The wooden promenade snaked its way around the hotel complex, casually, inadvertently gorgeous, just a step away from the silvery waters. Given that the sun was about to set, someone had thoughtfully lit a string of yellow candles along the path, set at a meter's distance from one another, and they were so inviting that Piper felt like a girl in a fairytale, tempted by an unknown but attractive world. Just as she was turning around to see if Alex had finished talking on the phone, the dark-haired woman emerged from their room, which was more like their own little, independent villa.
Padding across their terrace towards Piper, Alex was the image of serenity: wet-haired and barefoot, carelessly carrying her leather sandals over her shoulder. She was wearing a pair of khaki shorts which had seen better days, a black tank top, and a bracelet made out of blue pebbles which Piper had bought her as a thank you gift at the first beach they'd gone to - which had been completely naïve, if not idiotic, she mused, considering where Alex had brought her, possibly one of the best hotels in the world. She knew that, despite being loaded, Alex was far from being a snob, and that, when she traveled, she also liked to feel the rush of everyday life, the dirt under her feet, and taste the real food that people ate, not "Some fucked up Westernized version," as the brunette herself had put it. But this, the choice of this hotel, this manufactured piece of heaven with a king-sized bed, a terrace with palm trees, and a private swimming pool, was a present for Piper, a very deliberately flamboyant one. It was a way to wow her, to draw her in a little bit further, and Piper was entirely aware of it, a consenting, willing prey.
The tall brunette surrounded her shoulders with one arm and pulled her close, delivering a small kiss to her temple. Then, she gently nudged her along the wooden pathway, as they walked with the ocean to their left.
"Where are we going?"
"Listen, Pipes, you need to stop asking about 'when' and 'where' so much, forget those words, they're not important - at least not here. And don't tell me you're still wearing that fucking watch!" Alex promptly snatched her wrist, unclasped the offensive item, and shoved it in her pocket. "Less thinking."
"Okay, but I only asked because it feels like you're actually taking me somewhere."
"Fine, you got me." The brunette sighed, smiled quizzically for a moment, and then pointed at a scrawny-looking tree which was on one of the corners of the promenade, cutting into the pink and violet horizon, so close to the water that its roots seemed to be holding onto the edge for dear life.
Following Alex's index finger, she realized that the enchanting yellow candles led to a spot next to the tree, where someone had set a table and two chairs.
"Oh my God! Is that for us? It's so beautiful!" Piper squealed. She encircled Alex's waist and embraced her, feeling brunette's grinning lips against her shoulder.
"Come on," Alex jerked her head towards the table. "You gotta be hungry."
In fact, her stomach felt like a black hole, but she hadn't really noticed until she saw the array of dishes set on the table, from boiled rice, to vegetables, to what she guessed was chicken and duck. They could've ordered room service, of course, but Piper hadn't even remembered about food, busy as she had been with Alex's sun-kissed body.
And this place, this place was absorbing. The glossy clouds were gradually turning purple, eating up the baby pink of the sky and making the light projected by the candles more apparent. It gave Alex's skin a lovely golden tint, and Piper could only stare at the woman like another breathtaking part of the scenery. But the brunette was busily opening a bottle of some autochthonous wine and pouring it into their glasses.
Piper took a sip of the rose-colored beverage, its tropical, almost flowery aroma surprising her in a good way, and then started attacking the food on the plates with zest, unable to control the void in her stomach any longer. Alex mocked her, of course, but it didn't mean anything - that was just her way. The brunette usually followed a pattern: first teasing her and then being affectionate, as if one could not subsist without the other, as if one gesture fed off the other. As expected, Piper felt a warm hand stroking her back under her still-damp, blonde hair, and she surrendered to its touch, leaning against its owner.
Alex moved her hand to her hip, slipped her fingers into the loops of Piper's pants and pulled her off her chair, making her sit on her lap. The brunette's arms surrounded her, one hand perilously approaching the underside of her breast, the other holding the glass of wine, her chin resting on Piper's shoulder. The moment was so extremely close to being perfect that Piper's mind managed to stop, not even thinking about how much she was enjoying this and just enjoying it - a sensorial process, not a mental one.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the sky, a blast of color that startled the blonde and made her recoil, almost causing their chair to topple backwards. Alex tightened her grip on her waist and pulled her to her feet, just as more explosions started. They looked like bursting, colorful stars. Fireworks, Piper realized, breathing out. Just fireworks.
"Are you responsible for this too?" she asked, turning to look at Alex.
The brunette shook her head, still laughing at Piper's semi-heart attack. "Must be the wedding. Wanna go take a look?"
"But we're not invited."
"So what? Fuck'em! Let's go crash their stupid party."
Later, Piper learned that the newlyweds and part of their family were staying at the hotel's most luxurious area, called "the penthouse", which Alex had tried to book, but it had proved impossible. That was the real origin of her pet peeve against the wedding. So, following Alex's logic, crashing some strangers' celebration was a perfectly viable plan of action. Retribution-wise, it tilted the universe back in her favor, like it should be.
They ran back to their little villa, quickly changed into a couple of dresses, and sped down the promenade, hand in hand, towards the wedding party. The ceremony as such had been held at the hotel's own chapel, which was almost completely glass-plated, so white and shiny that it appeared to be carved into a gigantic diamond. They popped inside for a moment to take a peek, Alex plucking a white flower from one of the bouquets and placing it in Piper's hair, behind her ear.
Following a group of guests, they walked around the chapel and found where the real celebration was about to take place. It was a large, poolside terrace which looked like it had been carved into the mountain and, at the same time, it was only a set of steps away from the hotel's private beach and the Indian Ocean. As the people stopped oohing and aahing at the last batch of fireworks, a bunch of waiters arrived to set up the buffet and start serving the drinks.
They glanced at each other, wordlessly agreeing on what to do. However, whereas Piper was on edge, expecting to be asked who the hell she was at any moment, Alex seemed practically at home. She navigated the crowd expertly, without avoiding anybody, saying "Hi" to everyone she made direct eye contact with, accompanying the greeting with an emphatic elevation of her eyebrows. She had transformed herself into the estranged cousin or childhood friend who everybody was ashamed to admit they couldn't remember, and so they returned her smile and even asked her how she'd been.
And that was how, slowly but surely, they made their way to where the bar had been set up. Piper's eyes were immediately drawn to the colorful cocktails in pear-shaped glasses, complete with twisted straws, miniature umbrellas, and all the usual addenda. The brunette called them "fruity", but then came up with a dare: they had to drink at least one of each, and Piper agreed, even though they were as varied as the colors of the rainbow.
Three cocktails later, she couldn't even tell the difference. Giggling into Alex's neck, she wasn't able to remember if she'd already had a red one, or had it been an orange one? She inserted one of the tiny umbrellas into Alex's cleavage, clapping when it didn't fall or get lost inside the woman's dress. It seemed a moment as good as any to compliment her on her breasts, and even touch them… But Alex grabbed her hands, intercepting her advances.
"Hold up, Pipes. I love it when you're all touchy-feely, don't get me wrong, but we don't want to get kicked out, do we?"
She frowned and stuck her lower lip at the brunette. But she was being so subtle! Offended by Alex's rejection, she pulled out the little umbrella from the woman's cleavage, closed it indignantly, and turned to leave, expecting to be stopped, or at least followed.
However, she suddenly found herself in the middle of the improvised dance floor, surrounded by strangers and no Alex. The celebration was at the point when people's shoes were starting to come off, ties were loosening, and some of them were even tied around their owner's foreheads. Piper knew that everybody was drunk enough to no longer care who she was, but she was starting to get noticed in an "attractive blonde girl all alone" kind of way, and didn't like it one bit. Pushing away several sweaty, potential suitors, she stumbled her way towards the pool, where she heard a familiar, loud string of laughter.
The brunette was sitting on the edge of the pool with her legs submerged in the blue water, her burgundy dress pulled up to mid-thigh, and a beer in her hand. There was a group of young people surrounding her, both outside and inside the pool, listening to some crazy story she was probably making up along the way - she was very good at that. Piper approached them, with her hands bunched up into fists.
"There you are!" Alex cried out, stretching her arm in her direction but remaining seated. "Everyone, this is Piper."
It became so obvious that the dark-haired woman hadn't even lost a second of her time looking for her that the blonde felt shaken by a burning rage. "Where the fuck were you? I can't believe you just left me there!"
"I'm not your mom, Pipes. I mean, you can do whatever, you know? If you wanna go, then cool, go."
"Yeah, but…" she shook her head, squeezed between Alex and some redhead who clearly didn't wish to be separated from the brunette.
"Were you scared? I'm sorry, babe. C'mere." Alex combed back her hair, kissed her tenderly. Then, she helped her with her dress, folding it up to her knees so that Piper could also sink her legs in the cool water.
Despite herself and her stillborn anger, Piper felt safe now, snuggled against the woman, their feet playing under the water. She always felt safe with Alex somehow, maybe because the brunette always appeared so fearless.
A beer bottle materialized in her hand, and she drank it in one breath, immediately requesting another. Her drunkenness had almost vanished with the scare, and that was unacceptable. She felt a very urgent need to be drunk again and, as Alex never failed to remind her, it didn't take much to get her there.
It turned out that Alex had found the "outsider" group of the wedding. Of course she had. Every single celebration, be it a wedding or a christening, has a young-ish group of guests who do not fit in neatly with the rest, who are friends of friends, neighbors, or work colleagues, and these people are less ashamed of getting roaring drunk and doing stupid things. And sometimes, they also carry some drugs, which was this group's case.
Introducing herself as the eccentric, gay cousin who was living in Europe, Alex had seamlessly integrated herself with the group, and having Piper with her only added credibility to her story. Not that they cared too much; they already pretty much loved the brunette, so when the suggestion of drugs came up, both of them were at once included. Piper expected weed, but one of the guys was carrying ecstasy in his wallet, which he unceremoniously extracted, dumping the light-blue pills with tiny engraved butterflies onto the palm of his hand.
Alex snatched two, placed one on her own tongue, and kissed Piper, pushing the little pill against Piper's tongue, so that she could swallow it. The blonde then took the other pill from Alex's hand and did the same, ignoring the random cheers directed at them. Kissing Alex had always had the magical effect of making the rest of the world disappear and making it all about the here and now. Alex had the gift of living in the moment, but it was usually harder for Piper - except when she was kissing the brunette. Everything became easy then.
Piper became so engrossed in the other woman's lips that she hardly noticed that their position was now horizontal, that she was now on top of Alex. The brunette chuckled, surrounded her with her arms, and made them roll over. Feeling a microsecond of emptiness in the mouth of her stomach, Piper realized that they had rolled off the edge of the pool and were now in midair. And then, water, water everywhere.
Hundreds of bubbles tickled her arms as she sunk to the bottom and, when she was rushed to the surface, her hair stuck to her face like a mass of dense seaweed. She found that she couldn't stop laughing, even if the thick, wet curtain prevented her from breathing. Fortunately, Alex was right there to help her, directing her to the edge of the pool.
Those who weren't already in the pool started leaping into it, and soon the water boiled with activity. There were bodies everywhere, both on the surface and underwater, their belongings floating away from them as if they had finally earned their freedom. But Piper felt protected, sandwiched between the brunette and the wall of the pool.
Besides, something quite wonderful was starting to happen. A shiny hue seemed to cover everything; lights were brighter, the water became vibrant, sloshing to and fro at half-speed. And Alex… Alex was like an idol of ancient times sculpted in marble, almost towering over her. She took off her glasses, which were covered in water, like everything else, and secured them on top her head. Even those simple gestures were fascinating to Piper. And when the brunette bent down to kiss her, her senses seemed to explode, shattering into infinity.
She remembered Alex giving her a piggyback ride around the multicolored water of the pool, dodging the other crazy, inebriated people.
She remembered running down the steps to the beach, where the hotel staff had planted some torches. The sparkly fire seemed to jump at her, and so she ran into the sea to be safe.
She remembered sitting with Alex at the shore, laughing and pointing at the people skipping and diving into the water.
She remembered stumbling back to their place, their dresses torn and soiled with wet sand from the beach, their sandals lost hours ago.
She remembered standing in the shower, hands raised over her head, the warm water falling all over her like a comforting cascade, and remembered Alex stepping in after her, embracing her, kissing her softly.
She remembered falling naked on the cool whiteness of the bed, hugging Alex with her arms and legs. She remembered dragging her nails down her skin, and biting around her belly button, and kissing her neck while straddling each other's thighs, and feeling their sexes connect, and thinking that she was going insane and actually accepting it.
And then she remembered her brain shutting off slowly, lying next to Alex in a tangle of limbs, but still not able to close her eyes. She remembered Alex looking at her too, eyes shiny with tears. Frowning, she reached out to touch the woman's humid eyelids. Was she crying, too? She didn't know.
At some point, she must've fallen asleep, because Alex awoke her by whispering in her ear the most surprisingly sexy words Piper thought she'd ever heard: "Wanna see a volcano?"