Sunset Glow 3
Chapter 3: Beach Hotties are Yummy
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The next day, Toxic Valentine’s van pulled over in front of Azure Mansion Hotel, a large villa-type house with a typical Greek architecture. It had cream colored concrete walls and azure/blue-framed casement windows. Athens was outside the hotel, at the bottom of the staircase leading to the lobby of the hotel. She was in a sky blue sundress with hot pink high-heeled espadrilles and a matching pink beach bag.
Riley got out of the car and jogged towards Athens’s direction.
“I’m going to get one of those.” Jack ogled through the van’s tinted windows.
“One of what?” Adrienne asked.
“Those!” Jack pointed at Athens.
“What are they, toys?” Zane said in a self-righteous voice.
“Duh.” Jack proclaimed. “Maybe she has a sister or something.” He talked to himself.
Riley dragged Athens by the hand to the car. “Hello.” Athens greeted once she was settled down inside the car beside Riley and the only girl in the van aside from her. She gave a hesitant smile. She had to admit, she was nervous. She was meeting Riley’s friends. These are important people in their lives, people that have an impact an influence to him. What if they don’t like her? What if they don’t approve of her? What if they thought that Riley was capable of someone better? What if that was true and they help Riley realize it as well?
“Hey.” Zane said in a friendly manner.
“What’s up?” Jack mouthed while Adrienne gave a quick wave.
“This is Athens. Athens, meet Adrienne,” Riley introduced to her a handsome guy with longish dirty blond hair in a beanie. “This one here is Jack.” Riley pointed to the skinny guy next to Adrienne. He had the same haircut as Adrienne but a bit shorter and it was black. Zane was the third one Athens met. He had curly blond sex hair and he had a well built buff body. He was hot, sure, but he wasn’t her type. He was more of her sister’s type.
Athens also got acquainted with the rest of the crew in the van; Matt, Charles, Alex, Danny, Evan, Jeff, and Vince. Athens found out that the giddy petite girl with short blonde hair that sat beside Athens was named Trista and she was an assistant.
The van was so noisy and chaotic inside but that was the reason why every single passenger there was having fun. Not to mention, the unusually hairy Greek driver who couldn’t understand English was enjoying himself too. Everyone (mostly Adrienne, Jack, and Vince) threw a lot of random jokes in between casual conversations. They made no sense at all but everyone laughed anyways maybe because of the delightful atmosphere. Even Athens felt very welcomed because of the casual ambience. She easily gained new friends, forming a special girly bond with Trista.
The van stopped and parked at a car lot. Everyone scurried to the exit trying to beat each other but Jack shouted to stop them, “We have to let the lady first!”
Everyone looked at him in amazement, surprised at his uncommon gentlemanliness. After recovering from the shock, everyone laughed figuring out that Jack must be kidding; after all, he couldn’t be an honest-to-God gentleman. It’s just not part of being Jack.
“Whatever, Jack.” Zane piped in.
“Finally! You’ve started to show respect to a lady like me!” Trista said standing up from her seat, getting ready to unload the car.
“No. You don’t count. You’re barely a lady. I was talking about Greece, here.” Jack spoke to Trista. Adrienne nicknamed Athens, Greece, for she had Greece’s capital as a name and Jack too started calling Athens by it. At first, it sounded like the film, Grease, with John Travolta so Athens snickered and Adrienne had to explain that he was pertaining to the country.
Athens jumped down from the van. The ground was sandy. They’ve arrived at a beach in Voula, a town in the southern part of Athens. The sun was bright and it was a beautiful day with clouds filling the blue sky. Thousands of tents and beach umbrellas were erected along the shore. A lot of bars and business establishments were lined behind the sunbathing tourists scattered along the beach. Athens and Riley sat at the beach beds owned by a hotel. They were enjoying their time alone while the band was having breakfast at the restaurant inside the said hotel.
“This is just peachy.” Athens sighed contentedly.
“You know what would make it better?”
“It could get better?”
“Yeah. I’ll get us drinks.” Riley suggested.
“Oh! I want something super cold and has a high sugar content.” Athens said smirking.
“I’ll be right back.” Riley announced.
After a few minutes of being alone, a volleyball hit her head and created a crack at the lens of her aviator sunglasses. “Ouch.” She murmured as she took them off and inspected them.
“I’m sorry.” A hunky voice apologized. She looked up and saw a blonde macho German in surf shorts with a beach tan. She wasn’t certain if he was German but his square jaw line, thick eyebrows, gray eyes, and buff body looked typically German. Besides, his accent was slightly German but it wasn’t that noticeable for his English was almost perfect. “Are you okay?”
He took the ball from her and purposely brushed his hand to hers as he smiled seductively. Athens gave him a feigned smile. She was starting to get irked because he was coming on to strong.
“I’m Brett.” He extended his hand.
“Athens.” She shook his hand for half a second then pulled away.
“Pleasure to meet you, Athens. I’m really sorry.” He apologized and started walking away then turned back around. “Hey, I’ll win this game for you.”
She didn’t know how to react to his audaciousness so she didn’t. He ran back to the court where he was playing beach volleyball and huddled with his equally handsome teammates. Then, all his teammates looked at her as if Brett was pointing her to them. She smiled awkwardly and gave them a small wave. They then went back to the game, conscious of Athens watching them.
Riley came back with a tall glass of Greek frappe and a bottle of beer. Athens’ Greek frappe was topped with a tall mountain of whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate syrup. For a quick second during the game, Brett beckoned Athens and she gave yet another uneasy smile. Riley looked suspiciously at Brett then at Athens and back to Brett. She noticed the look in Riley’s face and she was flattered and at the same time, amused.
“He’s a gentleman.” Athens bantered enjoying Riley’s scorn towards Brett.
“I won’t know. I wasn’t here.” He said a little bit annoyed.
In a few minutes, the game was finished and Brett ran towards Athens victoriously. “That win was for you, Miss.”
“Thank you, sir.” Athens grinned and made a slight bow. There was an immediate change of her attitude towards Brett.
“There will be a beach party tomorrow night, right here. Would you like to come?” Brett invited. Riley looked at Athens expecting that she’d say no and tell him that she’s dating him. The nerve of this guy asking Athens out with him around.
“I would love to!” Athens said excitedly. It was a party and it was beside a beach. She was game for parties and beaches and if they were fused together, what could be more fun than that? But that still didn’t change the fact that she hated how Brett came on to strong but maybe, she could forget about that and just focus on the party.
“Great!” Brett said. Riley’s eyebrows rose and his eyes widened.
“But I already have a date.” Athens said grabbing Riley’s hand and squeezing it. ‘Oh, good. For a second there, I thought she had actually forgotten about me by how they are not acknowledging my presence.’ Riley thought.
“Great! Better!” Brett said masking his disappointment. He was pretty good at covering his feelings. He turned to Riley. “I’m Brett, by the ways.”
“Riley.” He answered.
“Yeah, okay. So, why don’t you ask my sister out?” Athens said after the boys shook hands.
Brett looked at Athens. “Cool. Is she here?”
“No but she’ll be there and I’ll introduce you both. I swear you’ll like her.”
“I’m going to have to trust you on that. And I will see both of you,” He said as he smiled at Riley and then went back to looking at Athens, “and your sister tomorrow.” He left the two and quickly disappeared amongst the equally attractive and tan tourists.
“So, my sister’s arriving tomorrow, will you come with me to fetch her?” Athens turned her head to Riley’s direction.
“When tomorrow?” He wanted to know.
“Afternoon.” She said matter-of-factly.
“Sure. I’ll meet you at Azure.” He grinned. He noticed that she was still holding his hand. His grin became larger. He didn’t want to let go.
“Alright!” She said cheerfully.
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