Read Online Take It Off by J. Minter - Free Book Online Page A

something, but quieted when she saw Suki coming up behind him with a tray of drinks. Once she had handed them around and resettled into her chair, an awkward silence descended. Greta took a few obligatory sips of her mojito and then excused herself, saying she wanted to take one last dip before it got too late.
    Mickey watched her until she had splashed in and taken a few strokes out to sea, and then he leaned over and began to kiss Suki. She tasted cold, like sugar and rum and ice, and Mickey was feeling good until he realized that he was kissing her way more than she was kissing him. Then she pulled back and bit her lip.
    â€œListen, Mickey. I like you, and we had a really lovely night the other night, but I think I—”
    â€œLike Arno,” Mickey said with a tone of weary disgust.
    â€œWell, yeah, I guess … Yeah, I do. But that’s not really the point. He told me about Philippa.”
    â€œWhat?!”
That
pissed him off. “She’s my
ex-
girlfriend.”
    â€œYeah, I know. And it was hella shady for Arno to tell me. But still, doesn’t it seem like you might, just
maybe,
be rebounding?”
    Mickey had to sort of acknowledge this to be true. Pretty much all his rambunctious, self-destructive energy right now could be chocked up to his split from Philippa Frady. Making it all even worse was the fact that it had been an amicable, reasonable, tentative breakup—which really wasn’t the Pardo style. He was so taken in by Suki’s calm logic that he almost ceased being angry at Arno. Then he thought of Philippa and how in love with her he was.
    Suki reached out and touched his hand. “I think I’m going to go find Arno, okay?” she said softly, picking up her beach bag. “Could you tell Greta that I’ll meet her on board at eight?” She bit her lip again and gave him a pained, apologetic look. “Maybe I’ll see you at that party in Patch’s cabin tonight. And, Mickey? Sorry.”
    Mickey watched Suki walk off the beach. She went the wrong direction, and then had to turn around and walk all the way back to the entrance they had come in through. She was adorable, and she was going to find Arno: Arno, who had double-crossed him by bringing up Philippa, the girlfriend Mickey had just begun to not obsess over. Mickey was pretty near boiling point, and he began to the thrash around in his chair. He started sort of wrestling with it, and then all of a sudden, the whole thing collapsed.
    As he pushed himself up, a little stunned, from the wreckage of the lounger, he saw Greta O’Grady rising out of the water and coming toward him. And suddenly, it was like she was someone he had never met before.

Patch makes like a hero, again
    â€œLovely day for a
corrida
, isn’t it?” Barker called out, raising his wineglass in Patch’s direction. Barker had caught Patch and Stephanie wandering happily around the town and roped them into going to a bullfight with him and the Spanish minister of tourism. The minister of tourism had already told them, at length, how he spent every winter on Mallorca, and also how he and Barker had been backpacking buddies in the sixties. He looked like Barker, too: They both wore gigantic sun hats and rubbed their considerable bellies. The deputy minister of tourism was with him, and he was much younger and more handsome than his boss. They were all lined up on the stone coliseumlike seats of the bullfighting stadium, and Patch was pleased that at least he was sitting all the way on the end.
    Patch nodded in Barker’s direction. He didn’t really get why any day would be a beautiful day for slaughtering animals, and he didn’t really get why they were there. Patch and Stephanie had planned to spend theday exploring backward corners of the city, maybe going for a little surf in the afternoon, and now, somehow they’d ended up with Barker again.
    â€œI’m
so
sorry,” she whispered in his