Free Peachy Keen by Kate Roth

I was wearing. I was clad in a tangerine-colored racerback sports bra and skintight black yoga pants, my bare midriff exposing the tan I’d already acquired. Just when I was about to tell Nate where I was off to, I thought of Harrison again. He hadn’t said anything about the way I was dressed. I didn’t even notice if he’d given me a onceover. A mixed wave of disappointment and something I couldn’t quite determine washed over me.
    Nate was still pretty much eye-fucking me, his palms putting a little more pressure on my hips with every silent moment between us.
    “Aerobics class. Trying to get a workout in,” I said.
    “Hmm. Wouldn’t I love to see that,” he mused with a grin before lowering his eyes. “Listen, about the other night…”
    “Don’t worry about it. Are you okay?” The last thing I wanted to rehash with Nate was how close I’d been to washing his vomit from my hair—or worse, my chest.
    One hand finally left the spot where my pants met my flesh and he gripped the back of his neck timidly. “I’m so sorry. Me and the guys were drinking way before you showed up at the club. I haven’t done that in a long time. I would’ve come to you yesterday, but I was in bed all day. I’m so embarrassed. I feel like such an asshole.”
    I put my hand on his shoulder and gave a weak smile. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I just left you there.” I breathed a laugh. “I wasn’t feeling too great either.” It was a lie. I would’ve labeled myself drunk that night, sure, but I was sober enough to find my way to Harrison’s room, almost knock on the door, and ultimately spend a good ten minutes agonizing over how to word a two-line note.
    “Let me make it up to you?” he asked, giving me the major bedroom eyes all while wetting his full lips.
    “I don’t know…” As my weak protest sounded, Nate stepped closer and my breath hitched slightly. While he wasn’t my number one choice, he was still hot enough to change the speed of my pulse.
    “Come on. You and me, tonight, my room,” he said. His infectious smile intoxicated me. I chewed my lip as he moved in even closer, bringing his lips to my ear. “A little champagne and then...”
    I pulled back, my hair pressing against the wall behind me, and looked down my nose at him with a little smile. “Only a little champagne,” I warned, jabbing a finger into his chest.
    “Is that a yes?”
    My eyes flicked over his shoulder once more and a breath halted in my lungs. Harrison was walking the path on the opposite side of the courtyard. God, was this resort really that small or was fate just laughing in my face some more? He took one quick glance at me, held in Nate’s grasp with a stupid grin on my face, and turned away as though he hadn’t seen me. I swallowed hard and took in Nate’s patient expression. There was no catch with Nate. He wasn’t a complication the way Harrison was. Nate didn’t know me or anyone else I knew. The thought crossed my mind that I’d never needed to convince myself to hook up with someone I was attracted to before. But I’d already had this internal conversation with myself, the one where I reiterated that Nate was sexy and nice and a stranger in a strange land. Just what I was looking for. Right?
    Nate’s head lowered and he matched my pose, staring me down. I cleared my throat and remembered I had somewhere to be.
    “What the hell. I’m sure I can find my way back to your door,” I said, placing my hands on his chest to move him backward.
    “Me and the guys are having dinner in town, so how about nine o’clock?”
    He almost puked on me and I don’t even get dinner before I get bent over? Interesting.
    “Yeah,” I said hastily. “I’ll be there.”
    He’d barely budged when I pressed my palms against him and as soon as I aimed to shimmy away from him he moved in again. I’d already kissed him in the pool and at the club as we danced and threw back drinks. We’d even had a couple careless frenches in