Currents

Six ~ Intoxication

"No problem." Daisy smiled. "I wouldn't want to show Rose something she's not ready for, after all."

It was those little jibes, delivered sweetly but with a malicious intention, that Daisy knew would get to me. By sleeping with Alastair, she thought she'd won some kind of competition between us. In a way, she had.

As though to get the last word, Daisy unzipped her dress and stepped out of it to reveal a raunchy set of black underwear. No doubt another way of reminding me what Alastair had seen. Dress in hand, she left the room with Oliver, and Alastair wasted no time in pushing me down onto the empty sofa and climbing on top.

"Finally alone." He smiled against my mouth.

I kissed him, relaxing now it was just the two of us. When Alastair's hand teased its way up my skirt again, I sighed—a sound he mistook for hesitation.

"Rosa," he whispered, leaning back to look at me. "I promise nobody will see."

"It's not that."

"Is it Daisy, then? Ignore her childish games. I want to make love to you and prove you're the only girl for me."

"Don't say stuff you don't mean..."

My guard crept down, vulnerability peeking over the edge, but it didn't matter. Alastair had seen my vulnerable side plenty of times recently.

"I mean it," he said. "It was a mistake. I was a dick. Let's forget her and concentrate on us, yeah?"

I nodded. Even though I made a habit of not bringing it up, my insecurities remained, and I'd never be totally comfortable at the idea of Alastair and Daisy hanging out.

That thought consumed my mind as I continued to consume the wine on the beach. Alastair insisted it only happened once, but how would I know? I was out here, thousands of miles away, and he was in London with Daisy. Tears sprung to my eyes as I tried to block out the painful possibility, and I turned to the bottle to numb the ache.

~~~

Halfway through the wine, enjoying the peacefulness of the beach, I heard someone approaching. I rushed to turn off the light on my phone, not wanting to be discovered.

"What are you doing?"

A torch shining into my face blinded me, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I twisted my head away. While I might have been drunk, I knew who was on the other end of it.

"What are you doing?" I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the chair for support while my other hand clutched the wine bottle. "It's gone midnight and you're still on this beach. Who's swimming at this time of night? Do you never sleep or something? Is this your life?"

He regarded me, not reacting to my outburst. I waited for him to snap back, but as the seconds ticked by, he just continued to look me up and down, his brow furrowed.

"Are you drunk?" he asked, eventually.

I scowled at him. If I didn't say anything, he wouldn't be able to tell. Even if my vision blurred and the beach swayed, he couldn't see what I saw.

"Are you even old enough to drink?"

"I'm eighteen. You've made all these assumptions, but you know absolutely nothing about me."

"And you know nothing about me, either, so don't sit there on your high horse with your bottle of Chardonnay and claim that I'm the one being unfair and judgemental when you have no clue of the stuff I've been through, either, all right?"

"It's Pinot Grigio," I said through gritted teeth.

Brent's blinked, his brow creasing, before he shook his head to himself. "Pinot fucking whatever," he said, snatching it from me.