Chapter 10

Sandra slid into the barstool beside me as I stared at my lager. I wasn’t particularly fond of lager, but it was what all the boys drank and the only thing I dared order. I was in my own thoughts and it was a moment before I noticed her.

“So they’ve let you loose?” she smiled awkwardly, trying to assess the situation.

I just nodded, not really parsing the nuance. Her confidence improved markedly.

“Oh my god, is that really a Rolex?” she tapped my wristwatch incredulously.

I glanced at it and shrugged. It definitely wasn’t a Rolex. It was such a cheap watch it wasn’t even imitation Rolex. Sandra seemed to take my non-committal response as affirmation, however, and cooed appreciatively.

We talked for a while, idly, about things I forget. I wasn’t paying much attention. I wasn’t on my guard. My mind was mostly wondering what Tiff and Charlie were doing, and what they were saying. Were they going to divide me up? Would one of them leave me? Where we going to stay friends?

“It’s getting late, I really must get going back,” Sandra was saying, glancing around. “It looks like they’ve left me.” She paused, then rested her hand gently on my arm. “Is it safe? Could you walk me home?”

I agreed. I wanted to go back, too. The evening had gone quickly enough. Sandra had talked easily, and I hadn’t had to listen too closely, just say a few words here and there and make encouraging sounds.

Sandra clung to my arm as we strolled slowly back along the seafront. It wasn’t so late, and there was a hum of people just starting to head out to the clubs and bars. We threaded our way through the foot traffic, the only people heading back in that direction.

As we reached her floor, Sandra led me hurriedly towards her door. “Sssh, I’ll see if anyone’s in,” she whispered and deftly slid the card through the reader and opened the door a smidgen. Then she turned back to me, her hand still gripping the crook of my arm, and pulled me in. “Coffee?” she asked as she closed the door behind us and rushed towards a small kettle on a tray above the mini-bar.

I turned, a bit bewildered, wondering kind of how I’d ended up here. Sandra skipped into the en-suite for a moment and I could hear the taps running and general fluttering about in there. I stood awkwardly, wondering how I was going to make polite excuses to leave.

Sandra stood in doorway, still, posed provocatively. She was completely naked. She was tall and slender with a slight curve to her hips, a clean shaven pussy and smallish, high-up breasts with light pink nipples. She was watching me sweep my eye up her, measure her. Her smile faltered, unsure.

“I thought...” she trailed off, then dashed towards the door, barring my way out.

“Please, stay a bit,” she pleaded. “I thought you liked me. I thought you wanted this...”

I shook my head, trying to clear the beer fog. I was sure I didn’t want this. I could see she was gorgeous, but I was energised with the realisation that, even drunk, I wasn’t going to cheat on my girlfriends! I loved them! Oh my god, how had I got myself into this situation?

I edged towards her, towards the door, towards my only escape. Sandra was shuddering slightly now. I got close enough and she put her hands out to pull my neck into her.

I almost forgot myself and let her kiss me. At the last second, a panic clicked in at the back of my head and I lurched sideways so she missed and kissed my ear instead. I tried to reach past her for the door handle.

Her head tilted, her eyes following my arm as it reached out. She realised I was trying to leave.

And she brought her knee up in a sickening, crunching motion.

I almost fell over. I bent a bit double. Sandra pushed me away and I almost toppled. “You bastard!” she yelled, her hands slapping at my chest like hard rain. “You utter bastard! Don’t you ever speak to me again!”

At last, I managed to lurch past her and pull the door open, sending her light frame flying back as the door carried her. I shot through and sank down in the corridor, bent over, sucking in awkward breaths. I think my slight drunkenness had saved me most of the pain. Or perhaps it just didn’t hurt as much as I’d imagined it would? I staggered to the lifts and crept gingerly back to my room.

“What happened to you?” Tiff was brushing my cheek tenderly. Charlie was gazing into my eyes from the other side, too. My girls had found me collapsed in the bed and now they were leaning over me, deeply concerned.

“She kneed me in the balls!” I managed to wheeze. The pain was unbearable. I’d been unconscious for a while. I was still dressed.

“Who?”

“Sandra.”

“Why?”

“Wait, tell it from the beginning,” Charlie insisted.

“Well, she chatted to me in a bar.”

“Uh ha.”

“And I walked her home, as she was scared to walk alone”

I could see how thin both girl’s lips were.

“And when we got to her room, she took all her clothes off!”

“Christ, Sam! What did you do?”

“I tried to get away of course!”

“And she kneed you?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not surprised” Tiff grinned and Charlie nodded. “Sounds like there’s plenty of blame on both sides.”

“You didn’t, you know, do anything?” Charlie sounded concerned again.

“No!”

“Was she pretty?”

“I guess...” I thought back. Perhaps the pause wasn’t the best thing. One of them prodded me in my groin and I doubled up in pain. “Is that where it hurts?” one of them asked, innocently.

“Look, I didn’t do anything, I promise!” I cried. “I didn’t realise what was going on until it was too late. I thought we were just talking! I don’t even remember what we talked about! It was entirely her who got the wrong idea.”

“I did warn you about her,” Charlie chided.

“Well, it looks like you’re out of commission tonight,” Tiff sighed.

“Oh, how was your evening?” I managed to remember to ask.

“We had a good talk,” Charlie smiled. “Don’t worry, we didn’t replace you”

“Come on, lets shower. I hate sleeping in make-up.”

And so we had a gentle shower and then fell into sleep. The dull ache in my balls slowly faded and I slept deeply. Tiff checked everything was in working order before her morning run, much to Charlie’s chagrin when I rolled back over and fell asleep again.

The girls came to breakfast while we were there. All but Sandra talked happily; Sandra was avoiding joining in. Tiff and Charlie said nothing. At least nobody was making a scene. Was I supposed to apologise to her?

“So how was your date last night?” one of them asked my girls playfully. None of them seemed to notice Sandra’s hesitance.

“Oh, it was great! We got to talk about our boyfriend,” Tiff twittered, and then looked sharply at Sandra.

“Tonight is our last night, so we’re going out together, all three of us,” Charlie added.

“Oh, sounds fun!” the girls chimed in. Sandra looked dispirited and embarrassed.

We got up and made to leave. Tiff gently dragged Sandra apart from the girls, who were now dispersing towards the breakfast buffet, and whispered so only we could hear “Don’t worry, we’ve checked, he still works”

Then she shoved Sandra away from us and stalked out and laughed raucously as we came into the bright sunshine. Charlie looked pleased, too.

We were settled into a patio set wasting time, when Charlie checked her phone again. She often checked her phone.

“Shit,” she hissed. Tiff and I sat up straight and looked at her, alarmed.

“Shit,” she repeated. She dropped her phone onto the table and pushed it into the middle so we could all see it. I shielded my eyes from the sun and squinted down. The bright light was making the screen look all washed out. Tiff grabbed the phone and hurried into the shade of the bar terrace with it, and Charlie and I followed.

“Oh, fuck!” Tiff wheezed. I grabbed her hand cradling the phone and looked at it for the first time.