The Sun in My Eyes

35 Baby, Look Up the Sky is Falling

In which Lili is ding, Bobby is a neurotic mess, almost everyone gets dirty, and Hurricane Priya shakes things up. There's also naughty doings of a sort.  

**

"What about 'Jaffa Cake'?" Rahim asked.

"I love Jaffa Cakes!" Chelsea trilled.

"I dunno. Define it," Bobby said, resting beside Rahim. It was a brutally hot day, and a group of them had gathered on the daybeds to escape the early afternoon sun. They'd been brainstorming a new bit of joke slang to try out on Jakub to see if he'd start using it. A man who ironed his socks that often was in desperate need of a prank.

Rahim scratched at his curated beard stubble. "Like someone who seems to be one thing but they're really another. You're on the pull and you meet someone who seems like a simple biscuit, but then you get to know them and find out they're actually a delicious cake. Like, 'That bird's a proper Jaffa Cake.'"

"I like the baked goods tie-in, but it lacks a certain... panache." He held up a finger. "Oh! 'Panache'?"

Lili, stretched out on her stomach at the end of the bed, tickled his toes. He squealed and curled up into a protective ball. "Woman!"

She laughed. "You can do better than 'panache', babe."

"We've been at this for so loooong!" Lottie said from the other bed. "What are the contenders again?"

"'Homebrew' was pretty good," Gary said, cuddled up behind her.

Sitting cross-legged on the other side of Lottie, Chelsea raised her hand as if she were in school. "I liked 'al dente'! That one's fun to say."

"No." Lili shook her head. "I think Bobby had it right earlier. 'Ding' is the winner."

He grinned at her. "It is the sexiest of all notification sounds."

"What's that one mean again?" Gary asked.

"It's like, when you hear the sound, you can't ignore it," he said. "You have to check your phone. So if someone is irresistibly sexy, you'll be like, 'Pal, she's ding'. It's such a satisfying sound too. Like... ding." He raised his eyebrows. "Am I right or am I right?"

Marisol frowned. "Outside the villa, what kind of monsters are going around without their phones on silent? I don't want to hear you dinging."

"You'd silence the sexiness of the ding?" He winked at her. "I think I know who the real monster is."

"Ding," Gary said. "Yeah, that's bants."

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" Chelsea chanted.

Lottie bopped her in the head with a pillow. "It's top secret, remember?"

"Sorrrrry," she giggled.

Rahim stood and stretched. "Anyone want to work out?"

There was a collective groan and Marisol shook her head vigorously. "The pool sounds better."

Everyone started to disperse. Gary knelt low in front of Lottie. "Lotta, hop on, I'll give you a ride to the pool."

She raised a suspicious eyebrow. "If you drop me in the water, I will hex you from here to forever."

He grinned. "I would never."

"Okay. I'm trusting you."

Bobby grabbed Lili's hand and started jogging. She laughed as he yanked her to the edge of the pool.