Lucy and Effie were on holiday together, in a resort-town, near the sea, their one break from work and life and endless winter rain. They'd been planning the trip for months, sitting in trains on overcast days on the way to jobs they didn't really like, and now they were here, for a week, and all the saving and organizing almost seemed worthwhile.
It did for the first few days, at least.
After that, the holiday started to seem more just hangovers and bars and waking up in the middle of the morning, too hot from all the sun, like most holidays did once they were actually there. It started to seem like Effie complaining that they needed to do something else, and Lucy wanting to agree with her, except she was pretty sure that what Effie meant was she wanted a lot of sex, and Lucy did too, she really wanted sex, a holiday fling, just she didn't know how to get it. Not like Effie did, anyway, not single-mindedly like Effie, and not as confidently with the part about making it happen.
So they kept going back to the beach, because that was where all the holidaymakers were, which really meant a bar near the beach, about as close to the actual sand as they ever got.
On their fourth day there, though, they picked up two guys, and then things started seeming better.
They picked up two guys, another pair, picked up as a pair. They drank together for a while in the afternoon, and all seemed to be having fun, so when Effie suggested going back to Lucy and Effie's motel room, they all did.
The motel was a bit run down, and a couple of blocks back from the water, but it was the best they could afford and still have a place with actual separate bedrooms. Lucy had wanted separate rooms, because the whole plan for the week had been to score as much as possible, even though it really hadn't happened.
But now she had. And she was having sex. And like the holiday itself, it wasn't really all that she'd hoped it would be.
She was lying on her back, on the bed, watching the face of the guy above her, trying to decide if this was all worth it. The planning and expense and being here, going through all this, just to get a little oral and a stranger's cock inside her for a few minutes.
She wasn't sure it was.
The motel room's walls were thin. She could hear sex noises through the wall. She could hear clearly enough to make out voices, and what was said, and what Effie wanted done to her. And the little gasps and squelches as it was.
Effie was confident. She was sure of herself. She said what she wanted, and usually got it, and then boasted about it afterwards. Lucy envied that because she'd never been able to. Lucy was lying there pretending not to listen, almost embarrassed she was here, while Effie was demanding she be fucked exactly as she wanted to be.
Lucy wasn't sure why that upset her sometimes, but it did.
Through the wall Lucy heard Effie whispering, heard her and the guy talking softly, seriously, even while they kept fucking. Lucy assumed they were negotiating something kinky, that Effie was being talked into bondage or anal, or maybe Effie was talking the guy into it.
Lucy tried not to listen. She didn't want to know.
She thought about something else.
Like the guy above her.
Like how long he planned to last.
However long it was, it probably wasn't going to be long enough for her, with the mood she was in right now.
She almost didn't care.
The sex noises in the next room suddenly stopped. Lucy was so relieved she almost got interested in sex again.
Almost, but then Effie tapped on the bedroom door. Tapped, and just opened it, without waiting for Lucy to answer.
"Hey," Lucy said. "Fuck."
She was lying there naked, under a man, and was a bit shocked Effie had just done that.
No-one else seemed to think there was anything wrong, though. The guy stopped moving, was still inside Lucy, was grinning at Effie like a smarmy show-off, proud of where he his cock was, waiting to see what Effie wanted. Effie was just standing in the doorway, looking back at him like nothing was wrong, wearing nothing except a sheet.
Mostly wearing a sheet, some of a sheet, only wearing it just enough to be covered.
Lucy wasn't wearing anything, and she started to blush. She wasn't sure why. She was covered by the guy, especially once she'd moved her hands a bit, but all the same, she didn't want people seeing her only wearing a man.
"What?" she said, annoyed.
"Calm down, dude," Effie said.
"Don't just open the door."
"I knew you were in here," Effie said, like that made sense. Like the only reason to knock on doors was to see if people were inside.
Effie was just standing there, with her side and one of her legs pretty much bare. The guy was looking at her, and she was looking back at him. She was perving at a man who was still inside Lucy, and he was perving back. He'd stopped moving now. He wasn't actually having sex with Lucy any more, but he was still inside her. And he was checking out Effie.
It was sort of rude.
"What do you want?" Lucy said to Effie. "Seriously?"
"Oh yeah," Effie said. "We just wondered. Would you guys be into swapping around?"
Lucy looked at her, and didn't know what to say. She had no idea what you were even meant to say, when someone suggested that.
"It's just that this is a one-nighter," Effie said. "Yeah?"
Lucy couldn't bring herself to admit that while she was still doing it. The guy above her nodded.
"So all casual and shit," Effie said. "No fuss, no complications. No-one is going to get upset by anything later. No-one's falling in love."
Silence. Lucy was still startled. The guy, she thought, was thinking about it. Thinking about it, in between staring at Effie's legs.
"So the thing is," Effie said. "No-one cares who's in which room, right?"
Lucy didn't answer. It was probably true, but she didn't want to say it.
"And it's not like we spent ages picking which of them we wanted, did we?" Effie said to Lucy.
Lucy opened her mouth, but still couldn't think what to say. Yes was pretty rude to the guy above her.
"And you didn't either, did you?" Effie said to the guy.
He shook his head.
"So not being impolite and shit. Not saying anyone's not good enough. But it seems like something we could try."
Silence.
"That's all," Effie said. "Sorry to barge in. We just wondered."
Still silence.
"Um?" Effie said. "Luce?"
Lucy was still too stunned to think. She looked up at the guy, back at Effie. "You're serious?" she said to Effie. "This isn't a joke?"
"I'm serious."
"Oh."
"So do you want to? Swap around?"
"I don't know," Lucy said.
"Come on. Different men on the same night. It's kind of hot, don't you think?"
Lucy didn't answer.
"He thinks it is," Effie said, and looked at the guy, and grinned at him. Grinned at him, and Lucy too, being Effie, being all clever and confident.
Lucy looked up at the guy. He did look like he wanted to. Like he was into kinky, or into Effie, one or the other. He was grinning too much, all full of himself because this was being talked about. Then, while as Lucy watched him, he seemed to suddenly remember where he was. Where a part of him was. Right then, as she watched, he changed his face and made himself stop smirking.
"Do you?" Lucy said to him, thinking she should ask because Effie probably wasn't going to. Not now she'd decided. Not now she'd talked the other guy into doing what she wanted. Which explained the whispering next door, Lucy suddenly realized. That was what had been going on.
"Do you want to try this?" Lucy said to the guy. "Are you interested?"
"Yeah," he said, pretending casual. "Sure. But only if you want to. No big deal."
That was obviously a lie. He was harder now, inside Lucy, just from thinking about it. She could feel him harder, feel his breathing different against her chest because he was more turned on. He was looking over at Effie too, all pleased and happy, the way you looked at someone you'd already pulled, someone you were about to fuck. Not how you looked at your pickup's friend who was actually with your mate.
Lucy still wasn't sure. "You really want this?" she said to Effie, stalling.
"I really do."
"And him? In your room?" Lucy couldn't remember his name. "He does too?"
Effie nodded.
Lucy thought. About what Effie was suggesting. And whether this was a terrible idea. She supposed it might actually be fun.
Effie was right that they didn't know these guys, and wouldn't care in a couple of days what had happened with them.
She cared so little she couldn't remember their names. Not Effie's one's name, and now she thought about it, she couldn't remember her one's name either. She'd always been bad with names, but still. That seemed wrong. Fucking someone whose name you hadn't bothered to remember, that seemed wrong.
