Author's note: Thank you/merci/muchas gracias for all your reviews, I hope you'll enjoy this story and that it'll bring you some sun.

Chapter Two

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..."

Maura delicately set the hotel booklet down on the coffee table of the suite. She landed timid eyes on Jane who was now pacing the main room like a fury repeating over and over a mantra that clearly highlighted her current state of panic.

The situation was unexpected, Maura couldn't but admit it. It hadn't crossed her mind that Susie Chang could send them to a nudist resort without letting them know about it before. Maura did know that her assistant was keen on this kind of vacations but at no moment had she tried to convince anyone to join her in one of her clothes-free adventures.

"Jane." Maura ran her tongue over her lips. The moment was delicate, she had to choose her words as wisely as she could. Though she would only need some more vocabulary if Jane actually stopped pacing the room once and for all. "J-... JANE!" Good, now she had Jane's attention. "It isn't as bad as it seems..."

Of course, Maura's timid attempt to calm Jane down miserably failed. Jane snorted, shook her head then crossed her arms against her chest. Her move looked almost self-protective. Her lips were pursed though: she was angry.

"Really, Maura? Really? There are people out there walking naked. They're swimming in the pool: naked. They're sitting on the bar stools: naked. Naked! Naked! Naked! I don't know for you but I didn't fly to Mexico for an anatomy project!"

"Nudist people are not voyeuristic. As a matter of fact, they are not judgemental. The whole philosophy of their way of life is based on..."

Jane snorted anew which caused Maura to wince. Convincing her rather prudish friend that everything was fine wouldn't be easy. Chances were that it would even turn into the biggest challenge Maura would ever have to face in her life.

She briefly closed her eyes then took a deep breath.

"Listen to me, here's what we're going to do: at 6pm we attend the reception on the beach..." Maura raised her index finger as Jane snorted again. "According to the hotel rules I have found in this booklet, vacationers are supposed to get dressed by 5.45pm every day so nudity isn't going to be an issue that you will have to face today. Or at least not again."

"And then? They'll be back to celebrating mother nature tomorrow morning!" Jane suddenly realized that she had started biting her nails. Great. Really. It had taken her months to get rid of this bad habit but five minutes in Mexico and she was back to chewing on her thumb: small wonder why she never wanted to go on vacations. "You won't get me naked, Maura. Nope... That, I won't do it. Sorry. This shit ain't for me."

Maura grabbed back the booklet then opened it to show the rules to Jane. Her argumentation was poor but then she had had no time to prepare anything. She had to improvise and this was something that she highly despised.

"It says 'clothing optional'. That means you can actually wear... Something. You don't have to be naked if you don't want to... Even if it is said to be extremely liberating."

Alright. Bad choice of words. By the face Jane made, Maura realized that she should have been a lot more careful: her last remark was not what her friend needed to hear right now.

"But even if I'm not naked, the others will be! I don't want male strangers to... You know, throw their stuff to my face."

The allusion to one specific gender caused Maura's lips to curl up in a smile. At least Jane didn't seem to have an issue with naked women. It was a start, a great start.

"Well... If it can comfort you, I'm a bit taken aback by the whole thing too. I have never stayed at a nudist resort before. Take it as an experience and if you want to avoid looking... Down... Then make sure to remain faithful to an invisible line straight in front of you. Just look... Just look straight in front of you: then you'll only see people's faces."

This had to be the dumbest advice Maura had ever given someone but, curiously enough, it seemed to actually work. Jane's features softened a bit as she seemed to start pondering the idea.

The Riviera Maya was a very developed touristic complex, besides. If things really went wront at Hidden Beach, they still could try to find another hotel to stay at. It simply wouldn't be as luxurious as the bedroom presidential suite beachfront villa they now had.

Maura straightened in pride: now this was good argumentation.

"But what if... What if they ask us to take our clothes off? I've seen documentaries on tv and very often nudist people say they feel offended by others who show up at their place and don't respect the rules. I don't want to be impolite... Besides... Gosh, I'd almost forgotten about that: it's a couples-only resort. You know what that means, right? We're supposed to be a nudist couple, Maura!" Jane's usually hoarse voice was now a dangerously high-pitched one: that was the ultimate proof of a pending panic attack. "A nudist couple!"

The couple thing didn't bother her as much as she pretended it to. They had already faked it when Giovanni was around. Besides, nobody at the hotel was going to ask them to give into public display of affection and since she hadn't planned on meeting Mr. Right in Mexico, Jane didn't mind being mistaken for a lesbian.

Or a bisexual woman in a relationship with another woman.

Whatever.

"We don't have to take part in the late-afternoon games." Maura tried to avoid looking at the booklet. Of course, she had read about this but she also assumed that Jane needed to be comforted. Her stress level was already way too high to let her know about the different activities the resort offered them. "We can just..."

"Games? What games?" Jane rushed to the booklet with such violence that she almost tore the piece of paper apart. "Oh you gotta be kiddin' me!" She looked up at the ceiling. "Why? Why does it have to happen to me? Why? What have I done to you, God? Why?"

Without a word, Maura walked to the mini-bar and opened a bottle of rum before taking a long sip straight out of the miniature flask: something told her that she would need a lot more than just one drink tonight.

...

As they passed the second couple on their way to the beach, Maura held back a sigh of relief: at least vacationers respected the hotel rules. Everyone was wearing clothes again.

She cast a glance at Jane who was quietly walking by her side: she had never looked so nervous in her life. Maura grabbed her friend's forearm to softly rub it in a gesture of support.

It was fine. Everything was fine. The resort was gorgeous, their suite was perfect and they were about to enjoy a cocktail on the beach as the sun would set down in a thousand nuances of orange over the Caribbean Sea. This was luck and they had to embrace it.

Against all expectations, unpacking had calmed Jane down a bit. She had even called her mother and had sounded very enthusiastic. She had simply skipped the nudist part. There was no way she would ever share this piece of information with anyone. It was embarrassing, awfully embarrassing.

She would simply remain quiet then kill Chang as soon as their return flight would hit the tarmac of Boston.

Easy.

"Did you enjoy the shower?" A basic conversation for a safe evening: this was a trick Maura had learned a long time ago. "They have a lovely spa, we should book a massage session tomorrow. What do you think? There is nothing like a relaxing massage to celebrate the start of your vacations."

If the spa was as nice as the zillion options their shower had, Jane was ready to buy a season ticket to it. It was the first time she actually stayed at a five-star hotel. The service was really high standard. It was almost intimidating for someone who had grown in a middle-class neighborhood.

"Why not... We'll see."

After the umpteenth curve on the main path, the white-sand beach finally appeared in front of their eyes. Music was coming from their right, from a large bar where a dozen of people were casually chatting.

"ยกHola, chicas!*" A young man in his late twenties walked towards them with a couple of drinks in his hands. He held out both glasses to Maura and Jane. "Welcome to Hidden Beach. Here's our homemade cocktail. Please grab a tag, write your name on it then stick it to your tank top."

A tag? Jane winced in mental pain. She hadn't signed for another high-school reunion. What was that again? Of course, Maura's reaction couldn't be more different than hers. She had already rushed to the wicker basket and was now writing her name on a tag. Her eyes were glimmering of delight: she looked ecstatic.

"What an excellent idea to get to know each other better, don't you think so?" Maura grabbed another tag and wrote her friend's name on it. "I like a lot their sense of organization. I will definitely mention it on Tripadvisor."

"Yeah..." Jane took a long sip of her drink and slightly choked on it: she had no idea what kind of alcohol was in their cocktail but it was one strong damn thing. "Now I understand better why the reception's held after 5.45pm. You can't stick a tag right on your skin, can you?"

Maura chose to remain silent. She simply held out the tag to her friend, settled hers then turned around to look at the ribbon of blue that spread in front of her eyes.

She had gone to the Caribbeans more times than she could remember but a first night in this part of the world still looked magical to her eyes. It worked every single time.

"I'm really glad to live this with you." She pointed out the sea as Jane walked to her. A delicate smile was lighting up her features. "It is beautiful, isn't it? And so peaceful..."

If it weren't for the heady salsa music that was coming from the bar and the brouhaha of the conversations, of course.

Jane nodded. Maura was right. Their arrival hadn't gone as planned, she hadn't expected to face such source of stress so early on, but the truth was that the sunset she was now watching was worth everything. Absolutely everything.

"Jane?! Jane Rizzoli?!"

Jane froze and subconsciously tightened her grip on her drink as a feminine voice called her name in her back. She held back a moan of despair. These Mexican vacations had to be a joke. A very cheap one.

...

Hola, chicas: hi, girls