AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She snatches the clothes from me, laughing. “Naked Island,” she says as she slips her clothes on and I yank on my swim trunks. “I like that. Please tell me it’s a private island.”
“Only two members, Gingersnap,” I tell her.
You and me.
She looks delighted.
Then she sighs loudly. “I guess we should get back before they wake up and think the worst.”
“You sure they won’t think we’re off somewhere screwing each other?”
“That is the worst. Sorry. I just…let’s just keep this between us until we’re off this damn island and in Fiji. I feel like I’m barely getting along with her and I dunno…”
I get what she’s saying. Lacey would probably give her shit. Would probably give me shit too. Not that I care, but it matters to Daisy.
“No problem. Keep things simple. And secret. I’m good at that.”
She gives me a soft grin. “Thank you.” She looks past the palms to the suitcase. “Well, we better pack up. Hopefully it doesn’t get wet again.”
“Listen, just in case, I’ll carry it out of the water, as long as you grab that vodka.”
She nods, grabbing it, and we quickly shove everything back in its place, zipping it back up before we enter the water.
I carry the suitcase above my head. Not so easy when it weighs a ton and the water is almost too deep to walk in spots, but I manage to get across the shallows of the lagoon just as Lacey and Richard come spilling out of the bungalow.
“Where have you been?” Lacey says and then sees the suitcase as I dump it on the sand. She points frantically. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“It washed ashore like a message in a bottle,” Daisy says proudly, as if she had something to do with the suitcase coming back to her like a boomerang. “Any guesses what that message is?” she asks.
“That stupid designer bag you kept moaning about losing?” Lacey says.
Daisy rolls her eyes, and then reveals the bottle of vodka she had hidden behind her back. “The message was, let’s get crazy!”
While Lacey and Richard freak out over the booze, practically snatching the bottle from her hands, Daisy gives me a faint wink. Which is to say, we already did the crazy part.
Not that it was crazy, per se. I should feel ashamed for finally having sex with her, or at least a little guilty, but surprisingly I feel neither. I told myself I needed to stay away from her because she was a distraction, a road with no future, a chance at heartbreak, something to steal me away from redemption.
But at the moment, I just don’t care.
Because that was better than I could have even imagined. Not only was it a long time coming, but it was something I never even knew I needed. Not just in a physical way, though god knows it’s been way too long since I last got laid, but in a spiritual way. Like that release was for those darkened, hardened bits inside me, the ones I try to keep buried and locked away. It helped shed light on those places, helped to give me hope that I could one day be free of them.
Or maybe I’m looking into it too much. Either way, I have no regrets. The only thing I have is this pressing need to do it again, immediately. A swift return to Naked Island.
But any hopes of that are dashed now that Lacey and Richard are all over the vodka. I never thought I’d see either of them drinking hard liquor straight out of the bottle, but there’s a first time for everything, and being isolated on this island is apparently bringing that out of everyone.
“We need to have a party,” Lacey says adamantly.
Never thought I’d hear her say that either.
“We need to invite Fred and Wilson,” Richard adds, passing the bottle back to her. It’s already half-way gone from just the four of us.
“The goat?” I question.
“Of course,” Richard says. “It’s the man’s only friend.”
Uh-huh. “Don’t you think it’s odd that he talks to the goat?”
“People talk to animals all the time, Tai, it’s called anthropomorphizing.”
“I mean, the goat talks to him.”
Richard raises a stern brow. “Tai, goats don’t talk.”
I can’t argue with that.
Daisy takes the bottle back from Lacey and examines it. “At the rate we’re going, we’ll be drunk by noon.”
“There’s always the wine,” I mention.
“You have wine?” Lacey exclaims.
“Yes,” Daisy says cautiously. I can tell she doesn’t want to share it and I probably shouldn’t have said anything. “I don’t want to burn through it but…”
“We’re getting rescued the day after tomorrow,” Lacey says. “Tonight we’ll party, we’ll drink. Tomorrow we’ll pack and be all hungover. The next day we fly out of here. Fiji! You can buy more wine there.”
Daisy seems to weigh that option. “You’re right.”
