Old Friends in Paradise Ch. 02

It was tough at first because of how crappy we were to him but he's still reeeeally nice and has asked to see me again tomorrow as well. Have said I'll take him out and show him the sights this weekend.

So you don't have to ask - No, we only had a couple of kisses goodnight and a hug and yes, I do really like him - really reeeeeeeally.

Right, have finished my tea and am turning in, will tell you how it goes on Sunday."

I pressed the send button - which I didn't normally do until Saturday. I normally sent her one a week rather than getting into a text conversation over the email.

I grinned, checked some other messages and deleted some advertising ones, then looked up my friend Rachel on Facebook out of old times sake thinking on whether I should message her and tell her who I'd just had dinner with!

I wrote it but kept it saved until I was more comfortable that neither her or her husband, or Christian for that matter would be upset about it.

I went to close the screen, when the little grey 'Outlook square' appeared in the bottom corner. Mum had replied!

Cyprus was only two hours ahead of UK time and while it was gone midnight where I was the ten o'clock news was still on at home.

"Darling!

I remember Christian so very well, a lovely boy and how's this; I'm booked to do Julie's hair tomorrow morning! I still do her hair once or twice a month or so, on a Friday or Saturday morning depending on what she's working and we still have a coffee and a long chat, wait til I tell her that my RAF girl has gone out to dinner with her Royal Marine boy - in Cyprus! What a small world it is!

We both used to joke with you when you were little about being boyfriend and girlfriend when you insisted on kissing each other goodbye, we used to say you were both 'playing house'. It only took you both another twenty years to start 'playing house' again!

I thought something had happened between the pair of you, only you stopped talking about him rather abruptly, and you and that awful ex-boyfriend of yours used to make such horrible jokes about him and his family.

He was in the paper a few years back and won (just had to check with Daddy) a Queen's Commendation for something in Afghanistan and rescued some Afghan policemen that had been blown up. He was quite the local celebrity. I had to do something posh with Julie's hair and make-up the day she went to Plymouth to see him get his medal from the Duke of Edinburgh.

Well it's not strictly your first kiss, but I bet tonight's kisses were a bit different from the ones you've had before!

Well well, please be careful darling, (I may know the boy and have changed his nappies but I'm still your mum!) have a lovely time and don't rush anything - don't show him quite ALL the sights this weekend will you, save some mystery for later!

Love

Mum"

BLOODY HELL!!

My mother!?

She still remembered Christian and obviously still liked him - the subtext in her email was basically suggesting I didn't sleep with him on our first few dates and then used protection when I did!

The next morning I was awake at silly o'clock and took a shower and after standing next to my wardrobe mirror in a towel for ten minutes trying to convince myself, reached in my drawer and found the four tiny yellow triangles of stretchy Lycra connected by string I'd bought almost six months before on a shopping trip to Bournemouth with my Mum. She had seen it on a mannequin and dragged me towards it picking up a 36C set and dropping them in her basket.

I'd giggled; yes, I'd have worn it to the beach to impress my friends in the UK, I'd have worn it to a pool party with my friends but to a beach used by troops and their families that might recognise the blonde RAF snowdrop? To wear it in front of CHRISTIAN?

My roomie Penny appeared after finishing her breakfast ready for her shift that started in half an hour. She looked at me just in my bikini checking myself out in the mirror on our dressing table.

"Oh fuck YEAH!" she growled, "Looking at you in that bikini tells me that it either went extremely well or extremely badly with the marine?"

"It went well actually," I said with a real hint of shyness. Two nights before I'd told her about the rather gorgeous Royal Marine PTI we'd both carried out half of our re-qualification with and that we'd grown up together and had once been best friends and had cried because I'd been one of the people that was shitty to him, "we talked about the old days and what we'd done since," I didn't tell her I talked about him sleeping with my old Bestie or my hint of jealousy, "we were going to sit out by the pool with some wine and just carry on chatting but Debbie and Griff and Claire and Terry were already there swapping spit on both of the nicest benches."

"So are you're going to the beach or the pool with him?"

"Beach," I said, "promised to buy him lunch seeing as he shelled out for dinner last night."

"Where did you go?"

"Nico's" I said.

"Terrace or balcony?"

"Balcony of course!"

"Good move," she said and grinned, "Pleased you're taking him to the beach, bad enough when you swim in the pool in your bathing suit or your other bikinis with almost the entire male population of the unit leching after you. Wearing THAT one, word would rapidly spread that 'HBS' was in the pool and it's every man for himself."

'HBS' stood for 'Hot Blonde Snowdrop' around the Unit and was in use pretty soon after I arrived and I very occasionally heard it being used as an unofficial call-sign over the radio (phonetic alphabet - Hotel Bravo Sierra), I even knew the code:

'Hotel Bravo Sierra is at State Papa' (Christina is by the pool).

'Hotel Bravo Sierra is at State Papa Bravo' (Christina is by the pool in a bikini).

'Hotel Bravo Sierra is a State Bravo' (Christina has gone to the beach) with an occasional added 'all call signs report visual' (let us know which one and where').

It started as 'a bit of fun' but pretty soon I got fed up with it and stopped going to the pool because of the number of lads there just hanging around, just staring at me and the other girls came down on my side - although I'm sure some liked it when I stayed away from the pool!

One of the team Warrant Officers said if she ever heard it again every man with a radio would work five extra duties so was never heard outside of the bar these days and only from drunks or those nearly so.

"Take him to the beach Babes, that way we might actually get some work done today and the rest of the girls won't want to scratch your eyes out!"

"Not you though Pen," I said pulling the side strings high on my hips not to emphasise my shape, but to really make sure that my bikini-line shave a couple of mornings before was still sufficient.

"No Chris, you're safe from me Babe, I get to see you naked most days don't forget, stopped being jealous of you three months back - mostly!" She gave a final look as I spun on my hips to check out my reflection.

To be fair Penny was pretty hot as well and only marginally shorter than me, "Whatever you might have done to him ten years ago Babe, wearing that he'll forgive you, trust me!"

I smiled and put on my shorts and a T-shirt top and grabbed my bottle of factor 15 to keep my tan under control as I was showing a few extra white bits thanks to the teeny bikini.

I headed for the cookhouse and saw that Chris was already there tucking into a huge full English and looking shit hot in T-shirt and shorts too.

I grinned a Saturday morning grin across the room to him and I was far too excited to eat as much as him so took a bowl of cereal and some toast just in case. I sat opposite him, happy to see that no one was sharing his table and we were among the few not working and taking advantage of the excellent catering.

"Good morning Chrissie!" he grinned across the table.

"Chris, how are you this morning?"

"I slept like a log," he said.

"Told you it would be good," I said.

"Aah but it wasn't the food or the wine, think it was the company," he smiled at me again, "And you calling me Chris... I could get used to that."

"You know it," I said munching toast and sipping tea, "you know you're still the only person allowed to call me Chrissie since infant school."

"Yeah well, it could be worse," he said with a cheeky grin and steepling his fingers, "I could still call you 'Kissie'!"

"And I could revert to calling you Kiss'tan'..." I whispered back to him.

Both were the names we'd used for each other when we first started to talk and lasted until we became proper grown-ups and started Infant School and our parents never let us forget.

I was starting to feel just a bit cheeky but not convinced exactly what his response was. Was this just a hint to our past as neighbours and best friends?

We left the base and stood at the bus stop. The car we used the night before was long since booked and I had no chance of bouncing someone for it. It was used weekdays for work but at the weekends the families tended to get first dibs on them. But the buses were extremely regular and cheap if occasionally overcrowded.

We headed for the town and of course the beach that was well populated with Cypriot families, lots of Brits, both service personnel and their families and the extremely healthy population of ex-pats, many of them veterans themselves.

We found a stretch of beach that was close enough to the bar to collect food and drink but far enough away to be away.

I threw out my towel with a practiced air, and it landed perfectly, and Chris did likewise - actually next to and slightly overlapping mine. This boded well.

He kicked off his shoes and pulled off his T-shirt.

Every pair of female eyes on the beach swivelled onto his perfect body.

Generally service personnel at the beach were of a 'type'. They tended to be in reasonable shape and in their twenties and thirties, often with their families and I could see many of the females looking across at him.

Chris was a real treat to look at. His broad muscular shoulders, his chest, his six pack, slimming down to his narrow waist tucking into shorts that gave a patch of colour over and above his beautifully defined legs.

I straightened and looked across to the bar where a selection of attractive women, some of whom I knew from the base, were peering over their sunglasses to take him all in.

"I'll get the drinks shall I?"

"Please," I giggled nervously.

He headed off to the bar with many eyes following him the whole way; I looked at his physical perfection and thought about stripping down to my teeny-bikini.

The thing with perfect people is they have a way of totally destroying the confidence of perfectly normally people. A week before I would have stripped down to my bikini and posed sweetly for a few moments just to let the world know I was cool with it, but now I thought of all of the big boobs (at least the ones bigger than mine) and the dynamite arses that would be focussing on Chris then on me and working out if they were a better deal than I was.

I thought that a few short days ago that was me. Confident, casual with my own looks that I knew were above average but now I was jealous. Not jealous of a person but jealous of the entire beach that would be watching him - my Christian.

OK, he hadn't been 'my' Christian since primary school but... y'know... but I still wanted to find a way to send out a message across the beach, and hopefully as much of British Forces Cyprus as possible, that this guy was with me - at least for today.

Fuck it, I pulled off my T-shirt and skinned down my shorts leaving me in my yellow teeny-bikini that went so well with my blonde hair. I lay on the towel and started to rub the sunscreen across my legs.

"I can help you with that," said the deep voice I was beginning to really get into and his shadow fell across me I looked up, "Bloody hell Chrissie," he said, kneeling down on his towel and handing me a bottle of chilled Keo beer, "you are fucking gorgeous!"

I grinned and sipped from my beer.

"Thanks Chris!" I gabbled back to him then caught my breath, "Looking pretty fucking amazing yourself mate."

He took the bottle of sunscreen from the towel beside me and indicated I should roll over. I giggled a bit when the cool liquid hit the small of my back but pulled my hair out of the way for him to do his thing and rub the liquid into my back and shoulders.

Me, his old mate Christina, the only person in the world that got to call me Chrissie, except for the very last time we spoke at school and he'd growled at me...

I stopped myself, that really did seem to be all forgotten and this morning we were the hot couple on the beach, more so when he rubbed sunscreen across my back, all the way down to the string of my briefs at the crest of my bottom - oooooooooh yeah...

Then I did the same to him.

After a few hours of working on our tans and some swimming, Chris declared himself hungry and we headed for one of the beach cafés. Because of all the British Ex-pats and service personnel around the place the selection of food was good and also recognisable. Chris may have been a degree-qualified Sports Nutritionist, but the Royal Marine just leapt out of him and we had huge plates of burgers and fries and mugs of tea.

It was fantastic, and we sat in the shade at probably the hottest part of the Mediterranean day, looking cool in our sunglasses and our beachwear (what there was of it), I'd shaken my hair out of my usual off-duty pony tail and worn my big sunglasses, hopefully enough to make my appearance different enough from the tan-uniformed policewoman that stood, walked and drove around the island on patrol, arrested people, carried out investigations and took statements, and while I did see the occasional set of eyeballs mentally undressing me on duty, I'd rather not make it easier for them.

It was just the weirdest feeling, I was walking around with my oldest friend in the sexiest bikini I owned - had EVER owned - but it was as if the years hadn't passed and his Mum had driven us to the beach as she had done so many times and was sat in a deck chair in her sexy black swimming costume, under an umbrella with one of the dozens of paperbacks she ploughed through, his younger brother sat next to her with ice cream, bucket and spade and a colouring book.

And my Christian sat next to me, he hadn't looked movie star hot in those days of course but he was still 'mine'.

We went back to the café just chatting and sipping at one of my favourite wines of the island and snacking on olives and hot bread rolls. As the afternoon crept on and cooled we wandered back to the beach and we swam for a while before dressing and jumping on the bus and heading back to the Sovereign base that we all called home.

At the bus stop we agreed that after a shower we would meet at the accommodation and then decide on what to do for the evening. Annoyingly we were told by one of the team that because of some grief in the town the night before and some not-so-veiled-threats, while we weren't necessarily 'on duty' the entire CJPU still on site was gated just in case some threatened aggravation between our two infantry battalions on the island became more than a slagging match.

At a little before seven I was in my room and dressing up, we were due meet in the Mess and have a few beers while the big TV played some 'Star Wars' DVD's.

I'd done my make-up and hair with Penny's assistance and she seemed delighted at the change in me and that I wanted to make some extra effort for someone, and I figured I was looking pretty hot in some skinny jeans and a fitted T-shirt.

She reached onto our top drawer and took out some condoms.

"We aren't that close Penny!"

"Not that close YET!" she said, "and you'll be pretty pissed if you don't have any and need them!"

I'd lived at the Sovereign Base about seven months and hadn't even thought about sex with anyone and had no idea where that particular process could be carried out without getting in the shit with my various senior ranks but like Penny had pointed out, I'd hate for us to get that far and not have the necessary.

I'd managed it at Bastion with Rodge but it all seemed a lot easier there, the camp was larger than the town I came from, held thousands of troops and their vehicles, had one of the busiest airports in that world that I occasionally worked in and even had its own bus service.

There always seemed be somewhere to go and I think that the aircrew, especially the heli-crews, were given a certain amount of leeway because of the nature of their jobs and the stresses and strains of the dangerous flying they did; add to that Rodge had a bit of a reputation for going off on people, we were never disturbed.

But here at the base (it was smaller than Bastion) was very much a town and there wasn't the number of rooms or facilities around that were unlocked. Besides while I really had the hots for Chris I wanted any moment we might have to be really special and somewhere between the romance and intensity of my previous lovers. I wanted the initial romance and sweetness I had with John and later with Paul - before he dumped me, with the sexy energy and passion of Rodge - without the punch-ups and tantrums.

"Wow," I heard a voice that brought me back to the moment and the area outside of his block, "Chrissie, you look just as amazing dressed as you do half naked!"

I turned, it was Chris and looking gorgeous! He had on just an ordinary pair of jeans and a tight Polo shirt.

"Looking good yourself Chris," I said walking across to him and popping my hands on his shoulders to reach up and kiss his cheek, figuring it was OK and could still be considered harmless.

My discussion with Sean and the girls the night before that we had been at school together had circulated over lunch and dinner and we were asked questions.

I was pretty sure that Penny wouldn't tell about my 'other' school activities but did jokingly throw in that I'd been the school bully because the Marine looked so fucking huge and strong. He was even kind enough to throw in the occasional 'sorry Chrissie' and look at me like he was still scared.

We had a TV projector and screen in the bar and a surround sound system which made our movie nights a bit special. We drank a few beers, no more than two each, mixed in with soft drinks and some bar snacks, hanging around until midnight and we were sent back to our various accommodations just in case we needed to tip out at two o'clock and a few hundred pissed grunts all kicking off.

It didn't happen and I had a good night's sleep, waking up at work o'clock on Sunday morning and we met in the cookhouse again. Chris was quite sweet about our banter of the night before and I suggested that we head back to the beach and he suggested we stay by the pool.

I agreed to that but pointed out that if I was in my swimsuit or a bikini the whole 'HBS' thing would happen around the unit and I'd be the subject of lots of leching by many of the boys and at least one of the girls that all had access to our pool. I told him about 'Hotel Bravo Sierra'.

He looked cross on my behalf,

"Really?!" I nodded, "We'll go to the beach, easy."

"If that's OK Chris," I said softly. I hoped I was putting across that I only really wanted him to be looking at me in very little clothing.

"Of course Chrissie, while I can't blame anyone for looking at you half naked, if you're not comfortable then let's not go. Is there anywhere else you'd like to go instead?"

Awwwwwww cuuuuuuuute!?!

"No!" I jumped in quick, "The beach will be fine, like we did yesterday, bit of a sunbathe, some swimming, bit of lunch, it was so lovely."

That day was much like the one before and we chatted more about our lives after school and in the service and he was kind enough to spread sunscreen across my back for me again, and this time it was more of a massage, and he explained what he was doing. Christ but it was hot and I was at the point of asking if the cheeky sod actually knew how wonderful it was, and telling him how much he was turning me on and if so was he doing it on purpose!