A Night to Forget (4 page)

I laid back down on my beach towel and gave a long sigh of contentment as I allowed my body to relax. I felt the warm sun caressing my body and the gentle ocean breeze cooling my skin and blowing through my blonde hair. I heard the waves beyond my feet crashing in the distance and the tropical music playing from our beach resort bar. I smelled the warm salty ocean air mixed with hints of sunscreen and tropical flowers.

During the last few days since my breakup with Mike, I thought a lot about what went wrong with our relationship. I realized that our relationship was never about us or me, it was very much about him. Mike was that politician type. Everything he did while president at the Student Body was part of his long-term plan to advance his political career. In fact, after graduation, he wasn’t going to move to San Francisco with me. Instead, he was heading to D.C. to intern for a U.S. congressman. He wanted me to move with him to D.C. and find a job there. Now that I thought back, I was pretty sure he wanted me to be his future trophy wife. That just wasn’t who I was, and I was glad that we broke up now than after we started our new jobs.

I was zoning in and out of sleep now. My mind started drifting to the man in my dreams. His warm brown eyes and deep-set dimples. His toned, sun-kissed abs, and broad shoulders.

I heard a group of girls giggling in the distance and my eyes fluttered opened. I looked down towards the water to check on Gloria. I saw her down near the waves in her green bikini, talking to a guy. She was twirling her long brown hair—the telltale sign that she was bored and disinterested.

As I got up to head towards Gloria, I caught a glimpse of someone from the corner of my eyes. Instinctually, I turned and looked for the person that caught my attention. The glare from the sun momentarily blinded me. After the halos of light
subsided, I gasped. There, about 200 yards away, running towards my direction was none other than the mystery man from my dreams.

I blinked, trying to figure out if I was in a dream.
This can’t be a dream
, I thought to myself.
In my dreams, it was always just him and me, and no one else existed—or mattered.

The sun glistened on his body as he ran. I couldn’t believe that he was real. Real and here in Cancun. Here in Cancun and on this beach with me. Just like my dreams. So it may not have been as romantic as my dreams, with all these people everywhere. But, good God, he looked gorgeous. A surge of sheer happiness washed over me, and I knew it was not due to the daiquiri.

But why was he here?
The thought popped into my head.
And why was he running on this beach?

I was about to walk towards his direction when I heard Gloria’s stressed voice in the distance. “Sorry, I’m not interested.” I heard her say.

Reluctantly, I forced myself attention away from the mystery man and towards my friend. The guy I had seen talking to Gloria had his arms tightly around her and was trying to grab her ass. It was clear even from where I stood that the guy was clearly drunk. I ran towards Gloria as fast as I could.

“Hey! Get off her!” I screamed as I punched and kicked at the guy, trying to get him to release Gloria.

“Jeez blonde, I’m just trying to have some fun,” the guy said as he released Gloria and put up his hands, suggesting he was innocent. “Don’t be jealous, I can make time for you too,” he said as he licked his bottom lip and looked me up and down.

“Fuck off, creep,” I said as I pulled Gloria away from him and led her quickly towards our spot on the beach.

The guy muttered something back, but we were too far away from him to hear what he said.

It wasn’t until we got back to the safety of our spot on the beach that I remembered who I had seen just moments ago. I looked around, searching desperately for another glimpse of him.

But he was gone.

Chapte
r 4

Still reeling over the shock of seeing the man of my dreams earlier today, I spent the rest of the afternoon in a daze. After our encounter with the drunk guy, Gloria and I headed over to the beach party to meet up with
Steph and Jill. It didn’t take long to find them—not with Steph’s height, blonde hair, and hot pink bikini. Plus, her loud personality also helped.

“Emma!
Glo!” Jill screamed when she spotted us. She ran up and hugged us, her body swaying as she hung onto us. Glo and I laughed because we knew Jill was clearly drunk.

“
Ohmygod, we’re having so much fun,” she giggled. “Oh, and guess what? Steph just got us VIP tickets to Saturday night’s booze cruise!” Jill said with excitement.

“What? How did she manage that?” I laughed, not at all surprised by
Steph’s ability to get what she wanted.

“We bumped into the promoter for the booze cruise, and I convinced him that he’d be pretty stupid to not give four hot, single college girls VIP tickets to his event,”
Steph said as she joined the group.

“That’s awesome,” Gloria laughed. “So what do the VIP tickets include?”

“The guy said that the VIP tickets would get us into the VIP pre-party before the booze cruise at Omni hotel, VIP access on the booze cruise, and open bar all night,” Steph said proudly.

“Great job,
Steph. Only you can pull that off,” I laughed.

“I know. I’m pretty amazing, huh?”
Steph said with confidence before we all erupted in laughter.

“Well, let’s have another round of drinks to celebrate,” I said. “Then we’ll need to head back to our hotel and get ready for dinner and—Jill, which club are we going to tonight?” I asked as I turned to Jill.

“Dady’O,” Jill said and let out a hiccup, and then started to giggle uncontrollably.

We all broke out in another fit of laughter as we headed towards the bar.

***

I was still distracted at dinner by the memory of my earth-shattering encounter with the man from my dreams hours before.
Could I have dreamt seeing him? I was dozing off
.

“Emma? Is everything okay?” Jill asked, looking at me concern.

“Yes, of course. Why do you ask?” I realized my response was a little too high-pitched and cheerful.

“Well … you’ve been holding that steak fajita in your hands for a while now and you haven’t taken a bite from it,” Jill said as she eyed the steak fajita in my hands and then back at me, “and you’ve been a little quiet.”

“Sorry guys, I was just distracted because—” I paused and wasn’t sure how to respond. I still hadn’t told the girls about these dreams because he felt like a secret—a secret I’ve kept from them for months. I was also embarrassed to admit that I had been having vivid sex dreams about someone other than Mike, who up until a few days ago, had been my long-term boyfriend. And I wasn’t sure how to tell them that I had just seen this same man from my dreams
in the flesh
today, in Cancun, on the beach right in front of our beach resort. Even I thought that sounded incredibly crazy, and I had seen him myself.

I realized the girls were looking at me expectantly. Finally, I made a decision. I took in a deep breath and began telling them in detail about my dreams, about this gorgeous man with dimples, and about how much I’ve thought about him in my waking hours since he first appeared in my dreams.

“Damn, he sounds hot,” Steph said. “While I’m having nightmares about failing out of law school, you’re having wet dreams about a Greek god. You bitch,” she teased, and we all laughed.

“He does sound amazing,” Jill said dreamily and sighed. “Don’t you wish dreams could be real sometimes?”

“Actually—” I started. The girls immediately all turned to me.

“I—well—I kind of saw him today—”

“What?” the girls shrieked.

“How is that possible?” Gloria asked.

I recounted to them what had happened on the beach as they all stared at me in disbelief.

“Well, that shit’s crazy,”
Steph said as she fell back into her chair. “Your dream man
literally
comes to life. I will say it again, you bitch.”

After another round of laughter died down,
Steph continued, “You know what you need to do, right?”

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“You have to find him and sleep with him, silly,” Steph said.

“That’s definitely a sign from the universe,” Gloria agreed.

“Oh, that’s so exciting, Emma. To meet him in Cancun of all places!” Jill shrieked with excitement.

I laughed. “Come on, guys. I’m not even sure if what I had seen was real. What if I had drifting off and it was all just a dream? I had been drinking too. Besides, even
if he was real, how am I supposed to find him here in Cancun? This place is crawling with people,” I said as I gestured around.

I knew I was right. We were having dinner at an outdoor patio facing the strip and from where we sat, we could see an ocean of people walking in all directions—majority of them looked like they were on their college spring break.

“Well, if it’s meant to be, you’ll see him again,” Jill reassured me. She was the eternal optimist in our group.

“And if you do, don’t forget to sleep with him,”
Steph chimed and winked, which caused us all to laugh again.

***

By the time we arrived at Dady’O, the girls and I already had two rounds of tequila shots as “dessert” after dinner.
If we drank like this back at home, we’d probably be forced to go to one of those rehab facilities for alcoholics
, I thought to myself in amusement.

Dady’O
was a cavernous nightclub with a two-story tall open floor plan. From the center of the ceiling, beams of laser lights of blue, green, pink, and yellow rapidly flashed and swept through the dance floor. As we walked around the nightclub, the rotating dance floors were blasting with a mix of 80s, 90s, and current dance and hip-hop music and we had to push through a sea of hot, sweaty, and drunk bodies to get to one of the bars.

Jill ordered us a round of Blowjobs at the bar, one of her favorite shots. We then ordered some drinks and we headed to the dance floor that was playing 80s pop music. On our way there, a guy our age with a medium build was walking toward our direction. He was average looking and appeared to have a beer belly developing in his mid-section. He was fair-skinned and looked completely sunburned at the moment. He must have been one of those people who, instead of getting tanned, immediately turned from pale to red with any exposure to the sun. What made him stand out was his oversized white t-shirt with a picture of a tanned, six-pack muscular chest on it. As he passed us, he raised his hands up and said, “Hey beautiful ladies, high five if you’re having a fun time!
Woooo! Cancun!” He was obviously drunk, and in our own giddy drunken state, we all giggled and slapped his hand as he passed us.

“Emma, you sure Mr. Muscle Shirt Man there wasn’t the man of your dreams? I mean look at those pecks!”
Steph joked when the guy was out of earshot. We all broke out in laughter.

“Well, Mr. Muscle Shirt Man sure did look
a lot
like him, but my dream guy has dimples,” I joked back and pretended to pout in disappointment.

“Poor guy,” Jill said between giggles. “He’s actually not bad looking, but he needs to use sunscreen because he looks like a lobster—”

“No, what he really needs is a real shirt,” Gloria said.

“Well, what happens in Cancun, stays in Cancun!” I laughed.

“And let’s hope that shirt is one of those things,” Steph added.

When we got on the dance floor, it was jammed packed with hot half-naked bodies. I felt the vibrations from the base in the music pulse through my body, smelled the hints of salt and sweat in the air, and saw the flashes of bright laser lights dancing hypnotically across the dance floor. We quickly got lost in the trance of the music, and for the rest of the night, we laughed and danced with reckless abandonment.

Chap
ter 5

“Today was so much fun,” Gloria exclaimed as she was putting on her makeup.

We all agreed in unison as we got ready for our last night out in Cancun.

“I know you guys don’t always love the extreme sports like I do, but I’m glad Jill had it on the itinerary for me,” Gloria said with a smile. She was right. In our group, Gloria was the outdoors, extreme sports, and adrenaline junkie.

“I still can’t believe you guys convinced me to do that,” I said, thinking back to how crazy the day was.

“You only live once,” Jill said in a giggle.

“I’m glad you didn’t say that right before we zip-lined through the treetops of the jungle,” Steph teased sarcastically, and we laughed.

I agreed. I’m glad I wasn’t reminded of my mortality earlier today. We had gone on an extreme zip-line canopy tour of the Cancun jungle. It was the largest zip-line course in North America, and involved 12 zip-lines that were about two miles long. It was an exhilarating, but terrifying experience zipping from tree to tree.

“I can’t believe you zip-lined upside down for parts of it,” I said, looking at Gloria.

She laughed, “They said it was safe, and it was so worth it! You guys really should have tried it.”