Brom walked towards Jenna with singular purpose, honing in on her heat signal like a missile.

By the time Diane turned towards him to express her surprise at seeing Bette’s friend in a boat in the middle of the sea, in Cannes, of all places, he was several feet away already, walking down the length of the top deck, closing in on Jenna.

His mouth was practically on the floor, slobbering.   Aarrgghh, men!  See a hot woman; they turn into Neanderthals.   

“Diane!” Jenna repeated, waving at Diane and calling her name out again, seemingly ignoring an advancing Brom, “is Bette here, too?  What in the world are you doing here, out in the middle of the Mediterranean?  I thought you and Bette would be on your way back to New York by now?”

As Jenna bent to pick up the glass of ice water on the wooden side table next to her, Diane quick-stepped to try to catch up with Brom.

She heard him ask Jenna, as Jenna took a long drink, and then put the glass back down, “Hi there! Is this coincidence or is this the way life happens?”

Jenna straightened up to look at Brom, who was still looking at her cleavage, “Whatever do you mean?”   Men.  See a little cleavage and they think they see a green light switch on.

Brom put on the smile that normally killed every time, and then quipped, “I was just wishing for an angel, and pop! there you stood, relaxed against the railing.”

Not this time.

Jeez!  How lame can he get? Diane thought, feeling embarrassed for her friend.

Jenna just fixed him a perplexed stare.

“Brom, this is Jenna, a friend of Bette’s,” Diane said, as she walked up, to extract him from the ensuing awkward silence.

“Bette’s?” he asked, turning to look at Diane with a meaningful glance.

Diane nodded quickly.

He clasped his hands together and rubbed them, a slight flush beginning to creep up his cheeks.

“Well, pleased to meet you,” he said with a small laugh, “Umm… hot out here, huh?  Why don’t I go get all of us something to drink?”

Twenty minutes later, as he was returning with a pitcher of iced tea and three glasses filled with ice, he overheard Diane and Jenna talking about the latter’s upcoming plans, to stay longer in New York than she’d originally planned, it sounded like.