Honeymoon From Hell - Part 2

I wanted to ask what had taken so long, but his skin was hot and his breath quick. He was as eager to get into bed as I was to have him here with me. We made incredible love until we were both so exhausted we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning I finally had a chance to ask him what had happened the night before. “So, did you have trouble finding Sarah last night?”

“We had to get the night manager to open the gift shop so we could get some medicine for Ryan. Sorry it took so long. But it was worth the wait, wasn’t it?”

There was no denying that.

We stepped into the hallway and passed Sarah and Ryan’s doorway just as it opened. Sarah’s hair was twisted up and clipped, and she wore a skimpy white halter top and low cut short-shorts.

 “Hey,” she said. Her eyes were on my husband.

“How’s Ryan?” I asked.

“He’s exhausted from all that time in the bathroom. I hope he’ll recover fast. What’re you kids up to?” She winked at Matt.

“No plans beyond breakfast. Maybe a walk on the beach?” Matt looked at me for agreement, and I felt my insides melt. As far as I was concerned, we could spend the whole day in bed. I wanted him to myself every second. I should have said what I felt, but I just nodded and smiled. “You want to join us, Sarah?” he asked.

My heart sank. The last thing I wanted was to have Sarah in tow for the day.        

“Sure!” she cried. “Let me grab my bag. Ryan can rest all day.” She ducked back into the room.

“She was my sister’s best friend. I’ve got to be nice!” Matt whispered when he saw the pout on my face.

Sarah rejoined us in the hallway.

After an amazing breakfast of fruit and eggs, the three of us walked along the beach, Sarah on Matt’s left side with her arm hooked through his and me on his right holding his hand. The two of them talked about high school people and places they had gone together. I was the third wheel. Matt squeezed my hand and spoke directly to me sometimes, but it didn’t help. By lunch, I was fuming. I was sick of the way she flirted with Matt and ignored me.

She was ruining my honeymoon!

“So, what about this afternoon? Want to rent a jeep and find a beach somewhere away from the crowd?” Sarah asked, nodding at the people-filled lounge chairs beside the hotel’s swimming pool and then pointing beyond the row of palm trees toward a long stretch of relatively deserted beach behind the hotel.

I shot Matt a warning look. We had already talked about finding a secluded little beach where we could skinny dip and make love.

Sarah intercepted the look. “Oh, come on, Jennifer. Don’t be a spoil sport, it will be fun!” She tugged on Matt’s left hand, pulling him over to the kiosk that advertised rental services, including Jeeps.

I felt the blood rising up to my face, but Matt didn’t notice. Soon we were driving out of town on a coastal road. We passed a few beach areas, and then finally spotted a promising road that led off through some trees. Matt turned off the main road and we bumped along until we came to a beautiful crescent moon beach, completely empty.

“Perfect!” Sarah shouted. She leapt from the jeep, kicked off her shoes, grabbed her bag, and ran toward the water. I gathered my things, stepped from the car and then stopped. Piles of Sarah’s clothes formed a line from the jeep to the beach, where she had dropped them as she ran. Now she was splashing in about three feet of water, nude.

Matt leaned against the front fender, staring. I stepped in front of my husband to block the view and he grinned at me. “She’s always been like that. No shame. But then, she doesn’t have much to be ashamed of, does she?” He stretched to look around me at Sarah, who had left the water and was spreading her towel on the beach.

“Matt, look at me, and listen to what I’m saying.” He looked. “It’s our honeymoon! I want us to be doing these things alone, not with Sarah. I want your attention. This isn’t how I’d pictured us today.”

Matt smiled patiently. “Think about Sarah for a minute. Ryan’s back at the hotel sick. What fun would she be having if she wasn’t able to go out with us? Ryan will be better tomorrow. We’ll have six more days to ourselves. What’s one afternoon?”

His argument made sense, but I hated having his old girlfriend naked with us on a secluded beach. I scowled. He led the way down the beach from Sarah, who had stretched out, face up, on the towel. She had no tan lines but was golden bronze all over. I averted my eyes, then squeezed Matt’s hand and hurried past her and on down the beach.

After we had spread out our towels and pulled off shorts and shirts to uncover our swim suits, Matt chased me out into the ocean. We splashed and grabbed at one another until we were breathless. As we sloshed back up to the beach, hand in hand, Sarah watched us, her head propped on one arm, still naked, smiling. We lay down on our towels, and I scooted close to Matt, kissing him on his cheeks and his forehead and finally on his lips.

“If we were alone I would pull off those trunks and have my way with you,” I whispered.

“You’d have to beat me to it. Let’s see, how does this work?” He reached behind me to unhook my top and I gasped.

“Matt! Not with Sarah here!”

“Like she’s going to care.” He bent over to kiss my breast.

“No. Please?” I buried my face in the crook of his neck, forcing his head up. He sighed, and then rearranged and re-hooked my swim suit top.

“Okay. Later, then.” He ran his hands over my hair and smiled into my face before he lay down, facing me, his back to Sarah.

I lay next to him, content to watch his sparking eyes. Exhausted from our playtime in the water and warmed by the afternoon sun, I fell asleep.

When I woke, Matt was no longer beside me. I sat up, shielded my eyes against the sun, and looked for him. The beach was empty. I hugged my knees to my chest and peered out into the water. The ocean waves rolled to the beach and broke apart into little white-edged fingers. No Matt or Sarah.

I told myself not to be jealous. There was a good explanation. I couldn’t let myself think this way. I needed to trust Matt. I’d just married him, hadn’t I? I waded out into the water, and then turned to scan the beach, the shoreline and the tree line. In the distance, a figure came around the trees near where the jeep was parked. Matt.

“Ready to go? Sarah’s in the Jeep, worried about Ryan, I think,” he called as I walked up the beach toward him.

We gathered up our things and returned to the Jeep. Sarah sat fully dressed in the back seat, the fingers of her left hand playing with a lock of her long hair.

She didn’t speak until we got back to the jeep rental place. “I’m going to run on back to Ryan. I’ll make reservations for dinner.” She sauntered away.

I turned to Matt. “She’s making our dinner reservations? Where? Can’t we eat by ourselves?” I huffed.

“The cliff divers. She’s hoping that Ryan will be up to it, but it usually takes a couple of days to get over the crud down here.”

 “Have you had this intestinal thing before?” I could swear that Matt had said this was his first trip outside the United States.

He shrugged. “Short trip, years ago. Not much to remember except for getting sick.” He paid the rental shop clerk, then grabbed up my hand to pull me along as he headed for the hotel.

I was certain he had told me he had never before left the country. Who had he been with? I had a feeling it might have been a graduation trip, and his date might have been Sarah. A jealous flush rushed to my face.

We went back to our room in the hotel, showered, then made love and napped. The phone woke us about 6 o’clock.

“Hola,” Matt said into the phone. “Si. Bien. Si.” He winked at me. “Vale. Donde? Vale.” He hung up and snuggled back down next to me.

“That was Sarah. Ryan is better. Probably won’t eat much, but he wants to see the divers. Our reservations are for 7:30.”

“I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,” I said, stroking the hair on his temples.

Matt grinned. “That’s the full extent of my vocabulary. The only other word I know is cerveza for beer.” He wrapped me in a bear hug. We snuggled for a few minutes and then he broke away to take another shower.

For the first time, I wondered how well I really knew this man I had married. He had lived for thirty years, and I had known him for four months. There was a difference of four years in our ages, but when we met it had seemed that both of us were at the same place emotionally and ready to commit to one person. I had never felt so in love with anyone but there was a lifetime of things about him that I didn’t know.

 We dined on a torch-lit patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. A mariachi band moved among the tables, playing romantic Spanish ballads. Ryan still looked pale. Sarah flirted with the band members when they came to serenade our table. She downed one margarita after another.

The time came for the divers’ performance and colored lights played on the cliffs across the small inlet from where we sat. We rose from our tables and crowded around the safety railing so that we could see down into the chasm between the cliffs, where the divers would drop. We watched, holding our breaths as the men propelled themselves one by one off the edge of the cliff and down into the chasm toward a small, deep pool.

I stood on tiptoe, leaning over the railing to better see the water far below. Something shoved against the back of my knees and my legs buckled, causing me to lose my balance and begin to fall forward over the rail. I gasped.

“Jennifer!” Matt’s strong arms grabbed me. “Whoa, honey. If you want to learn to dive, I’ll get you some lessons!” he joked.

My heart pounded. I looked around. Sarah’s eyes were wide and innocent; Ryan was looking back toward our dinner table. I couldn’t stop shaking. Thank goodness Matt had been right beside me.

Had someone really tried to push me over the cliff?

(Watch for Part 3 on June 19 and the final part on June 21, 2013)