Operation One Night Stand (10 page)

“I don’t feel so good.”
Melody wrapped her arms around her stomach.

“Hopefully you don’t have sun poisoning,” Wes offered.

“Sun poi—?
No, Care.
I want to go lie down.”

“On it.”
I hopped off the barstool and turned to Wes.
“Thanks for listening.
Sorry if I was a downer.”

“No problem, mon!”
He replied in his best Jamaican accent.
“Anytime.
Seriously.
What’s your room number?
I’ll send them an aloe lotion I made.
It really helps out the white girls from the north.”

“White girls!
Well, I never!”
I playfully stomped my foot before leaving him the room number.
I gingerly wrapped my arm around Melody, and Sarah followed as we walked back to our room.

Within minutes of arriving, I had them each take cool showers and dress in the loosest sundresses they packed.
I knew, from experience, that the pain would take a bit of time but once it hit, they’d be toast.

Each downed a couple of aspirin and just as Wes promised, the lotion he’d concocted arrived at the room via housekeeping.

By the time I’d rubbed them down with the lotion, they were asleep, my buzz had almost worn off, and my stomach was rumbling.

I felt bad about leaving them but I figured there wasn’t much I could do for them while they slept, so I placed a bottle of water near each of them, took a shower, and left to get something to eat.
I could have ordered in but I really wanted to escape the confines of the room.
I didn’t travel all the way to Jamaica to coop myself up in a bedroom.
I’d done enough of that in the past weeks.

Wearing a long green halter dress and flat strappy sandals, I felt like a million bucks.
The salty air did wonders for my already curly hair and I had gotten just enough sun to kiss my skin with a faint tan.

I walked through the small-town-like atmosphere of the resort and watched, with a little pang of jealousy, as couples walked holding hands, kissing, sharing glasses of wine.
It was what I’d always wanted.
Someone to share the fun with, share romance with.
Steven was always too busy for fun, too stuffy for romance.
In the five years we were together, we’d been on only one vacation.
If that’s what one would call it.
We went to Vegas for a conference.
Never hit the strip once.

I shook off the thoughts that were darkening my mood.
No, I was there to relax, to get away, and to have some fun.
I decided to sit at the small café that overlooked the beach.

The menu was simple: sandwiches, light pastas, and wines.
Perfect.
I ordered shrimp over linguine with a white wine sauce and a bottle of Pinot Grigio.
The breeze off the water was intoxicating.
After dinner, I decided I was going to sit at the water’s edge and relax.
I wasn’t necessarily stressed but my life was turning in a direction it wasn’t a few months ago.
This was my time to breathe.

I was halfway into my meal, breaking a piece of bread, when someone asked, “Is this seat taken?”

I looked up.
Dimples.
I was lucky I had another swallow of wine left in my glass because I was pretty sure I was going to choke on the large piece of bread that was stuck in my throat.

Dimples patted me on the back to quell the cough that erupted when he arrived.
“We really need to stop meeting like this.”

“Hi.”
I finally choked out.

“Hi.”
He motioned toward the empty seat and I nodded for him to sit.

“I’m Jim.”

“Caroline.”

“Where you from, Caroline?”
I had to remind myself not to get lost in his dimples.

“New Jersey.”

“New Jersey, huh?”
And he gave me
that
look.
The look everyone who isn’t from New Jersey gives those who are.

“And, no, I don’t know anyone named Snooki.
And I’m not a mob wife or a member of the Soprano clan.”

“Hey, don’t get testy!”
He laughed and held up his hands.
“Your accent just sounded like you were from New York.
Maybe they sound the same, I don’t know.”

“I do not have an accent!
And if I do, I sure as hell don’t sound like I’m from New York.”
I wanted to be mad, but barely leveled out at annoyed.
His dimples were just too damn cute.

“You’re funny.”
Jim took a long sip of his drink.
“So what are you doing in Jamaica?”

“Skiing,” I replied flippantly.
“You?”

“My brother’s getting married Wednesday night.
I’m the best man.”

“So, Jim the best man, where are you from?”

“Originally?
Kansas.
But I go to school in Miami.”

“Kansas?
Like Dorothy and Toto Kansas?”

“More like Clark Kent, but yeah.
I’m a senior at Miami now.”

“College kid, eh?”
I teased.

“Definitely not a kid.
And who are you to talk?”

“I’m twenty-eight.
My undergrad was a long time ago.”
I poured another glass of wine, finishing off the bottle.

A wicked grin dashed across his face.
“An older woman, huh?
Looks like I sat at the right table.”

“Looks like you did, kiddo.
But I really need to be getting back to my friends.
See you around.”
I gathered my purse and left Jim from Kansas at the table.

As I walked back to the room, I stopped at the small bar to thank Wes for the aloe.

“It was no problem.”
He flashed a grin at me as he mixed a pink cocktail for a cougar at the end of the bar.

“I know, but it was really nice of you.
Maybe I could repay you.
Buy you a drink?”

“At an all-inclusive?”

“Right.”
I glanced down at my feet.
“Well, then, I’ll see you around.
Maybe I can listen to your relationship problems or something.”

“Maybe, Caroline from New Jersey.
I look forward to it.”
Wes winked at me and I headed back to the room with thoughts of hot bartenders, sexy dimples, and one night stands swirling around in my head.

The next day was spent providing Sarah and Mel with lotion, aspirin, and more water than I thought any person could handle.
Thankfully, the burns weren’t bad enough to blister, and it seemed as though Melody got the brunt of it.
We left the room for the cover of tables with umbrellas and then some shopping at the two boutiques at the resort.
I didn’t venture out much on my own other than to procure a few items from the convenience store.

By Wednesday, they were back in action, albeit covered up with newly purchased gauzy bathing suit covers, wide-brimmed straw hats, and sunglasses to cover the awful raccoon eyes on their faces.
Thankfully, I hadn’t spent enough time in the sun to color much more than a soft base tan.

“What do you want to do tonight?”
Melody asked from a tree-covered hammock.

“Dinner at the French place?”
Sarah offered.

“As long as I don’t have to eat snails.”

“There’s much more to French food than snails!”
I laughed as I sipped on the Dirty Banana Wes had made for me.

“Do we have to dress up?”

“I think so.
No big deal.
We leave in two days and you two have spent the last two in bed with sunburn.
We’re getting dressed up.”

“Bossy!
Fine, I’ll get dressed up.
Can I at least wear my sunglasses?”

“Yes, you can wear your sunglasses.”

“Thank you.
Can you get me one of those banana thingies you’re drinking?”

“Yup.
Be right back.”

Keeping to the cobblestone path, I walked up to Wes’s bar and asked for three Dirty Bananas.

“Caroline from New Jersey!”
Jim waved me over from a table.
He was sitting with three other guys.

I grabbed the drinks, carefully balancing three between my hands, and walked over.
“Jim from Kansas.
Fancy meeting you here.”

“I didn’t see you around yesterday.”

“I was with my friends.”
I pointed with both hands to the area where the girls sat and nodded.
“They got really bad sunburn on Monday.”

“That sucks.
What’re you doing later?”

“Probably just relaxing.
Don’t you have that wedding tonight?”

“Yeah.
This is my brother Tom and his two friends Alex and Joe.”

“Hi.”

“If you and your friends aren’t busy, maybe we could all meet up after.”

“Yeah, maybe.
Well, good luck tonight.
Congratulations.
Nice to meet all of you.”
I started walking away when Jim jumped up.

“Let me get that for you.”
He took two of the drinks from my hands and walked over to the girls with me, handing each of them their drink.

“Well, Caroline, I’ll see you around.”

“Thank you.
See you.”

Melody pulled her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose as she watched shirtless Jim walk away.
“Who”—she paused dramatically—“was that?”

“That’s Jim from Kansas.
He goes to the University of Miami and his brother is getting married tonight.”

“He’s a baby!”
Sarah laughed.

“He’s hot!”
Melody declared.

“He’s a child!”
I countered.

“Who cares?
He’s hot, seems to be available, and is totally into you.”

“Whatever.”
The last thing on my mind was getting to know someone.
I was not in the frame of mind to get to know anyone.

“I know exactly what you’re thinking, Care.
You don’t want to get wrapped up in any nonsense.
You feel like you have some sort of moral code that you’d like to keep intact, even if you busted through it the other night.”
Sarah pushed a lock of hair out of my face.
“What you don’t understand is that you don’t have to deal with nonsense.
You don’t have to worry about breaking any rules.
Do you know why?”

“Because I’m on vacation.”
Injecting boredom into my voice did nothing to quell her spirit.

“And what happens in Jamaica stays in Jamaica!”
Melody cheered.

“I thought it was what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?”

“I have it on good authority that the message is transferrable.
Wherever you are, it applies.”

I looked over at Jim, laughing with his brother and friends.
He caught me looking and waved.

“Isn’t that a bit much?
I mean sex with two guys in less than a week?”

“Time stops when you’re on vacation.
Everything gets pulled into the black hole.
And besides, there aren’t as many sluts as you’d like to think.
Most are just women with very welcoming vaginas,” Melody said, obviously pleased with herself.

“Look, Melody and I can’t score now.
We look like lobster raccoons.
We need you to take one for the team and bang the baby over there.
Do it for all womankind, Care.
Do it for us.”

“He invited us to hang out after the wedding tonight.”

“Us?”
Melody perked up.

“I thought you were a lobster raccoon?”
I laughed.

“Maybe one of his friends is into that kind of thing.”

Were they really trying to talk me into having sex with Jim just so they could live vicariously through me?
I’d lived vicariously through them enough for twelve lifetimes.
I’d listened to their stories, pined over the sexual freedom afforded to them by their mind-set.
I never thought I could be that girl.
I never thought I could have random sex.
But I can and I did.
And it was kind of awesome.

But didn’t I already do just that?
And was it really a one night stand if he and I were seeing each other again next week?
Could Jim be the real and true one nighter I’d been hoping for?
No strings?
No awkward running into each other at the gym?
No ridiculously hot roommate to lust after?