The harder I made them work in the studio, the harder they made me work in bed. Collectively, we were each pushing the other to new and greater heights.
I wish Greta could see me now. She’d be so happy for me.
I had to phone her. And given how late into the night we were working, minus the five hours for Greta in New York, the timing was perfect.
I wonder if she’ll be able to tell. Is it possible to detect afterglow over the phone?
“Hello, Greta.”
“Tell me everything!”
“Hi, I’m fine, thanks,” I said.
“I know you’re fine,” said Greta. “You’re in Iceland with seven hunks.”
Actually, fourteen, I thought, but I didn’t feel like trying to explain that to Greta.
“Which one is it?” she asked.
“Huh? Which one what?”
“Don’t play coy with me, miss,” said Greta. “No way have you lasted this long. So tell me, who’s the lucky guy? Wait. Let me guess.”
“Greta, are you talking about sex?” I was playing coy. And it was fun. “Are you suggesting I had sex with a member of my documentary crew?”
“Documentary crew, please.” Her sarcasm was palpable. “You’ve got a modeling agency with you, and one of the guys happens to own a camera. Unless you’re making a documentary about finally losing your virginity, that ‘crew’ is about a documentary crew just the sex-starved pirates who kidnap me in my fantasy are marine biologists.”
“Your fantasy about being kidnapped by pirates?” I laughed.
“Sex-starved pirates,” she corrected. “There’s a difference.”
“Duly noted.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “the point is, I want a name; I want details; start talking.”
“I’ll have you know that we are getting a lot of work done here, and the film is coming along nicely. Thank you very much.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. I wondered if we’d been disconnected, then Greta finally said in a low voice, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
I laughed. “Of course, it hasn’t been all work.”
“Bonita, are you teasing me? That’s such a virgin thing to do.”
“Ouch.”
“You better not come home until you’ve slept with at least one of those hunks you brought with you.”
“I miss you,” I said. And it was true. “The only thing keeping me from coming home is that I have to finish the documentary.”
“And have sex.”
“Like I said: the only thing keeping me from coming home is the documentary.”
“Wait. What?”
I had to pull the phone from my ear.
“Are you saying that Miss Bonita Rose Morales has finally…”
I stifled my laughter and nodded emphatically.
“Are you nodding, Bonita?”
I laughed. “Yes, I’m nodding.”
“Who did you have sex with? No, wait. I want to guess.”
“Guess away. I’m sure you’ll be right.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. But I knew we hadn’t been disconnected. Greta likes her dramatic pauses.
“Ben.”
I smiled. “Yep. You guessed right.”
“I knew it. And it was great, right?”
“Right again,” I said, no longer trying to muffle or stifle my laughter. “Out of curiosity, who would your second guess have been?”
Dramatic pause.
“Noah.”
“But Noah’s Guillermo’s best friend.”
“I know,” said Greta with so much enthusiasm I had to pull the phone away from my ear again. “He’s the secret forbidden love and the boy next door all wrapped into one. Plus, there’s a bit of a stepbrother vibe, too.”
“So you would have guessed Noah second?”
“Noah, then Will would have been my third guess.”
“Wow, you should be a psychic,” I said. “All your guesses are right!”
I kept a few details for myself; soul sisters share, but they don’t share everything. I had to repeatedly tell her that I wasn’t joking. By the end of the conversation, I still wasn’t sure that she believed me. In any event, she got a good story out of it.
“I’ll call you in a few days,” I said. “But I’ve got to go. I’ve got work to do.”
“Sure sounds like it!”
If Greta hadn’t detected my afterglow over the phone, Sasha had no difficulty spotting it immediately.
“I do say, Bonita, you’re looking more and more radiant by the day.”
“I feel great!” I said.
She smiled. “And it shows.” She winked at me. “Is it because of the project or because of the men? I suspect it’s a little bit of both.”
I agreed. Whereas I was still a bit shy to tell her about the things I’d been experimenting with sexually, I was more than happy to tell her about the film. I had to; she was a big part of it, after all.
“I’ve got a great idea,” I said. “Well, it’s either a great idea or a terrible one. You’ll tell me what you think.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Well, we’ve done some digging on Angelica Fay. And she’s definitely linked to your neighbors on the other side of the forest.”
“I knew it.”
“From what we gather, we think they have forged some documents and are planning to incriminate you in something, but we don’t know what yet, exactly.”