“Uh… lets just say it was… not what was advertised,” she admitted with a wry little grin. “I was promised multiple orgasms, and got none. I was very much the backup booty,” she added, “because he wrecked her. She couldn’t walk straight by the end. Lucky tart. I didn’t even get a consolation tee shirt. I think I was actually just there to satisfy some latent fetish they both had for exhibitionism. Could probably have kept my clothes on and just been a commentator. Blow by blow,” she smirked.
“Oof. That’s false advertising,” I laughed.
“I know. I was extremely… unsatisfied. All dressed down and nowhere to go. Right. Your turn.”
“Um… I don’t really…” I began to protest.
“Yeah, you do. I know you totally do. You spin the innocent act far too well. Your turn, Ari. Tell me something depraved. Or failing that, let’s try for risque.”
She leaned back, eyes slitted, grinning wickedly.
“Right. Fine. I… own and have worn a corset,” I said.
Her eyes flicked open and she let out a low whistle.
“Wow. I bet that must be something to behold, with that lovely figure of yours. Ever worn it… out?”
“Yeah. Once, to fancy dress… but it’s quite low cut and… gets the wrong kind of attention. I don’t like attention, really. It… squicks me out. I got groped to boot, which was as revolting as it sounds.”
“Ugh,” she shuddered.
“Luckily some mates sorted the guy out. Thoroughly. So yeah, I can’t say that was on my list of things to repeat. It lives in the bottom drawer, alongside our mutual boyfriend. Maybe I’ll find someone to wear it for… someday. But I doubt it.”
“Mm. So… what do you like then?”
“I guess what anyone wants? Intimacy. Hugs. Not that I get any of them often. Certainly not often enough for me to… relax enough to want anything else with any regularity. I’d give a lot for someone to just hold me, sometimes,” I said softly. “I imagine that would be nice.”
She rolled onto her side and eyed me. “A girl like you could have any man she wanted.”
“You say that like it’s a plus,” I said.
“Isn’t it? I wish I was tall like you, I’d be unstoppable.”
“Charley, that’s nonsense. You’ve got proportions most women would kill for and to top it all you’ve got a breathtaking smile. Add your heart and personality into the mix and, well… enough said, really.”
She looked away for a moment.
“I prefer your tall darkness,” she murmured. “Always used to dream I could swap bodies with you for a day and see what it was like to have those lovely curls of yours.”
“I’ll save you the time. They’re frustrating,” I laughed. “They’re almost always in the way.”
“Mm. I always did fancy them,” she said, almost in a whisper.
We lay back on our recliners, and after a few moments she reached out and took my hand.
“I’m so glad I found you again.”
“So am I. More than I can put into words right now,” I answered.
And I smiled as she squeezed my hand.
.:.
“What are your plans for tomorrow?” she said as she adjusted her ponytail.
“I don’t know yet. Nothing firm.”
“How about we meet after breakfast? I can come here. It’s far easier to find you that way.”
“That would work for me. And… what, invent our day from there?”
“Yep,” she said with a smile. “We can do whatever strikes us as fun.”
“I’d really like that.”
“Good,” she said. She grinned up at me and took a breath, then suddenly stepped in and wrapped her arms around me.
“God, Ari, I missed you so much,” she whispered, and I shivered at her touch. Slowly, hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around her and burrowed in against her.
She felt wonderful.
Some unknowable length of time later she let out a soft sigh, and it felt much longer before either of us were prepared to let go.
But, finally, she released me.
She reached up to brush my curls out of my eyes.
“Sleep well,” she said.
“You too,” I whispered. “See you tomorrow.”
“Not if I see you first,” she answered with a small, private smile.
And she turned and walked away, and I watched her go, blissful that all was once more right with my world.
.:.
Dawn found me awake and overflowing with nervous energy. I inhaled my breakfast as the sun staggered clear of the eastern horizon, and was pacing from deck to kitchen and back well before anyone else stirred. The world was bright, joy-filled, there to be experienced in full. The sun was more golden than normal, the sky and waves brighter and bluer, the air as crystal-clear as I could ever remember it being.
My partner in crime finally swanned up to my chalet door nearly two full hours after sunrise.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said, by way of apology. “I slept like a baby.”
“Uh huh. Better late than never, I suppose. You look… elegant,” I said as I admired her pastel and white linens and grinned at her incongruous dirty peach trainers.
“Thanks,” she said. “I should have probably gone for a sundress like you have but… well, I burn at the drop of a hat, so this will be better for me – if far less fetching. Gosh, you do look nice in saffron. So… options for the day. I have a suggestion if you’d like to hear it?”
“Uh huh?”
“I rented a scooter when I got here. There’s an old temple complex a bit further down the coast if you feel like some sight-seeing; the route there is pretty and there’s a quiet shallow bay about midway along that’s good swimming. Or… we could just chill around here if you’d prefer that…”
“A road trips sounds grand. Wait. You’ve got a license, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a bike back home,” she said. “So I won’t kill you. Probably,” she added with a grin.
I laughed. “It sounds like a fun adventure. Should I pack my costume?”
“I did,” she said. “Mind if I borrow your coffee machine? I’m parched.”
“Knock yourself out.”
I scuttled to the bathroom and retrieved my bikini and a spare towel. I dug my ancient pink day-trip backpack out of my suitcase and packed what I needed.
“Want a brew before we go?” Charley called.
“Yeah, please, just a small one. A single shot.”
“Sure thing, babe.”
We dumped the cups in the sink to deal with later. I locked the sliding glass door, then turned to smile at her.
“I have missed this so much,” I said softly. “This sense of anticipation of the trouble that we’re about to cause for ourselves.”
She laughed loudly. “A different class of trouble these days to back then,” she said. “But I know precisely what you mean.”
“So where’s our humble chariot?”
“It’s parked down near the tennis courts,” she said. “That is if nobody’s stolen or torched the blasted thing yet.”
“Do you do this a lot?”
“Scooter touring? Oh yes – back home, that is. Over fine weekends I hop onto mine and head off onto the back roads. Mine’s pretty limited range-wise but it’s a nice way to get out and explore the countryside a bit. It seemed like a natural thing to do here too.”
“It sounds like a blast.”
“Hopefully not in the literal sense. Are you good to go?”
“Yeah,” I said, as I slung my bag up over my shoulder.
She twirled a set of keys idly around her finger as we walked down the slope towards where she’d parked the scooter. I noticed that her cheeks were flushed, and she was softly humming short snatches of songs I almost recognised.
“You’re in a good mood,” I said. “No hangover?”
“Slight, but… I’ve always liked mornings. And this is a great morning by any measure. Top three at least.”
“Yeah, it is.”
I felt her fingers fumbling against mine, and smiled to myself as I took her hand. She squeezed mine and let out a soft sigh.
“Well, this is it,” she said. “Our noble steed. Such as it is,” she added with a wry aside as she gestured theatrically at the battered silver Piaggio that leaned against a pole.
We stashed our bags under the seat and then I stood, watching as she rocked the scooter off its centre stand.
“It sounds like an asthmatic lawnmower and breathes out more fumes than a chain-smoking dragon,” she said apologetically. “We won’t be talking much on the way.”
“Oh, that’s OK, I don’t mind,” I laughed. “I don’t have much worth talking about anyway.”
“I’d listen to you recite the alphabet,” she said, and she started the engine before I could give her my sarcastic reply.
We let the scooter idle until it had settled and stopped belching quite so much blue smoke.
She passed me her open-faced helmet and helped me put it on, then straddled the scooter and sat down.
“Hop on,” she said, loudly. “Hold on to me and let’s get moving.”
So I climbed onto the seat behind her, and wrapped my arms around her, and sighed softly at the bright warm glow that her proximity lit within me.
She slowly walked us around, and guided us out onto the small coastal road, and I simply held on to her, humming quietly to myself as the distance slowly began to unroll behind us.
.:.
“So tell me more about you, Ari,” she said.
We were sitting side by side, staring out at the Aegean from our perch on the tumbled temple’s stylobate. She’d balanced a small paper plate of dolmades across her slender thighs; we shared them and enjoyed the faint hint of the breeze and the scent of dust and cedars it carried up the slope to us.
I finished chewing, swallowed, then took a sip of water from my plastic water bottle.
“What do you want to know?” I answered, at last.
“Oh, this and that. Who you are, who you want to be…”
I shrugged. “I’ll have to get back to you on the second one.”
She snorted. “I guess that’s only fair. Still working it out, I guess?”
“Yeah.”
I squinted out at the distant horizon, then ducked out of the way as a wasp buzzed me en route to our plate.
“Shoo, you silly thing,” Charley said as she flapped her hand at it.
“Don’t piss it off, they can be complete arseholes.”
We watched the interloper fly away.
“Good,” I said. “It went quietly. God, they’re bastards this time of year.”
“Mm. Hopefully it stays away. So… tell me. Are you happy, Ari?”
I sighed.
“No,” I admitted.
“Explain?” she said.
“I don’t know. I’m… unfulfilled, I guess. I grew up reading books like Treasure Island or Moonfleet – you know, fantasy yarns that were full of adventure and had a defined plot and a… a happy ever after of some sort for the hero or heroine. And I guess that younger me thought that that was going to be my life. I’d finish school and go off and magically find a purpose and a goal.”