Rebound by Michael Cain

alone.”
    “What?” The thought
of Kevin finding someone was... It made her head ache like it was
going to split open and her brain bounce out like a grotesque beach
ball. He was, and had always been, Susan’s. She shook that off just
as the last thing Liz said bombarded her. He’ll “leave us alone.”
That would be horrible! What would she do without him? She didn’t
want him to leave her alone. She liked having him around. “You
think Kevin’s a stud?”
    “Yeah, sure. If I
didn’t already despise him from our college days, I would’ve bagged
and tagged him before you two got on the plane for paradise.”
    “Yuck!” The mere
thought of having her two best friends getting it on made Susan’s
nose wrinkle and caused the acid in her stomach to rise in her
throat. “Promise me you’ll never...”
    “Jesus, Suze, you are
one paranoid little puppy, aren’t you?” Liz waited for a reply
until the pause grew uncomfortable. Finally, Liz gave in. “Fine,
fine! I promise to never fuck Kevin! Okay?”
    “Okay,” Susan said
with relief. How would she go on if her two, wonderfully separate
best friends, morphed into one? And what about all the kissing and
inadvertent sex things she would be walking in on for who knew how
long? And what if they broke up?
    “I can’t believe you
think I could...with Kevin!”
    “You just said you
would’ve ‘bagged and tagged’ him,” she grumbled. “What else am I
supposed to think?”
    “Okay, fine. You’re a
drunk, clinically depressed former bride with abandonment issues.
So you get a free pass...this time.”
    “Thanks. When you say
it like that, I really should call the front desk and ask if they
have a suicide watch service.” Susan took another long pull of her
margarita.
    “That’s my girl,” Liz
said. “She’s got her sense of humor back.”
    Susan shook her head
at the phrase--the phrase both Kevin and Liz had said in the last
ten minutes.
    “And don’t worry,
sweetie,” Liz went on. “When I get down there, we’ll work on
getting you a rebound fling going.”
    “ A
rebound what ?”
    Liz sighed petulantly
on the other end of the connection. “A rebound fling. You know, you
go find some super hot guy, hotter than shit-head Mark, and you
unceremoniously fuck the shit out of him...several times...and then
you never see him again.”
    “Why do you think I
need to do that?”
    “Because you’ve been
dumped!” Liz groaned. “And the fastest, easiest way to get over the
pain and agony of being dumped is to have rebound sex. Guys do it
all the time.”
    Susan’s jaw dropped
and she sagged a little as she mulled this over. The fastest,
easiest way to get over the pain of being dumped? And all she had
to do was have sex with some hot guy?
    “And you’re sure it
works?”
    Susan could
practically see Liz smiling on the other end. “Works for me every
week.”
    Susan shook that fact
out of her head. Liz was infamous for going through a guy a week.
She just got bored easily, and if she didn’t, the guy got tired of
being shelved for days on end until Liz was horned-up enough to
blow off her career for a few days.
    She had to concede to
Liz’s vast experience.
    “Just wait,” Liz
said, “in three days I’ll be down there, and we’ll start stud
hunting for the perfect rebound fuck!”
    The bathroom door
swung open, and a wet and naked Kevin stumbled out, with just a
towel wrapped around his hips. Susan hadn’t seen him shirtless in a
very long time. Gone was the skinny kid that used to flex his
stringy arms for her amusement. Tall, lean, broad shouldered, thick
slabs of muscle making his chest perfect, a ripped gut that
obviously he’d worked on tirelessly for about a million years--and
what a butt! Hard, round, and even through the towel Susan could
see dimples--and it had just the right amount of jiggle left in
it.
    Kevin
disappeared into his room and Susan slowly closed her gaping mouth,
swallowing hard and trying to form a rational thought