The Trouble With Flirting by Rachel Morgan

water. Way too cold.”
    “Tell me about it,” Charlotte murmurs.
    Allegra and I lay our towels down on the empty sand beside Charlotte. I kick my shoes off and drop my bag onto the towel just as a male voice shouts, “Hey! Allegra and Livi!” Jackson and his friend Rob jog across the sand towards us, dripping wet from their dip in the waves.
    “Hey, you want a hug?” Rob asks, advancing on Allegra. He opens his arms and shakes his head, flinging droplets of water in every direction. I jump out of the way as Allegra squeals and runs past me.
    “Stop being an idiot,” Charlotte says, sitting up and smacking Rob’s legs with a rolled-up magazine.
    I look over at Jackson, wondering if he might be about to try the same thing with me. We don’t know each other all that well, though, so instead we just stare at each other awkwardly. He seems to remember himself suddenly, and breaks the awkwardness with a smile. He runs a hand over his wet hair.
    His muscles flex.
    Water glistens on his skin.
    I try to remember how to breathe.
    Sweet hammer of Thor. He’s like a sexy Norse god who just rose up out of the ocean, then slow-motion ran across the sand towards me, because we’re clearly soul mates, and his heart cries out for—
    Allegra ducks behind me, and Rob, still chasing her, trips over my sandals and rams into me, knocking me face-first onto my towel. Charlotte gasps, and Allegra cries out, “Livi! Are you okay?”
    “Yes, fine, totally fine.” I sit up hastily, patting my hair and making sure my dress isn’t somewhere up around my neck.
    “Cool, sorry, Liv.” Rob drops onto his towel next to Amber and reaches for a bag of chips from under a bunched up T-shirt.
    Allegra seats herself daintily upon her towel beside me. I stretch one leg out, bend the other at the knee, and lean back on my hands, attempting to arrange myself into a sexy goddess pose. When I look up, though, Jackson is heading back to his towel on the other side of Rob.
    Great. Sexy goddess pose wasted.
    I watch Allegra as she slowly and seductively pulls her dress off over her head. I wonder if it’s for Rob’s benefit—which would be pointless, since he’s currently tipping barbecue flavoured chips down his throat, his eyes closed against the glare of the sun—or simply for all guys in the vicinity. Either way, it makes me want to laugh. And try it out for myself, of course.
    I wiggle around until I’m no longer sitting on my dress. I cross my arms, take hold of the bottom of the dress, and pull up. It all goes smoothly until the last step of the manoeuvre, where the dress is now over my head and my arms are up in the air. Something catches on something else, the dress stops moving, and suddenly I can’t remember if I shaved under my arms or not.
    The dress is stuck.
    I can’t see anything through the fabric.
    And I may or may not be flashing hairy armpits to the whole of Clifton 4 th Beach.
    Panicking, I give the dress a good tug. Something loosens at the back of my neck. The fabric rushes past my face, and the beach comes into view again. I lower my arms and twist to the side—and find myself face-to-face with Allegra’s horrified expression. A horrified expression pointed directly at my chest.
    I look down—“Whoa!”—and clap both hands over my half-exposed left boob. My traitorous bikini strap dangles over my stomach, which is obviously what led to the triangle of fabric flopping down and causing my indecency.
    “Livi! This isn’t a nude beach!” Allegra’s stage whisper catches the attention of Rob and Jackson, who abandon the barbecue chips and lean across their towels to look past Allegra.
    I duck down, using Allegra as a shield as best I can while my hands hastily reposition my bikini. An inferno erupts across my face. Holy smoking embarrassment. I need to leave. IMMEDIATELY. I can NEVER look any of these people in the eye again. Goodbye, Clifton 4 th Beach. Goodbye, potential boyfriend Jackson. Goodbye, friends who are