It had always been a mystery to her why so
many men ran to help her when she needed something. They always did that and
she guessed it was due to her looks but she had never done a proper effort to
look good. She thought that made her a bit of a bitch, not realizing what she
looked like. But the truth was she didn’t care and she sometimes thought the
attention could get to be very annoying. In that moment, it was good because
she had to come down from the boat to the beach, so she appreciates the two guys
that helped her. She could have spared the looks that were more accurate for
wolves than for men, but she didn’t say anything. She just kept on walking, her
small purse on one hand and her hat in the other. They had been on an excursion
near the island, watching the reef.
Mia was having a holiday alone, far away from
anyone she knew. She had always dreamed of visiting the French Polynesia so she
had used practically all of her saving to come. The excursions and the food and
most things were included in the price so she didn’t have to worry. The thing
was she always made money even if she wasn’t doing anything. That’s because she
had invented this kitchen utensil that many people were using now, so every
month they paid her a part of the winnings and it was good money. She had made
the invention one night, not drunk but almost. She always told another version
of the story because it wasn’t really glamorous to talk about how much she
vomited that night. So she changed the story to a simpler one and people loved
her.
Thanks to them, she was there: walking slowly
through the beach, feeling the soft granules of sand on her feet. The sand her
wasn’t coarse and annoying like in other beaches and Mia liked that because she
had always loved the ocean but had rarely found places to fully enjoy it. When
she was young, she used to love to pack all of her toys and the do a castle and
make all her toys live there. Her parents and brother would help and it would
be one of the best days of her life. But those trips were just a memory now.
She thought she could ask her parents and brother to come with her to the beach
one day, but they would probably say no. After all, they all had different
lives now.
She had to stop walking, as a tall-bronzed man
blocked her path. She smiled at him and kept walking, passing by his right. The
man had a stupid face and thought Mia would fall for him as soon as she had
seen him in his swimwear but Mia hadn’t even notice. She didn’t wanted to talk
to Hugo, who was one of the entertainers of the hotel and been asking her for a
drink since she had arrived there. He was relentless and always asked for the
same thing, during breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between too. It wasn’t
that he was ugly or something because he was what most people would call
“perfect”. But she just wasn’t interested.
The truth was Mia had a lot on her mind. Many
thought it was because of a man and that offended her deeply. When people
thought she was just a thing to be used by someone else, she just got furious
and, it a really bad mood, she would answer back and not in the best way
possible. Mia knew she could be pretty destructive if she wanted so she was
training herself to be more at ease, not to snap so easily. So when people
thought she looked sad because of a man, she just smiled and moved on, not even
acknowledging someone had talked. The truth was that she hadn’t been with a man
in quite some time, not sexually nor sentimentally. She just felt she wasn’t
ready for that and that it wasn’t really her priority in life but explaining
that to so many people would have been exhausting.
So every time Hugo came to her, she had said
no. She would have said yes just to do something different, but she knew Hugo
would take it as a triumph and would emphasize that aspect of the whole thing
whenever they found themselves outside. And as the hotel was on a small island,
she really didn’t wanted to be the one everyone looked and talked about. Soon,
she realized she didn’t even need to say yes. The day after the excursion, she
woke up later than usual, just wanting to use that day to be on the beach and
read or something. She didn’t want to think, just rest a lot, as she suddenly
felt extremely tired. As if she had pulled a truck in her dreams, with her
teeth.
She showered fast, put on her bikini and went
down to the beach with some fruit she had grabbed from the breakfast buffet the
previous morning. She put it in her purse along with a book and her cellphone,
where she had tons of games if she ever got extremely bored like in that
moment. Mia noticed something was wrong the moment she passed through the
reception and did what she always like to do: greet the staff there. She waved
her hand but no one responded, one woman even looking at her as if she had done
the worst thing possible. She continued to the beach, wondering why the
reaction but then she noticed more and more people stared at her and talked,
not even interested in covering their mouths.
Mia adjusted her hat and her purse and kept on
going until she reached the beach. She found a lonely spot for her to lay down
her towel and sit down. She was about to lie down to close her eyes and just
sleep if she could but she was interrupted by the sound of a quarrel. She
turned her head and realized it was a man and his wife. They were arguing
really loudly and pushing each other, every sentence been louder than the one
before. It was beginning to be really annoying so Mia took some headphones from
her purse and connected them to her phone. Music would be welcomed during such
an event.
Music wasn’t heard for long. The fight got
louder and then she noticed the woman coming to where she was. For a moment,
she thought the woman just wanted to walk down the beach in a rage, far away
from her husband. But no, the woman stopped right there where Mia was and
started talking. Mia removed her headphones only to catch the word “slut”. She
stood up and asked the woman if she needed help with something and then the
woman just slapped her and went away. It wasn’t that it hurt as much as it was
about feeling like shit. Mia felt every eye on her and that was even weirder
when she still felt the slap and she saw the husband not doing anything, just
standing there like and idiot.
She went back to her towel, still massaging
her cheek. She turned her head around to see if someone was still looking and
they weren’t but some were laughing and obviously describing what had happened.
Mia then felt really bad and about to cry, mainly because she felt she was
alone but she fought her need to cry and decided just to lay down there and try
to sleep. She would go to her room after that and just ask for her lunch to be
delivered there. She did manage to rest for a while until two people from the
management came to speak with her. They woke her up in the rudest way possible
and asked her, more like demanded her, to join them in their office in the act.
Mia walked right behind them, her towel on one
arm, her hat on one hand and her purse on her shoulder. She felt her sandals
filled with sand but she hadn’t had time to properly clean them. They walked
past the reception again and then arrived to a door that they opened with a key
only available to the staff. There were several offices behind that door, all
with now windows, like in a bunker. They reached an empty one and asked her to
sit down. She was there, they said without delay, because a woman staying at
the hotel had denounced her as a threat to the peace of the people there. Mia
was about to say she was also a guest there but they kept on talking, saying
how seriously they took these allegations, citing how conservative people of
the region were.
Suddenly, Mia had a flashback to dozens of
women with no tops of and a boat they called the “orgy yacht”. But she didn’t
say anything about that. She just bore with them, as they said all they had to
say. Finally, she was able to speak and said that if they expelled her they
would be sued, as everything that had been said about her was a lie, probably
invented by a man that felt bad because she wouldn’t say yes. She asked them to
provide proof that she was as they thought she was. If they did she would leave
and if not she would stay the week, would she had paid for. They just looked at
each other and let her go.
Some people still looked at her as if she was
insane and a pervert. Others tried to apologize but she just stood up and went
away. People were always too fast to pass judgment but they never really
thought before acting. Mia stayed there the week she had paid and then just
disappeared, leaving very late at night and preferring to sleep at the airport.
She wanted the holidays to be done as soon as possible.
