Page 18 of On The Beach

"Why did you say you were?"

I groaned. "Because I thought then you'd help me find Dr. Nicholas Augustus."

"Babycakes, there's no such man on this island."

My heart sank at his words. I'd taken a chance and come all this way because of Lady Arabella Augustus, who I'd been warned by several people who knew her was a bit of a flake. She'd sent me on a wild goose chase.

At least you've had some world-class orgasms, Belle, so it's all worth it. Right?

"I need a drink." I pulled away from him and went to the bar and ordered a Reef Harbor Surprise because I wasn't ready yet to learn from my mistakes.

After I made that really bad decision, the whole night felt like a dream—a sweaty, sun-soaked, tequila-fueled dream, or was it nightmare?

I danced with abandon, and when my new friend, a local, Nita, leaned over, a sly grin on her face, and dared me to jump behind the bar and play bartender, I knew I should've said no. Instead, I felt this wild spark come to life inside me.

Nita and her boyfriend Max had the kind of devil-may-care attitude that practically dared you to join them, and, well, something about Reef Harbor made it impossible to resist. Itossed Mick a grin that said don't wait up, slipped out of my heels, and joined my new, rowdy partners in crime.

Two minutes later, I was slinging back at the bar counter like I was born for it, tequila bottle in hand, shouting, "Shots on the house!" Which was, of course, absolutely untrue. My mother would have keeled over on the spot if she'd seen me there, barefoot and pouring shots for a line of laughing strangers who looked like they hadn't seen a professional bar set up in a decade. Not because she'd be appalled at my behavior, more that she'd never expect this of me.

The locals had their arms raised, mouths open like a flock of baby birds, yelling, "Over here,senorita!"

"RiRi is gonna kill us," Nita exclaimed.

"But then we can say we at least lived," I declared.

I'd never felt so absurd in my life. But my cheeks hurt from laughing. And for the first time…maybe ever, I didn't give a damn what anyone thought.

"Oh, Belle, you are dangerously good at this!" Nita cackled, wiping her face with the back of her hand as I poured her an extra shot straight from the bottle.

"You'd make a fortune in tips," Max slurred, banging his glass on the counter as he poured a line of salt along his arm, licked it clean, then winced like he'd licked a cactus. "Don't get any on RiRi's cash register, though, or we're all dead."

That was when Nita pulled out a dusty, half-busted Polaroid camera, snapped a picture of me in mid-pour, and waved it around like I was a local celebrity. "We're putting this on the Wall of Infamy." She gestured proudly toward a bulletin board filled with pictures of locals in various stages of intoxication.

I'd never been on any "wall" back in Cambridge except maybe a poster presentation at a conference, but here I was, immortalized in tequila-soaked fame.

"What da fuck is going on here?" RiRi cried out. She'dbeen gone for a while—but now it was obviously time to pay the piper. That was, however, not on Nita and Max's plan.

"Time to fly!" Nita yelled, grabbing my hand as Max bolted for the back exit. I snagged a bottle of tequila, laughing like a loon. I made a note to remember to compensate RiRi for any and all damage I'd done to her revenue with free shots, some of which Nita, Max, and I had consumed.

We spilled out of the back door and sprinted through a labyrinth of sandy alleys, laughing so hard I could barely see straight. It felt like I was in a bad buddy action movie—adrenaline pumping, feet pounding on the sand, and all three of us ducking under clotheslines and weaving around market stalls like we had some wild mission. Honestly, we probably looked more like drunken fools than fugitives. I couldn't believe I was doing this. I was Dr. Isabelle Volnay, the one whose calendar was color-coded to perfection and who actually enjoyed clinical studies.

Yet here I was, breathless, hair wild, tearing through Reef Harbor's back alleys with Max and Nita, my "tequila gang." It felt like I was finally living that carefree life I'd always scoffed at in rom-coms.

Then, Max stumbled and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a small, walled courtyard. "Check this out," he whispered, his eyes gleaming as he pointed up at a tattered old flag hanging on a rusty pole—Reef Harbor's ancient town flag. Apparently, there was some unofficial tradition that every true local should swipe it at least once as a rite of passage.

"Oh no. No way." I laughed in disbelief. "You want us to…steal the flag?"

"Borrow," Nita corrected with a wink. "We'll return it…eventually."

I was shaking my head even as Max started to scale the pole, laughing the whole way up. Nita and I cheered him on until he finally reached the top and started unhooking the flag. Andthat was about when a loud crash came from the building next door—followed by a very angry shout from a shopkeeper who'd been stacking boxes in the alley and caught the whole thing.

"Run!" Nita yelled, grabbing my arm as Max came sliding back down, the flag in his teeth, looking like the world's most ridiculous pirate. He handed me the flag to fold and we bolted back into the maze of alleys. I clutched the flag, running so hard I thought we might actually explode.

And just when I thought we'd made it, a voice behind us bellowed, "Alright, enough, you hooligans! Hands in the air!"

I turned to find Reef Harbor's biggest cop—a solid six-foot-five of glowering, no-nonsense authority—holding up his flashlight like he'd just caught me robbing a bank.

Nita and Max exchanged a look, then promptly took off into the night, abandoning me to my fate. I was teetering a little from the tequila, still clutching a bottle of it in one hand and the Reef Harbor flag in the other, staring at the policeman like a deer caught in the headlights.

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