Page 78 of Hot to Go

He sees me at the back of the group with my students. ‘He said to touch the fish, you can use one or two fingers.’

‘That’s what she said,’ a boy shouts out.

‘Yeah, less of that Jack,’ Charlie says in resigned tones, as I look down and laugh rather unprofessionally.

‘Acariciadlos, suavemente. A los peces les gusta con suavidad,’ the guide shouts out again.

Charlie closes his eyes. ‘Stroke them gently. The fish like it gentle.’

Again, the crowd of kids roar with laughter and I have no choice but to join in. They all line up in a reasonably orderly manner and take it in turns to stroke rays and pick up urchins. When I get closer to Charlie, I still have a rather puerile grin on my face.

‘Sir…’

‘Miss…’

‘Did you want a stroke?’ he asks. ‘It’s quite the experience.’

‘Really?’

‘Is it wet?’ I ask.

‘Well, that is a stupid question, they are aquatic animals that live in the sea,’ he jokes.

The aquarium guide looks at both of us, slightly confused that I would ask if the fish would be wet. Is this woman an actual teacher?

‘I wouldn’t mind a stroke of something different perhaps?’ I say biting my lip, the last student out of earshot and Charlie’s eyes widen.

‘Later? I promise,’ he says.

However, the aquarium staff member standing there in between us, who we assume can’t speak any English interpretsthat dirty talk a little differently. ‘You want to see something diferente?’ he asks me. We both turn to him, wondering what he’s going to suggest, and he opens a door and reaches into a tank. Different could mean many things, no? Maybe something benign like a mussel or a turtle but what he pulls out is the biggest motherfucking crab I’ve ever seen. His legs lengthy and gnarled, pincers the size of adult hands, the bugger looks like he has seven tentacles coming out his mouth. I can’t talk to see it. But someone can. He doesn’t quite talk, it’s more a high-pitched shriek.

‘But señora said she wants to stroke…’ he says, laughing heartily. ‘Yum yum yum…’

I laugh as he makes the noise coming towards Charlie.

‘Get it away…get it away…’ Charlie says, flapping his arms around, still screaming and backing away from it, into me.

‘Charlie, CHARLIE! I’m too close to the…’

Edge. Of the rockpool. I lose my balance as he backs into me, my arms flailing, feet coming off the floor. And the last thing I feel is me grabbing on to him, and a massive splash as we both fall in, together.

Charlie

‘Well, at least it wasn’t one of the children so there will be less paperwork,’ Lee tells Mark and me as we sit there on the rooftop of the hostel, taking in some beers in the last of the Sevillian light. The group all laugh at us as I sit there nursing my pride and my wounds, because I got an urchin stuck in my thigh that had to be removed. I can’t tell what’s worse. The fact that children filmed the episode so that might be the basis of our school notoriety until the end of time or the fact the aquarium, desperately apologetic for scaring us with the giant crab, gave us free annual membership and T-shirts to take home.

I watch Suzie wearing hers now, her hair freshly washed, letting the last of the sunlight and heat dry it and I hold a bottleof beer to my lips, feeling pleasantly drunk, remembering the moment when we both got back to our room today and realised the first port of call was to have a shower.

‘Do you want to go first?’ I asked her, not wanting to assume anything.

‘We could go in together?’ she suggested.

‘Saves water. You could check me for algae.’ It was not my sexiest talk but it made her laugh, and she came over to me and kissed me gently. I ran my hands over her shirt, damp and matted to her back, and removed it, planting kisses on her shoulder, up to her neck. She smelt a little like chlorine and tinned tuna but I didn’t tell her that. All I know is that one minute we were half clothed, the next we were naked and it was all achingly familiar, the curves of her, the softness of her skin, the second where she stopped to look me in the eye, biting her lip, before…

‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard a scream like that before,’ Mark chuckles.

I snap back to attention. Did he hear something whilst we were in the shower? My throat is dry thinking of how the foam dripped off her breasts, the pertness of her nipples, and I backed her onto the wall of that shower, slipping my erection into her, an arm under her knee, the sound we both made when that happened, the way we both recognised the pleasure immediately. I adjust myself in my chair. It’ll be all the kids talk about now if people heard us. ‘Scream?’ I ask, clearing my throat.

‘The crab,’ Mark tells me.

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