Euro Tripped

by Sally Bryan

  Of the two of us, it was Arwen who’d spent by far the most time with Alessia because the Australian had offered to restart the tours, which meant first having to take a crash course in winemaking, as well as learning about the history of the Giordano Vineyard and only Alessia could teach that. Arwen had visited all the local tour operators to let them know the Giordano wine tours were back on and they could start selling tickets again via their offices and websites and although there were a small number of initial sales, this wasn’t good enough for my lover, who surprised everyone by driving to Poggibonsi and shortly after returning with a minivan full of tourists. I watched awestruck from the barn as they began filing out, one by one, a continuous stream of happy Americans, Brits, Germans and Chinese who crowded the carpark as they gazed with curiosity along the lines of vines that stretched down the slope and up again to disappear over the near vista.

  “Arwen, how?” I’d asked later at lunch, scratching my head as the guests squeezed in at the tables and I tried not to panic.

  She just leaned against the wall and propped a hand on hip. “Oh, darling, don’t you know? I just used my charms.” Of course, I should have expected such a response as I contemplated the damage this girl could do if she was working for commission.

  The chef had been plucked straight from the local catering college, a nineteen-year-old called Lorenzo, and this being his first ever part-time job, he’d done exceptionally well not to freeze when the lunchtime rush struck as hard as it did, ultimately coping because he’d been well prepared in advance.

  “If you had fun, don’t forget to leave a review on TripAdvisor.” Arwen was always mindful to say and so the reviews began to trickle in, which only created a snowball effect so that by the end of the second week, Arwen had given up touting for tourists in the local town because they were all finding their own way to the vineyard.

  “If you ever decide to give up dancing, I’d say you’ve found your calling,” I told her because she truly was sensational at being a tour guide. I had first-hand knowledge of this because I just couldn’t stop myself from tagging onto the end of one of her tours and I watched in awe as she led the group of sixty from the vines to the barn, making them laugh, answering questions in French or Spanish and at the end, even posing for photos with besotted fans.

  The gift shop was my responsibility, which thankfully was fairly low maintenance, apart from when one of Arwen’s tours finished and then it was all hands on deck as the shelves were emptied and the cash register threatened to overload.

  Now, two weeks and a day since Arwen’s return, Dayna surprised us at breakfast by presenting us with the keys to her silver Peugeot 206 Coupe Cabriolet, the cute little convertible that hardly ever got used.

  I raised a questioning eyebrow obscenely high, “they’re the keys to your car.”

  She hummed as the baby’s mouth attached to her nipple. “This is true and today you’re taking the day off, and my car, to visit Saturnia.”

  I was about to protest because, as always, there was so much to be done but she cut me off before I had chance.

  “Don’t even think about it. You’ve both worked so hard and you deserve it.”

  And so, half an hour later, we were on a fast road south making the hundred mile journey to the village of Saturnia. It was a hot day, we drove with the roof down and the wind was loud as it played the devil with our hair and we sang along to Staying Out for the Summer at the top of our voices.

  Then we arrived at our destination and the sight stunned us both. It was only ten in the morning but already the place buzzed with people and what’s more, they were all completely naked.

  “Come on, strip,” Arwen commanded as she lifted the t-shirt over her head to reveal plump breasts straining within her red bikini top. “You knew this was coming so don’t wussy out now.”

  I surveyed the scene, the many gentle cascades of a beautiful bright blue that curved around an ancient mill, the steam that drifted up from the hot water, the smell of sulphur in the air, the roaring sounds, and about a hundred people all topless as they lounged back and allowed the water to flow over them, curing all their troubles and ailments, supposedly. I wanted in and I wanted to do it properly, which meant there was no getting out of stripping, as hard as such a public display was for a girl like me.

  “But you can keep your foof covered,” she giggled, “because that really is for my eyes only and don’t you ever forget it.”

  A surge of warmth to rival the hot spa flooded through me. “Not just your eyes.” I had to clamp mine shut as the memories of last night, and this morning, came back so vividly to taunt me. I could do nothing to her with so many people around. And to make matters worse, when I opened my eyes and regained focus, she was unclasping her bra and I watched as I underwent the usual weakness of the knees and stirring in my belly as her breasts came free.

  She was watching for my reaction, as she always did because she enjoyed nothing more than teasing me and she was sure to be getting off on this. “You look utterly deranged, you pervert, stop stalling and remove that bra at once.” She stepped forward so that the peach overwhelmed the sulphur and then my bra was discarded to the pebbles, her eyes lowered and she displayed the same demented look I was surely guilty of myself.

  “You damned, bloody hypocrite.” I shook my head, even though it was absolutely thrilling, then we placed our arms around each other and waded into the water, which was lovely because it truly was warm, bordering on hot, like it wasn’t what I’d been expecting all along. We had a few geothermal spas back in the UK, though I’d never been to any and now I knew I’d been missing out.

  I tried not to be distracted by the inevitable prying eyes and just held my breath as we carefully waded over pebbles and stones towards a large step with fewer people in its vicinity and then we leaned back, submerged ourselves and breathed in the air. It was strange, peaceful, relaxing and wonderful, to be bathing outside in the open air, where the water should have been cold and dirty but it was hot and clean, where the steam was so thick you could see no further than a few feet in front of your face, where for thousands of years people would have come to this place for the same reason.

  “Ain’t this the life,” Arwen remarked after several minutes. She was probably referring to this, now, being here, though in truth, for me at least, she could have meant the entirety of the last two weeks, which I could honestly say had been the happiest two weeks of my life.

  “I wouldn’t change anything.” I shyly glanced at her before averting back to the nearby rim from where, every second, untold gallons flowed over to crash onto the step below and then she interlaced our fingers and I turned back to her.

  The water cascaded over our shoulders as we leaned back against the ledge and it seemed like we were enveloped in a cloak of steam where nothing outside existed. She was gazing into my eyes as her teeth pinched her bottom lip in an almost vulnerable looking grin, which was a rare look for her but one I’d been noticing increasingly the last two weeks, her mouth moved and I expected her to say something but then her fingers tightened around mine and no words came and she released her fingers and splayed her hand out on her thigh. “Um, neither would I, I mean, I wouldn’t change anything,” she finally said.

  I wanted so badly to ask what she meant, what she wanted to say, for her to elaborate and lift me up into the stars. I had a feeling, just a feeling, that I knew what it might be but I just couldn’t bring myself to ask, to maybe make myself the happiest woman in the world.

  Because what if I was wrong?

  * * *

  She came up from between my thighs and scrambled her way back towards my arms whilst licking her lips in a most beautiful act of perversion, but I was rolling away and off the bed, suddenly conscious I was still in orgasm as I wobbled towards the dresser.

  “Hmmm … ahhh … ohh,” I panted loud and raspy through my nose as I clasped the oak surface, held on for balance and rode it out as my vision fuzzed and the salt smacked heavy on my
lips, my arms perspired and now, as my dilated pupils refocused, I could see in the mirror that the skin around my nose was dark red, which looked so odd yet appealing on my pale complexion. Getting fucked by Arwen’s good for you, Frey, I sniggered too loud, as my legs trembled and my body bucked another two or three times from the hips, stars flickered yellow and the hairs on the back of my neck pricked. I was still making strange sounds when I managed to swivel my blurry gaze towards Arwen, who was lying back on the bed, head propped up with hands clasped behind as she looked on amused.

  “Are you done?”

  I shook my head, exhausted yet so alive, “Arwen…” and let it trail off. What was there to say?

  “Because when you recover, it’s my turn,” she sprang from the bed and pottered over to where I was still grasping the dresser lest I let go and collapse, “did I tell you, you’re getting real good with your tongue?” Her hips pressed against my buttocks, her boobs against my back as she reached around to cup my breasts.

  “That’s because I love nothing more than being inside of you.” Which was true, but I hadn’t meant to say that word, even in a context that shouldn’t be construed as it usually was, and I felt a prickle on my scalp as my senses heightened to interpret any sign from her that she might feel different but then, after a second, her head pushed forward and her cheek came to press against mine and I turned to meet her lips from where we kissed passionately as my breasts heaved in her small hands and my heart danced and skipped and my head fizzed all over again.

  For a long time now, I’d thought I loved Arwen, certainly from that awful month we were parted, but it all felt so very different now, different to the extent I could not be sure my feelings for her before had been a lesser form of love or something else entirely. All I knew was that my love had grown ever stronger by the day, which had brought us to this moment in time, and now I couldn’t bear the thought of being parted from her.

  She’d stayed, even when things had been tough, even when they were excruciatingly hard, she’d been true to her word and stayed and now I loved her more than anything else in this world.

  And I did not want our time in this magical place to ever end.

  I met her gaze in the mirror’s reflection. “What did you ever see in me?” I sounded unsure of myself, which was hardly attractive, but I just had to know, she could have anybody, yet she chose me.

  Her hands pulsed around my breasts, “Frey,” and her eyes warmed as she studied my face gazing back at her, my large green eyes, thin lips, pale freckly skin and shiny red hair that framed my features, “just look at you, you’re the most beautiful girl in the entire world.”

  My eyes clamped shut as my legs began to wobble all over again.

  “But more than that,” she continued, her voice soft in my ear, “you’re determined, intelligent, kind of funny in your own way, and you’re about the only person who never fell apart in my presence,” even now, the girl was most inappropriately full of it, but that was what I loved about her, “you’re a good person and you made me a better person.”

  I turned around in her arms as I took her hands in mine, “I’m in love with you.”

  There it was and whatever happened happened. I’d just given a drifter the power to destroy my heart, soul, life.

  Her face crumpled and then I had to support her and I held her up and her tears were already starting, as were mine, and her cheeks flushed as her stomach warmed suddenly and then she made me the happiest girl in the world. “Frey, I’m in love with you too.”

  We held each other so tight for so long that I lost track of time and my arms began to ache as I repeated again and again that I loved her as she repeated again and again that she loved me and by the end we took ourselves to bed from where I devoured and lost myself within her and I’m not sure for how long I’d been down when she took me again and finally, when out of necessity, we both needed a rest, I floated over to the drawer and pulled out the Bordeaux.

  “There will never be a better time.”

  It was a good wine, as it turned out, and although we often talked until late, tonight was different in the most magical way, as we enjoyed the wine that had been a gift from her to me on that night we’d first met. We regaled that strange night and I admitted to initially finding her a pain in the arse, an inconvenience, a freeloader, a gatecrasher and someone I’d wanted as far away from my man as possible. “And then you literally flipped me inside out.”

  She blew her knuckles and admitted to having a small crush on me from as early on as that night in Bordeaux but that her feelings had slowly grown the more time she spent around me, that she had an obsession with my breasts, which I’d kind of noticed, that our first kiss in Catalonia, under duress, as it was, had played havoc with her heart, and at that moment she’d wanted nothing more than for me to spend the night with her in that tent and when I didn’t, she’d been so frustrated she’d fantasised about me for the first time, that putting the rich Spaniard’s number in her purse had been a subconscious attempt at provoking a reaction from me, that Barcelona had been a dream come true but how bad she’d felt for my dilemma at the time and that soon after, the way I’d treated her and our subsequent time apart had ripped out her soul.

  It was late and we were tired and on the way to being drunk but we were in love and my kisses began at her lips and soon found their way to that special spot nestled between her thighs and when I’d finished, she devoured me again and then, at some point, we both fell asleep.

  Something buzzed and I stirred, fell back to sleep and then, sometime later, I gently roused.

  Immediately, I knew something wasn’t right because her feet weren’t snuggled between mine and, panicking, I sprang up with a start.

  “Hey,” she was sitting beside me on the bed’s edge and my nerves settled. How long had she been there? “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “Arwen,” I took her hand and she squeezed mine whilst continuing to watch me from her elevated position.

  There was another odd look in her eyes, something else new, something else I’d never seen before. She was trying to smile but the eyes gave it away.

  “What is it?” I asked, propping myself up on one elbow as a pulse beat noticeably in my throat.

  Despite the obvious sadness, her voice was calm. “Frey, I have to leave.”

  “What?” I hissed the word. “You have to leave?”

  She nodded and held out her palm. “I’d forgot all about it, but my ninety days are up, I have to leave today.”

  The buzzing that I heard, it was a reminder she’d set on her phone, and I knew instantly what it was as my elbow collapsed of its own accord and I fell back flat on the bed.

  “Schengen.”

  “Schengen,” she confirmed.

  The Schengen law meant that once you were within its zone, an area that encompassed most of Europe, you could travel freely inside without having to stop at borders to show documentation. As a non-European citizen on a tourist visa, however, Arwen was only permitted to remain within the Schengen area for a maximum of ninety days out of every one hundred and eighty.

  It was something that had never even occurred to me, that one day Arwen would be forced to leave and now that day had arrived, I could feel the weight of my own chest crushing me.

  “Stupid fucking Schengen. You can’t just ignore it?” I pleaded, knowing the futility of the situation.

  She just shrugged, what else could she do? “If I don’t leave today then I’ll be fined, possibly deported and will get a nasty stamp in my passport, which will only make finding you again all the more difficult.” She rubbed my thigh through the sheets. “Hey, I know, it’s a real bloody farce, but it’s the law and I know you wouldn’t have me break it.”

  I was sobbing now, finding it hard to breathe and the palpitations were sure to follow. “I would if it meant I never had to lose you.” But I knew that was being selfish and then an idea came to me, as forlorn as it might have been but it was enough to make me spri
ng up nonetheless. “Don’t you have Welsh ancestry? You’re a dual citizen!” I demanded of her, praying the stupid straw would be worth something.

  She smiled sadly and shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t have that.”

  I threw her hand off my leg, instantly regretted it, and pulled her back. “You’re not going.” And I pulled her so tightly into me that if I chose, she’d never get away.

  It was so unfair. Only a few hours before I’d had the most magical night of my entire life and now she was leaving, so abruptly, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. The last few weeks had been so unimaginably perfect, it was hard to imagine it should ever end, but reality had now crashed down upon me and life would never be so beautiful again.

  The peach was so intoxicating that my lips soon found their way to crush against hers as the taste of salt from our tears mingled and for the next hour we made love for what I knew would be the final time in too long.

  “Three months isn’t the end of the world but,” she sighed because a new realisation had just found her, “even if I was to return here, by that time you’d be back home training to be a doctor, learning to save lives, and that’s more important.” We were both curled up beneath the sheet, gazing into each other as we gently played with each others’ fingers. “If I came back, it wouldn’t be the same around here without you.”

  “Obviously.” And my use of an Arwenism caused her to splutter tears over my face. But I wasn’t laughing. In fact, I was completely serious. “What if I was to stay?”

  Her fingers, that had been rubbing and caressing mine suddenly stopped. “Stay?”

  I nodded and knew that even though I’d given it zero thought, it was exactly what I wanted, to remain at the Giordano Vineyard, with Dayna, with Alessia, with Marco, with Arwen, nothing else would make me happier. I nodded again, this time with even more certainty. “Yes. What if I was to stay?”