It was such a silly ritual, really. The girls in the group all acted like they didn't care, the boys all pretended that they didn't notice, but somehow the thought of even trying it scared her witless.
She had come into the group when she started going out with Rob. There was a culture in the group. Each time the weather warmed up, the group's recreational activities began. That meant the boys surfed and the girls set about resurrecting their tans.
She had met Rob just as the surfer numbers were thinning off at the end of last autumn. With spring in the air, the modest 22 year old student had a problem about wearing a bikini, let alone sunbathing topless. But she knew the other girls delighted in doing both.
She wanted to please him by blending in with the other girls. Her beautiful looks seemed to scare most boys off. She wasn't in love with him but he was the only one around. Like her only other lover before him, he was always in a bit of a rush during their clumsy and brief bouts of sex and never bothered much about foreplay. Her parents called him unkempt and uncouth. But she really wanted to keep hanging around with him and be a part of his crowd.
There were many reasons why she had decided to ask Michelle to come sunbathing with her that particular Saturday morning. Rob going away surfing for the weekend with the boys was opportune. She'd just make an excuse to stay home, and he'd been okay with that. Most of the girlfriends would be accompanying them so the beach should have very few people to interrupt her debut attempt.
It helped that Michelle was unattached so she knew she'd be staying in town. Although only just getting to know her as a friend, her impression was that Michelle could keep a confidence. She had seen Michelle take her top quite easily on the first occasion she'd accompanied Rob to last week. If she therefore went to the beach with just her once, she might be able to summon up Dutch courage. Then she could wear a bikini and take her top off in the future too.
But on the day, she had chickened out when she held the minute G-string she had bravely bought for the day in front of her after her shower. After drying her long dark brown hair, she padded back to the chest of drawers and took out her one-piece strapless old faithful instead.
Delighted, she smiled at the sports car pulled up. Blonde hair was streaming behind it under the pretty driver's visor. The naturally beautiful face looking at hers had a puzzled look at the one-piece under her T-shirt. She cringed when Michelle's first comment was "How do you expect to get a nice tan wearing that?"
On their way to the beach, she confessed to her motives and why she had asked Michelle there. There was no laughter or ridicule. Just a quiet and understanding "Uh huh."
From then until they pulled into the beach car park for the short trek down the coast, they just chatted. Michelle was laughing at herself and her own sentimental attachment to the old faded orange bikini she had on. Unpacking and locking up, they talked about Amelia's studies, Michelle's beauty parlour and places they'd like to travel to.
However, when she asked Michelle how well she knew Rob, there was an uneasy silence. Realising there was probably a past relationship there, Amelia quickly threw in a question about one of the boys she didn't know and the chat hesitantly got back on track.
She was pleased when Michelle began asking her questions on their trudge down to the rocks. Yes, she was a bit shy about her body in front of men. No, being naked with girls about didn't concern her. Oh God, she'd be mortified if a man walked in on her nude. It was the way men looked that disgusted her. The possibility of being perved on by men was her main worry. No, she was okay about being touched.
"Keep the answer to that last question in mind, and lie face down on your towel," Michelle said quietly when they stopped. "You can help me evaluate a new brand that's just come out. This would be fifty dollars if I did you at the salon." She reached into her large beach bag and held up a bottle of massage oil. "I hope you like a slight sandalwood scent."
Amelia lay still waiting, her face buried into the back of her hands and her long brown hair flung to one side. She felt Michelle's leg ease over, and her straddle the small of her back. Surprise quickly turned to delight as a cool dollop of oil hit her back, warming instantly as the soft hands began spreading it. Behind closed eyes, she let out sighs of contentment taking in the scent as the expert fingers worked and kneaded her shoulders.
After a long spell of bliss, she turned her head to thank Michelle. The man standing and watching them on the shoreline was in his late thirties, wearing conspicuously odd beach wear with his fawn sports shirt, grey slacks and black shoes.
"I can recommend the oil and but especially the masseuse," Amelia purred. "It looks like you have your second customer already waiting from the way he is looking. I can tell he's envious of the attention I'm getting, but he can wait. He's a bit formally dressed though, isn't he?"
It was only when she turned further for Michelle's response that she realised the slender young woman above her had been topless all along. Horrified, she looked about for the stranger. He had moved, and was now taking up a position five metres lying on the other side of them, facing Michelle as she finished up doing the top of her arms and neck.
"Where did he come from?" she asked Michelle as she rolled onto the side away from the stranger, putting the bottle beside her.
"Who cares?" came the offbeat reply as her companion shrugged and took a small towel from her bag. On one elbow, she began removing the excess oil. "Do your front?"
"Not now with him around," Amelia hissed. "The massage has been ruined."
