Free Beautiful Girls by Beth Ann Bauman

and self-deprecating, and she pulls off righteousness without too many snags.
    Eve hasn’t always had first-time sex in her own bed and wonders if she’s had some soul leakage in the San Fernando Valley, the East Village, Weehawken.She also wonders if soul leakage could be related to the melancholy that sometimes swells inside her like music.
    She shoots back an e-mail. “Thanks for the spirit tip. I’ll try to wait, but I’m in paradise…”
    She presses Send, and exits the cave-like e-mail center and hangs over the deck’s rail, peering down into the foamy sea. Perhaps her spirit is intact. She breathes deeply and closes her eyes, aware of her galloping pulse, her grumbling stomach, her whirling thoughts. She believes her spirit is of one piece, reasonably whole, quietly yearning, ethereal and unknowable, hanging inside her and flapping against her heart.
    They’re headed to the Maldives, south of India, to a tiny uninhabited island that apparently can be circled on foot in ten minutes’ time. The crew needs to foam-wash the carpets and encourages all passengers to go ashore or assemble in the Diamond Lady Lounge for a day of Bingo. Eve packs a small bag with her bikini bottoms and two condoms. She wears a bikini top and a fluttery wrap that swishes against her ankles and feels silky against her naked ass. It’ll be all right. How she wants Adam with his dark, expressive eyes, like a deer trapped in headlights.
    The ship’s tenders take them to the uninhabited island, which has a public address system and plumbing. They stand in the barbecue line with theirrespective mothers, listening to “Surfin’ U.S.A.” over the P.A. “Hey, sexy,” Adam whispers into Eve’s ear, “I can see your ass through that skirt. Can you ditch your mom?”
    Eve nods and grins. “Can you ditch yours?” she whispers back.
    “Right after I get my soy dog.”
    Eve and her mom sway to the music with the other passengers as they munch on hot dogs. Slowly Eve wanders away and pretends to take a stroll. Once she’s out of eyesight she hightails it around the tiny island, reaching into her backpack and tearing open the condom wrapper.
    She sees Adam hightailing it toward her from the opposite direction. They run and embrace. Eve suddenly feels shy beneath the sunshine. Adam pulls her behind a shrub and yanks off her bikini top.
    “Not so fast.”
    “In about five minutes this place is going to be crawling with senior citizens.”
    “Tell me something nice,” she coos. “Something sexy.”
    “Do you want to do it or not?” he asks.
    “Of course.”
    They undress and lie on Eve’s wrap and have a quickie, a hot, sweaty quickie while Eve squints into the sun. When it’s over, they lie for a moment like corpses, tangled together. Then Adam pulls out androlls off the condom. They kneel naked in the sand, fumbling with their bathing suits.
    “That’s one way to do it,” Eve says with a small smile.
    “Sorry,” Adam says.
    “No, no,” Eve says.
    “You all right?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    They hear voices and quickly get dressed and fling themselves into the sea. Fellow passengers stream past them. Some wave. Eve is relieved when Adam swims over and takes her wet hand. “Let’s go back,” he says.
    “And here I’m thinking you’re swimming over to whisper sweet nothings in my ear.”
    “Sweet,” he whispers into her hair. “Nothings.”
    Eve changes back into her wrap skirt while Adam pockets the gooey, sandy condom. Slowly, they start to back away from each other in the directions from which they came.
    “See ya,” Eve says.
    “Later,” Adam says.
    Facing each other, they creep backwards until Eve wonders who will turn away first. It will be her, she’s ready to turn. Seconds pass, but she doesn’t turn. She becomes very still. If she turns away now she might miss what’s supposed to happen next.
    It’s Adam who turns with a quick wave of his hand. Eve watches him grow smaller as he jogs away.
    Adam has beaten her