My Boss

40

"What are you wearing?" Claire was ransacking her bag for something to wear to the beach.

It was already past four in the afternoon and we agreed to go for a swim before dinner and before the party started later.

I looked at my own bag and took out some swimsuits and bikinis I brought.

"I can wear maybe my one-piece?" I asked her with the cloth in my hand, showing it to her.

"Oh, hell to the no, Cara!"  Clair exclaimed a little bit exaggerated.

"Why? What's wrong with this?" I looked at my white one-piece, it was fine for me.

"First of all, it's awfully white, Cara. And second, you have a gorgeous body underneath those fabrics..." She was even pointing at my body up and down.

"... Flaunt it, honey! You are so effing gifted and you're not even appreciating it." She continued and walked towards me.

She looked at the bikinis I laid on the bed and snatched my bag to find the others.

"Here, wear this." She handed me the halter black bikini that she gifted me last summer.

"But, it's too..."

"Sexy? hot?" Claire interrupted me.

"We are on the beach, Cara. You are supposed to wear a bikini that is hot and sexy. And I know for a fact that not only Brian will drool over you but that Boss of yours as well."

I stared at the little fabric that Claire was handing me. I am not demure or conservative, I just feel shy, I guess? I wear bikinis at the beach but not that often as I don't go much.

And now that I know Alex would see them, the pressure just fueled up.

I took the bikini from Claire and headed to the bathroom to change.

"Oh my fucking god! Seriously, no effort at all and you look like a goddess!" Claire with her exaggerated remarks looked at me from head to foot.

She was also wearing her red bikini, she might have changed when I was in the bathroom.

"Well, look at you too. You're on fire, aren't you?" 

Claire playfully turned around to show off her perfectly toned body.

"This is the fruit of working out every day, thank you very much!" 

We both wore denim ripped shorts and while she did not wear any shirt to cover her chest but just put them in the bag, I did. I took out a white V-neck shirt from my bag and wore it.

"Really?" Claire was looking at me in disbelief.

"Shut up!"

Before heading out to the beach, I left a message to Brian letting him know our plan for this afternoon. I wore my sunglasses and left my phone and let Claire carry our beach bag with our necessities.

As we sat up on the beach chairs, I looked around and saw a lot of my colleagues were already getting their tans done, some of them were already in the water, playing and swimming.

I waved when I saw Lisa and the others, and as they waved back, I got up and signaled to Claire that I'd be right back.

"Hey!" I greeted them.

"Hey, we thought you were not gonna come up and even say hi to us." Lisa joked.

I bumped my shoulder to hers.

"Sorry, I was a bit occupied."

"Yeah, we can see that." David was eyeing Claire in the distance.

"I'll introduce you later to her, she's my best friend from college, also a friend of Brian."