18.

Something splashed heavy in the jacuzzi next to Sam. The drinktray. He stopped writing to look up at Peg.
"Hey there," she said looking down from her terrace. "You're gonna get fried. Did you put any lotion on?"
"No." He put his notebook on the small table next to him and stood up. "I like getting burned. I like letting a whole layer of skin peel right off. It's like moulting."
He stepped slowly into the jacuzzi, then let himself fall slowly under. Moments later Peg joined him with two glasses of vodka and ice. Sam was floating in the jacuzzi with just his face above water. He was holding the drink tray with his knees.
"Here's a refresher," said Peg. She handed him the drink.
"Goll-ee. I sure could get used to this."
"That's real pretty what you got on, what is it?"
He sat up so that his shoulders were out of the water. "That's Ludwig and his Emperor piano concerto." He sipped his drink. "Number Five."
"Did you bring music with you?"
He looked at her. "It's yours."
"Oh. Yeah, the classical is mostly my dad's."
"Music is necessary for life," he said.
"Yeah. It's nice having my own DJ downstairs. I like having the music float up and never knowing what's coming up next. Sort of like day-long random play."
"I will play for you music for ever and ever, my dear."
"You sound in a better mood."
"A better buzz," he said like an English aristocrat. "And what more, the hangover doldrums have been cleanly swept away." He took a sip of his drink.
"What are you writing about?"
"Hmm..." He floated his toes out of the water. "About what an incredible asshole I am."
"Really?"
"Yes," he said. "And also what a big crying pain this writing thing is and how people who don't try get off easy not having to really live the emotions except when they read what the writers write. Howabouts you?"
She slipped into the jacuzzi quickly, went under, and surfaced. "I was writing about what a dick Alec is."
"Men are dirt," he said, the aristocrat.
"Some are dirtier than others," she said. She brought her legs up underneath Sam's legs, lifting them out of the water.
"It was scummy of him to scat with Rhin so quickly and with the coke."
"That's nothing."
"Not jealous?" he asked.
"No way," she said. He looked at her, eyes just above water. "I'm not," she insisted. "I even wrote about jealousy. About him being jealous."
"But not you."
"Nope." She reached up to get her drink. "Well maybe a little. Rhin's very attractive."
Sam lifted his head completely out of the water. "Peg," he said.
"What?"
"You're fucking gorgeous. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, particularly in that bathing suit." She had a white and blue striped string bikini. She was wearing a black coral necklace.
Peg smiled. "Yeah, well, I don't know, she's got something about her. I mean you know. God, I saw how you were staring at her last night. You were put off about their leaving together too."
"I wouldn't say 'put off'"
"You were jealous."
"I was not jealous."
"What would you call it?"
"Um... surprised? And besides, my mind was elsewhere."
"Oh yeah. I forgot. You were on top of Rebecca at the time."
Sam laughed. "Yeah. I mean did I look jealous of Alec?"
"Nope you looked fucked up."
"That I was," said the aristocrat.
"You're just going to confuse that poor girl. Did you know she was crying when we got here last night?"
"Is that why you and her went upstairs?"
"Uh huh. She's really mixed up."
"So maybe she needs to get laid."
Peg shook her head. "Great answer. The man's answer to everything. Get yerself fucked and your problems go right away."
"Wise words," he said.
"Well I for one haven't done much but create problems for myself along that avenue."
"Gotta go into with it the right attitude."
"Which is..."
"It's a physical release. Not making love, but..."
"Fucking."
"Right-o. Nil commitment. Just straight out lust."
She pushed herself up onto the rim of the jacuzzi. "That's one way of looking at it." She stood up. "I fucked a couple of tourists when I got down here. I suppose it helped in some ways to forget Paul. Forget and remember him. Maybe I did it to feel like it was my option. That I had the control. That I could do it."
He took a sip from his drink. He looked around the deck and into the house. "I really could get used to this. You write your thing, and I mine, while getting a sun tan..."
"Sun burn."
"...and we put our stuff together and make a book."
"Fiction?"
"Yeah."
"And put our real life stuff in with the fiction?"
"No. We'd let our stuff direct the story, but the reader wouldn't see it."
"Like rocks under the water in a stream," she said.
"Yep."