“I know a few women who would meet the description,” Harrison continued, “but the problem is, nearly all of them hate my guts and would sooner throw me into the sea than help me.”
“There’s got to be someone on staff who would fit all of this. What about Constance, the lady who acquires all the local art for the décor? She’s so fancy I’m afraid to talk to her.”.
Harrison shook his head. “That’s too risky. The ones that don’t hate me are too old to want to fuck me, and anyway, I can’t risk that father would find out they were an employee. It would seem suspicious.”
“Suspicious that you fell in love at your workplace?” shrugged Bruce. “That happens all the time man, that’s not unbelievable. It’d be like a Sam and Diane thing.”
“Who?”
“Cheers? Didn’t you guys have that show in the UK? You guys use that word enough, I just figured.”
Harrison shrugged, and Bruce made a disappointed noise.
“Just trust me, he won’t like it if he thinks she works here. He would find it lazy,” said Harrison with a snort. “And I don’t need any more wild rumors about me floating around the staff. Enough of them are true as it is, anyway.”
There was a knock at the door as their food arrived, and the two hushed up about the problem until the room was private again. The delicious smell of fresh fish wafted into the warm air, and having a full stomach might make the problem at hand seem more solvable to Harrison.
During lunch they came up with their list and a plan. They’d call around and try to get a feel for who would be the most willing to go forward before giving them all the details. It was too risky to just blurt out the whole situation to everyone, because that’s how rumors get started and it would surely get back to his father. Or even worse, someone might think they could use that information as blackmail.
They spent the next two hours calling every woman on the island that either Bruce or Harrison thought fit their profile. But almost every one of them refused or hung up on them before they even got past the point of asking for a favor, and then the few who were willing to hear more backed out when they heard it had something to do with fooling his father.
“Apparently, your reputation precedes you?” guessed Bruce as he hung up one such call.
“What reputation? I didn’t realize the Moore’s’ had one to be concerned about. It’s not like we’re a family of sweatshop owners.”
“Power is power,” shrugged Bruce. “You’re technically king of this island, dude, and your dad might as well be the Emperor of England to these women. They’re probably scared something will happen to them if what you have planned doesn’t work and your dad catches you lying to him.”
“What, like he’ll have her rubbed out for helping me making a fool of him? Don’t be stupid.”
“Is that really so crazy? Rich people do shit like that all the time, I bet. Why wouldn’t they, who’s going to stop them?”
“Well, I can think of a few people my father should have had rubbed out by now, then, if he was going to do that. I think you’ve been watching too much telly.”
Bruce cracked them open another round of beers and stretched out across both visitor chairs. “Point is, the truth doesn’t matter, bro. Only matters what these women think is true, and they’re not down to play as long as they feel that somehow it won’t end well for them. Can you really blame them? They’re probably thinking the world is less Pretty Woman and more Hostel, if you get my drift.”
“I suppose you have a fair point, but it doesn’t help my situation. I sincerely didn’t think it would be this difficult to talk someone into a bit of acting,” said Harrison with a shake of his head. “The telly lied to me, too.”
“People talk big a lot, you know that. We see it on the beach all the time with those asshole tourist surfers. Everyone thinks they’re into intrigue and adventure, but when they get to that fork in the road where they have to pick between adventure and safety…” Bruce held up both his hands in a V, and then made a zooming noise as he split one of them apart. “They’ll pick safety nine times out of ten.”
“Yeah, well, not everyone does. I don’t. You didn’t,” said Harrison, pointing.
“I said nine out of ten,” repeated Bruce. “And even you and I make the safe choice way more than you think.”
“Bollocks,” challenged Harrison. “Name once you’ve seen me take a safe choice.”
Immediately Bruce got cocky. “Uh, how about that day at Padang Padang when you bitched out of riding that 45 foot curl because you thought you saw a shark?”
“I did see a shark,” insisted Harrison. “Brave doesn’t have to be stupid.”
“I’m not trying to rag on you for making the choice, I’m just trying to point out the choice that you made. That’s exactly my point: you chose safety. I didn’t say it was a bad thing, I just said some people choose safety way more than they choose adventure. You and me, we made some big adventure choices for sure, and that’s why we’re here right now. But don’t kid yourself, bro. We’re as comfy and cozy and safe here as a housewife in Omaha is at her Sunday church service.”
“I really don’t understand that analogy, or where Omaha is.”
“We’re settled here, we know what’s going to happen, give or take. No surprises, our lives are adventures compared to the people back home who took the desk job and family prize package, but we have routines too. We go to work, hit the beach and the bars, we get laid, we sleep, and then we go back to work again.” Bruce shrugged. “We just happen to be doing it in a luscious paradise.”
Harrison gave his friend a slow smile as the words sank into his consciousness. “Fuck me. I guess you’re right as usual, you weird little hippy.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
“I never really like to think of myself as routine, but you’re absolutely right. I suppose I can’t really blame them.” He rubbed a tired hand over his face and leaned back in his comfortable office chair. “It still doesn’t change the fact that I need a solution to my little problem, and I need it quickly. I need someone to be brave.”
“You need to find that tenth,” said Bruce, tipping his beer towards Harrison.
“Yes,” agreed Harrison. “The tenth woman, the one who will step away from the crowd, who won’t just go along with a thing because it’s what everybody’s doing, even if that thing is…” He trailed off as an epiphany hit him and cleared his mind completely of anything else.
Bruce tilted his head curiously. “What is it?”
“Someone who will do something that everyone else isn’t doing,” repeated Harrison. “Of course, why didn’t I think of it before? It’s her.”
“Who?”
“Clarice,” he said, getting up from his desk. He felt a sudden surge of energy that came with problem solving, like a high he couldn’t get enough of. “The one who will step away from the crowd.”
“Who’s Clarice?”
“You checked her and her party in this morning, do you remember? The four-piece of upper crust women from New York?”
“Oh, yeah! They’re trouble,” said Bruce with a laugh and a drink. “I’m definitely going to make a move for the brunette. I saw her checking me out. I want her to be mean to me.”
Harrison spoke as he cleaned up the leftovers on his desk and changed his shirt from a selection he kept in a small wardrobe near the balcony. “Clarice was the dark-haired one hovering in the back like a shy little squirrel. I bumped into her earlier today and helped her find her way back to the lifts, and we got to talking. She’s got everything we need Bruce, she’ll be perfect. Beautiful, classy, well-mannered, respectable, and I already know she’s not afraid to follow the beat of her own drum.”
“How do you know that?” asked Bruce.
“Because she told me she didn’t like it here, even after she knew I was the owner,” said Harrison. “Her friends dragged her halfway around the world for a paid vacation in paradise, and she’s still not having it unless it�
��s on her terms. That’s the kind of woman I need to work with. One who knows what she wants and will lay out her terms. Then all I have to do is meet them. Simple as pie.”
“Which you’re assuming you won’t have any trouble doing.”
“Of course I won’t, I’m rich and gorgeous,” said Harrison. “I could get her anything she wants.”
“What if all she wants is your heart?” mocked Bruce in a dramatic, movie-trailer-style voice.
“Hell, to get out of this clusterfuck, I’d probably have to give it to her.”
Bruce just chuckled and threw his feet off the desk. “So where are you going now?”
“To the shops,” said Harrison. “And then to my room to get ready. I’ve got to have everything I need before I ask Clarice to marry me.”
“Shit, you make it sound so official and dramatic,” said Bruce. “You’re not seriously getting a ring at the shops are you?”
“She’s going to need one, isn’t she?” said Harrison. “Or do you have a handy explanation to give to my father about why she doesn’t have one when he shows up?”
“It’s getting fitted?”
“Bruce, I forget sometimes that you’re not super rich. Not to be a git about it, but trust me when I say my father will not believe for one moment that I’m waiting for anything to be fixed or fitted. It would be done already because I would have paid to have it done. Buying her one is the simplest solution here.”
As Harrison led him out of the office and shut the lights off behind them, Bruce had one final comment. “Well, at least you weren’t a git about it, whatever the hell that is. Just promise me you’re not actually going to try and make a traditional proposal out of it, okay? You’ll look like a fucking idiot.”
6
Clarice
Feeling shaky from the physical encounter with Kyle, Clarice took her time getting ready for dinner. She could hear the faraway music from somewhere on the beach. It was the perfect background atmosphere as she wandered lazily around the suite in a silk robe, delicately applying lotion and makeup, and throwing her hair into an upsweep that was pretty without being too uptight. For evening, she chose a short black dress with thin straps and some matching sandals. There would surely be dinners with the girls later in the week that would require her to get all trussed up like a Christmas goose, so until then, she was determined to be comfortable.
As soon as she saw the girls waiting at the table with their colorful iced drinks already in hand, Clarice felt a million pounds lighter. They cheered when they saw her, making the other restaurant guests at their tables and lined up at the dessert buffet turn to look.
The outdoor patio, belonging to one of the many restaurants at the resort, was lined with burning torches, stringed lights, and has a live acoustic band playing traditional Balinese music softly in the corner. Waiters buzzed around the big round tables, bringing out steaming dishes with spices that seemed to burn in the night air. Everyone was happy, laughing, chatting, touching. The sea roared only a few hundred yards away, and already the stars were twinkling brightly in the dark night sky. The smell of salted meats and fresh fruits wafted on the soft wind and made Clarice’s tummy growl.
She swerved around tables towards her girls and gave each of them a sweet hug before she took her waiting seat. All three of them looked well-rested and fresh; even Sophie had let her hair down, as it were, and was showing off some of the natural curl in her bob. Trudy had a constellation of bright little flowers stuck in her messy brown upsweep, and the glow in her eyes told Clarice she was already buzzed.
“Girl!” said Trudy as she slapped her forearm gently in greeting. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting!”
“Probably letting some hungry little thing get his own dinner, am I right?” teased Liz next to her, bumping her elbow into Clarice’s side with zero subtlety.
“Holy crap, you three have already become island sluts, haven’t you?” laughed Clarice. “I leave you alone for a few hours!”
Sophie leaned toward her with wide eyes. “Clarice, have you seen the men at this place? Oh my Lord…” she put a palm on her chest. “What other option do we have?”
“How about some class, for once?” Clarice teased, slapping a palm on the table like some old-time patriarch.
Liz gasped and pointed a finger suddenly. “Clarice hasn’t fucked anyone yet!”
The girls all let out sad, over-dramatic gasps until Clarice started handing out shin-kicks under the table, sending them into peals of laughter that finally drew a waiter over to their table. He was a handsome, caramel-skinned man, and he seemed genuinely amused by their happiness. “Are you ladies having a good time?” he asked.
“She needs a drink,” said Trudy, pointing lazily at Clarice. “Actually, you might as well bring us all another drink.”
“Right away, and for dinner your table can select the sambal udang or spicy satay.”
Liz blinked up at the waiter and in her sweetest voice said, “I literally have no idea what you just said.”
Clarice blushed and apologized for her friend, but the waiter just laughed. “Sambal udang is a prawn meal with curry, and the satay tonight is beef.”
“I’m feeling a little spicy myself. So ladies, what do you say?” Trudy asked the table, sipping on her drink through a bright pink straw.
The girls cooed and Clarice had to agree. “Sounds like satay is the winner. And I’ll drink… whatever it is they’re drinking.” She gestured to the slushy drinks in curvy glasses each of the girls enjoyed. “Two of them, actually. I apparently have some catching up to do.” The waiter gave a tidy bow and disappeared through the labyrinth of tables and people.
“There’s my girl!” clapped Trudy. “You need to get yourself unwound, like, stat.”
“Yeah, what’s the deal, Clarice? Are you still feeling weird about this?” asked Sophie.
Clarice sighed. She really hadn’t wanted to upset the mood with talks of her troubles getting into this, but even through her buzz, Sophie actually seemed concerned. “Yeah… no… hell, I don’t know, guys. I’m really trying to get into it. Maybe it’s just going to take me a little more time or something. It’s only the first night, after all.”
“Have you met anybody yet?” asked Liz.
Clarice shrugged. “One guy, I guess. His name is Kyle. We actually kissed a bit…”
The girls oohed in silly delight and Liz took Clarice by the shoulders and gave her a hug.
“Just a bit, huh?” said Trudy as she teased Clarice’s calf with her sandaled foot. “Are you sure you didn’t get a little strange already, miss Clarice?”
Clarice blushed and laughed, pushing her hair back from her ears. “I’m pretty sure I would remember touching a new dick, Trude.”
“It’s just a matter of time!”
“You’re probably just tired from all the travel,” said Sophie. “It really does a number on you if you’re not used to it. After dinner and some drinks, plus a good night’s rest in your suite, you’re going to feel so much better! I’m sure of it.”
“This place is gorgeous,” Clarice agreed. “Even if I don’t touch a new dick, I’m sure I’ll find something to do to make this trip worthwhile.”
“I swear to Christ, I’m not letting you get back on that return plane home until you’ve had someone inside you,” said Trudy with a straight face. The other girls burst out laughing so hard that Liz almost spilled her drink across the beautiful white tablecloth.
“Okay, okay, God!” laughed Clarice, shaking her head. “I can see that all of your pervert powers have been greatly enhanced by this place.”
“You have no idea,” said Liz with eyebrows raised.
“You slut,” said Sophie to Liz with a wicked smile. “Spill it, what did you do already?”
“I met a guy who invited me to an orgy,” shrugged Liz nonchalantly. “So I joined in.”
Mid-drink, Trudy nearly choked on the plushy alcoholic ice in her throat. Sophie squealed with high-pitched laughte
r she only got when she was good and drunk.
“You did not,” said Clarice in a challenging voice.
“I sure as hell did!” replied Liz. “You ladies forget that you’re the ones in the fancy, fast-paced jobs where you meet sexy swinging dick all the time. I’m surrounded by kids, their idiot married parents, and the functioning alcoholic substitute teachers. I’m dying of thirst here!”
Sophie leaned across the table like they were sharing a conspiracy, her smile wide and her eyes glowing. “How many people were there? Men and women?”
“Yes, of course men and women, it’s an orgy. Everyone can come. And most did, if you catch my drift.”
“I totally don’t believe you,” said Clarice.
Liz started glancing around the patio, craning her neck, trying to see past all the masses of bodies. Then she began to point, one by one, to random people across the deck. “You can ask him. And him. And him. And her. And them…”
“Goddamn, here I am reeling from what was barely a high-school make out under the bleachers, and you’re over here acting like Hugh Hefner set loose on the bunny ranch.” Clarice was shaking her head.
Liz was still counting. “They were there. Oh, and him, his dick was like a bratwurst…”
“Don’t sweat it, Clarice, I haven’t talked to anybody yet either,” said Sophie. “It’s just our first day. We can’t all be the orgy magnet that Liz apparently is.”
“All this time, I had no idea,” laughed Trudy.
“Hey Clarice… does that guy know you?” said Liz, leaning close to her ear and pointing across the patio.
Clarice looked to follow her direction and immediately she spotted Harrison. Despite the crowd, and all the lights and noise and activity, he still stood out like an Adonis. He had done some serious cleaning up since she saw him this afternoon, and didn’t look as tired or stressed as he had before. His dark black mane looked as though it had been professionally coifed, and his gorgeous body was decked in a tailored matte black suit that made him look like he had just stepped out of a men’s magazine.
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