Sex and Vanity

“I know, crazy, right? This is why every hotel is booked up in town. But if the wedding had been in Taipei, I would have been forced to invite over a thousand guests, easily. So I’m taking consolation in that.”

They reached a fork in the road, where Lucie noticed a small ceramic plaque affixed to the stone wall with the words DA LUIGI BEACH CLUB painted on it. Isabel steered them onto the lower road, which quickly became a steep pathway that wound all the way down the hill. Halfway down the pathway, they rounded a corner and Lucie gasped audibly, stopping dead in her tracks. Before her was the most astonishing view. Three towering rock formations jutted out of the sea, just off the island’s coast, and in front of the rocks was a private bay where the beach club was situated. The waters all around the shoreline shimmered from the lightest hint of turquoise to the most intense shade of azure blue, beckoning all to come bathe at the foot of the rocks.

“This is the most beautiful place I’ve seen in all my life!” Lucie said, as she took in the landscape. “These are the famous Faraglioni rocks, aren’t they?”

“Yes. Legend has it these were the rocks on which the sirens would meet, where they would sing their songs to bewitch sailors,” Isabel informed her.

“I believe it! The rocks look totally enchanted. I’d jump off a ship and swim straight for them!”

“You see the one that’s farthest away?”

“That’s the home of a species of blue lizard*1 found only on that rock,” Lucie said with a smile.

Isabel laughed. “I forgot who I was with. Of course you’d already know far more about this island than I do!”

“Not really, I just read the whole Fodor’s guidebook on the plane.”

They arrived at the club and checked in with the hostess standing by the entrance to a rustic, whitewashed building where the restaurant was. Deck chairs with bright blue cushions and matching blue umbrellas were placed all along the different sections of rocks leading down to the sea. Isabel made a beeline for her friends, who were clustered around the highest point overlooking the water, sunning themselves. There were about a dozen girls from around the globe, all from different eras of Isabel’s life—some from her college years, some from her work, a few from her time in Taiwan. Isabel made sure to introduce Lucie to everyone.

“Where’s Dolfi?” Lucie asked.

“The guys chartered a boat and went fishing this morning,” Isabel announced.

“Thank God we’re rid of them for a while,” said Amelia (Taipei American School / Northwestern / NYU Stern), Isabel’s friend from Taipei who was also the maid of honor.

Isabel quickly removed her Missoni cover-up, while Lucie stripped off her shorts and unzipped her light cotton hoodie. Underneath was her new blue-and-white-striped plunge V-neck one-piece swimsuit. She had thought that it looked sort of retro cool when she bought it at a little boutique in Nolita, but now, standing among these older and more sophisticated women, she wondered if it looked a little childish. All of them were sporting swimsuits far more fashionable and revealing—Isabel in a lime-green-and-purple Emilio Pucci bikini, Amelia in a plunging Eres one-piece, Daniella (Gan Israel Kindergarten / Wilbur Avenue Elementary / Portola / Taft / Beverly Hills High / Cal State Northridge) from Los Angeles in a black Norma Kamali with asymmetrical cutouts, Sophie (Woollahra Preschool / Queenwood / Brown) from Australia in a barely there red Valentino bikini, and one of the Italian girls, Talitha (British School of Milan / ICS / Saint Ann’s / Le Rosey / Parsons), was even topless.

Feeling suddenly self-conscious, Lucie wandered down the steps to the concrete platform at the edge of the water. At last, she was here. She loved nothing more than swimming in the sea. From where she was standing, the glacially clear water appeared like it could be freezing. How cold would it actually be? Only one way to find out, she thought. Taking a deep breath, she plunged in.

“How is it?” Isabel shouted down at her.

“Heaven!” Lucie shouted back. “It’s the perfect temperature!” This being July, the Mediterranean had been warming nicely throughout the past few months, and Lucie loved gliding through these waters. Most of her summers had been spent swimming in the frigid ocean off Long Island, and this seemed tropical by comparison. She swam out quickly to the farthest point, where a rope and buoy indicated the outer perimeter of where the current was safe, and flipped onto her back.

This was absolute bliss. The sea was so buoyant that she could simply float along without much effort at all, and she stretched out languorously, staring at the Faraglioni rocks looming above her. One of the enormous rocks had formed an arch perfectly through its middle, and she wondered whether she could swim all the way out there and through the arch. A small boat suddenly came speeding through it, leaving a violent wake and making Lucie think better of her notion.

As she bobbed along quietly, she began to hear the splish-splash of an approaching swimmer. “Lucie! Lucie in the sky with diamonds!” a voice said, and she turned to see Auden Beebe bobbing along next to her. “Or should I say, Lucie afloat in the ocean blue. You are quite the little mermaid!”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you seemed to glide over the water in record time. Took me twice as long just to catch up,” Auden said, catching his breath as he hung on to a buoy.

“I swam varsity at Brearley.”

“Obviously! I’ve never seen anyone execute the trudgen more perfectly.”

“Thanks. I take it you were on a swim team too?”

“Until I dropped out, yes. Are you on your college team now?”

“No. It’s not really the sort of thing one does at Brown.”

“Ah yes. I recently heard someone call it ‘an excellent school for people who want to read a lot and have feelings.’?”

“Haven’t heard that one,” Lucie said, rolling her eyes.

“So…what does one do at Brown?”

“Well, mostly I read a lot and have feelings.”