Page 87 of In at the Deep End
Owen peered at Matt. “Have you had cocktails before, or…”
“Or.” Matt flushed. “I’ve never really gone beyond rum and Coke.”
“In that case…” Owen considered for a moment. “Two strawberry daiquiris.”
Matt raised an eyebrow once the waiter had disappeared. “I expected something sophisticated.”
“Oh, they are.” Owen leaned back. “They’re just pretending not to be.”
The drinks arrived in elegant stemmed glasses, pale pink beneath a dusting of ice.
Matt took a cautious sip, and his eyebrows shot upwards. “Oh.”
Owen grinned. “‘Oh’ good or ‘Oh’ bad?”
“‘Oh,’ as in ‘I could accidentally drink five of these.’”
He laughed. “That’s good, then.”
A comfortable silence settled between them before Matt gave him a keen glance.
“You’ve travelled quite a bit, haven’t you?”
“A fair amount.”
“Tell me about somewhere that wasn’t Brighton or the Isle of Wight.”
Owen smiled into his glass. “Palm Springs.”
“California?”
He nodded. “That was our honeymoon. And it wasn’t exactly conventional. A gay, clothing-optional resort. Except Ben neglected to tell me that part.”
Matt nearly inhaled his cocktail.
Owen chuckled. “The first morning I wandered down to the pool with a towel and a paperback.”
“And?”
He smirked. “I was the only one still wearing swim shorts.”
Matt burst out laughing. “What did you do?”
“I stood there for a full minute wondering whether I’d accidentally walked into the wrong hotel.”
“And then?”
Owen shrugged. “Ben looked at me and said, ‘Well, they’re hardly going to laugh at yours.’”
Matt almost sprayed daiquiri across the table. “He did not.”
“Oh yes, he did.”
“What happened?”
Another shrug. “I took them off.”
“You just…?”
