The next day found me at the bus stop, a little before 6:00am. I was waiting there for the long-distance coach that would be taking us to the resort on this fine Saturday morning and remembering the crazy events of the night before. Presently, without fanfare, Daniel walked up with a backpack on his back.
"Hey, Cathy," he began.
I smiled at his handsome face as he drew near. I flung my arms around him and kissed him on the cheek, full of the joys of spring.
Surprised, he looked at me. "What was that for?"
"Ha! I'm just in a good mood," I replied. "Ready for this vacation!"
He looked me over. "Wow, yeah, you look like you're in a vacation mood, all right," he smirked. "Anyway, I've never been on this kind of trip before."
"Really?" I asked. "You've never been to a resort?"
"No -- especially not four-star. I'm a backpacker -- I usually rough it."
"So I see," I said, glancing at the backpack. "Watcha got in there?"
"Just some stuff."
"Stuff! I hope you've got a nice set of clothes for the evening for both nights. It's gonna be a little formal."
"Sure. I just grabbed some suits from work -- I figured they would be enough."
"Oh, that's day-wear," I remarked. "Don't you have any evening stuff, like a tux or something?"
His grin faded. "Er, no. Should I?"
"Hmm, well, that would be better. Let's check out what you've got when we get there."
"Bummer, is it gonna be a major deal? I've never worn a tux before. They're expensive things -- I don't have the money -"
"Oh, don't worry," I interrupted. "It's not gonna be super-formal. As long as it's 'smart', not 'smart casual'."
"Oh, OK," he said.
Hmm, I thought. He's still super-young, too. I thought about his body. Still, there are upsides to that. Yeah, definitely.
We continued making conversation for a few more minutes. Then this huge coach rolled up, we grabbed our things and got on. Instantly, as soon as we boarded, some very familiar voices yelled out.
"Woo-hoo, Cathy! Over here!" shouted Krystal.
"Yeah, come and sit with us!" cried Bonnie.
"OK!" I shouted back. I showed my ticket to the tour guide, then walked along the aisle to where the three models were sitting. Daniel showed his ticket behind me, and followed behind.
"Well, hello," said Amelia, flashing a look and a smile at Daniel. "Is this Daniel?"
"Hi," said the stud.
"Yes, ladies," I said. "I would like to introduce Daniel Colston, my next-door neighbor, who's been helping me out with my workouts this past week."
The three ladies were most appreciative. They were sitting in a row of three seats, so Daniel and I grabbed two of the seats on the other side of the aisle parallel to them. After bustling around for a few minutes tossing our baggage in the lockers or under our seats (honestly, these buses are getting more and more like planes all the time), we sat down and got comfortable.
The bus was already moving and we were on our way. We got chatting and, after preliminaries, Daniel turned out to be quite the hit with the three models. Krystal was outrageously flirtatious, while Amelia occasionally winked and flashed smiles, while Bonnie made sassy, funny remarks.
I knew her well enough to realize that she was attracted to Daniel. In fact, they all were, and so was I, so by the time a couple of hours had gone by, relations were well-established between the five of us, to say the least.
The tour guide gave out snack breakfasts and there were refreshments along the way. After initially stopping several times more to pick up more guests, the driver finally moved out onto the broad highway and we made good progress. Looking around, I saw the bus filled with modelesque women, fashion industry types with cool, hip clothes, oodles of Ray-Bans and Calvin Klein sunglasses and other trendy clothes.
There was a lively atmosphere and everyone was talking excitedly. We must have looked a sight to passersby in the street, yet busing around to photo shoots was standard-issue in the industry for models, so none of us batted an eyelid. At around 10:00am, the tour guide tried to start up some onboard games like Bingo, Pass the Parcel and Simon Says.
There was a collective "WHAAAAAT?" from everyone and he quickly found out that we were way too cool for that. Ha! I decided I was gonna rib Jo Anson about that as soon as we arrived. Did the guide think we were a bunch of kids or something? Then again, he must have thought we were boring because practically the whole bus fell asleep soon after, most of us having got up so early to catch the bus.
We were still sleeping when the bus pulled into a rest stop for lunch. Three other buses for the same trip were already there. Everyone got off to stretch their legs. Over lunch, I bumped into Jo Anson, who was weaving her way through the dining tables.
"JO!" I shouted, waving to attract her attention. She looked to see who was calling, saw me and came over. We embraced, excited to see each other again. "Jo, how are things?"
"Great -- what about you? Everything OK so far?"
"Er, yeah," I said. "Hey, how long is this trip? What time do we arrive?"
"Around 7:00pm, if the driver keeps up this fast speed -- traffic's good today."
"Wow, really? That's long."
"Yeah, sorry about that, but we couldn't afford to fly everyone down -- we're not that big a company and figured this would be cheaper, so we could splash out more on the resort."
"Yeah, OK, no probs, but, hey -- our tour guide wanted us to play Bingo and Simon Says on the bus!"
"WHAT! Really? You're kidding!"
"He did!"
