Page 31 of The Flirtation
Chapter 11
Luke
As soon asAvery left the table, I excused myself to go for a long walk—alone—on the beach. Ostensibly it was to look for seashells, but really I needed to get as far away as possible from Avery, who was probably taking a shower. I walked and walked, and didn’t see anything except the image in my head of Avery showering and looking up at me while licking herlips.
When she had emerged from that massage pavilion she was luminous. She walked like a panther, her skin was taut and flushed. She appeared to be ravenous. The way she moaned while savoring each bite of mango and grapes and strawberries. She didn’t seem to be doing it deliberately—behaving so sensuously and seductively. She was just really enjoying the fruit. I wanted to dash out of there before she started going to town on a banana. But then Ingrid turned up and told us about the seashellgifts.
Who on earth was I to give them advice on love and marriage? I couldn’t even tell the woman that I was deliriously attracted to that I wanted her. All I had to do was ask her if she was happy in her relationship and let her know that I was there for her if she wanted me too, while we had the chance. I mean we were in the Bahamas, for heaven’s sake. What was I so afraid of? I could sleep with her, enjoy her company while we were together and then go back to my life and keep living it the way I’d always lived it—that’s what I did with otherwomen.
I decided to Google “best quotes about love and marriage” on my phone, when I turned back towards the villa and saw Avery walking in my direction, about fifteen meters away. I could see that she was holding a shell in one hand and a pad of paper and pen in the other. I had forgotten to bring pen and paper and I hadn’t even looked for a shellyet.
“I’m not stalking you, I swear,” she calledout.
“I hardly believeyou.”
“You were about to Google a quote to put in the note, weren’tyou?”
I laughed. “You don’t knowme.”
She stopped walking and sat down in the sand, facing the ocean. The sun was about to set. I had gone hours without seeing her all morning, managed to stay away from her for a few more hours this afternoon, and now here we were on a beach at sunset and I was so happy to hear her voice and look at her, it was idiotic. I sat down, about two feet away from her, and stared ahead. I looked around and picked up the first shell I found. It wasperfect.
“Can you believe they’re getting marriedtomorrow?”
“They seem to have their feet solidly on the ground. And they seem very much inlove.”
“Yeah.” She sounded sad. “It’s so easy for some people,” she whispered, more to herself than tome.
“Looks that way,” I said. “You come up with something juicy to stick in your shellyet?”
She guffawed. “It sounds so dirty when you put it that way,sailor.”
“Everything sounds dirty when you have a dirty mind,darling.”
After a moment, she said: “Did you have a good talk with Bucket? Get him up to date oneverything?”
“Yes I did. It was not the first time I’d talked business on a golf course, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had losing. That man is quite an athlete. It’shumbling.”
“You didn’t look half bad yourself. Running on the beach, Imean.”
She kept staring straight ahead, at thehorizon.
“Well, I’m not half bad,” I said. “So what are you going to write in your note, tellme.”
She laughed. “You gofirst!”
“I was thinking something along the lines of: ‘Never go to bed angry.’ It’s what my mum told my sister when she was fighting with her husband. But then I thought the better advice would be ‘go to bed angry and have make-up seximmediately.’”
She laughed. “Oh my God you should be a talk show host.Let’s Look at Love with Luke!on BBCTwelve.”
“Oh right well what were you going to write? Your favorite line from a Katy Perry song I’dbet.”
“I mean how could I pick just one favorite line from a Katy Perry song—that’simpossible.”
“What about: ‘Congratulations on not having to usecondoms.’”
“’Try not to murder eachother.’”
“’Stayhydrated.’”
