a normal afternoon?

After their steamy morning with Nicole and Simon, Jake and Abbie were in a state of languid relaxation. The sun beat down on their skin, and they felt the weight of their physical exertions in every muscle. The smell of chlorine and sunscreen mixed in the air around them, and the sound of splashing and laughter from the other hotel guests filled their ears.

Jake lay back on his deck chair, closing his eyes and letting his mind drift. The warmth of the sun on his skin made him feel drowsy, and he let out a contented sigh. Beside him, Abbie reclined on her own chair, flipping through a magazine without really reading it.

Every so often, one of them would open their eyes and take in the scene around them. The pool was still relatively quiet, with only a few other guests lounging nearby. Jake watched a group of children splash and play in the shallow end, their giggles and shouts echoing across the water.

"Do you ... want to just be, like, normal people this afternoon?" Jake asked. He sat up in his chair and looked over at Abbie.

Abbie giggled. She was laying on her stomach, basking in the sun. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we've had sex like fifty times in the last two days. I kind of think my dick might be about to fall off."

Abbie laughed. She sat up quickly -- too quickly, as she forgot her bikini top was untied. "Oops! Free show!"

Jake looked, of course, but no one else at the pool was paying them any attention. "What if, for like three or four hours, we actually -- now don't call me crazy or get freaked out -- but what if we actually didn't fuck for a little bit?"

Abbie tied her bikini strings together and turned onto the side of her chair to face Jake. "If you want to take a break from all the glorious sex, if you want to stop looking at my naked body, if you want to stop touching these, and these, and this," she indicated all of his favorite parts, "then sure, let's hit pause for a bit."

"You know, if you put it like that," Jake started, and reached a hand out to touch Abbie's arm.

She swatted him away. "Nope. You asked if we could stop, and I'm saying yes, we can stop." She pulled a book out of her tote bag and slid sunglasses over her eyes. Then she looked back at him, lowering the glasses down her nose a bit and peering over the top. "But if you don't ask to start again, you're going to be a sorry little boy."

Jake smiled. "I hear you. Loud and clear."

As the afternoon wore on, the sun began to dip lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the pool deck. The temperature started to cool a bit, but Jake and Abbie remained comfortably warm in the fading light.

They ordered some food to be delivered to the pool -- a club sandwich for Jake and a chicken quesadilla for Abbie -- and relaxed comfortably for several hours. From time to time, Jake re-applied sunscreen to Abbie's sensitive skin (though never quite digging as deep as he did on the first pass). When the sun got too severe, they slipped into the pool for a bit of a swim. Every so often one of them would reach a hand out to touch the other, nothing more than a quick check-in for validation.

Jake dozed off on the chair for a stretch in the late afternoon. Abbie was too alert, thinking about a lot, and at least somewhat engrossed in her book. When she saw Jake sleeping, she adjusted the umbrella at their table to put him in the shade. She just looked at him for a while, and found herself asking a lot of questions in her mind. What does he do when he's not with me? What are his interests? Where is he even from? And how do I not know any of this stuff?

She tried to get back into her book, but her mind kept wandering. She kept forcing herself away from the one question that wouldn't stop nagging at her, the one question she really didn't want to think about. Would he like me if we didn't --?

She shook her head to get the thought out of her mind. She had a sip of her second piña colada. She sat up and put her hands around her knees. She put fresh sunscreen on her feet and toes.

I don't need him to like me with some weird condition like not having sex. I love sex. I love having sex with him. Why do I even think about this?

She looked at him again, watching his chest rise and fall as he slept. She finished her drink and opened to a page of her book, but didn't look at it.

I wonder if this basically is a normal afternoon now. Jake's sleeping. I'm lost in thoughts of girlish insecurity. She chuckled to herself. Yup, this feels pretty normal.

She took one more swim in the pool by herself. The water felt quite relaxing, but the mid-afternoon sun was getting to be a bit much. She pulled herself back out, dried off, and nudged Jake awake.

"Hey, babe. It's getting a bit hot down here. You want to head upstairs, cool off, and think about dinner plans?"