Stealing Phin

by Avery Hale

  After he’d left, I’d stood at the door for a few moments, listening to the mating cries on the other side that rivaled those coming from the jungle surrounding us, before I decided to kill some time by the pool. I wanted to be alone anyway.

  Because it was late, the pool area was empty. The sky seemed extra dark and ominous. Clouds had rolled in, blocking the moon and stars.

  The smell of the vomit on my dress made me feel sick again. Glancing around the area to make sure there was no one around, I pulled off my dress and dove into the water.

  I wasn’t a good swimmer, having only learned in college. But I’d grown to love that moment when your body cut through the water and, for as long as you could hold your breath, the sights and sounds of the entire world washed away. If only it’d work to wash away all my memories of the past seventy-two hours.

  When I came up for air, it began to sprinkle. I floated on my back, gazing up at the dark, cloudy sky, wondering if some empathetic being up there knew how I felt and had sent the clouds and rain as a message:

  I know what you’re going through. He’s scum for hurting you.

  As the rain came down harder, the tears also came. And for the first time since Douglas and I ended, I let myself cry freely. Grateful that there was no one else around to see me cry, and at the same time, not giving a shit anymore. The rain washed away my tears as fast as I spilled them. I will have turned this pool into the Great Salt Lake before I’d cried him out of my system.

  Lightning lit up the sky. Automatically, I counted the seconds before the thunder sounded. One, one thousand. Two, one thousand. Three, one thousand. A low rumble rolled over the top of the rainforest canopy nearby.

  I dipped my ears under the water and could hear the thunder and the muted echoes of the rain plopping on the pool’s surface, but nothing else.

  The sky grew even darker. There was darkness above me and all around. Even the water looked black. I was floating in a void, wishing for a whirlpool to swallow me up as I started feeling the ache again. The sharp blade that stabbed me in the heart and twisted with cruelty, every single time I tried to forget it. The pain that should’ve killed me days ago, except my stubborn, stupid body kept insisting on breathing, my heart kept beating, though I no longer knew what for.

  I closed my eyes, replacing the darkness with more darkness. Except this blackness felt empty, just like me.

  Had he thought of me since the day he shattered my world into a million pieces? Did he feel as terrible as I did? Did he care that I was hurting? That heartless, soulless bastard…whom I loved.

  I loved how he smelled. I loved the dimple in his chin. I love the way he sometimes frowned before he smiled. I loved the way he said my name. His voice filled my ears. I could hear him calling my name, as if his voice lived inside my head. I heard him say my name the way he did the first time I had made him come. Phin, oh Phin.

  Another sheet of lightening flashed red behind my eyelids. I could still hear Douglas calling me. Except now it wasn’t the cry of passion as I’d imagined a moment ago. Now he said my name with urgency—the way he did when he wanted me so badly, he could hardly wait until we got home.

  A roll of thunder drowned his voice out for a second or two. I grew agitated at the weather for interfering with my reverie. I lifted my ears above the water. The plop of the raindrops on the pool rose to a racket. The thunder rumbled almost constantly now. The lightening made the air crackle with electricity.

  “Phin!”

  I jerked my head. Someone was really calling my name.

  “Douglas?” I said without thinking, voicing my hopes and fears in one word. Was he here? Had he come to take it all back and beg for forgiveness? Or maybe to stomp on my heart one final time to make sure I’d never survive him? Either would be an act of mercy—as long as it stopped the pain.

  “Phin, are you nuts?”

  Frantically, I looked around the pool, but couldn’t see the person shouting at me. I wiped the rain from my eyes and tried to pinpoint the direction the voice was coming from, which was tough to do over the rain and thunder.

  A light shined on me, hitting me straight in the eyes.

  “Get out of the water.”

  Realizing that it wasn’t Douglas’s voice, I assumed it was a resort security guard.

  “Do you mind?” I shielded my eyes with a dripping hand.

  “Don’t you know it’s dangerous to swim during a thunderstorm?” the voice yelled.

  A bright flash of lightning lit the area, revealing the source of the voice. It was Byron.

  Instantly aggravated, I swam away from him and toward the deep end of the pool. I’d rather get struck by lightning than listen to that asshole.

  “Of course I know that,” I said as I paddled around casually, though now that he’d brought it up, I grew a tad worried.

  “And yet you’re swimming in a pool during a thunderstorm.”

  “Life is dangerous.” I put on a bold front. “There are a lot worse things that can happen to you than a little electrocution.”

  “Spoken like someone who’s never been electrocuted.” He strode along the edge of the pool toward me. His clothes were soaked and clinging to his body. He looked like a walking wet dream, in every sense of the phrase.

  What was he doing here anyway? “Shouldn’t you be at the Lava Lounge working some drunk chick with your schmoozy one-liners?”

  “Cut me some slack. I prefer hitting on drunk prudes who can’t hold their liquor.”

  I momentarily forgot all my sadness as anger flared inside me. I searched for a cutting come-back, but I was so frustrated I got tongue-tied and came up with nothing. So, I glared at him instead.

  A bolt of lightning split the sky.

  Byron crouched and held out his hand. “Seriously. Get out of the pool.” By his expression, he seemed annoyed, but his tone sounded genuinely concerned.

  “I’m staying right here, thank you very much.”

  He shook his head. “You are one stubborn bitch, aren’t you?”

  My mouth fell open. “Did you just call me a bitch?”

  “No, I called you a stubborn bitch.”

  “Screw you, Lord Byron.” I swam away from him as fast as I could.

  A moment later, I heard a big splash. I stopped swimming and turned my head to look at where Byron had been standing. Lightning flashed again. He was gone.

  Suddenly, I felt a hand on my thigh and another on my waist. I yelped, as a head popped up next to mine. I was so startled that I went under and accidentally swallowed a big gulp of water. The hands brought me back above surface. I clung onto Byron’s neck as I choked and coughed the water I’d inhaled.

  “What are you doing?” I yelled when I could speak again. He’d jumped in—shoes and all. Lightning lit his face. It was so close to mine. I could see his features clearly. All signs of arrogance and smugness were gone. He looked only angry.

  Our treading legs touched and slid against each other, as our bodies engaged in an underwater dance. I couldn’t have swum away from him if I tried. We were drawn together like the lightning to the ground.

  Suddenly, his face changed. The anger washed away by another look—the look of hunger.

  His hand pressed against the back of my neck, tilting my head upward. I felt overcome by an urgent desire. My legs wrapped themselves around his waist. Before I could stop them, my lips pressed themselves against his.

  The tip of his tongue parted my lips, and I let him slip it between them. I sucked on his tongue as he withdrew it, pulling it back in for more. His hand slid under the cup of my bra and caressed my breast. The sensation sent a thrill through me, and suddenly, my body became possessed by a higher power.

  I squeezed him with my inner thighs and lifted myself higher, putting my breast in front of his face. He complied with my silent demand and closed his mouth around my nipple. His tongue played with it until it became hard and tight. He bit it lightly, making me squirm from the sensation it sent between my legs. I grabb
ed his hair, prying his mouth off my nipple, and lowered myself again to kiss him.

  His tongue pushed into my mouth harder now—telling me without words that he wanted what I wanted, too. He pressed my back gently against the wall of the pool. I reached for the bottom of his shirt and began to pull it up. He was faster and whipped the shirt off just as lightning struck a tree nearby. He looked like a god. Like Thor himself coming to Earth to mingle with us mortals.

  I wondered what was wetter at this point—the pool or me. Wanting him inside me, I worked at his belt and undid his pant button. I reached inside. He was swollen and so hard, the first thought I had was that he must not have had any sexual release in months. I squeezed his hardness, overcome by an intense desire for him to release all that he had pent up inside…into me. As I gripped him, a sound of pleasure escaped from his lips, and he became overcome by an intensity of his own.

  He reached between my legs and moved my panties aside. When he pushed himself into me, an explosion of pleasure rocketed from between my legs up to the top of my head. I heard myself cry out over the thunder and rain. He put his mouth on mine again, as if he wanted to feast on my ecstasy.

  He thrust into me again and again, causing waves in the water. My pleasure grew with each thrust, mounting like the pressure in a geyser just before it erupts. I felt his own pleasure growing too. Whenever I thought he couldn’t feel any harder or bigger, I could feel him grow inside me. He filled me to capacity and beyond.

  I grasped his buttocks, feeling his muscles work as he worked at me. Despite his excitement, he demonstrated impressive restraint and control. He waited for me, and then rose with me to the brink, to the very precipice of orgasm. Our bodies moved in synchronized rhythm. And then he took us both crashing over the edge together. Except instead of falling, we shot upward. Up and up we flew, until finally, we were suspended somewhere outside the uppermost stratosphere.

  After a few moments in the aether, gravity beckoned us. And eventually, we floated back down to Earth. Our foreheads touched as we rested against each other to catch our breath.

  But as I regained my senses, another kind of gravity weighed on me. In those post-coital moments, when the surge of desire had passed and the higher levels of your brain that had been taken hostage were free to function again, I became overwhelmed with sudden panic and regret.

  What have I done?

  Abruptly, I pushed Byron off of me and hoisted myself out of the pool.

  “Phinegan, wait,” I heard him say.

  But I didn’t wait. Instead, I ran into the stormy darkness.

  Chapter 6

  THE MORNING AFTER

  When I woke up the next morning, I felt like someone had snuck in during the night and embedded an axe into my skull.

  Señor Guaro, you are not mi amigo.

  I cracked my eyes open and groaned at the bright sunlight streaming in through the window. I lay there for several minutes, hopelessly trying to close the curtains by sheer willpower so I didn’t have to physically get up.

  Dez snored noisily in the next bed—a sign that her date had accomplished the task of making her come. She had always claimed that coming was the best sleeping draught. And judging by how completely Dez was knocked out, Estevan must’ve done one hell of a job last night.

  Then, right on cue, a head popped up from behind Dez’s snoring lump. It was Estevan.

  “Speak of the devil,” I said.

  He smiled at me widely and put his finger to his lips as he quietly got out of bed, careful not to disturb his Sleeping Beauty.

  “I will come back in ten minutes,” he whispered to me as he quickly got dressed, “with a present for mi princesa.”

  I nodded, hoping he wasn’t going to run out to the local Tiffany’s for an engagement ring. Poor guy. It was all over his face—he was Dez-struck.

  A few minutes after he’d tiptoed out of the room, I took one of my pillows and threw it at the back of Dez’s head. She jerked awake.

  “What the fuck,” she croaked. When she tried to open her eyes, she winced and drew the pillow over her face. “Turn the sun off, will you? Before my eyeballs explode in my head.”

  “Since when do you let a guy sleep over?” I asked. “In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve always kicked them out as soon as you’re through with them.”

  Dez rolled over and faced me. She had a big grin on her face and peeked at me with one eye open. “I never thought I’d break that rule either. But after making me come three times last night, I figured he deserved a little shut-eye before I sent him on his way. Plus, I thought with his stamina, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d be ready to go another round in the morning.

  “Ugh, while I’m five feet away?”

  “We would’ve kept it quiet.”

  “Who are you kidding? Last night, you were loud enough to scare the spider monkeys out of any trees within a mile radius.”

  Dez couldn’t stop grinning. “I had no idea what these Costa Rican men were capable of. I can confidently say, though, that I now know why they are so good at rolling their R’s.”

  “Can you save the gory details of your sexcapade until after I’ve had my coffee?”

  “Speaking of delicious, full-bodied Costa Rican drinks,” Dez said as she felt the empty spot next to her that was probably still warm, “where is Estevan anyway?”

  “He snuck out a little while ago. Said he was going to bring you a surprise. Very sweet, actually.”

  “I hope it’s a new box of condoms. They’re expensive here. Twenty-five hundred colones for a pair in the gift shop. That’s almost five U.S. dollars per orgasm! Not that it wasn’t worth it.”

  I laid my arm across my forehead. “If you insist on giving me the blow-by-blow of last night, then at least get the coffee maker going.”

  Dez propped herself on her elbows and eyed me with a frown. “So, I take it Little Miss Grouchy Pants didn’t get it in with Carlito last night. I thought you’d taken him for some hot tub action.”

  I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t think he was really in the mood for a make-out session after I’d spewed my dinner and half the Guaro I drank onto him.”

  “Yeah,” Dez pulled a sick face, “I’d say that would take the wind out of his willie-sail. Well, it’s still early, and we’ve got plenty of time left here. And if not Carlito, then maybe some other guy. I’m telling you. It’d be a downright shame if you left this country without getting some rainforest loving!”

  I turned onto my side toward Dez and picked at a loose thread. “You know what’s a shame?”

  “What?”

  “Me.” I kept my eyes down. “I drunk dialed Douglas last night at the Lounge.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “I wish.”

  “And what did the bastard have to say?”

  “He didn’t pick up.”

  “Good.”

  “No, not good, Dez. I wanted to hear his voice. But he wasn’t home.” I didn’t want to tell Dez about who was home. Or, at least, what my intoxicated brain had concluded when I’d heard the girl’s voice on his line.

  But as my hangover hammered away at my head, I realized just how drunk I was when I’d called Douglas. Maybe I’d just imagined the entire thing. Or maybe I’d accidentally dialed the wrong number.

  “I wonder where he was last night,” I mused, bitterly noting how naïve I sounded even to myself.

  Dez gave me a look. “Do I really have to say it?”

  “No.” I pulled harder at the thread until it broke. “That thought crossed my mind, too.”

  But then, as if to save itself from the ensuing pain, my mind dug its heels deeper into denial and tossed me a bone. I suddenly remembered something else that could explain his absence last night. “There was a lot of drama going down at the office around the time I left,” I said. “Douglas was super stressed about it. Said it could be career-changing. I bet he was working late to deal with that.”

  I could tell Dez didn’t buy it, but she humore
d me. “Was his ass getting put in the sling for all the illegal stuff he was doing?”

  “It wasn’t illegal.” I quickly defended him. “A little unethical, maybe, but not illegal.”

  At least, that’s what Douglas kept telling me.

  After he’d lost his biggest client six months ago, he felt pressure to keep his revenue numbers up because he’d just made partner. So, he’d instructed me to pad the hours the associates on his team billed to his clients when I filled out the monthly billing reports.

  At first I’d hesitated, naturally worried about both of us getting into trouble, but he’d reassured me it was just temporary.

  These clients have so much money they’re not going to notice an extra hour being billed to them here or there, he’d insisted. Plus, the work product I provide is worth more than my billing rate. So, at the end of the day, I’m just charging them what they owe me.

  Although his explanation wasn’t enough to easy my doubts, I’d trusted him and his judgment.

  I hoped Douglas didn’t get in trouble over this. He’d worked so hard to become partner that it would devastate him if he lost it all. His career was more important to him than anything else in his life. His ambition was something that I’d admired about him. I’d always worked hard in school. But Douglas had taught me the difference between being a hard worker and being driven. The more I thought about it, the more worried I got for Douglas. I wished I could see him and make sure he was all right.

  Dez interrupted my thoughts. “You have any other confessions you want to make this morning?”

  Suddenly, I found myself thinking about Byron. “No,” I said weakly as my cheeks burned. I tried to turn away from Dez before she noticed, but it was too late.

  “You’re lying to me.” She sat up in bed and pointed an accusing finger at me. “I knew it—you did hook up last night!” She squealed. “It’s all over your face. Was Carlito good? Of course he was. He’s gorgeous and aims to please. Did you like it in the water? Sometimes it can make you chafe down there, depending on the temperature. I’m so glad you got to sample the local talent!”