Page 111 of Only After We Met
After a pause, during which I could only hear the wordstabilityechoing over and over, she said, “Forget it, let’s move on to the third thing.”
“Do something crazy,” I said.
“We’ve got plenty of time to think it over.”
“Four: sunbathe and not think about anything.”
“I think I took care of that today, but just in case, I’ll keep it up every day until I leave.” She drank what was left in her glass, and I took out my card when the waiter approached to take our pitcher away.
Once I’d paid, we got up and walked awhile on the boardwalk, slowly, slightly drunk, her hand grazing mine now and again unintentionally. Or maybe it wasn’t unintentional. I don’t know. Her dark hair was now wavy down her back. I reached up and touched it once or twice.
“Are you ready for point five?”
“God, no, Rhys!” She covered her face with her hands.
“Have a fling. Or a three-way.”
“That’s not right!” She stopped, crossed her arms, and looked at me, and the wrinkle in her nose and her sun-reddened face made me laugh. “I nixed the three-way.”
“I could still read it, Ginger. Now answer me a question…”
“No. I don’t want to talk about it.” But she was giggling as she said it.
“A three-way with another girl or another guy?”
“Mmm…a guy. So two guys.”
“Well, now. Very interesting.”
“It’s just an idea; really it was more to do something out of the ordinary than have a three-way per se. It doesn’t matter. You’ve probably had tons of them.”
“Yeah.” I noticed that made her uncomfortable, and asked why.
“It’s just that I’ve never done anything unexpected in my whole life. Look at you: all these countries, all these girls, all these experiences… You’re probably even bored of sex now, and I’ve hardly tried anything except missionary.”
“Jesus, Ginger.”
“What?”
I held my breath, leaned down to look her in the eye, and bit my lower lip. My heart was pounding. I had promised myself that I’d avoid this kind of situation this time, keep my hands to myself, maintain my distance…and already, I was failing, and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since I picked her up from the airport.
My lips touched her neck.
She shook in response. Tense.
“You don’t just get bored of sex. In different circumstances, in a different life, maybe we’d already be doing it, right here, right now, leaning against this car,” I whispered in her ear. “But what happened last time made things weird between us. So we’re going to try to stick to the rules…”
Ginger looked at me, confused. “Look, I think I can keep myhands off you without following any rules. But thanks for being so considerate and thinking of everything.”
“You sure?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Your success has gone to your head.”
I laughed, and she gave me a playful slap as we took off walking again down the wooden steps we had taken that afternoon to go to the beach. We walked on the sand in the darkness. The murmur of waves was audible in the distance. I don’t know when exactly, but we found ourselves laughing again about something stupid and lying in the sand without thinking about anything else. The moon was shining in the starry sky.
“Next one: dancing with your eyes closed.”
“That’s easy. But I want to dance for real. With my mind a blank. Not caring if I look stupid or people think I’m crazy.”