<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/ixPeHzf.jpg)</div>Monica’s smile only broadened with Lauren’s giggling gasp.<em> “Why waste time being coy?  They’re checking us out, we’re checking them out.   That way, nobody has to worry about interpreting signals and maybe getting it wrong.”</em><br/><br/>Her friend’s comment about being bad was likewise issued with excitement and humor, and she took it as a green light to proceed, and Lauren’s acknowledgement that she was spot on about needing some bad, and she was only too happy to gather up any blame.  Anyone who thought they were going to slut shame her was going to get it back with both barrels, since as far as she was concerned, the label really meant “somebody who is doing what I wish I had the courage to do.”<br/><br/>The two guys didn’t wait for any further invitation, which moved them both up on the scale of ‘possible’ to ‘under serious consideration’.   Her original assessment was born out by the one guy’s momentary expression of panic when the other got up.  They seemed to have much the same general dynamic as she and Lauren outwardly, but that wasn’t a bad thing.    Monica suppressed her inclination to answer Brett’s greeting immediately, and contented herself with continuing her slow, appreciative appraisal, smiling a little at Gabriel’s stutter while she hoped that Lauren would speak first.<br/><br/>Lauren did, and Monica was torn between a mental cheer and a moment of regret.  While Brett was the bolder of the two,  she had a little bit of worry that having the two with both feet on the gas, and two with one foot on the brakes might end up making the ride awkward and derail them getting to the destination she was hoping to reach.  She shared a glance with Brett, and though there was still plenty of heat in his eyes, perhaps their similarities were more than surface.   She gave him props for skillfully re-directing Lauren’s invitation, and claiming that chair for himself, and ushering Gabriel – whose stutter and recovery was really quite cute – into the chair beside her.<br/><br/>Some women might have been insulted, or flattered, at the maneuvering, but to Monica it just made good sense.     Unless Lauren got attached to one more than the other, they were both fair game as far as she was concerned, and variety was the spice of life – or at least the spice of a vacation to remember.<br/><br/>“Hello, Gabriel, confirmed heterosexual.”  Monica took the offered hand, her thumb running along his palm as she held it once he was settled, and didn’t hurry to relinquish it, even as she teased him, though there was no lessening of the heat in her eyes.  He’d recovered well,  and she liked that, and hoped that her response would counteract any silent recriminations he might be heaping on himself.<em>“I like to do my own confirming, just to make sure, but I'm happy to hear it all the same.”</em><br/><br/>The thumb made another pass over his palm, feeling the heat, and the dampness that usually came with nervousness.  Her own hand was damp only from the condensation on her beer, put perhaps that would be reassuring.<em>“I’m Monica, and this is Lauren.” </em><br/><br/>She let Lauren answer the question about where they were from.<em> “I thought I heard just a little bit of Southern in your voices.   We just got in today, too … and appetizers are as far as we’ve gotten.”</em><br/><br/>Monica made no attempt to hide that they were appetizing themselves,  though she did smile faintly as the guys at the bar made faces and kicked themselves for hanging back.  You snooze, you lose, and, personally, she had no regrets – though she’d kick the two remote possibilities to the curb in a heartbeat for Brett and Gabriel, whose name she had already decided not to shorten.<br/><br/><em>“Gabriel.  You don’t mind if I use your full name, do you?  I love the way it rolls off the tongue.”</em>Only then did she relinquish his hand, though she didn’t move far away, hoping that the image her words had conjured in her mind would be mirrored in his.<br/><br/><em>“As for what we’re doing here … we’re on an <strong>adventure</strong>.” </em>Vacation sounded too mild, and brought with it thoughts of long walks along the beach and staring at sunsets, sipping drinks and holding hands, a long, leisurely, discreet and socially acceptable process that might mean they’d be three days in at the earliest before getting laid.  An adventure … well, it was something between an invitation and a challenge, or perhaps, in Gabriel’s case, even a warning, which she hoped he’d relish all the more for it being directed at him rather than Brett, along with ignoring it.<br/><br/>Her legs crossed, beneath the table – no need to seem as if she were in competition with Lauren’s killer gams – and a foot, clad in black ankle-strap heels and emphasized by a silver and bead anklet rubbed against Gabriel’s leg, briefly.  With her gaze unwavering on his face, she doubted that he’d mistake it for an accident.<br/><br/>Subtle as a sledgehammer.   Some people found it refreshing, though it wouldn’t surprise her much if she got a few kicks under the table from Lauren – but maybe Lauren might also find it easier to wander off the beaten path if someone else was already blazing a trail beside her.<br/><br/>And while she waited to see the effect of her words and actions, she did not ignore Brett or Lauren, giving them a little raise of her eyebrows and the hint of a conspiratorial smile, her gaze returned to Gabriel and lingered there, giving him the treatment that she suspected Brett was more used to, a dark, sleek cat biding her time at the grassland's edge, stretching out a paw just to give herself a little taste of how it would feel to pounce.<br/>