“Spin the bottle,” Alexa repeated, a grin spreading slowly.
“It’s a spring break thing, right?” Ellie said, feeling her cheeks going red.It was, wasn’t it?“You said you’d show us how the pros do it.”
“El,” Becca said gently, wading through the water to come closer to her, her expression not far removed from the exaggerated kindness that’s saved for delivering bad news to a child. “Spinthe bottle is a middle school thing. Like, fourteen-year-olds at a sleepover. It’s not really a spring break…”
“It’s definitely not…” Alexa started to say.
Ellie realised her mistake and didn’t care. “I wasn’t one of the cool kids growing up,” she said. “I was a nerd from Portland who went to Stanford and married her first college girlfriend.” She shrugged. “I’ve never played spin the bottle. This is my one chance.”
The three of them looked at her, and then Mia started to grin. “You know what? Fuck it.” She pulled herself out of the water on to the side. “Give me the bottle.”
“We’re doing this?” Alexa asked.
“We’re doing this. The woman wants to play spin the bottle by the pool of her beautiful house in Florida. Who are we to deny her?” Mia took the wine bottle and set it on its side on the flat stone between the loungers. Once the others had climbed out too and were sat two to a lounger she continued. “Ok. Rules. Whoever it points to, you kiss. Properly. No cheek kisses, no pecks. No less than a minute. This is not middle school.”
“That’s a rule you just made up,” Alexa said.
“I’m the spin the bottle authority here. My rules.” She looked around the circle. “Who’s first?”
“Ellie should go first,” Becca said. “It was her idea.”
Ellie reached forward and spun the bottle. It scraped against the stone, rotating unevenly, slowing, slowing, and stopped pointing at Alexa.
Alexa looked at Ellie and smiled. “Well, at least this one I’ve done before.”
Ellie leaned across and kissed her, and Alexa kissed her back. This time they were firmly putting on a show for the other two, hands pulling each other closer, tongues involved from the start, and it felt good, really good. Alexa moaned softly into the kiss and Ellie felt the vibration, not just against her mouth but somewhere deeper down, somewhere more primal, and she knew with certainty right then that whatever that had been with Alexa earlier in their hotel room wasn’t exhausted yet, there was more to come.
They were interrupted by Mia. “Right, time’s up.” They broke the kiss and turned to look at the other two. “God, you guys need to get a room, that was hot.”
Ellie glanced at Becca and blushed when she saw her intense expression, an absolute mix of deep jealousy and insane arousal if she ever saw one. Ellie raised her eyebrows in a question and Becca smiled slightly, nodding.Yeah, that was good.And then her expression changed a little.Wait until you see my turn…
“Not bad for a nerd from Portland,” Alexa said. “Not bad at all.”
Becca spun next. The bottle pointed at Alexa again, which drew an eye-roll from Mia and a cheer from Alexa (“I’ve always been good at this game”), and Becca crawled across and kissed Alexa with a confidence that made Ellie’s stomach do its familiar flip. The loop stirred, the sight of Becca’s hand on Alexa’s face andAlexa pulling her closer enough to light a fire inside her, though not yet the raging inferno that she knew it could become.
Mia spun. It pointed at Ellie, and Mia raised an eyebrow. “The other married one. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Mia’s kiss was more assertive than Becca or Alexa, her hand going straight to the back of Ellie’s neck, her mouth taking the lead. When she slipped the tongue it felt good, really good, and Ellie felt herself leaning into the kiss, wanting and craving more. When they broke apart Mia nodded approvingly. “Stanford teaches well.”
“Stanford taught me engineering. You’ve got my wife to thank for that.”
“Noted.”
Alexa spun, and the bottle rotated and slowed, gradually, coming to rest pointing directly at Mia.
Something changed.
It was subtle… a fractional tightening of Mia’s expression, a stillness in Alexa that hadn’t been there before. They looked at each other across the bottle and hesitated, and for a second Ellie thought someone was going to suggest a re-spin.
Then Alexa said, very quietly, “Come here.”
Mia leaned forward. Alexa met her halfway and they kissed, and from the first second it was obvious that this was not their first time.
They kissed slowly, their mouths moving together naturally, Mia’s hand finding Alexa’s jaw, Alexa’s fingers slipping into Mia’s dark hair. It deepened without either of them seeming to decide to deepen it, a natural escalation, and within a few seconds it was the most intense kiss Ellie had seen all night: unhurried, intimate, carrying the weight of something much older and much more complicated than a game by a pool.
Ellie looked at Becca. Becca was already looking at her, eyes wide. Their eyes met and the same thought passed between them without words:oh my God, no way is that just a kiss.
Mia and Alexa broke apart slowly, and for a moment they just looked at each other, their faces close.
