Free A Summer Dream by Bianca Vix Page A

strictly for the eye candy. There’ll be lots of it, and we won’t get hassled. Don’t you think this view is worth it?”
    Lillah scanned over the bodies dotting the sand. Kat was right. It was like a model bomb had dropped, leaving hot bodies everywhere.
    “There’s a spot,” Kat said, hurrying over to a tiny sliver of sand Lillah hadn’t even noticed.
    Spreading their brightly-colored beach towels out to stake their claim, they dropped their bags.  
    Kat gazed at the men surrounding them.  
    “The eye candy’s out in full force today,” she said, her voice at its full, booming volume.  
    “Kat,” Lillah said, barely putting any effort into her half-hearted reprimand. She was used to her friend not caring who overheard her, but Lillah felt compelled to try and tone her down sometimes.
    A guy on the next towel over looked up when he heard her. Kat waved at him, a huge grin on her face.
    Kicking her sandals off, Lillah tucked her legs underneath her, taking a good look around for the first time. They were surrounded by handsome, super-sculpted male bodies of all sorts. A shiver of excitement ran through her.
    Just about all of the men were totally absorbed in checking each other out, blatantly accepting and rejecting invitations without a word exchanged between them.
    “Yeah. The gay beach is a great place to meet men,” Lillah murmured.  
    “It’s not about finding a guy here. I’m trying to inspire you. You need to get out there, for real now. The time for meeting half-assed guys online and going on a couple of half-assed dates with them every now and then is over.”
    Kat was right. As usual. The last man she had gone out with spent most of the evening talking about his ex, even though he claimed he had been divorced for five years already.  
    “How do you meet men now if not online?” she pointed out to Kat. “Besides, that’s how my cousin met her husband.”
    Kat turned over onto her stomach, wriggling her body around to get comfortable.  
    “The last thing you need right now is another husband. Why not just have a hot summer fling? When was the last time you had great sex? Did anything happen with Mr. Venture Capitalist?”
    “Nah,” Lillah shrugged. The man she had gone out with before the divorced guy had been promising. Really romantic at the beginning. On paper, he looked great: attractive, great job, nice car. But she hadn’t felt any chemistry with him. Since he hadn’t called her since their second date, she could only assume he felt the same way.  
    At least their one kiss had broken her streak of not having a man touch her for longer than she cared to admit. During their last year of marriage, Richard wasn’t exactly setting the bedroom on fire. He got into the habit of going to bed ridiculously early, even though he didn’t need to, and falling asleep before she joined him.  
    Every time she tried to initiate sex, he brushed her off. “What’s the rush? We have the rest of our lives to do that,” he started saying towards the end, right before she realized that spending the rest of her life with him was the last thing she wanted to do.
    What life? Lillah had wanted to ask him. All you ever do sit in front of the computer. They used to go out most nights, always eager to try a new restaurant, a new show, a new bar. Now he couldn’t even be persuaded to go out for dinner once a month.
    Kat had encouraged Lillah to leave him, but it took her a long time to work up her nerve. Embarrassingly long, to have wasted so much time with a man who didn’t really seem to notice if she was there with him or not.
    “You’re free now,” Kat continued, once again rescuing her from her thoughts of Richard. “It’s time to start living again.”
    Easy for her to say. Kat was great at being single. She dated when she liked and enjoyed herself no matter who she was with. Lillah envied her uncanny ability to see right past first impressions and determine whether or not someone was a jerk