Page 21 of Heart Strings

“I would never!” I clutched the clothes close to my heart as though his words had struck me with a mortal injury. Truthfully, I had been hoping I could try at least a few on quickly and only show him the ones he wanted me to try on. I wasn’t shy with him, but there were a lot of people in this store…a lot.

I had picked out two sizes to try, and I decided to test out the smaller size first. The full-length mirror told me all I needed to know.Nope.Next, I put on the larger size - which also happened to be the striped one I liked.

As it turned out, I liked it even more once I was wearing it. Would this be the first time ever that I actually ended up purchasing one of the first set of bathing suits I picked to try on?

Very possibly, because when I opened the door enough for Al to see what I was wearing, he liked it too. The way his eyes devoured my body increased my confidence. Who cared what the people in the store thought?

There was one more swimsuit we both liked - a deep blue bikini. Normally I would prefer something a little less…less. But even in the manufactured glare of the store’s lights, it made my eyes pop and I liked clothes that did that. Al somehow couldn’t seem to make eye contact with me while I was wearing it, but that was to be expected.

“I don’t know.” I stared indecisively at the two finalists - the striped swimsuit and the deep blue one.

“I do.” Al took both swimsuits from me. “I’ll get both. Your favorite and my favorite.”

Another problem with swimsuit shopping: these things were expensive. I had intended to buy my own since I had been to blame for leaving mine in New Orleans in the first place, but I was going to limit myself to one. Al’s “I’ll get both” didn’t go unnoticed. “Let me at least get the one I picked,” I protested.

“Think of these as part of your expenses for helping me out. And this one is more of a present for me.” He lifted the blue one and gave it a suggestive shake.

I acknowledged the truth in that and let him take the clothes to a register, awkwardly standing half behind him while he busted out a probably bottomless credit card. Still, I couldn’t let this become a habit. My job might not have had the best pay in the world, and I did have to sink a large portion of what I made into school, food and lodging, but I had some money to spare. Al didn’t need to buy me every little thing I wanted.

Somewhere down the line, I would have to make that clear to the rich rockstar. For now, I’d just let him have his way and get the two swimsuits.

“To the beach now?” I asked hopefully, crooking my arm and letting the bag he handed me settle in my elbow.

“Sí, to the beach.”

Looking the other way to check for cars before I crossed the street, I actually ran into Al, who had stopped suddenly. I looked down and realized that I didn’t run into all of Al, just his hand, which he held out invitingly. I let my stomach flutter like a towel in the ocean breeze and took it.

Unsurprisingly, the beach was packed. We managed to find an unoccupied large umbrella after a bit of searching and set down our bags. “You go get changed while I set up the towels.” Al shooed me toward a large brick building not far back from the shore.

I tore myself away from watching his flexing muscles shake out a towel and headed to the building. It formed a big, open square with bathrooms and concession stands around a big pool. I found the women’s bathroom, stripped and stood on the tops of my sneakers to keep from touching the bathroom floor, and peeked into the bag. Which to wear, which to wear?

“You look absolutely amazing in that,” Al said approvingly, looking me unabashedly up and down when I returned wearing the deep blue bikini. “Mi hermosa chica.”

“You mean I look sexy in this,” I corrected, pleased with the compliment nonetheless. “What does that mean?”

He wrapped an arm around my waist and smiled down at me. “I think you can guess.”

I thought the gesture was cute until I realized his thumb was tucked beneath the strap of my bikini bottom. “Stop it!” I scolded him, unhooking the offending finger carefully so as not to pull on the strap that already covered little enough. “And take off your shirt. It’s not fair for me to be the only half-naked one here.”

“It’s only on because you haven’t taken it off yet.”

I pulled away from him, sending him a glare I didn’t really mean. “You’re in fine form today.”

“In more ways than one.” He pulled his shirt over his head, grinning when my eyes immediately slipped down to his tattoo-covered six pack. “Let’s get wet.”

He kicked his shoes off and walked away. I had to take a second to recover from every suggestive comment he had just made before I could follow. “Sunscreen!” I called after him, picking the tube out of the bag and waving it at him.

“Oh yeah. I got so distracted that I forgot to-” He neatly caught something I threw at him for the second time today, this time sunscreen and not panties, thankfully. “Lo siento. Sorry. Here, I’ll get your back for you to make up for it.”

We rubbed plenty of sunscreen into each other’s bodies, spent a moment spot-checking for leftover smears of white, and splashed into the water. The saltwater was just a little bit chilly, but the hot spring sun and warm breeze meant that whenever you got too cold, you could just stand up and feel warm almost instantly.

“It’s been so long since I went to the beach.” I closed my eyes against the breeze and let myself float with the tide, my hands digging into the sandy, shelly seafloor to hold me upright.

“How? You live in New Orleans,” Al pointed out.

You know how sometimes when you’re in a museum, you get this terrible, gnawing, self-destructive urge to touch things that have signs that say “please do not touch”? That was how I felt about Al’s entire inked, ripped, firm body. Children splashed and played in the ocean all around us, and all I could think about was getting my hands all over any touchable part of Al I could reach.

“Uh-” I took a moment to remember the question that had come from that distracting jaw. “I never really have time. Usually, if I go it’s with the sorority girls, and it only got warm enough to swim a couple weeks ago anyways.”

---