Page 24 of Vitamin Sea

They spent the rest of breakfast chatting before deciding on what to do for the day.

The resort, aware of what had happened to Chloe, had canceled their itinerary that day—a tour of a nearby town and beer-and-rum tasting.

Lala was cognizant that Chloe was probably in a fair amount of pain even though she insisted the Tylenol the doctor had given her would take away the worst of it, and she insisted they spend the day at the spa.

“Manicures, pedicures, facials, massage—” Lala paused. “Actually, you’re pretty bruised and banged up,” she said glancing at Chloe’s legs. “Maybe raincheck on the massage?”

“I think I could go for a light one,” Chloe said. “As long as they work around the bruises. It might actually help.”

They booked a several-hours-long spa session for the two of them and spent the afternoon experiencing all that Costa Morpho had to offer in terms of relaxation. When they made it back to their room around mid-afternoon, Chloe went straight for her laptop.

She didn’t even pretend that she was checking her work email because Lala would see right through it. She was hoping to hear from Jack, and she found an email from him waiting in her inbox when she logged onto her personal account. She giggled at the subject line: Soggy Cinderella.

Dear Chloe , his email began. He asked how she was feeling, told her that he had spoken to Lala, and asked if she wanted to get together that night if she was feeling up to it.

The aches were still there, but the marathon spa session had left her feeling as limp as a cooked spaghetti noodle; she was definitely feeling up to getting together with Jack.

“Lala,” she asked her friend. “What would you say to meeting up with Jack and his friend for dinner tonight if they’re free?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” she said enthusiastically.

That was Lala—always up for adventure. Especially if it involved an attractive man.

Chloe had filled her in on Jack’s friend, whose name she didn’t know but whose face she had gotten a good look at.

It was weird what adrenaline did to you—Jack, his friend, and Dr. Vargas’s faces were all etched in her mind as if someone had taken a photograph of them and placed it in her brain.

She fired off a quick email to Jack asking if he and his friend would like to meet her and Lala for dinner. To bypass her lack of a phone she asked him to text Lala.

Not ten minutes went by before a message popped up on her bestie’s device.

“They’re in!” Lala exclaimed. “He wants to know if we’d like to go to their resort. Apparently, they have five different restaurants. What do you think?”

“Let’s do it,” Chloe replied.

Lala typed out a text and confirmed a time.

“I said we would meet them in their lobby at six,” she said, tossing her phone on the couch.

“Careful!” Chloe teased—if something happens to your phone, we’re back to communicating like it’s the nineties.”

“Not landlines and letters?” Lala said in a mock horror.

“Yes, Lala,” Chloe deadpanned. “Landlines and letters.”

◆◆◆

At quarter to six, Chloe and Lala were waiting in the lobby of Costa Morpho for a house car to drive them next door.

It was a short walk, but given they were both wearing pumps and had spent a large portion of time on their hair and makeup, hoofing it to the resort was out of the question.

Not to mention, Chloe was still a hurting unit.

Lala’s red locks were done up in sexy curls that made it look like she had just left a salon, and she wore a fire-engine-red mini-dress and ‘barely there’ makeup that took just as much time to do as makeup that’s ‘very there’.

Chloe, for her part, had opted to pull part of her hair back with a clip and had put on layers of mascara, a swipe of eyeliner, and a hefty helping of blush.

Her black linen gown had a thigh-high slit, a fitted bodice, and an off-the-shoulder neckline.

When Chloe had looked in the mirror, she felt good about herself.

Despite the assortment of black, purple, and blue bruises she was sporting, she felt confident.

It had been a while, she realized, since she had felt that way.

The last six months of dating Liam had done a number on her self-esteem.

Which hadn’t improved after being broken up with.

But, she questioned, had her confidence been all that high when she was with Liam to begin with?

It was one of the things she had been thinking about now that she had the benefit of time and distance.

The van pulled up to the familiar—to Chloe—vaulted-ceiling lobby of the Four Seasons and the duo stepped out of the car and into the warm evening air.

They were only a few steps inside when Chloe spotted Jack and his friend sitting on cushioned chairs just to the left of the concierge.

A grin spread across Jack’s face as he stood up to greet them, and his friend followed behind.

“Hi!” Chloe smiled. “Lala, this is Jack.” She gestured to her rescuer who was handsomely clad in blue cotton pants and a white button-up linen shirt. It offset his perfect tan, and Chloe felt her stomach do flip-flops.

“Jack, nice to meet you.” Lala shook his outstretched hand.

“Likewise.” He grinned at her bestie. “This is Daniel,” he nodded his head towards his friend. Daniel was in gray slacks, a white button-up shirt and a gray linen sports jacket. He looked just as handsome as his friend and Chloe could see the spark of interest emanating from Lala.

They shook Daniel’s hand and Chloe thanked him for coming to her aid the previous day. Daniel shook it off and insisted that it was all Jack.

For Chloe, it was all Jack, but not in the sense of being rescued.

“For dinner, we have a couple of options,” Jack told them. “I made reservations at the seafood, Italian, and Asian-fusion restaurants—what are we thinking?”

“I vote Italian,” Lala said automatically.

“A woman who knows what she wants,” Daniel teased.

He was already flirting with her friend and that was before any kind of liquid courage. Maybe Chloe wasn’t the only one who had found a potential vacation romance.

Lala shot Daniel a flirty smile and turned to Chloe. “What’s your vote, Chlo?”

“I’m good with Italian,” she nodded.

“Italian it is,” Jack declared.

The foursome walked through the lobby and onto the grounds of the resort exchanging small talk as they went. Jack naturally ended up beside Chloe while Daniel and Lala walked just ahead of them.

“You look stunning,” Jack remarked as they headed towards the restaurant.

“Thank you.” Chloe smiled shyly. “At any rate I imagine I look better than the soggy sea creature you pulled out of the ocean yesterday.”

Jack laughed before Chloe added: “By the way—you look pretty good yourself.”

The Italian restaurant was situated near the beach and had an expansive, open patio that overlooked the water, several palm trees, and the surrounding shoreline.

They sat outside next to a stone wall, the men on one side of the table and Chloe and Lala on the other.

Soft Italian music emanated from the dining room indoors, but it couldn’t drown out the rhythmic crashing of the waves.

A candle sat in the middle of the table and lanterns provided soft light that competed with the pink, purple, and orange streaks in the sky that followed the sun’s descent.

It was a beautiful view and ambience, and a perfect way to top off a relaxing day.

“This is gorgeous.” Chloe motioned towards the scenery. “Thank you for inviting us.”

“My pleasure,” Jack replied. “Although I have to admit it may have been out of a bit of self-preservation on my part.”

Chloe gave him an inquiring look.

“If we went to your resort for dinner, I thought I might have to eat in the nude. I figured that sight would probably put people off their meal,” he teased.

The girls laughed, and Daniel interjected.

“I might have changed my hotel reservation had I known there was a nude resort next door,” he joked.

“You would be surprised,” Chloe remarked. “I was horrified at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Although Jack does have a point about the restaurant thing . . .,” she trailed off.

“Yeah,” Lala added, “It’s one thing to walk around naked, go for a swim, or have a drink at the bar, but it’s something entirely different to sit in a restaurant and eat a meal in the buff.

” She made a face. “We weren’t sure what the protocol was and thought maybe clothes would be a requirement, but that did not turn out to be the case.

I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from what I witnessed at the breakfast buffet yesterday.

I can’t believe they even have a buffet at a nude resort.

Who thought that was a good idea? You go in for a sausage and the next thing you know, you’ve accidentally tried to dish up Albert from California’s sausage.

It’s not good,” she added to resounding laughter.

“But seriously, you guys should come over for dinner one night,” Chloe followed up. “If nothing else, it’s an interesting experience. One you’ll probably never get otherwise. Unless you get into the whole naturist thing. Apparently, it’s very liberating.”

“We’d like that,” Jack nodded. “It would be a nice change of pace to not have to dress up for dinner.”

Lala chimed in: “Honestly, I’ve never felt fancier wearing flip-flops.

“That seals it,” Jack said confidently. “I’m showing up in a bathrobe.”

Chloe smirked. “And you’ll still be overdressed.”

Their dinner was companionable, and they chowed down on appetizers followed by mains.

Lala, Daniel, and Jack went through two bottles of wine while Chloe stuck to sparkling water.

She had taken Tylenol a couple of hours earlier and knew the pharmaceutical and alcohol didn’t mix.

Despite that, she had a warm glow inside that was entirely owing to the intoxicating effects of Jack.

After dinner they ordered dessert and then headed for a late nightcap at the lobby bar.

Lala, Chloe was happy to see, had gotten on with Daniel famously.

They exchanged warm hugs before they headed back to their resort with Daniel and Jack promising to join them at Costa Morpho the following day for dinner.

“Fuck,” Chloe exclaimed when they reached their resort.

“What?” Lala asked.

“I forgot that the hotel arranged for us to go out on a catamaran tomorrow. Do you want to text Jack and see if he and Daniel want to join us?”

“Abso-fucking-lutely!” her friend exclaimed.

A few minutes later Lala’s phone beeped.

“They’re in!” She sounded excited. “This is going to be so much fun. Sea, sun, and sexy men!”

Chloe was equally as enthused. She couldn’t wait to see Jack again.

The spark between them was electric. Despite her best friend’s teasing, she wasn’t looking for a vacation fling.

Nor was she looking at Jack as a potential partner.

She enjoyed his company—immensely. And he had saved her life.

But they had only spent a handful of hours together.

On top of that, she was terrified at the prospect of opening herself up to the possibility of having her heart broken. Again.

Chloe relayed the details to them via Lala and then they went to bed.

Meeting-time at the catamaran was at an ungodly 7 a.m., which despite being two hours behind the Eastern Time Zone they lived in would still make for an early morning.

There was something about the fresh air and warm weather that left them feeling zonked.