Page 12 of Vitamin Sea

" O h, holy Jesus.”

Chloe was lying on the sun lounger and, turning to grab her phone from her bag, found herself face-to-crotch with the heavy-set man to her right. Her eyes bugged out of her head, and she quickly turned away, trying to erase the image from her mind.

“Take this!” Lala’s voice came from beside her and she felt a shot glass being pushed into her hand.

“What is this?” she looked at her friend.

“Shhh,” Lala shushed her. “Don’t ask, just drink.”

She took the proffered shot and threw it back, feeling a warmth grow in the pit of her stomach. Her phone forgotten in the shock of the assault on her eyes, she lay back down on the sun lounger and closed her eyes.

It was better that way.

Without the benefit of sight, she didn’t have to worry about any unsolicited full frontals.

It had brought up the memory of one of her first experiences on Tinder, which had involved a seemingly normal-looking man who had proceeded to send her an unwelcome dick pic mere moments after they had matched.

The heat made her limbs heavy as her mind wandered and daydreams crept in.

◆◆◆

“Phwa!!!”

A spray of cold water shocked her out of a deep slumber. It was a sleep that she hadn’t consciously fallen into, and when she came to, she wasn’t quite sure where she was. It took a second for her to orient herself and, as her eyes came into focus, she realized that she was not in Toronto.

A warm breeze sealed it.

Ah, yes. Now she remembered. She was on a work assignment. At a nudist resort . Naturist resort , she corrected herself as she sat up and half-heartedly stifled a yawn.

A glance at the empty lounger next to her indicated that Lala was missing.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep for, but the sun appeared to have moved quite a distance across the sky.

Salsa music pumped through the air and Chloe wondered how exactly she had managed to sleep through all the noise.

The pool, which had been almost empty when she and Lala first arrived, now resembled a red-light district due to the number of naked patrons occupying it.

That, Chloe surmised, was the obvious source of the sleep-ruining splash.

Two very busty women were presently engaged in a mostly male game of pool volleyball—their breasts flapped like rocks in a sock every time they jumped to hit the ball.

That can’t be comfortable , Chloe winced before her mind went back to rule number one at Costa Morpho— no gawking.

She tore her eyes away from the scene and leaned back on the lounger.

With naked people everywhere, it was odd to be the odd one out.

Sort of like how one would feel if they were the only naked person surrounded by a resort full of people who were fully clothed.

Chloe was doing something perfectly normal—she was wearing a bathing suit and lounging by a pool while on vacation at a luxury resort.

But in this particular environment, wearing clothes meant that she was the weird one.

Status quo, she reflected, is a funny thing.

So was what was considered ‘normal’. It really did depend upon a person’s frame of reference. And really, she thought, it was no different than traveling to another country and being unfamiliar with their customs.

The staff, Chloe had noticed, were nonplussed. She assumed they probably just got used to the nudity over time. The resort had only been open for a few months, but maybe that was all the time they needed to grow accustomed to it.

Did they talk about the guests, she wondered?

Likely.

She didn’t see how it would be different from other resorts or customer-service jobs.

Several years ago, when she had a part-time waitressing job while interning at Strut , the staff often talked about the customers.

If someone was particularly rude or, in contrast, incredibly pleasant; if a customer was difficult or strange.

Sometimes the men were lecherous, and she had to let the manager know so other servers were on the alert if that customer came in again.

They also had customers who placed weird orders, people on awkward dates, and people who thought the restaurant was a good place to tell their partner they no longer wanted to be together.

That was always the worst. Trying to be a good server while one half of the table was in distress was the definition of awkward.

Doing your best not to interrupt while staying attentive and personable in that sort of atmosphere was harder to balance than two trays of drinks.

She wondered what the staff at Costa Morpho were saying about her and Lala. After all—what kind of people signed up to go to a naturist resort only to stay covered up the entire time?

It was nonsensical. Like going on a booze cruise when you’re sober.

There had been a second, maybe even less than a second, when Chloe had considered stripping down. ‘When in Rome’, after all. But she reasoned, they weren’t in Rome, and really she just wasn’t personally comfortable with the concept.

The wind picked up and a warm breeze ruffled her hair when a sudden thought went through her head.

A heaviness descended on her.

She was supposed to be on vacation with her long-term boyfriend right now. With Liam.

It had come seemingly out of nowhere and was quickly followed by an overwhelming feeling of despair. It wasn’t that she was unhappy to be spending a week in the tropics with her bestie, she reflected. But there was something about it that was bittersweet.

Six months ago, she had certainty. Certainty of a husband, certainty of a family, certainty—as juvenile as it might sound—of a happily ever after.

That certainty had been brusquely torn away, and a hollowness had settled in instead.

Which was an apt description of how she was feeling in that moment—hollow.

She took a deep breath in and tried to reframe her thoughts. The breakup was bad, yes. But, she thought, it could have been worse. If Liam had cheated on her and ended up with a baby, that definitely would have been worse.

A wave of nausea swept over her as it suddenly hit her that, not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, he would end up with a baby and a partner.

She had known with every fiber of her being that the two of them were going to get married, have a family, and grow old together.

It was a fact. Something she had known just as she had known that the sun would rise in the East every morning and set every evening in the West.

Being hit with that realization while on a vacation she was supposed to be taking with her ex was shattering.

Chloe’s stomach suddenly turned and she thought she was going to vomit.

“You’re awake!” Lala’s jubilant-sounding voice cut through her thoughts and Chloe looked over to see her friend.

Alarm crossed Lala’s face as she took in Chloe’s expression.

“Hey.” Lala’s voice took on a more serious tone. “What’s going on?”

Chloe grimaced.

“Liam,” she said with misery. “It just hit me. At some point he’s going to have a family with someone else.”

“Whoa,” Lala said emphatically. “That’s a lot.

” She paused. “Listen—I don’t know how to help you out with that one right now, but let’s get you some tequila,” she turned to a passing waitress in a black skirt.

“Two margaritas, por favor.” She glanced again at Chloe and then turned back to the waitress. “Better make them doubles.”

The sun lounge next to Chloe creaked as Lala flopped down onto it.

“I’m sorry.” Chloe was apologetic. “I’m not trying to be a downer. My mind just started to wander. I think keeping myself so busy the past few months has kept me from thinking about it. But being here . . .,” she trailed off.

Lala nodded.

“I get it. Don’t beat yourself up over it. We’re here to relax, rewind, and refresh. And,” she added as an afterthought, “for you to write. On that note, we’re going to start off with some relaxation.”

Chloe spied the waitress on her way back with a tray that held two margaritas.

“Margarita relaxation?” Chloe inquired.

“Something something—‘tequila makes her clothes fall off’.” Her friend quoted a popular country song about the harsh-tasting liquor. “If your clothes are falling off you, I don’t know how you can get much more relaxed than that.”

Chloe pondered then conceded.

“You do have a point.”

The waitress set the margaritas on the table between their loungers while Lala rummaged around in her purse for a tip.

“Gracias,” the woman smiled as she took the American money and the two of them thanked her back.

“Cheers!” Lala lifted up her glass and clinked it against Chloe’s.

She picked up her own glass and was just about to take a sip when Lala put her hand on Chloe’s arm to stop her.

“Wait!” Lala said dramatically.

Chloe was confused.

“What—?” Chloe started but Lala cut her off.

“First off,” her friend said fiercely, shooting her a fiery-eyed stare. “Fuck Liam.”

Chloe’s eyes widened as Lala continued.

“This trip is to get away from him, forget the shit he’s put you through, and celebrate the radiant, kind, caring, smart, sassy, and all-around fabulous person you are.” She raised her margarita again and tapped it against Chloe’s glass.

“Cheers to you!” she clinked her glass against her friend’s again. “Here’s to you, to vitamin sea,” she gestured towards the ocean, “and, if you’re lucky—some vitamin D.”

A smile spread across Chloe’s face, and she took a big drink of the margarita. Which immediately caused her to sputter.

“Christ!” she coughed hoarsely as the liquor burned her throat. “This is a double ?”

“That,” her friend said pointedly, “is the magic of the all-inclusive free pour,” Lala deadpanned before taking a big drink of her own.

“I took a walk around the resort while you were sleeping.” Lala put down her glass. “It’s so beautiful here. They’ve done a great job on the landscaping. Thanks again for taking me.”