked to Sully. “Is this a trick? I don’t know anymore.”

Chey poked him. “It’s fine. Though I hope you watched it when you were a horny teen, not like sneaking out of bed with me to watch it while I’m sleeping.”

“Never,” he said and kissed Chey’s forehead.

“That’s when he watches his favorite anal fisting videos,” Sully said.

Byron said, “I don’t have a favorite, Sully. They’re kind of all good.”

Chey looped an arm under his and they sat closer. “Okay, Lily,” she said. “This is fun.”

Lily beamed and showed a big smile. “Awesome. Okay.”

Arlo said, “Points might be good, Lily. Keep these ingrates motivated. You get a point for every challenge accepted...”

Sully sat forward, “Yeah, and like if you turn a challenge down, you have to remove an article of clothing and chug a beer.”

“It’s not a frat party, dude,” Byron said.

“Okay,” Sully said, seeing the point, “if you say no to a challenge you don’t get the carrot—the point—and instead you get the stick—a paddling.” He clapped his hands like this was a fantastic idea no one would object to.

Philippe said, “I don’t see myself getting spanked.”

Sully looked disappointed. “Maybe you could chug a beer, then?”

Philippe shook his head. “I don’t see myself backing down from any challenge in Lily’s naughty game of courage and sexual adventure.” He smiled with sly confidence.

Cody joined in. “I never back down from a challenge.”

Byron liked the boldness. And with what he’d been through, he sat forward and said with equal bravado. “I’m not backing down from anything.”

Sully looked to Arlo, and they agreed too, and then Sully said, “I guess it’s up to the ladies...”

Arlo let the ladies all know, “I can get my hands on a nice hard paddle in about five minutes.”

Chey was the first to speak. “I’m not backing down.”

Then all of them went in turn, offering similar claims of proud courage.

Lily bounced on her toes with excitement. “Hot dog, guys, looks like we got ourselves a game.”

Sully said, “First one to ten points wins.”

Byron said, “And what do they win, though?”

Lily smiled a strange kind of mean and controlling way and she said, “The winners get a night with anyone on the yacht they choose, and they can do whatever they want to them.”

They all thought about it, some of them smiling, never seeing themselves as the loser, but some of the guys were a little more uncomfortable.

Byron looked to Sully, and they shared quizzical expressions. Byron asked for clarification. “Hey Lily, what do you mean by anything?”

“Anything means anything, Byron,” she said, her voice colder now than the schoolteacher she’d shown them earlier. “Are you chicken?”

All eyes were on him now, and he shifted where he sat, looking at each of them in turn. He cleared his throat, sat straighter and said to Lily, “Spin your little wheel, let’s get this party started.”