2 - Bahamian girl

Two days earlier...

My life in the Bahamas wasn't as great as everyone believed.

"Here you go, ma'am. Two copies of the original Romeo and Juliet series."

The bell rung, and as the middle aged woman left the counter, another guest came in. "Hello dear." She waited until I forced a smile before continuing. "I'm looking for some mystery books, could you help me?"

"Of course." My smile stayed on my face until the woman left, half an hour later. My job as an island tour guide meant I was responsible for catering to the visitors' needs, including searching for books, showing them the best places in town, and listening to their relationship issues. It was an all round job I both loved and hated.

None of it was fun for me, but my position of book recommendation today was the worst of it all. The guests kept looking at me like I was the answer to all their problems, and it didn't help that most of them were old women. I turned to my side and frowned at the hotel's brochure, my eyes focused on the '60% discount for seniors.'

"Curse you, Blue Ocean Hotel."

"Hello, love." A man's voice called out and I turned with my eyebrows knitted together. "How's it going here?"

"Fine. What can I do for you?"

The sand-hairedman straightened to his full height and smiled down at me. "I'm looking for fun experiences here. Can you recommend any?"

I groaned internally and handed him one of the flyers as I glanced at the clock. Hopefully, he would just get it and leave.

"Welcome to the Bahamas. You can engage in any of the activities here, but they come at a fee."

He glanced through it in seconds and frowned at me. "Swimming, kayaking, tourist attraction… no parties?"

"No, not this year." I didn't know how best to explain that the hotel decided to scrap out parties for the guests, due to their age. Besides after that fire incident two years ago, my boss was still struggling to get his business out of the pit.

The man tosssed the paper aside. "Well, that's too bad. I would have killed for some night life and good dancing."

My work instinct kicked in. "Well, there's some dancing actually. Here, we have–"

"That's not what I mean," he said and brought out a flyer from his pocket. "I mean, something like this."

The first thing my eyes saw was a woman's naked butt, and I quickly closed her eyes in surprise while my mind wandered. Was that surgery or natural? In front of me, the man laughed out and shook his head.

"Why are you acting like that? You seem legal enough."

My cheeks reddened as I pried my eyes open, trying not to appear embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm not used to guests showing me stuff like that, especially…"

"What? Senior citizens? Well, we like to have fun too."

"Sure," I drawled.

Meanwhile, the man picked up the hotel's brochure again. "Which of these is your number?"

"What?"

"I need a partner for the party, and you seem okay enough. Besides," he drew nearer and lowered his voice. "you look like you need a break from all this."

"Umm." I felt my cheeks becoming hot and turned away. It wasn't like I liked the guy, even though he was a breath of fresh air from all the people I had attended to. He was old and besides, I just came out of a bad breakup. Still, his vibes seemed contagious and honestly, I really needed a fun day off.

"I'm not sure."

"It'll be fun, and you can come with a friend if you want."

"What about your friends?" Now that I looked at him well enough, I could remember him talking to the other seniors in his group.

"I think you know that they can be insufferable and quite boring. I need some fresh air here, that's why it's a vacation. You get me?"

I couldn't help but smile as I wrote my number on the party flyer in a moment of madness. When I finished, the man grinned and took out his phone leaving me no time to regret my decision. Within seconds, my phone rang.

"That's my number. The party is a bit far from here, so you can call if you get lost or something."

"Okay, sure. I'll think about it." The man smiled at me and looked down to my chest area. "Nice to meet you, Lily." He offered his hand for a shake, and I felt my cheeks redden. Why was my body betraying me like this. Could it be that…

"Honey, stop trying to invite everyone here to the party," a woman called out as she walked to his side, and the man chuckled.

"Hello, dear. You don't need to come if you don't want to."

"This place needs some good dancing, and since they can't offer that, what else should I do woman? You're supposed to support me."

Oh, he was married. "It's no big deal, and besides I'm still thinking about it."

"Yeah, you should. See you then." I watched the man strut away, his hips moving like he was about to start dancing. It was only when my bell rung five minutes later that I realized that I didn't even know his name.

After work, I stopped over at the bookstore next to the hotel. It was a little building, always smelling of fresh paint and way too many visitors. As much as I complained about how the tourists came to my stand at the hotel, they frequented this building twice as much. It was always a struggle to fit into the door, and when I did, my eyes sighted Catherine.

My best friend was in the middle of convincing a couple to buy a third book, and I watched as the girl's face lit up when they accepted. Like me, she was always swamped with work but then again, Catherine loved her job.

However, that didn't stop her from taking out her coat as soon as the clock struck five. The person doing the night shift was already around, so I looked on as my best friend hopped out of the counter and strolled to my usual spot.

"How long have you been waiting?"

"Not long. Let's go." She stood up and held my hand as we walked out of the bookstore and towards home. "Someone invited me for a party today," I started and handed Catherine the flyer.

"Really? Wow. I've heard of this place, they have the best parties around here. So what are you wearing?"

"Wait, what? I never said I was going."

Catherine tugged on my hand. "You can't be serious. When last did you use a day off to do something fun?"

"Well…" I tried to think. In truth, most of my weekends and days off were spent at home, taking care of my mother or watching movies. Unlike me, Catherine was a social butterfly and could easily find her way in parties and stuff like that.

"I don't know, and besides, I didn't even get the man's name."

"Do we really need it? It's just one night of fun, Lily. Well go, alright, and this time, I'm not taking no for an answer."

I sighed and shook my head. "Fine, but I don't have party clothes."

"Easy," she responded and pointed to the thrift store they were about to pass through. "Let's get one now."