[for Britta]

[wingerguarantee]

Getting away from the party had been apparently a good idea, as the bad mood he'd been in before had mostly lifted. Granted, he'd give Britta that her coming along probably had more to do with it, despite her insistence on being contrary on just about everything they'd talked about. Ending up on the beach was a bit of an inevitability - there wasn'

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[wingerguarantee]

"Well the bailing part is because you hang out with the wrong people," he grinned, waggling his eyebrows for effect. He'd saved her from a night of drunk people demanding alcohol from her. He was more than happy to have his own bad habits transfer to other people. "Or the right people is more accurate, because seriously, waitressing? Why is that even needed at parties like that? Beyond getting served by someone attractive in a nice dress, obviously."

Jeff was dimly aware of the compliment that had sort of just slipped out, but whatever, it was true. He also knew the whole 'I'm not doing things' issue was probably bothering her, for reasons beyond his own understanding (especially when he was, for all intents and purposes, pretty close to drunk). He was very rarely hit by guilt of any kind, ever, which worked out great for him. After a sigh, he leaned back himself, his elbows sinking into the sand. "Honestly, who cares why you did it? You think people would be doing what they do out of the kindness of their hearts if a money system was ever created? Take a second job even if they're already doing a meal for the entire island? I doubt anyone is that good."

[fakejaded]

Even if it was nothing new, knowing Jeff thought she was hot - or, anyway, had for a long time, though these days it was more in the accepted fact way, not a distracting, active way - the reminder was more welcome than Britta cared to admit. It had been way too long since compliments had come from any quarter, and anyway, right now, half-drunk, it was harder to pretend it didn't mean more from him. She'd been overstating the truth, she knew, when she'd said all that crap about loving him, but right now, when he was dressed up and calling her attractive and soothing her guilty conscience, she found it more difficult to suppress that old attraction that she'd done so well tucking away.

He had a point, too, she had to admit. The people here were nice, but surely no one was that nice, even if she wished she were. But then, actually being that nice mostly just meant getting stepped on. It was a tough call, and honestly, sorting out the hows and whys of other people's lives and her own guilty conscience was way beyond her sobriety level right now. Either way, what she settled on as she looked over, smiling, was, "You like my dress?"

[wingerguarantee]

It was a welcome change of topic. Jeff's view of people was always going to be dim - he'd seen enough to know most people weren't saints, or even close to being one. There was only so many ways he could make that clear, and what he said apparently was the right thing. And now he was expected to do it again, except he was in far more familiar territory.

"I'm surprised you could get something that nice around here," he said, though it wasn't really the dress he was focused on. Leaning a little closer, like he was planning on telling her a secret, he added, "You're head-turning in it."

[fakejaded]

Even as she smiled and took that to heart, Britta scoffed and shook her head. In a less honest mood, she might simply have said she knew and moved on. "Please," she said, "the only heads I've turned in months have belonged to a gay guy and a seventeen-year-old."

She'd been flattered anyway, of course, but that didn't mean anything. Apparently she was just fabulous enough for gay dudes and teenagers were attracted to everyone. She hadn't wanted him to know he was doing better in that regard, though, not really, but then, that was the thing with Jeff; he was probably the closest friend she had, even now, and that on its own made it easy to blurt out the wrong thing, and she was good at that naturally as it was. She pulled a face, dragging her now empty glass through the sand as she looked up again.

[wingerguarantee]

He hadn't actually pulled back after he spoke, hovering in what probably was beyond a normal comfort zone. She obviously wasn't really comprehending what he was saying (because he definitely didn't fall under gay or teenager), and words were getting really boring. So when she looked back over, he did what seemed like the natural next step.

It wasn't hard to close what little room there was between them (despite the awkward angle, since they were still sitting next to each other). If he was sober, there might've been a little hesitation, a little 'hey, maybe this is a terrible idea'. Instead, he barely even thought twice about acting on what he'd been wanting to do all night (and, if he was honest, for a while - since the first time, maybe) and kissed her.

[fakejaded]

Britta pulled back ever so slightly, drawing in a breath like she was getting ready to protest, then leaned into it anyway. This was a bad idea, she knew that, and she'd say as much eventually, she was intent on doing so, but it had been such a long damn time and kissing Jeff came so easily. More so, really, than she would have liked at some other time, but then, she'd always been good at falling into bad habits.

"What are we doing?" she asked. Right then, though, it was simple to think there was no reason not to keep going, bad idea or not. Maybe last time had turned out terrible, but she'd had months to get over the embarrassment and over him; there was no reason this couldn't be totally meaningless or something, which was all the more reason to just kiss him again.

[wingerguarantee]

The question took a second to sink in, and the fact that they stopped took even longer. He hadn't actually thought ahead beyond what he'd just done, nor did he plan on what to do if it turned out she didn't want him to do it.

"I think kissing is pretty straight-forward, do I really need to explain it to you?" he asked, letting out a quiet huff of a laugh. He wasn't drunk enough to not realize she was being serious, but the joke slipped out regardless. He was tempted to just do it again, to skip anything resembling a conversation (this was the kind of thing that they were supposed to be talking about after they did this, when he was hungover as hell - of course Britta would do this backwards), but he knew it'd probably make it worse.

He still didn't pull away, despite knowing he probably ought to give them room. He'd felt her kiss back for a minute there, he couldn't have been alone in this. "We're alone, you are very, very attractive, and I've wanted to do that for a while. Is there a problem?"

It was never his style to think too deeply about things like what they were doing, and he had assumed - from how she'd been after their first time - that she was the same way.

[fakejaded]

There probably were problems, and later Britta would be able to list off about a dozen of them, but right now thinking beyond the moment was both difficult and unwanted. The idea that he'd been wanting to do that was bewildering in a way she knew it shouldn't have been; it was just how things worked between them, it didn't mean anything, but she was too intoxicated not to try to ascribe some meaning to it. For better or worse, she was also too tipsy to find any.

"No," she said, "no problem." Not right now, at least. Annie would probably kill them, but that just meant Annie didn't have to know. "It's probably a really bad idea, but there's no problem." So she kissed him again, because right now, even she wasn't sure why exactly it was such a bad idea. They both wanted it, they were adults, they could kiss each other without problems, and at least he wasn't bursting into tears like the last guy she'd kissed.

[wingerguarantee]

Any attempt at talking sense was barely heard because, unsurprisingly, Jeff didn't care. He honestly didn't, beyond the part where she was okay with what he did. He certainly wasn't going to stop her from kissing him, which was fairly obvious when his immediate response was to deepen it, a hand coming to rest against her neck.

He was also well aware where they still were, and while having sex on the study group table had been workable, the idea of continuing any of this on the beach just sounded uncomfortable. And dirty. And he was still in his good suit, a fact no amount of alcohol would make him forget.

"Hut's over there," he murmured when there was a moment long enough for him to say it, his gaze flicking toward it over her shoulder. It was hint enough where he thought they should move this to.

[fakejaded]

"What?" Britta asked, mostly because it, in fact, actually took her a moment to process what he was saying, caught up as she was in the whole kissing bit, but once she did, she glanced over in the indicated direction. At this point, she couldn't quite remember what she had been protesting to begin with. She and Jeff were pretty good at this, if memory served, and it had been forever since she'd gotten laid; why would she say no?

Okay, there were a lot of reasons, but none of them seemed especially potent right now.

"Yeah," she said, "okay, yeah. Sex on the beach is not all it's cracked up to be." Been there, done that, she was not picking the sand out of everything again.

[wingerguarantee]

"Someone knows from experience," he murmured, a smirk briefly lifting. That he'd done the same once wasn't really the point (and had a similar reaction), but he as glad she agreed anyway. Standing up (and being a bit wobbly while doing so), he then offered her his hand to help her up as well.