Hey, everyone. Thanks for clicking! I’m gonna try something a bit different here…
You see, I caught a bit of a writing bug (understatement), and spent quite a bit of time setting the scene and developing the characters. If that’s not what you’re here to read, then skip to the next post. That’s where the bondage begins!
Everyone else, enjoy Part #1!
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“What do you mean you lost our clothes?!”
Carla’s shout was loud enough to catch the attention of quite a few tourists in the lobby. Quite a few too many. Erin was more than a little embarrassed, but frankly, her friend had every right to be that angry. They were barely ten minutes into their vacation, and already, things had gone off the rails.
The teller stammered as he tried to deescalate the situation. “W-we have transportation issues from time to time. These things are bound to happen. But rest assured, we always manage to track down lost luggage.”
“Well how long will that take?,” Carla demanded. Her hostile tone only drew more stammering from the little man.
“Oh, um… All I can say, is that we will be working around the clock to retrieve your luggage, ASAP.”
Carla drew in a long breath, and Erin could tell that she was far from satisfied. She may have been every bit as upset as her old friend, but unlike Carla, Erin was uncomfortable with making a scene. She decided that it was time to step in.
“Is there any way you can compensate us for this?”
All fell silent for several seconds before the teller snapped back into action. “I can talk to management about upgrading your memberships here.”
“Excellent,” Erin beamed, not bothering to press for details. “Can we get the cards to our room now?”
“Absolutely!” The short Bahaman man behind the counter smiled and nodded. He was every bit as eager as Erin to get this over with. “Our sincerest apologies once again. Enjoy your stay at the resort!”
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“I mean, how did they even manage that?! It’s not a long trip from the airport to here!”
Erin had made the right call to intervene. They had walked halfway across the resort, and Carla still hadn’t stopped venting.
“Oh, cheer up,” Erin said. “We’ll get our clothes back. That’s temporary. But upgraded memberships are for the entire vacation!”
She decided to press on before Carla could sulk any further. “And we’ll finally have a break from our stupid jobs! I won’t have to deal with patients pissing themselves, and you won’t have to worry about your kindergarteners pissing themselves either.”
She was going to go on, but Carla jutted in with an unexpected grin. “Uh, Erin, what do you think people do while they swim in the ocean?”
Erin gazed back in puzzlement for a moment before raising her eyebrows and coughing up a curt mixture of ‘oh’ and ‘uck’. That got Carla cackling right away, and Erin quickly joined in. Partway through their long bout of sidesplitting laughter, Erin managed to say “Th-there’s no getting away from it!”
Their guffaws reached a point where Erin was laughing at Carla’s laughter, and she feared that Carla was doing the same. Erin knew from a lifetime of friendship with Carla that that would create a vicious cycle of giggles that would only end after they had hurt themselves and made a whole different kind of scene.
Unexpectedly, Carla’s laughs were abruptly cut off by a short gasp. By her expression, she had seen something that had completely taken her mind elsewhere. “Oh my gawd,” she whispered. “Don’t look now but--”
Erin looked immediately.
Just as Carla had done, Erin shut up instantly. Yet her mouth remained open in a smiling, gasping gawk. Her eyes were now fixated on a group of shirtless beachgoers in the middle of a volleyball game. Carla had never pointed out what (or who) had caught her eye, but Erin already knew with near certainty that her friend had seen the hunk wearing his cap backwards.
From under the cap’s rim, locks of shining brown hair escaped onto the man’s forehead, almost like the bangs that one only ever saw in the two-dimensional world of fiction; and that alone got Erin feeling some type of way. The locks waved across the man’s somewhat round, clean-shaven face as he ran across the court. His face bore the look of a handsome dumpling, but his body bore the image of a toned beast, and he was somehow able to rock both looks at the same time.
He was in the middle of a dive, trying to deny the volleyball its date with gravity. He succeeded, and sent it flying off of his right forearm. His teammates, a pair of hairy dad-bods, juggled the ball into their control before setting it back his way. Already back on his feet, he bounded up towards the sky and smashed the ball over the net. The opposition had seen this coming and tried to block, but he spiked with enough force to drive the ball right through the defender’s arms and into the sand beyond.
“Wooo!” Carla let out a shrill cheer, apparently already in full fangirl mode.
Erin felt herself shrivel up in embarrassment, she spun around and growled under her breath, “OMG, shut up!”
She turned back to see that Carla’s squeal had indeed caught the ear of the breathtaking spiker, who was looking right at them. Erin straightened herself up in a desperate attempt to salvage her image to this stranger. She forced her smile down as much as she could and made a little wave. The stranger didn’t wave back, but he did throw a shining grin their way before returning to the game.
Erin felt herself swooning over the sight, and without rhyme or reason, she knew that his smile was meant entirely for her.
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Twelve minutes later, Erin and Carla were in their hotel room. One might have expected the two tourist gals to run their eyes over the luxurious accommodations they had gained by a complete accident, and soak it all in, but the instant they were in the privacy of their own room, Carla raised the new hot topic.
“Did you see the way that guy looked at us?!”
Erin smiled. “Gawd, what a cutie!”
“Cutie?! That was the snack of all snacks!” Carla exclaimed.
Carla’s arms dropped and she let out a long, agonized groan. “UUUGGH! I packed like three outfits for just this situation, and they’re all lost now! All I’ve got are these wrinkled, smelly, airport clothes!”
A lightbulb lit up in Erin’s head, and she fought hard not to let it show. “It’s not that bad. Anyways, hang in there. Now you’ve got time to rehearse your moves before you make them.”
As she spoke, she rolled her only remaining suitcase over to the farthest bed, which was now unofficially hers. She unlocked it, and revealed its contents: scarves, pantyhose, and miles of duct tape. And that was only the stuff on the surface. Ever since they were young girls, tie up games had brought countless hours of fun into Erin’s life, and Carla was her number one playmate right from the start. At every chapter of their lives, they had found time to indulge in restraint, and they intended for this vacation to be no exception. Erin had been quite excited to be bound and gagged in the Bahamas, and she still was, but that wasn’t what she was after at the moment.
Erin was in the same boat as Carla, but she had decided to pack some extra clothes at the last second. Being worried about overweight luggage, her afterthought attire had been thrown in with the tie up gear. After rummaging around as discreetly as humanly possible, she found what she was after: a black two-piece swimsuit set that was not shy at all with the cleavage.
It wasn’t her all-time favourite, but she liked it well enough, and trusted that it would get the job done. And fortunately, her carry-on bag had all the beauty products she needed to complete the look. She slid the clothes into her purse, grabbed her carry-on, and moseyed on over to the marble-floored bathroom.
The vanity countertop was also marble, and the sink was decorated with lovely golden handles, but that was about all Erin noticed before her eyes shot to the mirror. She dropped her bag beside the sink, disrobed, and got straight to work. She fixed her eyes and her blush, adding some of her favorite pink lip gloss to boot. She transformed her tight ponytail into a wavy work of art, and by the time she was finished, she was super proud of her new glow up.
Erin pressed her ear to the door to try and hear if Carla was nearby. She heard nothing, creeped her way out the door, and discovered that she was really just bad at hearing things.
Erin practically ran right into Carla, who was waiting patiently outside the bathroom. Realizing that the bathroom was now free, Carla looked up from her phone. Her eyes widened in shock, scanning Erin up and down before narrowing into an accusing glare.
“You sneaky bitch,” Carla exclaimed. “You had a change of clothes and you didn’t tell me?!”
Erin decided that playing dumb was the way to go. She shrugged and said, “It’s my clothing, so why would you need to know?”
The façade was a decent effort, but Carla saw right through it. “Because we’re the same size, and you know it! You’re trying to go behind my back and talk to that guy!”
“…Maybe,” Erin squeaked through smiling teeth before bolting out of the room. Carla was wearing heels, and so there was never a better time to run.
Erin’s bare feet padded down the hallway towards the elevator. She was quite relieved to not hear any pursuing footsteps. Instead, all she heard was the shrieks of her old friend, growing more and more distant!
“Get back here, you jerk! You always pull this shit with me! ERIN!”
Erin shot into the elevator, and relief swept over her. Carla wouldn’t be able to catch up to her now, and what could she even do once Erin was outside? Nothing that the security guards wouldn’t take issue with. That was for sure.
Erin made her way to the volleyball court where she had seen the man, swaying her hips like a queen as she made her way. But the closer she got to the net, the more her catwalk ran out of steam. He wasn’t there. In fact, the court had completely filled up with new faces. None of them in the same league as the one she was after.
Erin cursed under her breath, and moved on. He couldn’t have gone far, surely. She scanned the semi-crowded beach, now immersed in a game of ‘Where’s Sexy Waldo?’. But even after walking up and down the beach twice, she couldn’t see her sexy Waldo. She tried the buffets and the pools, but had no better luck there either.
Before she knew it, Erin had practically taken a full tour of the resort. A very uninformative tour, since her focus had been the resort’s occupants. Having worked so hard with absolutely nothing to show for it, she gave up and sat on the nearest bench. Her poor feet were sore down to the bone.
At this point, the only places she hadn’t checked out were the places she (rather ironically) wasn’t appropriately dressed for. Places like the casino, or the gym. Feeling utterly defeated, Erin hung her head and began massaging her feet.
The sharp ‘ping’ next to her practically jolted her out of her seat. A pinch of embarrassment came over Erin as she realized that that was just a Snapchat notification. Probably Carla opting to chew Erin out over the phone rather than wait for her to return.
Erin pulled her phone from her bag, and raised an eyebrow. It was a friend request. Both eyebrows went up when she saw the profile pic. It was him! The hottie from earlier!
A mixed flood of excitement and confusion swirled around in Erin’s head. Why was he sending her a friend request? How had he even gotten her account information? Where did he want this to go? How should she respond?! In the end, it was the excitement that won over the confusion. What mattered was that she was seeing that amazing smile again in 1080p, and if she played her cards right, she could see it again in person…
She hit ‘Accept’, and began dancing her fingertips across the keyboard. The fun had begun…
Just wanted to get to know you is all
I got a friend thats real good at finding people like that.
and you have a pretty memorable face.
What are you up to right now?
Just working on my tan. Kinda bored tbh…
Their small talk went back and forth three more times before Erin got another bright idea. She opened up the Snap Map, and sure enough, tucked away in the upper right corner, there stood a little cartoon version of her crush.
The first thing Erin noticed was just how far away he was. He was practically off of the resort, on the coast somewhere. Just how much did this guy hate noise that he would wander so far out just to tan? The second thing she noticed was that even his cartoon version looked hot as hell.
She was already on her feet when she typed her next message: ‘I’ve been out exploring for a bit. This beach is so lovely.’
But her eyes weren’t on the beach. They were on the map. He was exponentially slower to respond than she was, so she would probably only get three more texts from him before her ‘exploration’ brought her straight to this secluded little edge of the beach. Then this conversation could move from digital to verbal, before hopefully moving elsewhere.
Erin didn’t notice the pain in her soles this time. She was busy looking at the map and rehearsing her future conversations. By the distance between his icon and her arrow, she still had nearly a hundred meters to walk, but she already couldn’t hear or see one soul. Frankly, she was more than okay with that. Bystanders didn’t fit in well with her plans anyway.
Erin’s heart rate soared as the icons drew closer. He was right around this next bend! She knew it! She tucked her phone away, drew a deep breath, and completed the last stretch of her journey.
Her heart pounded just the same, but her emotions shifted drastically as she turned around the rocky bend. This newest stretch of coast was just as desolate as the last hundred meters had been. It was significantly rockier, with some dense bushes inland, and the only sign of other people, was a pink and yellow parasol planted vertically in what little sand there was.
At the base of the parasol, Erin saw a peculiar item. A gray plastic bag, rustling in the beach’s gentle breeze. Through its shifting creases, Erin could see the outline of a solid object. Her confusion morphed to curiosity, and she walked over to the bag.
Facing the pole as she knelt down and spread the bag open, Erin peered in and frowned. There was a smartphone in there with an awfully familiar case. Erin’s eyes recognized it at once, but her brain couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. She pulled out the phone to examine it more closely, and in doing so, Erin confirmed what her eyes had told her. This was Carla’s phone! But what was--
Cliiick
Erin flinched as her left wrist was slapped by a fuzzy band that promptly encircled it. Her eyes shot up in time to see Carla slap the other end of her furry handcuffs around the parasol’s stem.
Erin’s tongue caught in her mouth and she pulled back her hand, only to find that the umbrella was firmly planted in the sand. Her gaze shot upward and her eyes were met with Carla’s smug stare. She had fixed her hair and done her makeup much like Erin had, and that only added to the triumphant aura she was emitting.
“C-Carla,” Erin stammered. “Wh-wha-- How di--”
“Oh, Erin,” Carla said with a pitying tone. “You know I love you, but you’ve really got to stop being so gullible…”