From my vantage point sat at the bar I could see the couple clearly. Actually, I could hear them: their argument had become increasingly more vocal in the last few minutes. I watched and listened. The couple spoke to each other in the tired fashion born of several years marriage and from what I could gather, she wanted to stay on the beach, whilst he was keen to return to their hotel room. A few more heated words were exchanged before the husband leapt to his feet with an angry scowl and, picking up his towel and cigarettes, stormed off in the direction of the plush Atlantic Hotel.
I lit a cigarette of my own. Exhaling a stream of pale blue smoke into the late afternoon air I returned to matters at hand and ordered my third Martini from my favourite bar tender, Julia.
"No problem, Mr. Simon," she drawled, "but we close soon. The sun is gone and nobody on beach now!"
I checked my watch and then looked around me. Indeed, 6:30pm and the beach was almost deserted. I looked back at the woman stretched out in the sand trying to squeeze out the last remnants of the sun's rays. She seemed to have already forgotten about the argument with her husband and looked to be dozing contentedly in the reducing heat. She wasn't stunningly attractive - not in the classical sense, anyway - but to me, as she stretched her body out, she looked very sexy. She looked to be around forty five to forty seven years old. Maybe a little bit chubby around the mid-section, but I liked that! She wore a blue bikini and I was impressed to see that the top half looked extremely well filled - even though she was lying on her back! Her hair was blonde and cut fashionably short and I found myself suddenly wondering if the colour was natural. Her stomach was remarkably flat and her legs were long and nicely tapered with only a trace of fat on the thighs. Her small feet were well arched giving the impression of a dancer in her youth. I was almost transfixed!
"I go now, Mr. Simon." Julia broke my little dream. "You be okay here?"
I nodded that I would most certainly be okay. Julia, knowing me well after the two weeks that I had spent at her bar, had prepared a fresh Martini for me. I smiled and watched her wiggle her way back towards the hotel; her job finished for the day.
I was about to down the last of my Martini when I heard voices approaching. I stopped and turned in their direction. Three lads - late teenagers probably - were kicking a football about twenty yards away and getting closer. As they neared the sleeping, sunbathing woman, they stopped for a moment. All three huddled together and whispered to each other, occasional laughs and giggles floated over in my direction. I could clearly see them, but it soon became evident that, sat behind the main bar support pillar, I could not be seen by them. They obviously thought that apart from my sunbather, they were alone on the deserted beach.
The lads' whispered conversation now clearly over, the soccer game resumed - but this time a little closer to the prone woman. The light plastic ball was kicked from one to the other for several minutes - until the inevitable happened. The ball looped high into the air where the light breeze caught it and carried it off at a tangent and landing just by the woman. Her slumber interrupted, she hoisted herself up onto her elbows as the elder of the trio ran through the sand to retrieve the football. He stopped a few feet away from her and grinned. The woman returned his attention and peered at him through dark glasses.
"You get tan lines like that lady!" the youth called out. His grin widening
I saw the woman's face break into a coy smile. "That's just something we women have to put up with!"
The teenager seemed to stop and think about this for a while. He changed the direction of the conversation.
"You want to go swim in ocean, lady?"
She looked back at him the smile never leaving her face. There seemed no trace of surprise in her at all.
"Not really, dear. I've just got my costume dry!"
"No need for costume!" the lad blurted out, his grin turning wicked, "we go in ocean skinning!"
I strained my ears to hear more. Their conversation was starting to become interesting! The woman laughed out loud.
"Ha! You think I should go skinny-dipping with you? I don't think my body is good enough for that!!"
The intended humour seemed lost on the lad who had now been joined by his two, slightly less forward friends. They were going swimming and they seemed adamant that she should join them.
"No, lady. We go in the ocean now. Come on! We go now. Come on!"