Twenty-eight
The other two beds were still stripped bare.
With a sigh of relief, Charlie drew Beth towards him. ‘You, young lady, have been flirting with me.’
‘Me? Don’t be daft.’ She tried to give a sexy smile.
‘I’m never daft.’ His grip tightened.
‘That’s a bloody lie. He’s always daft.’
‘Shush. Go away, now. Please?’
‘Not until I have your answer.’
‘Lisa!’
‘I can wait all night, but I’m not sure about him.’
Beth looked at Charlie’s kind face. She wanted to be alone with him, really alone. Was that even possible? ‘Right, you can have tomorrow with him …’ She quickly added, ‘Just to go scuba diving! But only if you promise to leave us alone now. Deal?’
‘Okey dokey. Have fun.’
Beth waited. There was silence inside her head. After a couple of seconds, she gave Charlie her full attention. ‘You think I was flirting?’
‘I know it. But, luckily, I loved it.’
She liked the feel of his arms around her. She wasn’t used to such a big, strong man, but this felt good. ‘What are you going to do about it?’
He gave her a hard and urgent kiss. What he lacked in finesse, he made up for in enthusiasm.
She enjoyed his kisses, although they were a little rushed. It quickly became clear his intention was to take this all the way, if she was willing. She was definitely willing, no question of that. But she couldn’t help wondering, Charlie was only the third person she’d ever been with, where was he going to sit on the scale? Would he be down at the Mario end, or up there at the top with James? It wasn’t going to be easy for him, he had to live up to James’s technique. James had taught her how to understand her own body. She had a moment of worry when she thought surely Charlie wasn’t going to be able to make her feel the way he had. But whether she was worried or not, Charlie was absolutely going for it, and it seemed impossibly judgemental to stop him, just because she assumed he wasn’t going to make the grade.
She knew if she and James had parted on better terms, if they’d had their romantic last night and sad farewell at the airport, she wouldn’t have been able to give herself so readily now. But as it was, she had no idea if she would ever see James again, meaning there were no feelings of disloyalty. The best thing to do was to go with the flow and embrace all that life had to offer.
There was barely time to process these thoughts before they were lying naked on the bottom bunk. Charlie was a big chap, there wasn’t really room for them both side by side on the narrow bed. Her only option seemed to be to jump right on and lay on top of him, and, Charlie took this as her way of saying, ‘Hey, don’t worry about the foreplay, let’s just get right to the main event!’
Without further ado, he leant over and grabbed his rucksack. Taking clothes out at random, he searched the bag. Then, appearing to remember something, he reached into a side pocket, and produced a condom. ‘There’s the bugger!’
What was Beth to do? Should she correct him? Should she explain she’d quite like them to engage in a bit more … how do you say … um … touching, before they dived right in? She was trying hard not to think of James, but it was inevitable she’d compare the two, surely?
As he fumbled around in the darkness trying to get the condom on, Beth checked Lisa was gone.
‘Are you there?’
No reply.
‘Seriously, are you watching?’
When Lisa failed to reply a second time, Beth was relieved. At least that was one less thing to worry about.
Inopportunely, thinking of Lisa led her to another thought. I wonder if it was me or Lisa who first noticed Charlie in the pool? Then, if we hadn’t noticed he was drowning, I’d be alone in this bed right now. It was a ridiculous thought. But she couldn’t stop it. The realisation invaded her mind and, before she knew it, her head was full of cloudy images of Charlie as a boy. She was reminded of all the stupid things they’d done as kids. All the crazy adventures she, Charlie and Michelle had been on. I’m with Charlie Morris, and we’re naked! She tried, she really did; she was determined not to giggle. But once she started, she just couldn’t stop.
Charlie’s stony silence told Beth he wasn’t impressed. He asked, ‘What are you laughing at?’
‘I just … I just can’t stop …’
‘Evidently!’
‘It’s you … and it’s me … and we’re …’ She continued to giggle.
‘Yes, exactly. We’re what? What are we doing?’
It was clear he was embarrassed. She hated being the one to cause it. ‘I’m sorry, I just …’
Gently moving her out of the way, he began throwing his clothes back on. All the time, mumbling, ‘For fuck’s sake!’
Unexpectedly, the images in her head were replaced by just one. An extremely clear picture of Charlie, lying face down like a starfish in her birthday paddling pool. As quickly as it had started, the giggling stopped, and the crying began.
She sobbed. ‘You could’ve died. You were such a lovely little boy … and you could’ve drowned.’
‘Jeez, all this and you’ve only had a couple of shandies!’
Luckily, he wasn’t the kind of bloke to get mad. He chucked her shorts, T-shirt and undies onto the bed, and turned his back to give her some privacy.
She dressed as quickly, and with as much dignity, as possible.
As soon as she was decent, Charlie stood up and began shoving all his possessions back into his rucksack. He huffed and puffed, making quite a performance of it.
‘Nobody likes a show-off.’ Beth chewed her lip.
Thankfully, it diffused the tension, he gave a small laugh. Throwing himself back into bed, he signalled for Beth to join him.
She tried, as best she could, to lay next to him. His wonderful strong arms came around her in a bear hug. She was half hanging over the side of the bed, but she felt safe.
‘The point is, you dozy cow, I didn’t die. Look at me. I’m alive.’
‘I know. I know.’ Her sobbing had become a more sedate whimper.
‘And another thing … I wasn’t a lovely little boy. I was a fucking wally!’
‘I’m sorry, for spoiling … you know?’
‘It’s all right. Another time, another place, maybe.’
‘Perhaps we shouldn’t have rushed it?’ she suggested.
‘Ha. Is that what you think we did?’
She fell asleep in his arms. It wasn’t the most comfortable night’s sleep she’d ever had, but it got ten out of ten for safety.
The next morning, they got up early, and Beth was pleased when nothing further was mentioned about the fiasco of the night before.
Charlie nipped out for rolls and Beth made the tea. There was a silence in her head. In fact, Lisa was so quiet, she began to wonder if she’d somehow left.
Just as the kettle boiled and Beth began pouring the steaming hot water onto the tea bags, Lisa asked, ‘So? When do we swap?’
‘Bloody hell. You made me jump. I nearly burned my hand.’
‘Surely you weren’t hoping I’d forgotten?’
‘No, I …’
‘I mean, you wouldn’t go back on your word, would you?’
‘No. But …’
‘Besides, what’s the alternative? Huh? You can’t go scuba diving and you sure as hell don’t want to let him down now.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Was she watching last night?
‘It means – it’s too late to back out.’
‘Oh, right. Yeah, I guess …’
‘So, shall we swap?’
The excitement in Lisa’s voice made Beth feel nauseous. At the same time as fear caused her blood to run cold, the usual guilt kicked her in the guts. ‘You’ll just do the trip, right? Then, you’ll swap back.’
‘I thought I’d at least get the whole day.’
‘It’s complicated. I need the evening. We ‒’
‘Here he is. Time to decide. Who’s going to plunge themselves into that deep, cold water and breath artificial air for half an hour, you or me?’
Charlie appeared at the door, a bag of soft, warm rolls in his hand. ‘OK? Let’s eat these, then skedaddle.’
‘Well?’ There was impatience in Lisa’s voice.
‘I don’t know. I can’t be sure you’ll …’
Charlie took a bite of one of the rolls. ‘Imagine standing on the bottom of the ocean, watching the fishes swim right past your face. Just bobbing about under water. It’s going to be brilliant, isn’t it?’
‘All right, you win. But I mean it, if you don’t give me my body back …’
As Charlie busied himself washing up the mugs they’d used for their tea, he had no idea that, right next to him, the twins were swapping places. Beth’s eyes were closed for a few seconds, and in that time, she took herself towards Lisa’s place. The sound of Charlie’s dodgy whistling became faint, and the smell of the last two warm rolls, which still resided in the paper bag, was lost to her. She hated to leave him, if only for a day. Every instinct told her to warn him. Don’t trust me. Don’t believe a word I say from now on. And, most importantly, please, don’t make love to me, not yet, not until I’m ‘me’ again. But she knew she couldn’t say it. Not least because he’d never believe her. Beth left, and within moments she was alone in Lisa’s dark corner.
It was different. More like that very first time they changed places. On the occasions when she’d been drunk, and Lisa had stolen her body, Beth had been unable to see what was going on. But now that she’d willingly swapped, she found herself once again able to watch the world through a cloudy haze. Was this better or worse? She couldn’t say. She observed as Lisa took a hold of her body. She faltered, grabbing the counter top for support. Charlie turned back from the sink, and, seeing what he assumed to be Beth staggering slightly, took her arm.
Beth experienced a rush of pure sadness, it was such a gentle touch that she couldn’t feel it. Her heart broke a little. Then she heard her voice say, ‘Thanks, I just lost my footing for a second.’
He smiled. ‘You bloody lightweight. You only had a few shandies, yesterday.’
Lisa laughed, as she replied, ‘Yeah, I know. I was a bit of a let-down, last night. It won’t happen again. I promise.’