miss out on all this.
Hours later, after we dined at one of the many restaurants they have to offer, we are dressed up in our sexiest outfits ready to check out the on-site dance club...or as they call it, the Disco.
It’s small and holds just one bar but the music is lively. Since I’ve had a few drinks I am ready to dance and have a good time. Noelle and I start towards the dance floor, fresh drinks in hand, pushing our way past the many couples. Staying at an all-inclusive resort means lots of newlyweds and not a lot of single men, but we don’t care. We just want to enjoy the time away from our stresses.
They play a lot of songs that I hear back home and when Usher’s Yeah comes on I find my rhythm and close my eyes, enjoying the beat. Large hands grasp my hips and I have a flashback of Walker. Thinking back to our encounter on the dance floor, I am turned on and hoping to find his emerald eyes staring back at me when I open mine. I’m instantly disappointed. To say he is older would be an understatement. With white hair, blue eyes and large framed glasses, he is probably sixty five or seventy. A denture smile breaks out across his face, and I try my hardest not to laugh. Not wanting to be rude I oblige him with a dance, but once the song is over, I excuse myself to the bathroom and take off towards the bar, desperate for another drink.
A hysterically laughing Noelle beats me there, ordering for both of us. “Did you have fun, Er?”
“Stop it. He was sweet and think of it this way: he can go tell all his friends at the senior home that he danced with a hot piece of ass!” I giggle but bend at the waist as a sharp pain invades my stomach. “Noe, I think we should go. I don’t feel so good.”
“Oh, come on, Erin. He won’t bother you again. You don’t have to make an excuse to leave.”
Another sharp pain hits me and I take off towards the door and practically run to our room with Noelle right behind me. I make it to the bathroom just in time to empty the contents of my stomach into the toilet.
“Jesus Christ, Erin! Are you okay?” Noelle asks with concern in her voice.
“I’m gonna die!” I say between dry heaves. “I shouldn’t have eaten that shrimp. I knew it looked sketchy.”
It’s only been twelve hours on our trip and my body decides to reject the first and only solid thing I have eaten. My stomach tightens and with only the lining left to puke up, I start crying.
“Oh, baby. It’s okay. It’ll be over soon,” Noelle soothes. “It’s probably just food poisoning. Let me help you into the shower.” She tries to comfort me by rubbing my back and pulling my hair to the side.
I allow her to help me up and strip me down the moment I feel the nausea has passed, and she throws me into a hot shower as she sits on the edge of the sink. The steam helps me to breathe right again, and I drop my head so that the water cascades down my back. It feels heavenly on my body after just going through thirty minutes of hell.
“You okay in there?” She asks and I grunt a yes. “Good. I know you hate throwing up. Just imagine when you finally meet prince charming and get pregnant. My cousin had morning sickness throughout her entire pregnancy. She couldn’t eat a damn thing.”
As her words seep into my foggy brain, I snap my head up trying to do the math. Come on Erin, you’re a math teacher for Christ’s sake . Hastily I jump out of the shower to go locate my phone inside my purse. What feels like arctic temperatures meet my heated body on the other side of the bathroom door.
“What the hell are you doing?” Noelle’s shocked voice yells at my bare form racing past her.
My mind is whirling at the thought that I messed up. It can’t be. It’s just not possible. Putting in my security code and tapping on the app, one look at my phone’s calendar tells me it is. Drops of water drip from my hair and fall onto my phone as reality comes crashing down. They begin to mingle with my tears