Chapter 22: The Angels of the Bay

Dave yawned as he emerged from a sound slumber and shook the last vestiges of sleep from his head as he saw the first beams of sunlight from the window. He smiled as he saw Missy looking at him through one eye. "Did you sleep well, babe?" he asked.

Missy smiled. "Yeah, I did. You're a nice big comfy pillow!" she said, throwing one of the pillows at Dave.

Dave deflected it with a forearm and smiled at Missy. He was really beginning to fall for this girl. It was pretty easy as he had always known about all of her good qualities, but was a bit too caught up in his own problems to notice. He felt a pang of regret over this, but quickly brightened. "No regrets, right?" he thought. The beginnings of a plan started to form in his mind.

"I'm going to hit the steam room before we work out today, I can kinda feel the drinking from last night," Dave said. Missy nodded, and said she would come, and she went to her room to change. Dave tossed on some shorts and went to look for his sister. He found her door closed, and knocked. A few seconds later, Jess opened the door, naked, and obviously roused from a sound sleep. Dave could see Cindy still asleep in the bed, the sheet not quite covering her ample breasts. "We're going to go hit the steam room before working out. If you guys just want to meet us in the gym that's cool too," Dave said.

Jess yawned, and said they would head down there in a bit.

"Rough night last night, sis?" Dave teased.

"Yeah, kinda... fun though!" said Jess, walking towards the shower.

Dave and Missy headed up to the steam room and grabbed big fluffy towels from a pile at the entrance. "What I usually do is sit in the steam room for about ten minutes, then hit the sauna for ten minutes or so, then shower and warm-up," said Dave. Missy agreed that that sounded like a decent plan, so they headed to the changing rooms, and each came out wrapped in a fluffy towel, then headed into the room.

Dave looked at the thermometer outside the steam room and it read 55C, which was about 130 degrees Fairenheit. The humidity was oppressive as they entered. They hung their towels on hooks near the door as they entered, and Dave sidled to the end of the bench, sitting near the steam nozzles while Missy was close to the door. Both of them were familiar with steam rooms, and took shallow breaths until they were more accustomed to the heat and humidity. Dave felt the alcohol and toxins leave his body as he breathed in the humid air. He glanced over at Missy and could barely make out her naked form through the swirling steam.

Missy had her head in her hands and felt very relaxed as she started taking deeper breaths. The mild scent of eucalyptus helped clear her sinuses and she also felt cleaner and somewhat lighter after several minutes in the wet heat. She was happy after spending the night with Dave, and was thinking about the events of the last couple days. "Dave?" she asked.

"Yeah Missy?" he said, taking rather deep breaths.

"I think Cindy likes you," Missy said.

"We've been friends for a long time Missy, I hope she likes me!" replied Dave, completely missing the point.

"No Dave, I think she's in love with you," replied Missy.

"What are you talking about, Missy? If she is in love with me she has a funny way of showing it," said Dave.

"Well, I think she likes Jess also, but not in the same way," said Missy. "She's definitely in love with you Dave, you can see it from the way she looks at you,"

Dave wasn't really sure about that, but figured Missy had better instincts about this sort of thing that he did. "I believe you Missy, but I'm still not sure about this. It doesn't matter anyways, I don't like her in that way. Cindy is a nice girl, and she's certainly pretty, but I've always seen her as my sister's friend. Besides, I'm falling in love with someone else," said Dave, his tone lightening with the last words.

Missy thought that over and mentally nodded. That was probably true, Dave didn't easily form an emotional attachment with anyone, even people he'd known as long as Cindy. She wasn't sure if he was serious about the last part, but hoped he was. "You are, huh?" Missy said. She could barely make out Dave's nod through the swirling steam. "Well, in case you couldn't tell, I feel the same way,"

"Um Missy, will you be my girlfriend?" Dave asked. As soon as the words had left his mouth, he mentally kicked himself. He sounded like an eighth grader with his stammering. However, milliseconds later, he found his lap full of 110 pounds of squirming naked wet girl, and felt himself being kissed vigorously. This went on for a few seconds until both of them realized a steam bath was a poor place for such activities as they both nearly passed out from the heat and exertion.

"Of course I will Dave, I thought you'd never ask!" said Missy brightly. Dave figured he must have said the right thing, because he had never heard her so happy before.

Giving Missy another quick kiss, he stood. "Let's go to the sauna," said Dave, and they headed across the hall.

A quick glance at the temperature of the sauna found it heated to 95C, which was reasonably hot, but not overwhelmingly so, given the low humidity. Dave ascended to the top level, which had the hottest heat, while Missy sat closer to the floor. Both of them spread their towels on the hot wood, sat on them, then draped them back across their laps to offer a modicum of privacy. From his angle, Dave could just make out the curve of Missy's right breast below her hair, and the view was entrancing. She turned to look at him and smiled. "Do you like the sauna?" asked Dave.

"Yeah, my family went skiing in Austria all the time, so I'm very used to their sauna culture. You know, I'm much less of a prude than your sister thinks I am," said Missy.

Dave laughed, "Jess is just trying to push the envelope, and she likes to tease you. Hopefully it doesn't bother you too much,"

Missy shook her head, sending her beautiful blond hair in a slight arc, "Nah, it doesn't, Jess is sweet, but hard to deal with sometimes,"

Dave nodded. The two friends sat in silence for awhile, luxuriating in the dry heat. Again, shallow breaths were the way to go, until they got more acclimated to the temperature. Missy's skin glistened with sweat, and she quietly sighed. It had been awhile since she'd been in a sauna. "You ready for some water?" asked Dave. Missy nodded, and Dave grabbed the ladle from the bucket sitting near the rocks, and doused them three times, waiting about fifteen seconds before each dose of water. The room began to get more humid and the heat became even more oppressive, and both of them were sweating fairly profusely now.

A few minutes later, both of them were ready to leave, so they headed back to the dressing rooms. By unspoken agreement they had both decided to swim first, so they headed to the pool after changing into their swimwear. The cool water was quite refreshing, and after half an hour or so of laps, they were ready for their workouts. Jess and Cindy were in the gym by the time they headed in to do their warm-ups, and they worked through their full legs/back workout and cooled down on the treadmill. Cindy got an hour's worth of running done on the treadmill while they were working out, and when they headed back down to their suite to freshen up for breakfast, all of them were satisfied with a good workout.

"So Dave, have you seen any of the old gang from high school?" asked Cindy, as they sat over a sumptuous breakfast that had been delivered to their suite.

"I haven't seen anyone except for Steve really," said Dave, referring to his best friend in high school, Steve Williams.

"What has Steve been up to, anyways?" asked Jess, taking a sip from a glass of orange juice.

"I actually see Steve quite often," said Dave. "He went to film school at UCLA and is in the movie business now. He's actually working on the project that I'm currently involved in with Richard,"

"Is that the movie with Paris Hilton?" asked Missy.

"Yes, it's a thriller that is set herein Europe. Paris actually plays the female lead, and is on the run along with a male counterpart," replied Dave. "The script is pretty cool, not really formulaic like other movies, and it's a bit darker perhaps than the typical movie of this type. I actually like it quite a bit,"

"Cool!" said Cindy, "I didn't know you were in the movie business, Dave!"

"I haven't been involved in the industry for too long," said Dave, and the conversation turned to other matters. They lingered over breakfast for a few more minutes then decided to change for the beach.

Missy decided to be slightly more daring and chose a rainbow striped bikini that had slightly briefer bottoms than the suits she had previously worn. "I'm going to take my top off anyways, so who cares?" she thought. She came out of her room and plopped down in Dave's lap.

Jess and Cindy came out from Jess' room, and Cindy had borrowed one of Jess' suits, from the look of things. It was a bright pink string bikini with thong bottoms. She filled it out quite nicely and Dave looked appreciatively. He was surprised to see his sister wearing khaki shorts and a white tank top, and looked at Jess, a question in his eyes.