Page 39 of The Other Side of Paradise

“I didn’t say that. She helps me get my life together. And sometimes she sneaks me alcohol. Those two times never overlap.”

She laughed bigger and brighter now, maybe feeling the flush of the alcohol a little bit herself, especially when she took a long sip of the drink. “You have a really fun friendship,” she said. “It’s fun getting to intrude and be a part of this little beach clique.”

“Beach clique. I guess we can call it that.”

She handed me the drink again, and I took just a little sip this time. Still enough to choke on it when she said, “So, eye contact. What else are you into?”

“Uh—” I choked, wiping my mouth, putting the drink down. “Um. Stuff. This and that.”

“C’mon. I can tell you mine, if it makes it easier.”

That would make everything infinitely worse. It wasn’t that Ididn’twant to know Stella’s kinks, but it wasn’t going to help me hold a conversation with her. Especially because she was going to describe things with men.

But maybe it was the alcohol that had me say, “You know, sure.”

She grinned. “I knew you weren’t all boring. So, you first or me?”

I took a longer sip of the drink. I needed it right now. “I already told you one, so…”

“Okay, true. Good point. So now I owe you one. Is it cheating if I just say I’m really into eye contact and stuff too?”

This was a really bad idea. I was already turned on. Thinking about loaded eye contact with Stella and… “Oh, twinning,” I said.

“We have so much in common.” She took the drink from me, drinking long before she said, “Okay, your turn again then.”

Oh, god, it was my turn. “I haven’t had enough to drink to say this.”

She laughed, pushing the drink into my hands. I shouldn’t have, but I drank from it, the sweetness and the citrus balancing against the rum. “Now you can say it,” she said.

“Oh, fuck me.”

“That doesn’t count. That’s too basic.”

“Um… being told… what to…” I buried myself in the drink again. She laughed.

“You’re so shy, it’s cute. Being given instructions?”

“Um. Yep.”

“So you’re kinda the bottom.”

“Um… well… yeah. Yep. But just like… very…” I shook my head. “Uh—forget it. Nothing.”

“Iwon’tforget it. C’mon. Tell me.”

“Nope.”

“Tell me,” she said, her voice lower now. “That’s my instruction.”

Jesus Christ. My brain went to static for a second before I said, “Wow. Okay. Um. Just, you know… very… detailed instructions. And just…”

“Oh, like, talking you through it, telling you every step of what to do.”

I put the drink down and put my hands over my face. “That’s about the long and short of it, yeah. Okay, your turn.”

“That’s fun. I’ll steal that for mine, because I like… just like, talking. I’m really chatty in bed. I’m like,okay, do this, right there, just like this, that’s good, do you like this, do you want more of that, I like this, let’s do this.I don’t shut the fuck up,” she laughed.

Well. I knew what I was masturbating to tonight. Jesus Christ. Even just her imitating it just now,do this, right there, just like this…fuck me. I’d never been this turned on at the beach before. “How is this so much easier for you than it is for me?”