Tropical Fantasy

by Monica McKayhan

  “Well, I would like to go for a swim. At the count of three, we’re going to switch places. You’ll keep the engine running while I take a quick swim.”

  “Are you serious? I can’t do that!” she shrieked.

  “Sure you can. It’s easy. Just scoot forward and place your hands on the handlebars. Behind the handlebars are levers that control your speed. Squeeze the levers to increase and decrease your speed. Make small circles in the water so the engine doesn’t die. I won’t be long, I promise.” He jumped into the water, holding on to the Jet Ski until Sasha gained control of it. “Now move forward.”

  Sasha reluctantly moved up and placed her hands on the handlebars. She did as he instructed and started making circles in the water. Vince let go and started swimming, dipping his head underwater. He was crazy, Sasha thought. But she managed to make circles around him in the water as the engine of the Jet Ski revved underneath her.

  “Oh, it feels good!” he yelled. “Wish you were in here too.”

  “You’re crazy, you know that?” said Sasha.

  “Yes, I know.” Vince swam a few feet away from Sasha and back, and after a few laps he climbed back onto the Jet Ski and slid snugly behind her. “You can drive us back.”

  Nervously, Sasha changed the speed of the engine. She’d never driven a Jet Ski before. She’d never been on the back of one, for that matter.

  “Just relax. Drive slowly and take control of the machine,” Vince whispered.

  After relaxing a bit, she increased the speed a tad more and headed toward the shore. His hands gently rested on her waist. He moved in closer, held her tighter and planted a trail of kisses against her neck.

  “You are so sexy,” he whispered in her ear, “and beautiful.”

  Her stomach did somersaults. As she moved closer to shore, Vince’s fingertips wandered along the front of her life jacket and unsnapped it. She trembled when he touched her bare stomach and then gently moved up and caressed her breasts. She asked him to stop, but he didn’t hear her. She’d only whispered it in her mind. Yet, her body was screaming for him to continue. She wrapped her fingers tighter around the handlebars and leaned her back against Vince. He nibbled on her ear.

  It was obvious that Sasha was the envy of every one of Bridget’s friends as she parked the watercraft in the sand. Everyone looked on with inquisitive eyes. They wanted to know what was going on with these two, but they couldn’t quite figure out how to ask.

  Once the Jet Ski came to a complete stop, Vince hopped off and then helped Sasha climb from the craft. She removed her life jacket. Once she was able to feel her legs again, she headed toward her beach towel. All eyes were on the pair as Vince followed close behind.

  “Well?” he simply said.

  “Well what?” asked Sasha.

  “I promised that it would be fun. Was it?”

  “It was okay,” Sasha lied. She wasn’t ready to give him the satisfaction of being right.

  “Just okay?” he asked. “Is that why you were laughing your head off the whole time?”

  “It was nervous laughter.” She gave him a slight grin.

  She was keeping him at bay until she had things sorted out in her mind. Until she could make sense of what had taken place between them. And until she could place a label on what it was they were doing. If it was simply casual sex, then she wanted to call it what it was. If it was more, she needed to know that, too. Did she want it to be more? Did he? All these thoughts were racing through her mind as she packed her magazine and other items into her bag. She wrapped the sarong around her waist again and tied it.

  “Okay, I had fun,” she admitted. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Will I see you at the cocktail party later?”

  “I don’t know, Vince. I mean, I have an early flight tomorrow morning and—” she placed the strap of her tote bag onto her shoulder and started to walk away “—I think we should just let things be.”

  Vince gently grabbed her arm. “Are you telling me there’s no chemistry between us? That last night meant nothing to you?”

  Sasha looked at his hand as if he’d overstepped his bounds by grabbing her. “I’m telling you that until I can sort out what took place last night, I think we should just let things be.”

  Vince released her arm and gave a slight nod in surrender. No other words were exchanged as Sasha began to trample through the warm sand and back toward the resort. She wanted him so badly. She knew it, and so did he. But placing her heart in a vulnerable state wasn’t quite worth the risk. She didn’t think she was in love with Vince, so moving past him should be easy. She’d fly back to Atlanta and go back to life as it was—he’d do the same, and they would both live happily ever after...separately. She wouldn’t miss him. After all, you can’t miss what you never had.

  Her life was too complicated for a man right now, she thought. She was married to her career and there would be no place for him. She was comfortable, already set in her ways, and it would be too much of a hassle to switch things up now. She already had a rhythm, a groove. She wasn’t willing to compromise. She’d compromised before, and look where it got her. She wasn’t prepared for a brand-new heartache when the old one still lingered in her mind.

  Sasha couldn’t remember feeling like this about a man since her freshman year in college. Kevin had been her first real boyfriend. She’d been a late bloomer, a virgin, when she’d met him. She instantly fell in love with the Morehouse student who was fancied by many of the girls who attended Spelman, the all-girls college that was just across the courtyard. He was charming and had her floating in the clouds the moment they bumped into each other at the restaurant where he worked. She was instantly drawn to him.

  “What are you doing tonight?” he’d asked.

  “Studying,” she’d said. “Midterms are coming up.”

  “Me too.” He laughed. “But sometimes it’s good to take a break from studying and have a little fun once in a while. You like poetry?”

  “Love it.”

  “I dabble a little.” He grinned. “I have a few pieces that I’ve written, and I do open mic at a little spot in Midtown. You wanna come check me out?”

  Sasha thought for a moment. It was her first semester at Spelman, and so far she hadn’t done anything fun besides attending the homecoming game with her friend and roommate, Robin.

  “Can I bring my friend?”

  “Of course.” He scribbled the address on a piece of paper and handed it to her. “Show starts at eight.”

  “Okay, cool.”

  * * *

  She knew that Robin would be reluctant to join her. Robin was serious about midterms. She partied hard in her off time but studied just as hard—and rarely went out in the middle of the week. It was the reason they got along so well; they shared the same ideas about their education. Both aspiring lawyers, they understood the importance of staying on course. They kept each other grounded. And even though Robin was more free-spirited than Sasha, they were more alike than they were different.

  It was a tough sell, but Sasha had finally convinced Robin to tag along to the poetry session. They’d hopped into Sasha’s old Chevy Malibu—the one her father had purchased for her high school graduation—and headed for the club in Midtown.

  “We’ll stay just a little while,” Sasha said. “As soon as you’re ready to go, we can go.”

  “You like this guy, huh?”

  “He’s cute.”

  “He must be something special—got Sasha Winters stepping out of her dorm in the middle of the week. And during midterms!”

  “He seems nice.” Sasha turned up the heat in the car and checked her makeup in the rearview mirror.

  “He’d better have some good poetry, or I’m booing him,” said Robin as she pulled her coat tighter.

  “You wouldn’t.”

>   “I would, and you know it.”

  Sasha knew that Robin was serious. She was the most honest person she knew, and she didn’t mind saying exactly what she thought. Sasha admired that trait yet wasn’t always in the mood for Robin’s honesty. Especially when it came to Kevin.

  Sasha remembered the butterflies that danced in her stomach that night when Kevin recited his poetry on stage. She remembered the exact moment she fell in love with him, and it felt nice. Vince was beginning to awaken those same feelings inside her, and it scared her. She wasn’t ready to feel this way again—about anyone.

  Chapter 8

  Vince sat casually at the bar, the ice in his Black Russian slowly melting away. It was his first drink all night. Light jazz filled the room as people were engaged in noisy conversations. Others slow-danced to the music. He kept his eye on the door and hoped she’d change her mind and show up. He needed to see her before he left the Bahamas, and he wanted to tell her that she’d stirred things in him that he’d never felt before. Sure, he’d dated many women in the past, had been in a few long-term relationships, but Sasha was the first woman to make his heart feel this way.

  Bridget’s friend Deja, who had been a thorn in his side the entire weekend, had managed to find her way over to him. He tried ignoring her at first, but she was a persistent one.

  “Why are you sitting here all alone, boo, looking like you lost your best friend,” she asked.

  “Just enjoying the atmosphere. What about you?”

  “Looking for you,” she said enthusiastically. “Where have you been hiding all evening? I wanted my ride on that Jet Ski, too.”

  He looked at Deja. For the first time, he gave her a really good look. She had a pretty face, and a plus-size body. She would never be anyone he’d consider dating. Not because of her physical attributes, but because she was too forward, too clingy. He hated when women threw themselves at men and deprived them of the chase. He was a traditional man—and as such, he believed that men pursued women, not the other way around. She was a beautiful young woman, but her approach was all wrong.

  “I wasn’t hiding, Deja,” he said.

  “Are you supposed to be dating Sasha or something?”

  “Not at the moment, but I’d like to get to know her.” Vince was painfully honest. “Do you know Sasha very well?”

  “Not all that well. She’s Bridget’s sister. A little stuck-up, in my opinion.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, not much fun at all.” Deja smiled and touched his knee. “Not like me...I’m lots of fun.”

  Vince grabbed Deja’s hand and removed it from his knee. “You’re such a beautiful woman. Why are you wasting your time chasing me around this resort?”

  “Because you’re fine as hell.” She laughed at her own forwardness.

  “You see that gentleman over there in the corner of the room?” Vince ignored her previous comment.

  Deja started to turn her head to look.

  “Don’t look!” he said. “But he’s been checking you out all night. Everywhere you move, his eyes move.”

  “Really?” she asked. “Can I look now?”

  “Very slowly...turn around and look. Very subtly.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, as if the man could hear her. She turned and found a Bahamian man seated at a table in a dark corner of the room. He was, in fact, looking their way.

  The man raised his glass when Deja looked his way.

  “Oh, my God! I think he is looking at me,” said Deja, “and he is cute.”

  “Do not go near him. Don’t even look his way again. I want you to act as if he’s not even there,” Vince ordered. “Give him the opportunity to come to you.”

  Deja gave Vince a nod. “Okay.”

  “This is what I want you to do,” Vince said. “Go over and laugh with your girlfriends. Pretend to be having the time of your life. Totally ignore him. He’ll find you.”

  “You think so?”

  “Trust me on this.”

  Deja stood and sashayed over to the table where Bridget and her other girlfriends gathered. Vince watched as her bountiful behind wiggled across the room, and he shook his head. Her dress clung tightly to her body as she looked over her shoulder and gave Vince a quick smile. He gave her a nod encouraging her to continue. A few minutes later, the dapper Bahamian man approached Deja and asked her to dance. The couple moved to the center of the dance floor, and Vince smiled as he finished his drink. He took another glance at the door. He realized that Sasha wasn’t coming, and that disappointed him.

  He placed a twenty-dollar bill on the bar and bid everyone good-night. He strolled out into the beautiful night air and headed toward his condo. As he passed Sasha’s room, he leaned with his back against the brick exterior wall for a moment. He contemplated knocking on her door but decided against it. She’d made her decision. If she wanted to let things be, whatever that meant, then he wouldn’t fight her. He would respect her wishes.

  He unlocked his door and tossed his door key on the coffee table. He pulled his suitcase out of the closet and placed it on top of the bed. He placed his Stacy Adams shoes into the suitcase first, carefully putting each into its own compartment. He was a fanatic about his shoes, and he was always carefully dressed. When he purchased a suit, he bought the tie, shirt and shoes all at the same time. He was practical about everything in his life except fashion. Fashion was his weakness. After packing each piece of clothing carefully into the suitcase, he took a long, hot shower and decided to turn in early.

  Chapter 9

  In her beachside condo, Sasha packed her things, showered and changed into pajamas. Her desire was to get some much-needed rest before heading home to Atlanta. The farewell cocktail party had not been high on her list of things to do. She’d had her fill of social gatherings for one weekend. In fact, as soon as she got back to Atlanta, it would be business as usual. She had a deposition that was awaiting her undivided attention.

  The longer she sat there in front of the flat-screen television, the more those vivid thoughts of Vince crept into her mind. He’d managed to get under her skin after all. She thought of their encounter at the beach earlier and decided that things between them had been left undone, with no resolution or closure, and she felt as if there needed to be.

  She hopped from the sofa and rushed to her closet in search of a dress. Something that would get his attention, something pretty, something red. She blow-dried her damp hair and styled it then slipped into the simple, sexy red dress and a pair of embellished sandals. After coloring her lips red and spraying on a few squirts of cologne, she grabbed her door key and headed for the cocktail party. She could hear the music before she reached the cabana, and when she stepped inside she headed for the bar.

  “Sasha!” Bridget spotted her right away. “We’re all over here. Why don’t you join us?”

  “I will. I just want to grab a drink first.”

  “I’ll save you a seat.”

  Sasha stepped up to the bar and took a seat. She made a quick scan of the room, searching for Vince. When she didn’t see him right away, she didn’t go into a panic. She knew that he had a tendency of popping up unexpectedly. She smiled when she saw Deja dancing cheek to cheek with some Bahamian man. She had been determined to snag a man one way or the other while vacationing in the Bahamas, and it appeared as if she’d been successful. The music permeated in the room and provided the perfect ambiance. Sasha felt like dancing too. Where was her man when she needed him?

  Her man. She toyed with the idea in her mind. She hadn’t been open to it before, but she could see having a man like Vince in her life. Someone to talk to, or maybe catch a movie with from time to time. The idea of it wasn’t all that far-fetched, she thought.

  “What can I get you, ma’am?” asked the bartender.

  “Just a
house wine.”

  She scanned the room again—this time giving each corner a closer look. He wasn’t there, and Sasha felt disappointed. It was his handsome face that had motivated her to step out of her comfortable space and get dressed in the middle of the night. And not seeing him there brought her down. She grabbed her drink and moseyed over to the corner of the room where her sister was seated and where the people around her were well ahead of her in inebriation. Bridget, who was sober, patted the chair next to her. Sasha took a seat.

  “You look fabulous, big sis.” Bridget gave her a hug, and whispered, “Is that a new dress?”

  “This old thing?” Sasha said, and just as quickly hoped she’d remembered to snip the price tag off before leaving her condo.

  Derrick smiled. “Glad you came out, Sasha. You just missed Vince. He said something about turning in early. He’s got an early flight tomorrow. Just in case you were wondering.”

  Bridget interrupted. “She’s not looking for Vince, silly. Why would she care about him turning in early?”

  “I was just saying,” said Derrick, “in case she wanted to know.”

  * * *

  Sasha diverted her attention from the conversation and focused on her wine.

  “Were you looking for Vince, Sasha?” Bridget asked.

  “No, of course not. I came to celebrate with you and my new brother-in-law.” She raised her glass to the newlyweds. “It’s your last night in the Bahamas. A nice end to a beautiful weekend. I couldn’t be happier for you two.”

  “Here, here,” said Vanessa.

  “Cheers!” said Taj, Derrick’s groomsman who sat on the other side of him. “To a great weekend in the Bahamas.”

  Taj’s wife raised her glass too. “We’ve had a fantastic time. It was just like a honeymoon for us too.”

  Taj and his wife shared a sensual kiss. Following suit, Bridget and Derrick shared one too. Sasha suddenly felt out of place. She wished Vince was there. It seemed that the two of them deserved a celebratory kiss, as well. After all, they’d already shared more than that. It had been an exciting weekend, yet Sasha had managed to allow it to end with her giving him the cold shoulder. She’d been rude and prudish, and a wave of guilt overcame her. If he walked through the door at that moment, she’d approach him—maybe ask him to dance. Perhaps they’d spend the evening snuggled in some corner of the room staring into each other’s eyes. Maybe they’d exchange numbers and make plans to meet again in Atlanta.