Page 31 of Hot to Go

They all sit there quietly, beaming.

‘I’ll need more than that,’ Lucy says, getting comfortable on her sun lounger.

‘You know there’s a moment between two people where it’s just…’ I can’t find the word and growl instead. They all nod. ‘And then it’s just clothes flying off and just plain old-fashioned…’

‘Rutting?’ Meg says. Lucy howls with laughter.

‘That is an awful word, Meg,’ Emma argues. ‘That’s what sheep do.’

‘No, I get Meggers here,’ Lucy adds. ‘Sometimes it’s primal and hot and grabbing and all your reservations about your body just go out the window. That’s some hot sex.’

‘He knew where my clitoris was. He knew what to do with it,’ I continue.

There’s a sharp intake of breath around the pool. We all know that’s not an immediate thing. The pressure, the movement – that can take months, sometimes years to teach. I may be spoiled for life now if I have to compare any sexual experience to that, ever again. My head is still spinning. I take a large gulp of wine.

‘It’s the Europeans, they’re just educated differently,’ Beth says. ‘You know, when you see him next, just ask him again if he went to college in London. I have a feeling I know him from somewhere.’

‘He does look a bit like that bloke from that medical show – the Italian one…’ Grace adds.

‘Maybe,’ Beth says, having a brain wave. ‘But if I can say, the ass was on point.’

Emma even nods in agreement at that point. She smiles at me. ‘What?’ I ask her.

‘That there is the Suzie I know. Look at that glow,’ she says.

‘It’s the sun,’ I reiterate.

‘We’ve all been in the sun, honey. We’re not glowing like that,’ she says, winking at me.

‘So, how was the dancing?’ I say, trying to take the focus off me and the events of the last few hours.

‘Absolutely bonkers and shit. Some wild bird in tie-dye wanted to look at my chakras and drugged our tea,’ Meg says.

‘Hold up,’ Lucy argues. ‘That was not drugs. It was coca leaves.’

‘It’s cocaine. I Googled it,’ said Emma.

‘And went against the camp rules by getting a cellular device out…’

I lie back and listen to the sound of them bickering. I like it, it breaks the silence, takes me away from my thoughts. My most indecent thoughts. I look into the sky, at the sort of blue you don’t get anywhere else. It’s untouched, it shines differently and I immediately think about his eyes. The eye contact. Eyes looking right into me while I orgasmed over him, like he wanted to really see it in me. Lordy. I gaze up into the blue, trying to make sense of what just happened but there’s not a cloud in sight. Just sky for miles and miles above.

Charlie

‘Would you look at the mammaries on that specimen?’

The table all turn their heads towards a girl heading to the toilets. All except me. Andy could say that the building was on fire and I think I would just sit here, sippingon my Coke and staring at this hot sauce bottle. I seem to be in some sort of sex trance.

What the hell happened this morning? Sex is usually something that happens after a couple of dates. There’s a build-up, space to plan and take stock of what’s happening. One minute, we were taking in the view and the next, we were having quite extraordinary sex. Sex that was sweaty and visceral and that I can picture so clearly in my mind now that it’s horribly arousing, which is probably not the reaction I want sitting in an all-you-can-eat ribs and steak joint surrounded by twelve other men. I blame Carlos. I blame Carlos for all of it. He gave me the confidence of twenty men, the ability to think I could do anything. The man had rizz, swagger, charm in buckets and spades. Maybe he’s not me at all. Maybe it was just an out-of-body experience.

‘I once tapped a bird with double GGs. I tell you, like bloody airbags, could have rested a pint on them.’ Even Andy’s absurd and frankly unbelievable stories can’t touch me now. I feel like I’m in a state of enlightenment, calm, serenity. Aurelie is beautiful, sweet – unlike anyone I’ve met before. Maybe that sounds premature and ridiculous when we’ve slept together just once, but there is something addictive about it. I remember that I’m seeing her again tomorrow and cannot stop from grinning.

‘Are you going for the ribs too?’ asks a waitress in a tiny denim skirt with a toy gun poking out her holster. Tonight’s restaurant of choice is a dimly lit cowboy-themed joint on the main Magaluf strip. It’s meat heavy with cheap alcohol and it also has a bucking bull to the middle of it. It’s loud and raucous but a least a distraction from having to think too hard about this day.

I look up. ‘Yeah, please. And the baked potato option. Thanks.’ I hand my menu back to her.

‘Oi, oi, Charlie boy. Don’t fancy your chances there then?’Andy says, checking her out with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer given that she’s still taking orders around the table.

‘Please excuse him,’ I tell her.

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