“That’s a definite no then.”
I nod. “Definitely no.”
Rose and Daisy have both earned official Brutus badges for tricking me when Rose announced my “pregnancy” scare secret, and my mother keeps shooting me sharp looks. She probably hopes I’ll turn to stone.
“Do you think they’ll notice if I jump overboard?” I ask, sitting up and plugging my nose before taking a much larger swig of the hangover drink. I stifle a gag. Gross.
Lo doesn’t say a word because he’s fast asleep, his Fizz-bourbon still wrapped in his fingers. I wonder if he stayed up all last night, taking care of me. I gently pry the glass from his clutch so it doesn’t spill all over him.
“It’s not so bad here,” Poppy says, cracking open a hardback. She relaxes, and if I was her, able to enjoy the sunshine, to read, to stare off and drift and dream about anything, I’d think this was pretty lovely too. But as I gaze at the wide, vast and endless ocean, I imagine my body rocking on someone else’s. I recreate the blissful feeling of reaching the highest peak in my mind. The elevator. The man in a suit. Thrusting. It’s all planted there, telling me to feel a familiar sensation again and again and again.
But I can’t. Not here. And so I’m left craving something that will never come.
The sliding door whooshes open, and Rose walks out with a tequila sunrise. She spends a great deal of time bringing the lounge chair in front of everyone’s, the legs scraping against the hard flooring. When it’s just right, she spreads out a light blue towel and sits, facing me.
“Do you want me to get you one?” she quips, raising her alcoholic drink.
“Very funny,” I say, my stomach gurgling, still unsettled.
Lo could have easily downed fruity drinks all night without too much suspicion, but he hates sweet mixes. And he’d rather not draw any attention to himself. He puts away drinks too quickly that people are bound to be suspicious or worried that he’s returning to those old, inebriated, party-filled years before we got together. Of course they never really ended, maybe the prep school parties, but not the drinking. No one knows that though.
“Did he get you drunk?” Rose wonders, eyeing Lo’s sleeping body like she could stick him with voodoo needles.
“No,” I lie. “He actually tried to get me to stop.” Semi-true.
Rose looks doubtful and she kicks his lounge chair, waking Lo up from his nap.
He jolts, startled. “What the hell?”
“Rose,” I say with the shake of my head. “He was tired.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
Lo pushes his hair back with his hand and mutters a few insults under his breath. Then he raises his lounge chair to a sitting position. “Look what the wind blew in.”
“What?” Rose snaps.
Lo’s eyebrow rises, confused. “What what?”
“What did the wind blow in? Finish what you were saying if you have the balls.”
“You’re right, I’ve lost my balls. You win.” Lo scans around his area for his drink. I hand it to him, and he looks appreciative that I kept it safe. He chugs down half.
He doesn’t need to finish his statement. I’m almost positive he meant to call her a bitch, or at least implied it in the vaguest way possible.
Poppy says, “I think you’re getting burned, Lily.”
Oh great. My plan to burn alive has been ruined by Poppy’s maternal worry.
She tosses me a bottle of suntan lotion.
“I’m fine, really. I burn and then tan. And I need the color.” I push my aviators further up my nose.
Rose snorts. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in a while.”
“That’s not true,” I retort. “I’m pretty sure Maria said something about the color of the sky actually being orange. And you were there.”
“I’m excluding children from this.”
Lo smiles. “Ooh, Rose, showing favoritism towards children. What is the world coming to?”
She glares at me. “I still hate that you brought him. Poppy had enough sense to leave her husband and child at home.”
Lo finishes off his drink. “I’m right here, you know.”
Rose ignores, waiting for me to respond.
“It’s not like I have a child that Lo needs to look after. If Maria wasn’t born, Sam would be here, right Poppy?”
Poppy looks impassive. “I’m not getting into this.” Sometimes, being Switzerland during family tiffs is super annoying for everyone else.