As we began the hike down to the beach itself, I was grateful for two things: one, that Ruby led the way, which meant she’d have to see the naked people first; and two, the trail was long and winding, and for a while I was able to preserve the hope that we might never actually arrive. There were several scenic stops along the way, and each time we approached one I prayed Ruby would announce that she was too tired to carry on, and why don’t we just hang out here. But she never did. The beach and all its nudity got closer and closer, and then we were there.
We paused near the bottom of the trail, ostensibly scanning for the perfect spot.
“You were right,” I said. Among the fifteen or so people I could see, only a few were naked, and they all had one thing in common.
“OMDs?”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
“Let’s go this way.”
We trudged laboriously over the sand, Ruby’s hair whipping around in the wind. When we found a spot she liked, she dropped her bag and bent over to untie her boots. I tried to shake the jumbo-sized towel I’d brought for us to sit on, but the wind wouldn’t let me, so I flung it down and walked around the perimeter, pulling each corner flat. Ruby watched me, looking amused and a little impatient.
“May I sit?”
“Yes. Sorry. Please,” I said.
I joined her, and pushed my tennis shoes off with my feet. For the moment, that was as much as I was willing to take off, even if the sun threatened to burn through my jeans. Ruby tucked her shirt up under her swimsuit top so her stomach would tan, and I tried not to openly stare.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
“For what?”
I pointed to the cooler. “Food.”
“Oh. Yes. Sure.”
This was not as much enthusiasm as I’d hoped for, but I popped open the plastic top and gave Ruby the rundown anyway.
“Wow,” she said finally. “This is, like, an actual picnic.”
“That’s what I promised, isn’t it?”
“No, yeah. I just figured you’d bring, like, a bag of chips.”
I pulled the bag of chips from my tote bag and set it on top of my fancy spread. “Ta-da.”
Ruby smiled in a way I wasn’t sure how to interpret and opened the chips. I made myself a cheese-and-salami cracker and popped the whole thing in my mouth. Then I made one for Ruby, hesitating before handing it to her.
“Oh my God—you eat meat, right?”
She nodded, and the panic rising in my throat subsided. I handed her the cracker and she bit into it.
“Good? Do you want another one?”
Ruby blinked. “I mean, I’m still—”
“Right. I’ll give you a minute.”
I became uncomfortably aware of the sound of her chewing, and my watching her chewing, and my knee bouncing against the towel beneath me. I forced myself to look away, directly at the ocean, where there were no nudes. Except for all the animals. Before I could do anything to stop it, that picture of the giant pink whale penis we’d all been obsessed with for a full week during freshman year was in my head.
Ruby reached over and clasped her arm around my wrist, which made me jump.
“Quinn. Relax.”
“Sorry,” I said. We looked at each other. My leg came to a halt. Her hand was still on my arm. So I leaned forward, and I kissed her.
This wasn’t the plan. We’d just gotten to the beach. We’d barely picnicked at all. The sun was still up. There were naked men not very far away.
But I let all that go as soon as she kissed me back. And it was unmistakable: she leaned forward, and my whole body shifted back with the force of her face pressed into mine. Her skin smelled like almonds. Her lips were soft. Her breath was salty like salami, one of my favorite foods.