D. Graham - And Then What?

The dinner was awesome and we ate way too much because the idea of it being pre-paid made us gluttonous. We each had a margarita with dinner. It went straight to my head because the only alcohol I’d ever had was a glass of champagne at my cousin’s wedding and the cocktail that the hotel gave us when we arrived. Apparently, alcohol made me giggly, because I couldn’t stop laughing.

We eventually made our way over to the nightclub. It was packed with college students, who were all obviously desperately in need of reading break. There were no available tables, so we stood next to the bar and had another margarita. My legs started to get tingly.

“Hey, you made it.” Liam draped his arm across my shoulders.

I giggled.

“Sophie, this is my wing-man, Ben,” Liam said.

Sophie smiled at the tall guy, who looked half-Asian and half-Caucasian. “Hi, Ben.”

“Do you want to dance?” Liam asked me.

“I’ll try. I can’t exactly feel my legs.”

“You’re a lightweight, eh?”

“You could say that.”

He led me by the hand towards the dance floor, then wrapped his arms around my waist. I propped my hands on his shoulders, mostly to hold myself up. “You look beautiful,” he said.

“Thanks. I have a boyfriend. You should probably know that.”

“I know.” He held my hand above my head to twirl me around.

“How do you know?”

“Because girls like you always have boyfriends. Don’t worry about it. We’re just dancing.”

“Yeah, just dancing.”

Liam and I alternated between dancing and hanging out with Sophie and Ben. It was fun. I thought the boys said they were students at the University of Toronto, but that might not have been what they said because when I said, “I considered going to U of T,” they all laughed at me as if it didn’t make sense.

“Is the music getting louder?” I shouted.

Liam chuckled. “No, you’re just getting drunker.”

“I love this song. Let’s dance.” I dragged him back out onto the dance floor. He wasn’t a very good dancer. He mostly just positioned his hands on my waist or hips and watched as I danced. After another margarita, my eyesight started to get a little blurry. I could sort of see Sophie. She was smiling and she looked completely sober as she talked to Ben.

Some other guy handed me a drink and I was just about to drink it when Sophie grabbed it and took it away from me. “Nice try,” she yelled at the guy. “Derian, don’t take drinks unless they’re from the bar. In fact, don’t take any more drinks at all.”

I saluted her and stumbled back out onto the dance floor. Not much of anything was clear after that. Ben and Liam walked us back to the room. Well, they walked and Liam carried me over his shoulder.

The next thing I remembered clearly was waking up in the morning with a crushing pressure clamping down on my head. The sun streamed through the window and felt like someone turned the brightness up too high. I ran to the bathroom and wasn’t able to lift the toilet in time, so unceremoniously hurled in the bathtub. It was a revolting strawberry-pink mess mixed with what I could only imagine were spaghetti noodles. I used the showerhead and washed it down the drain. It was making me feel sick again as I watched it dilute with water. Sophie propped herself against the bathroom doorframe with her arms crossed and watched me.

“Sorry. You’re going to have to tip the maid really big,” I croaked hoarsely.

“I see that.”

“Why do you look perfectly fine?”

“Because I’m not a rookie.”

I sat on the edge of the tub and held my head between my palms to keep it from spinning. “Why did you let me do that to myself?”

“You were my entertainment for the night. Talking to that Ben guy was painful. He’s like a child in a sexy man’s body. I’m going down to the lobby to check my email. Get cleaned up. I want to sit by the pool.”

“Okay,” I mumbled, then crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over my head.

I finally dragged myself out of bed just before noon and we went down to sit by the pool. Sophie made trips to the buffet every twenty minutes and returned with trays of fruits or chocolates and pastries. When I saw her eating Jell-O, taquitos, and baby shrimps all off the same plate, my stomach churned painfully. “That’s disgusting,” I moaned.

“You’re missing out. It’s such a waste to be at an all-you-can-eat-and-drink resort and not feel like eating or drinking.”

“Even if I didn’t drink too much last night I wouldn’t be eating that combination.”

She shrugged and popped a shrimp into her mouth. “Are you up for a salsa lesson?”

“No.”

“Water aerobics?”

“No. You go ahead. I’ll just stay here and try to get some reading done.”

She stood and pulled her linen cover-up off over her head. I watched as she strutted over to the other side of the pool deck for the salsa lesson. Three guys who had been sitting near the dance instructor jumped up and joined the class when they saw Sophie. They did more ass-watching than salsa dancing.

I struggled through a section of psychology without actually retaining much information on monkeys and attachment disorders. My head hurt and I couldn’t even take my sunglasses off to apply sunscreen because the sunlight felt like sabres through my eyeballs.

“Can I get you a drink?” a male voice asked from over my shoulder.

I turned to see if he was talking to me. He was a short guy with massive muscles and a nearly life-sized gold crucifix hanging around his neck. He slid his sunglasses down and peered over them at me. “Oh. No thanks. I’m nursing a hangover.” I turned my head back to start reading again.

“What’s your name?”

I glanced at him as he moved to sit on Sophie’s lounge chair. “Derian.”

“Gino.” He held his hand out to shake mine. Then he pushed his sunglasses back into place and took a sip of his mojito. It felt as if he was staring at my body. “You’re beautiful.”

“Thank you.” I glanced over to see if I could make eye contact with Sophie. The dance lesson was over and I couldn’t see where she went. I scanned the pool deck, but didn’t see her anywhere.

“What are you reading?”

“Psychology.”

“You should take a break.” He pointed over his shoulder at the pool. “Let’s go for a swim.”

“No thanks. I should finish this.”

He took my textbook from me and closed it. “That’s boring. You’re in Mexico and you only live once. Would you like to go for a walk? There are some cool caves just down the beach. I would love to show them to you.”

“No thanks.” I grabbed my book back.

“You’re getting a little burnt. Pass me the sunscreen. I’ll do your back.”

I looked over at the bar to see if Sophie was getting a drink. I couldn’t see her. “I already have sunscreen on. Thanks.”

“My friends and I are staying in the presidential penthouse suite. Do you want to come up and party?”

I pointed to my textbook. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I should really get back to reading. Nice meeting you.”

He flexed his bloated pecs as if he thought that would mesmerize me into being interested in him. It didn’t impress me. I turned my head to see if Sophie was maybe on her way back from the buffet. She was standing right beside me. She smiled and leaned over to kiss me on the lips. “Hey, babe. Did you miss me?” she asked.

I glanced at Gino. His mouth was frozen in a crooked smile, but his eyebrows were angled in a frown.

“You’re on my seat,” Sophie said to him. He stood and stared at Sophie as she did a sexy crawl onto the lounge chair. She rolled over and extended her arm over to rest her hand on mine.