Chapter 24
The hangovers were significant.
Ellie woke up to realise they hadn’t drawn the curtains, the sunlight like an assault on the senses, and her headache felt like her brain had shrivelled to the size of a pebble overnight, rattling around painfully every time she moved her head.
Next to her Becca was face down on the pillow, groaning.
"I'm dying," Becca said into the pillow. “Since when was the sun so bright.”
"You're not dying. You're hungover."
"Same thing. Worse. Dying would mean this would end." She rolled over and squinted at Ellie. Her eyes were puffy, her hair was everywhere, and she had a faint sunburn across her nose that would have been cute if she didn't look like she'd spent the night in a bush. "How much did we drink?"
"I stopped counting after the nursing students shared their cooler."
"That was at like two in the afternoon."
"Yes."
Becca pulled the pillow over her face. "We're twenty-five. We should be able to handle this."
"We're twenty-five-year-olds who haven't day-drunk since college. Our tolerance has atrophied."
"I kissed a nursing student."
"You did."
"Was it good?"
"It was very sloppy and apparently she tasted like margaritas and sunscreen. Your words."
"I don't remember saying that but it sounds accurate." A pause. "Did I enjoy it?"
"You seemed amused by it more than aroused."
"That sounds right. I remember her being fun. I don't remember wanting to take her home." Another pause. "I also remember dancing with the shots guy. Tell me I didn't kiss him too."
"You didn't kiss him. You did tell him you were impressed by how many shots they had. He thought you were flirting.”
Becca emerged from the pillow and reached for the glass of water on the nightstand. "Can we spend today not moving?"
"That was my plan."
***
They did indeed spend Sunday barely moving.
The pool, the couch, a delivery order from the nearest restaurant that sold enough carbohydrates to rebuild them, not to mention a long nap in the afternoon that felt medically necessary even if it also made them feel old before their time.
By the evening the hangovers had receded to a manageable dull ache, and they sat on the terrace watching the sky change colour, drinking sparkling water because the thought of alcohol made them both wince.
"That was a really good day though," Becca said.
"It was a great day."
"Like genuinely, apart from the hangover, one of the funnest days of my life. Just being out there, being part of it, the beach, the people, dancing, all of it. I felt like we were twenty again."
"Except when we were twenty we could drink all day and function the next morning."
"Details." She gestured vaguely and smiled at Ellie.
"I'm glad the kiss was nothing. I mean, it was fun, but I'm glad it wasn't the thing.
And thank you for permission. But if something's going to happen on this trip I want it to be real, not a drunk girl on a dance floor who’s going to forget about it ten seconds later. "
"Agreed." Ellie grinned. “Either that or she’s sat there right now having a massive freak out about whether she’s into women.”
Becca laughed. “If she is then we’ve done our civic duty.”
They sat for a while in comfortable silence, watching the day fade to darkness around them and the pool lights coming on automatically.
“Think we should try that again before we leave?” Becca asked casually. A little too casually, Ellie suspected.
“I was going to suggest the same. But the hangover… let’s give it a few days.”
“Thursday? Gives us time to have fun round here, and gives us all of Friday to recover before our flights at the weekend.”
“But go there later. Like mid-afternoon.” Ellie hesitated.
“What?” A smile was playing around the edges of Becca’s mouth, like she knew there was more from Ellie.
“We should… leave our options open when we’re there.”
“In case there’s a plausible girlfriend sort of situation,” Becca teased.
Ellie felt herself blush. “Maybe…”
“I’d like that. But I didn’t see too many of them yesterday. Lots of women I found attractive, but girlfriend material? No.”
“We could… relax the criteria. A little.”
Becca looked at Ellie intently. “We could. A little. The full spring break experience. You think that would get your whole jealousy-arousal thing going?”
Ellie nodded. “Absolutely not taking advantage of a drunk eighteen-year-old. No way.”
“Of course.”
“But someone we both like… plausible girlfriend could stretch to plausible when we were seniors. I could get with that.”
Becca nodded slowly. “I could too. Let’s see what happens.
” She stood and nodded towards the pool.
“Before we worry about any of that though, what do you say to a night-time swim?” She held out her hand to help Ellie stand then, once she was upright, leaned forward to whisper. “No swimwear allowed…”
***
Monday through Wednesday were great even without the distraction of playing at being students.
They went to the oyster place they’d heard about and it was as good as the reviews promised.
They found a bookshop where Ellie lost an hour simply browsing and Becca lost patience.
They ran on the beach in the mornings, they swam in the afternoons, they chilled by the pool in the evenings, and the rhythm of it was so good that Ellie caught herself thinking she could do this forever.
Becca was lighter than she'd been in months. The ranch weekend had unlocked something in her, maybe a confidence in what they’d been doing, and the Florida sun combined with the distance from work and the absence of any obligation beyond where to eat next had amplified it.
She was wonderfully relaxed as, Ellie realised, was she.
They had great sex, powered by the sun and the privacy.
The pool became their after-dark kingdom: naked swims, slow kisses against the tiles, the underwater lights turning their bodies turquoise.
One evening Ellie sat on the pool's edge while Becca went down on her in the shallows, the water reassuring cool around Ellie's ankles, her hands rough against the paving, and afterwards they floated together looking at the stars and saying nothing because nothing needed to be said.
No narration. No fantasy. No dynamic. Just them.
Ellie found it reassuring… all they needed was them. This dynamic they’d discovered, their kink, it was extra. A wonderful, deeply pleasurable extra, yes, but an extra nonetheless.
***
Kelly checked in on Tuesday, a voice note on the group chat that was mostly her complaining about a fence post and then, almost as an afterthought, asking how Florida was.
Becca replied with a photo of the two of them on the beach, tanned and smiling, and Kelly's response was: Ugh you look amazing. Colt says hi. Tell me more when you're back.
Ellie added: We went to PCB on Saturday. Becca kissed a nursing student from Alabama. It was messy.
Kelly's reply was a voice note of her laughing so hard she couldn't speak for fifteen seconds, followed by: Sloppy spring break kisses are a rite of passage. Did it go further?
Becca: It did not. She tasted like margaritas and sunscreen. At least that’s apparently what I said. I had some memory loss.
Kelly: The dream. Colt wants to know if the nursing student was cute?
Becca: Tell Colt she was very cute but not as adorable as him. Though Ellie remembers better.
Ellie: I can confirm she was cute.
***
On the Wednesday night, before bed, Becca stood by the pool and looked at the water, lit from beneath, the surface perfectly still.
"I'm excited about tomorrow," she said. "Not in the way where I'm expecting something to happen. Just... excited to go back and see where it takes us. Is that weird?"
"Not weird at all. It was genuinely one of the best days we've had."
Becca smiled. "The Georgia Tech guys and their sand fort."
"The unicorn."
"The synchronised dancing."
"The nursing students' cooler." Ellie grinned. “One particular nursing student…”
Becca shared her grin. “I blame the cooler. That's what got us." Becca turned away from the pool and walked over to Ellie, putting her arms around her. "Whatever tomorrow is, it's going to be fun."
"That's all it needs to be."