Page 3 of One Hot Summer

“Absolutely.”

“Ignore my friend,” Sarah said. “She’s not into cheesy chat-up lines.”

“Oh yeah? How about you?” asked Essex number two.

“You can try me.” She twirled her hair between her fingers, looking up at him.

“Well, how about this.” He put his hands on his hips, accepting the challenge. “Your blonde hair is beautiful, is it natural–”

“No,” she said quickly before he could finish his line. “It’s supernatural. Don’t upset me or it might curse you.”

“Ha!” Both Essex boys laughed. “I’m Jamie,” said Sarah’s daring love interest. “This is my pal, Joe. Aren’t you girls sticking around for the party?”

“What party?” Sarah asked.

“The hotel is throwing a big bash tonight, big pool party. It’s gonna be mint. Kicks off in a few minutes. Are you coming back down?”

“We might be, we could be convinced.” Sarah winked at me.

“We’ll see you back down there then, I hope.”

I blushed as Joe gave me one last smile before heading back down to their spot by the pool.

“Oh my God, Sarah!” I said when they were out of earshot. “They want us to join them. What are we wearing tonight? Will you do my make-up? Are we going to the party?”

“Of course we’re going,” she hooked her arm around mine, “but we don’t need to get changed. It’s a pool party, we’re fine as we are. Come on.”

A few hours later, we were still sitting by the pool with our Essex boys, and things were progressing very quickly. Cocktail after cocktail was being consumed, and the more I drank, the more X-rated the situation was becoming. This was very out of character for me, but there was something about the beautiful setting, being with my best friend, a few drinks and the fact that the stress of university life and dissertations were over that made me want to have fun. The boys had told us they were leaving tomorrow, which spurred us on to make the night even more exciting.

“Why don’t we move the party upstairs?” I heard Jamie suggest to Sarah.

“I suppose we could,” Sarah teased. “To your room?”

“We can’t, it’s shared with the others, and I suspect it might get… overcrowded. They’ve been a nightmare all week. How about yours?”

“We could do. Hey, Jenny?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going up, private party. You guys coming?”

I looked at Joe. We had been talking for quite some time, and I really liked him. He had just finished university too and was having one final holiday with his friends before venturing to Australia for a year of travelling on his own. I had never had a one-night stand, ever, but he was too good to let go. Essex was a million miles away, so it was not like I could just hop on the bus to visit him in the future. It was now or never.

“How about it?” I asked, fearful he would turn me down, even now.

“Yes, if you’re sure. What’s your place like? Do you two have separate rooms?”

“Well, I don’t know, to be honest. I was too eager to get back down to this party. I remember seeing a bed, but have no idea if there was another bed through another door, or if there even was another door for that matter. I think it’s only one bedroom, but there’s a balcony we can chill on, although I’m not sure if there’s any furniture.” It was still warm outside, so no reason we couldn’t sit out.

“Well, we can find out?” Joe reached for my hand and pulled me up so we could follow Sarah and Jamie up to our room. I was glad Joe had hold of me. My lack of food almost resulted in a midnight dip in the pool.

“Here we are!” Sarah opened the door to our room and I could finally have a proper look around… although there wasn’t much to look at.

“Sarah, didn’t you request separate beds?” It looked as though we were about to get very close for the next seven nights, although I wasn’t particularly keen on a foursome tonight. I peeked my head in the door to my right, finding a shower room with a sink and toilet. Not even a bath to chill out in. There were no other rooms, this was it. A queen-sized bed and a small two-seater sofa.

Joe walked around the bed and opened up the balcony doors.

“Your balcony isn’t a bad size, it’s almost bigger than the actual room. We could pull the couch out here.”

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