by Rue Chapman
"I need a man. Desperately."
Dylan stared at the well-filled emerald green bikini in his doorway. This was the fantasy he'd cherished ever since he was fourteen. Dreams do come to life, apparently.
"Please, I want you, right now. I have to have a man right away."
It was a very attractive bikini, attached to an hourglass figure. Dylan reluctantly forced his gaze to move up a little, scanning eyes that almost matched the green of those lovely triangles of fabric, a cute little nose and pointed chin, full lips, and chestnut coloured hair (a previous girlfriend had objected to his description of 'orangey-brown' and trained him in hair colour recognition).
"Please? Now? It's urgent."
Just after he arrived last night he'd heard someone moving into the holiday unit next to his, and hoped they'd be fun neighbours for the next two weeks. Looked like he was going to be having a whole lot more fun than he expected.
"Uh, sure, ok..."
She spun around and bounced down the path. He followed in a happy libidinous haze, enjoying the rear view immensely. Her slender waist flared out into rounded hips, and that tiny bikini was working hard to stay in control of a lovely full bottom. Luckily it was failing in the task, and two smooth cheeks peeped out from under the valiant little piece of fabric. Above that, her hair fell in rippling curls down to her waist. He looked at the cheeky view again... this day just kept getting better and better.
The entry to her unit was around the corner of the building. He followed the bouncing bottom around the turn then collided with her - she'd stopped short. Reluctantly he stepped back, hoping for a whole lot more collisions in the near future - the feel of her soft roundness against him was better than any fantasy he could imagine.
"There." She was pointing at a small white car.
Hmmm... back seat of the car? A traditional location, but not nearly as comfortable as indoors. Maybe that was a sign that he was getting old. At fourteen he'd have been in that car in under a second. At thirty he wanted someplace more comfortable, and private.
"Maybe you could come back to my place? It's cooler there."
"No, I want to stay here while you do it. I need to know it's done properly."
Somewhere deep in the last logically-functioning part of his brain, Dylan started to wonder if they were on the same track.
"In the car?"
"Yes. Go on, do it."
That horribly logical voice was getting stronger. He had an uneasy suspicion that they weren't thinking about the same thing at all.
"Um.... do what exactly?"
She handed him the car keys and pointed to the rear of the car. "Open the boot."
She couldn't use a key for herself? He shrugged, women were a law unto themselves. As long as they wore bikinis, it didn't matter how illogical or inept they were, it was worth it for the view. He put the key in the lock, twisted it and opened the boot. "There."
She leapt back and started pointing. "Do it! There it is, do it now."
He was way too tall to ever consider the boot of a car as an appropriate location for anything he'd ever fantasised about. He shook his head at her. "From here on in you're on your own, sweetie."
"NO! You're a man, go on and do it."
"Uh...." And then he looked where she was pointing. On the rear wing of the car, where the boot lid had covered it, was a large dark shape. "You mean... that spider?"
"YES! Kill it, now. Go on, you're a man. Kill."
Dylan shut his eyes for a moment as his fantasy shattered around him. "You need a man to kill a spider."
"Of course. Go. Kill. Do man stuff at it."
Dylan surveyed his prey. Both of them. He'd give her 'man stuff' alright. But first he had a spider to kill. "Fine. Give me something."
"What?"
"To kill it. Do you have a stick, or something?" He looked at the spider again. It wasn't deadly, but it really was the largest wolf spider he'd ever seen.
She ran into the house - giving him a rather attractive view and stirring those fantasies all over again - and returned with a broom and a can of bug spray. "Here. Now kill."
The next few minutes involved a lot of noise, sweat and banging, which also described his fantasy, but differed in a few major details. Finally the dead body lay on the ground and Bikini-girl stared at it from a safe distance. "Is it really dead?"
"It's in five separate pieces and a large smear. I don't think it's a danger any more. It wasn't deadly, anyway."
She glared at him. "It was a spider."
"Well, it's an ex-spider now. Your car is safe."
"Safe? It's home to a colony of those evil things. I'm never getting in that car again."
"A colony?"
"If there's one, there's more. Colony. Infested. Maybe I should burn it. That'll teach them." She looked at the car as if she was calculating how well it'd burn.
"Mattie, are you still rabbiting on about that little spider? I'll fix it after breakfast." A tall blonde wandered out of their unit. She had a piece of toast in one hand, a cup of tea in the other, and the briefest gold bikini Dylan had ever seen. His imagination started regrouping. Fantasy lives again. The blonde smiled at him. "Hi, I'm Melinda, but everyone calls me Mindi. The arachnophobe is Matilda. Mattie to anyone who doesn't fancy serious bodily injury. And you're the fearless spider killer?"
"Dylan. I'm from next door."
She smiled dreamily at him. "You're very kind to help out. She's a bit highly focussed on some topics. Not a big fan of bugs."
"I don't mind bugs, so long as they don't have eight legs," Mattie glared at both of them. "And I'm never getting in that car again."
Mindi laughed. "Fine, you can walk to the beach. Come and have breakfast first."
"We can't go to the beach. The beach bag is in the car. It's probably infested." Mattie stomped after the other two, sighing. Typical. Like every other cute guy she'd ever known, he took one look at Mindi and he was gone.
Dylan munched toast and drank orange juice and watched two very cute bikinis. This was going to be a great holiday. By the time they'd finished breakfast, plans had been made to hit the beach together. Mattie glared at them both. "I'm not getting in that car."
Mindi sighed. "You have to. It'll be fine, I promise."
"Why can't we go in his car?" She pointed at Dylan.
Dylan frowned at her. "He rode his bike down here. And He doesn't have a spare helmet. And He hasn't offered to take you."
Mattie looked stricken for a moment, her eyes filling with tears, then she stood up. "Fine. I'll go get my stuff." She ran into the bedroom.
Dylan looked at Mindi. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to sound so... I didn't mean to upset her."
"It's ok. She really is terrified of spiders, so she's a bit shaky right now. She'll be fine in a few minutes." Mindi smiled at him again, a sweet, dreamy smile that seemed to suggest a whole lot more.
Dylan stood up. "I'll go and get my stuff ready. Meet you out front in five minutes."
Thirty-five minutes later the car stopped out the front to collect Dylan. Once again he realised that girl-time and reality didn't really connect.
Mindi was driving, with Mattie huddled in the back seat. It wasn't possible to see her expression with those dark sunglasses on. Dylan sat beside Mindi in the front. He noticed a strong odour of bug spray, but decided not to comment on it. "Which beach are we going to?"
"I thought we'd try Plantation, it's such a nice open beach. Or Hyams or Greenpatch if you want more surf."
"Plantation will be fine."
The beach was perfect, an endless stretch of clean white sand. The water was a jewel-bright turquoise from a distance, clear as glass once you were in it. The waves weren't very high, but it was fun to just bob around in the water and get to know his new neighbours. They were cousins, enjoying a break from work after the Christmas madness.
Dylan left them for a while, he wanted to swim out further, and put in a few laps of the beach to work out the stiffness from three hours on the bike - it was a long ride from Sydney.
Mindi and Mattie floated in the crystal-clear water, watching a few small fish darting past.
"So." Mindi looked at her cousin.
"You two make a lovely couple, him dark and you fair. Perfect."
"You saw him first."
"But you're the one he noticed. I need to go get more sunscreen."
Mindi watched her cousin leave the water, then glanced towards the dark head bobbing further out to sea. Dylan finished his swim and headed for the spot where they'd established their base camp. Dylan had a beach towel. The girls had huge beach bags bulging with hats, beach mats, sunscreen, insect repellent, water bottles, chips, biscuits, a collapsible beach shelter, sarongs, makeup bags, purses, books, magazines, rash shirts, beach shirts, mobile phones, iPods and goodness knew what else. Being a girl is a lot of work.
Mindi was stretched out on the sand sunbaking. It was a lovely sight - a bikini is one of those outfits that looks just as good from the back as it does from the front, on the right person. Mattie was under the sun shelter. She watched as Dylan rolled his towel out on the sand and lay down.
Mindi stood up. "I was just going back in for a quick dip, the water's so perfect."
"I'll be with you in a few minutes, I'm just taking a breather." Dylan watched the gold bikini wiggle down the sand towards the water. It was doing a darn fine job of holding on to her golden-tanned skin. In fact, from a distance, if you squinted your eyes just right, she could almost be wearing nothing at all.
After a few moments Dylan stopped squinting and lay down on the sand.
"She's a really nice person." Mattie's voice cut through his happy imaginings.
"Yes, she is."
Mattie sighed, Mindi was nice, that was the trouble. Matilda and Melinda, cousins the same age, with mothers who often thought it was cute dressing them the same. Tall, slender Mindi who'd been blonde from the moment she was old enough to open a bottle of peroxide. And Mattie - short, red-haired, stumpy and sturdy and always in her cousin's shadow. Mindi sailed through life, everything went perfectly for her. Mattie was accident prone, spider-phobic, with a talent for embarrassing predicaments and a fire-cracker temper. She rocketed from one disaster to the next. And Mindi didn't even have the common decency to be a cold-hearted harpy, she was sweet and lovely and good at everything, and she was so nice you couldn't even hate her. It just wasn't fair.
Well, Mattie knew the role she had to play. She forced a smile. "And she's gorgeous, too."
"I did happen to notice."
"She's a model, did you realise that?"
"That'd be a good job. Not too stressful, and plenty of excitement."
"Actually it's hard work, the hours can be rotten, and she has to put up with a lot of creeps who think she's a dumb blonde who's easy to talk into anything. But it's a good stepping stone."
"To what?"
"She's got it all planned - in five years she'll retire from modelling."
Dylan smiled, another 'model' with big plans. She probably posed for a few underwear ads, or something. Then she'd float around on the edges of the A list, and catch a rich husband.
Mattie smiled when she thought about Mindi's plans. When the holiday was over Mindi would be introduced as the new 'face' for a big cosmetics company. And with the money from that - which she'd negotiated herself with razor-sharp ruthlessness, she'd start her own management company. That was the other thing about Mindi. Under the sweet, soft - and quite genuine - smiles, was a business brain that worked with a ruthless efficiency that had reduced several self-satisfied young executives to tears during contract negotiations.
Sweet, smart, gorgeous and nice. Darn it. Mattie kept the smile pinned on. "She's great fun, and a wonderful person."
"Good."
"She's smart too."
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