Three years ago we took one of our trips to a small, out of the way, tropical resort. Our hotel room looked out over the pool and out onto the ocean. The room was on the 5th or 6th floor, I can’t remember exactly. The balconies in our section were private and hovered almost directly over the pool so when you looked down, all you could see was the pool. You had lean your body over a bit to see sunbathers on the building side of the pool. The balconies were a solid wall (rather than open railings) and only about four feet high (not to US building codes) so likewise, no one on the building side of the pool could see you unless your upper body was hanging over your railing.
The hotel was only about ½ full and on our second day we noticed a single man move into the room next to us. We met him in the bar that evening and he told us that he was there with four college buddies for their annual scuba diving getaway. The others were in the small scuba resort next door, two to a room, and he was the odd man out. There were no additional rooms available and rather than stuffing three into a room he elected to stay in this hotel for a few nights until another opened up at their resort.
He was a very nerdy IT guy from Canada – tall, lanky, in his early thirties and very socially awkward but actually fairly good looking. He was married with three kids. For the next three nights, after he left his buddies at the dive resort, he came to our hotel bar and hung out with us. As I mentioned, we were usually in some state of inebriation and our conversations were pretty candid and often turned to sex. This made him visibly uncomfortable at times which we thought was funny and only made us get more graphic. We teased him unmercifully but being somewhat of a nerd myself, and the fact that I work with many socially awkward male engineers, I understood him and he felt comfortable with me.
The resort did not advertise that they allowed topless sunbathing but the first day we were there we noticed two young couples at the pool and both women were sunbathing topless. I followed suit (so to speak). The next day both couples seemed to had gone home but I continued to not bother with a top, even though I was the only one. The staff never said anything to me and no one seemed to care so I continued for the rest of our stay. There was another couple that we became friends with later in the week that the husband and I eventually cajoled his wife into joining me sans top.
On our fourth day there, my husband and I had a big day planned – sit by the pool and drink and read. By mid-morning I had finished one book and decided to head up to the room to get another. I ran into the room and left the door ajar. Once in the room I grabbed the book but decided to stay and have a cigarette (one of those guilty pleasures for me during vacations only). Since no one else around the pool seemed to be smoking that day, unlike others, I didn’t want to bother anyone with my smoke so I headed out onto the balcony. We had hidden a couple of joints in my cigarette pack and once on the balcony I pulled out a cigarette but pondered it a bit, put it back and took out one of the joints instead. I leaned over to wave to my husband, catching his attention while lighting up (he has a smoking fetish and loves to watch me even if it’s six floors up). After a few minutes I was feeling the buzz (the weed mixed with a few earlier Bloody Mary’s) and I heard a voice in the room which startled me. It was just our computer nerd friend poking his head in to say hi. I remembered that I had left the door open so I motioned him to come in. He quickly mentioned that he had a slight cold had which prevented him from diving that day, and as a diver myself I know you cannot clear your ears at depth with clogged sinuses.