Page 27 of Here You Are

We ended up going up to our room to pack and take a nap, while it rained all afternoon.

We decided to go to our favorite restaurant at the resort for our last meal and took our time eating, drinking, and reminiscing about the best parts of our trip. As we made our way out of the restaurant after our meal, I was stopped dead in my tracks when an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me toward them. Justin or kidnapper?

Justin. He smacked a kiss on my cheek, which was a surprising public display of affection. “Where are you guys headed?”

“We don’t have any plans. Probably just going back to our room to finish packing since we have a pretty early flight. How about you guys?”

“Since it won’t stop raining,” he groaned, “we were thinking of going and sitting in the jacuzzi tub on our balcony. We were wet and freezing on the fishing boat all day, so we’re going to be wet and warm this evening. But being wet and warm with my brother doesn’t sound like the most appealing way to spend the evening, so I would love for you guys to join us.”

I looked over at Cora. She shrugged and said, “Why not? We don’t have anything better to do.”

At this statement, Jeffrey rolled his eyes at her and said, “How flattering.”

“I’ve flattered you plenty, bud.”

Justin jumped in and said, “You guys go grab your swimsuits and then come to our room. We are going to figure out how to get some drinks back to the room because we cleaned out the minibar for our fishing trip this afternoon. We’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes.”

About thirty minutes later, we finally made our way to their room. Jeffrey answered the door and let us in.

“Justin is getting the jacuzzi ready. We got some drinks out on the balcony, including enough rum to make sure that we all miss our flights tomorrow.”

Our room didn’t have a jacuzzi tub on the balcony as theirs did, so we went to check it out. Cora and I stopped dead in our tracks when we saw their hot tub.

“So, are we on a rotating schedule for this thing? That hot tub is made for two small people, not four ordinary-sized people.”

Justin waved my concern away and said, “We’ll fit! It’s bigger than it looks. Come on in, and we’ll make you some drinks. The bartender filled this giant water bottle full of rum for us, and we got some mixers.”

Cora and I disrobed and climbed into the hot tub. It was definitely big enough for both of us, but still quite intimate.

Justin came over with a rum and Coke for both of us. I took one sip and blew the drink out all over the side of the hot tub.

“That is not rum; that’s tequila. That was disgusting.”

“It’s rum! We saw the bartender crack open a fresh bottle and fill up our water bottle with it! I swear!” Justin explained.

“Try it. It’s tequila. I swear.”

Justin brought the water bottle of clear liquid to his nose and took a whiff. “Oh shit.” He took a drink and grimaced. “Yeah, that’s definitely tequila. Tequila Cokes, anyone?”

Cass groaned. “Why is everything tequila here? I could be fine with never drinking a shot of tequila for the rest of my life.”

Justin shrugged and said, “It’s Mexico!”

He grabbed our drinks and got rid of them. Since there were no appropriate tequila mixers, he just brought the plain bottle of alcohol over and started to climb in. We both gaped at him, wondering where he thought he would fit. Cora and I were sitting side by side, and he squeezed his legs in between ours, facing us. He took a drag off the tequila water bottle and passed it to me.

“It’s Mexico,” I mumbled and took a swig, made a face, and gagged.

“Sounds delicious; pass it over,” Jeffrey said as he started to climb his leg over the side of the tub.

I deadpanned a look at him and said, “Where do you think you're going to fit in this tub? We are already completely squished.”

Justin said, “Cassie, put your legs on top of mine. Cora can put her legs on top of Jeffrey’s.”

Jeffrey passed his brother the bottle of tequila and looked at me. “Switch spots with me, Cassie. We need to have broad-shouldered people and narrow-shouldered people sitting side by side. That will make this much better.” Despite my skepticism that it would be “much better,” I switched with him so I was squashed next to Justin, and my legs were now resting on Jeffrey’s legs. It was all way too close for comfort, but the tequila had it making sense.

And that’s how we spent our night: wedged in a hot tub, with everyone touching everyone else at once. I had toes in my butt crack, and we looked like four squashed hot dog buns in a butter dish. We passed around the tequila water bottle, struggling through sips until it started to taste pretty decent.

We talked about our travel plans and what we had to look forward to or dread back home. Eventually, the conversation turned into a drunken shitshow, and it was just shouting and laughing. By the time we got out of the tub, half of our limbs were asleep, and we could barely walk from the excessive drinking.