Carnival

This is an episodic installment in the "Free Love Universe", a collection of short stories about recurring characters which are designed to be read in any order, unless otherwise numbered.

This episode, like all in the "Carnival" series, is best enjoyed in order within that subsequence.

-

DAY 9 - THURSDAY

Our final full day in Barbados got off to a late start. The clock read 9am by the time Megan and I exchanged our first words in bed. She was lying on her side, facing away from me, so I rolled over and wrapped myself around her as the big spoon.

"Good morning, baby," she whispered.

I kissed her neck and ran my top arm around her body, admiring the contrast between my light skin and her chocolate skin. I traced my fingers downward, between her legs, but she grabbed my hand and held it still.

"Baby, my pussy is

TY-URRED

," she said. "I'm closed for business today, I think."

I stopped my explorations and just held her tight, enjoying a peaceful morning cuddle. Tapping noises on her phone told me she was texting someone, but her head was in the way of me seeing anything else. "Who you chattin' with?" I asked.

"Leigh's asking what we're up to today," she said simply.

"What

are

we up to today?" I intoned.

Megan laughed, then said, "We left today blank, assuming we'd need empty days for all the recommendations from locals we'd get while here. But instead, we've just been trying our best to sleep with the whole island..."

"We have been doing that, haven't we?" I chuckled back at her, still a bit sleepily.

Knock knock knock

came the sound from our door.

I kinked my head inquisitively, but Megan popped right out of bed, threw on her bathrobe, and went to answer it. I heard but couldn't decipher a brief conversation before she returned with two coffees. "It's not breakfast in bed, but - I figured coffee in bed would still be nice," she said, handing me one of the drinks. She must have let her bathrobe fall away as soon as she closed the door, because she was already naked again.

"You've outdone yourself," I gasped and sat up against the headboard to take my first sip. She curtsied proudly at my delight. We drank silently and contentedly for a few moments before shuffling outside to feel the ocean breeze on our naked bodies.

"Hey, you know what?" I asked.

Megan squinted at me through one open eye, a very clear,

No, I don't know what

answer.

"You're... uh...

quite attractive,"

I said like Ace Ventura. Megan blushed, but I honestly couldn't take my eyes off her. Never mind that I'd seen her naked body a thousand times, it truly never got old. Megan was quite a few inches shorter than me, standing 5'4" (1.63m), but she packed a lot of sex appeal into her frame. Megan had an athlete's body, with toned legs, a butt made of iron, and even abs when she bloated from her period. She had played tennis in college, but now in her mid-20s was a dedicated crossfit enthusiast - and she was the kind of person you

definitely

put on the gym's marketing materials. Her bone structure could suck the air right out of your guts, so perfect was her smile. And her eyes, enormous and glowing, looked like they'd been drawn by the same artist that drew Jasmine in Disney's

Aladdin.

All in all, even though I knew I was pretty handsome myself, I felt unbelievably lucky to be with her.

"How are you feeling? Want a big adventure, or to rest today?" my beauty queen asked.

"I think something on the rest side of things, but we could see if any of the friends we've made this week want to get together. It'd be nice to see Kevin and Leigh again," I said.

Megan nodded, then picked up her phone and resumed texting. Kevin and Leigh, by far the best friends we'd made on the island, lived in Houston - not exactly close to our home in California. It wasn't clear we'd ever see them again after we left for the airport tomorrow.

She looked up from her phone at me and said, "We could have a pool party? I think the listing said no parties, but we're not going to have a rager and trash the place."

"A pool party sounds fun to me," I said.

Megan got back to texting and I imagined what such a pool party would look like. Hopefully Kevin could bartend, though I actually wanted to learn his margarita recipe, so I would be happy to help him shoulder those duties. The pool itself wasn't huge and could probably seat 12 or so people comfortably, so squeezing eight-ish people in at once was certainly doable, if a little bit cozy. That got me thinking - "How many people did we even meet this week?" I asked.

Megan held up a hand to start counting on her fingers. "Kevin and Leigh, Charles and Claire, Rico, and your bartender girlfriend - Bethany. So, six," she answered.

Oh right! Bethany could also help bartend!

"Leigh and Kevin are down," Megan reported a moment later.

"I'll text Bethany," I said. I grabbed my phone and sent her,

"Hey - it's our last night so Megan and I are having some friends we've made this week over tonight for a pool party. You free?"

We chatted about what we'd need for the night, including a liquor store run at some point, before my phone lit up with Bethany's response.

"Cough cough - just started to feel a bit under the weather."

"I think Bethany's got a cold?" I said to Megan while texting back,

"Oh no! Feel better!"

The texting indicator lit up immediately, and Bethany's response arrived in only a few seconds.

"No dummy, that's me calling into work. When does it start?"

"Oh no, that sucks," Megan said absently, my previous sentence just now piercing the retinue of thoughts in her head.

"Just kidding, turns out she's fine. When should we tell people to get here?"

"I don't think we want to feed everyone dinner, so probably after that. Maybe 9pm?" Megan suggested.

I sent Bethany her answer and she quickly responded with a string of emojis. I showed Megan my phone and said, "I think Bethany's excited!"

Megan took my phone to get a better look and started reading out loud. "Thumbs up emoji, water emoji, bikini, booze, party, eggplant - jeez, yeah I'd say so!" Then she scrolled up to read our previous conversation and started laughing. "Liam, you thought she was really sick? My dear, you sweet, sweet summer child."

"I haven't flirted with anyone in a while - I'm out of practice!" I said.

"Guess I can't complain about that," Megan said happily before planting a big kiss on my forehead and heading into the bathroom.

I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the morning for a while. I sat in the pool and soaked for almost an hour before its cooler morning temperature chilled my body. But, that was of little consequence, because returning to the sun to warm back up took all of five seconds. Around noon, I realized I was hungry and went to find Megan.

I found her applying the finishing touches to her makeup in front of the vanity mirror. "Get something to eat?" I asked.

"What do you think I've been getting ready for?" she smirked at me. "Want to eat somewhere else? One of the restaurants we've heard about?"

We scoured through the random notes we'd taken down all week before settling on a cash-only place called Grandene's Bar and Bistro up Highway 1 on the island's west coast. The street's name was quite a misnomer - we'd driven up and down it about 5 times so far this trip and it was

not close to a highway,

but - that was its name. The taxi ride up to it was almost thirty minutes, and then we finally pulled up to the place. It was unassuming in size and flare, but for its vibrant green coat of paint. It seemed like a converted two bedroom home, for all I could tell, with rooms repurposed into the kitchen, bar, and seating area respectively. A sizable patio added outdoor seating, and Megan and I sat there. We ordered a single trio platter to split and a few minutes later were dining on delicious Bajan chicken, beans and rice, plantains, and a pasta dish we'd learned was a Bajan staple. It looked almost like mac and cheese, but for its brown color and savory flavor. They called it "macaroni pie", possibly because it came out in standing cubes cut from a larger dish they must have baked as the final cooking step. Either way, it was all

so damn delicious!

We saw that a grocery store was just up the road in Speightstown, so we walked up Highway 1 to that. The walk wasn't terribly fun, as sidewalks were missing as often as not, but we made it. We bought items for the evening then called another taxi home. Our haul was clearly in preparation for a party - light snack foods and enough tequila, cointreau, limes, and agave syrup to get an army drunk. We debated attempting to estimate and buy the right amount, but then figured Rico and Bethany could just take home whatever was left at the end of the night. Better to not run out, I reasoned.

Everything was coming together - we had positive RSVPs from all guests, including Rico who had just been here the night before. Clare and Charles were happy to hear from us and decided to shift around their schedules to attend on what was also their final night. By 3pm we had nothing left to do to be ready for the party, so we texted Kevin and Leigh to meet us down by the beach. Kevin told us to come empty handed - drinks were on them - and we found them settled in with their cooler when we arrived. Kevin handed us each a beer as we unrolled our towels.

Standing only 5'7" (1.7m), our friend Kevin was a strong guy. His biceps and forearms cut inward with deep lines, his pecs were thick and broad, his abs stretched uninterrupted from his waistband all the way up to his sternum, and his thighs had deep chasms between his various quadricep muscles. In short, he looked like a black Vitruvian Man drawing - the perfect specimen of masculinity. Beside him, his wife was 3 inches taller and hauntingly beautiful with her mixed Black and Japanese ancestry. She wore her hair tied into long microbraids which extended almost to her waist, but that was a common vacation hairstyle for black women and I realized I didn't know how she actually wore her hair at home. Her body was lithe with a firm, plump butt, having been a career ballerina until five years ago when the two had had their first child. But, she aimed to get back into high level dance, and you would never have guessed she was a mother of two by looking at her tight body. Her back was decorated by two enormous tattoos of dragons, one on each side of her spine, perfect reflections locked in an eternal staring contest. Their claws and wings wrapped enticingly down her ribs, culminating in the dragons' tails dipping into skin claimed by her breathtaking ass. They were a great looking couple, but today their collective assets really jumped out at me.

"Final night. You okay with that?" Kevin asked me rhetorically. Their longer two-week vacation still had two more days after we left, so they were not remotely interested in thinking about leaving or real life yet. But us leaving for our real lives was different!

"Don't have much say in the matter, so - figured we'd see all the friends we made one last time," I responded. On Kevin's far side, Megan and Leigh were locked in their own conversation, so we were able to speak privately, as were the ladies.

"And by 'see', you mean, 'smash'," Kevin laughed.

"We haven't actually talked about that at all for tonight," I answered truthfully.

"Dude, an invisible Brazzers camera crew follows you two around everywhere you go," Kevin said, which had us both laughing.

"It

has

been an insane week," I agreed. "But I mean, I suppose, given how it went last time with each of these people, yeah... you might be right."

"How much V you still have?" Kevin asked.

"Enough for each of the fellas," I answered. "You can have what's left of it for the rest of your trip. I don't want to fly back with a bunch of individually wrapped pills I got off the same tray that had lines of coke!"

"Could you imagine?

I'm sorry officer, I didn't know these pills I got at a random orgy had DRUGS in them!"

he laughed.

"Dumbest way to get locked up..." I muttered with a shake of my head.

We were struggling to contain our laughter, but Kevin eventually said, "I will bear the burden of taking the rest of your cocaine-laced Viagra!"

I looked at him thoughtfully and said, "You're a real friend, Kev."

The waning hours of the afternoon passed too quickly and the sun was setting before we knew it. Megan and I weren't terribly hungry yet, on account of our recent lunch, but we figured now was still the time to eat, so we agreed to get dinner with Kevin and Leigh. We changed into dinner-appropriate clothes and met back down at 6:30. Dinner and drinks were amazing and at 8pm we retired back to our unit with cheeks and abs tired from non-stop laughter.

"One hour 'til showtime," I said as I took in our space. We'd tidied up, the snacks were ready to be poured into bowls, and the booze was lined up by the sink. We even siphoned off all the ice from the ice maker so it could get started on a second batch.

"Everything's all set!" she said excitedly. "How do you want to pass the hour?"

I looked in both directions, in search of anything to do

besides

sit outside and listen to the waves. When nothing jumped out at me, I said, "Sit outside and listen to the waves?"

And so it came to be that we sat outside and listened to the waves for an hour. Well, almost an hour - Kevin and Leigh lived up to their reputation and showed up fifteen minutes early again.

At this point, they felt like old friends suitable for admission without fanfare. Kevin nodded approvingly at our bar lineup while we tapped fists, and Megan and Leigh embraced each other. Kevin was in his typical uniform of tight swimming shorts and no shirt, which was honestly the only suitable choice for a man of his physique. Leigh wore a sporty black bikini that hugged her perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that the sight of her sent a twinge of pain through my gut. I desperately wanted to wrap my arms around her and feel the weight of her body press into my chest.

"What's your music situation?" Kevin asked.

"Oh right - music. I bet we can get Spotify on the TV," I said, thinking aloud. Sure enough, it was a smart TV, so I logged into Spotify to avoid any annoying ads, then turned on a summer party playlist. It started with something top-40-sounding that I had never heard before, but it had a good beat, so I sat down the remote.

A knock at the door announced a new arrival, and I smiled at Rico on the other side of the door. I shook his hand and stepped aside to let him in. "Been a long time since I was in this place," he laughed. Rico had worn simple open-toed sandals, a grey pair of swimming shorts, and a button-up shirt which contained not a single fastened button. His belly was not particularly defined, but neither was it overweight. His chest and shoulders looked strong, like someone who could always bench 200 pounds without ever going to the gym. I still had no real sense of whether or not he exercised.

"Welcome back,

big man!"

Megan said playfully as she greeted him with a hug.

We exchanged introductions, and Kevin took a similar interest in Rico as I had. His life story, a gentle giant making good on his country's free medical school, was fun to hear about.

Another knock at the door promised new guests and I was delighted to see Bethany this time. Her bright smile was complemented by a thin, jeweled septum ring in her nose that established her unique vibe. Once again, she was wearing slightly boyish clothes, albeit form-fitting ones to reveal her excellent figure. Her green hiking pants might have been the same ones she had on the night of the boat ride and her white cotton long-sleeve t-shirt could have been unisex. Her final statement piece were hearty black boots of a vaguely military style. Wearing camo was illegal in Barbados - that style was completely reserved for the actual military - but I got the sense that Bethany would absolutely be a camo sort of girl if it were allowed. Of course, her hair was unchanged, with the right side of her head shaved up past the top of her ear and the rest of her hair given to shoulder-length dreadlocks. As Kevin had said the first day we saw her, she had a grungy, Bob Marley sort of energy.

"Hello, sexy," she smirked at me while planting a quick peck on my cheek. She scanned the room, seeing a bunch of new faces, and I set out to start my introductions - but was interrupted.

"The bartender!" Leigh exclaimed loudly, then walked over and introduced herself. "We were on the same boat with Liam. We made sure he texted you!" Bethany was flattered to the point of crossing her fingers below her chin and doing a small, face-only curtsy. She also took

long

stock of Leigh's sporty black bikini, and I wondered just where Bethany really fell on the sexuality spectrum. I had first assumed straight when she hit on me, then bi when she was over the moon to receive a lap dance at the strip club, but now I wondered if she was primarily gay and her attraction to me had actually been the anomaly.

Introductions continued, mostly centering around how everyone had each met Megan and me, until yet another knock sounded. This time it was Clare and Charles, their faces glowing with big, cheesy smiles. Both were college students, not a day over 20 I reckoned, attending art school in New York. Clare was white and looked every bit the part of an art student, with ample tattoos of all sizes up and down her arms and torso. Her blonde hair was shoulder length and her facial features were soft and decidedly cute, if not exactly

beautiful

like Megan or Leigh. Charles, her boyfriend and classmate, was black and from Atlanta. I honestly suspected that he was quite a bit better looking than she was, as his face had appealing symmetry and his smile could light up a room. Both had naturally thin bodies, by pure ectomorph phenotype rather than any exercise regimen.

"HellooOOoo!"

they all but sang in excitement, and I stepped aside to let them in. We exchanged introductions, and then Kevin and Leigh descended upon our two new guests with a thousand questions about our particular origin story.

"You two were at that same party at Sandy Lane?" Kevin said, a playful interrogation officially underway.

Rico and Bethany, the only two locals, perked up at the mention of Sandy Lane. They certainly knew of its extravagance. Clare and Charles nodded in unison.

"Was it as crazy as Megan and Liam said it was?" Kevin asked.

The two shrugged, and Charles answered, "I don't know what they told you, but I can't imagine how or why anyone would embellish a retelling of that party. Like, if I tried to exaggerate that party, I don't know what I would add."

Kevin and Leigh threw their arms up at confirmation that everything we'd said was true, but this just piqued Bethany and Rico's interest.

"What was this party?!" Bethany exclaimed.

Clare ended up retelling the story from their perspective, including how they'd bumped into Malcolm two days earlier and he'd invited them to a party that, in retrospect, he dramatically undersold. Her details perfectly aligned with what we'd said, including the French escorts in see-through, diamond-studded dresses, the trays of cocaine and Viagra and whatever other random drugs there'd been, and the unrepentant orgy it had all descended into.

"So that's what goes on at that place," Rico said with a belly-shaking laugh. "I had always wondered!" His Bajan accent, decidedly Caribbean but distinct within that family, made the words that much more delightful.

"That's how you met us - but how'd you meet everyone else here?" Clare asked Megan and me.