"I don't care if she ever comes back." "Sure you do."
"Stop saying sure I do. You don't know what I
want. None of you know or care."
"I care," he insisted. "Come on," he urged. He
started to zip up the back of my dress. "You'll feel
better after you walk a while."
"I'll never feel better. I don't want to feel better.
Just leave me here on the beach and let the water
come in and pull me out to sea. I'd rather drown." He laughed. "Come on. You're just a little
drunk."
"I am not drunk," I said and spun around, only
when I did, the whole world spun with me and kept
spinning. I moaned and fell into his arms. The
gurgling in my stomach turned into a volcano and it
began to erupt. He held me as I heaved. All the vodka
I had drunk on top of a relatively empty stomach
came up like molten lava. It burned its way up my
throat and poured out of my mouth. The pain of
heaving doubled me over. If it had not been for Cary
holding me, I was sure I would have fallen face
forward into the sand.
Finally, it stopped. I took deep breaths, gasping
for clean air.
"You all right now?"
I was feeling better after getting rid of the
vodka. I nodded and he lowered me to the blanket. "Just rest a moment," he said.
I took shorter breaths, the heaviness in my chest
lessening, but there was an ache in my eyes and my
stomach felt as if I had been punched a dozen times.
The good thing was that the spinning had stopped. "How did you find us?" I asked, starting to