Weekend at Bare Necessities: The Unexpected Guests
You go to a nudist resort to escape your life. You don't expect your life to show up naked.
Alex and Lena had been at Bare Necessities for exactly four hours and seventeen minutes, and Alex had checked his watch at least thirty times.
The first hour had been check-in. His hand shook slightly as he signed the waiver, the pen leaving a smudged line across his signature. Marcus, their tour guide, had an aggressively friendly smile and explained etiquette like he was teaching kindergarten. "Towels are for sitting. Consent is non-negotiable. And remember, staring is for art museums, not people." The air smelled like sunscreen and chlorine and something floral Alex couldn't name. It made his stomach turn.
The second hour had been sitting in their room, both of them dressed, neither of them moving. The air conditioning hummed. Lena picked at a thread on her towel. Alex stared at the wall.
"We paid for this," Alex had said finally.
"I know," Lena replied.
"So we should..."
"I know."
The third hour had been walking to the pool area, towels clutched like shields, their footsteps crunching on gravel. Alex's throat was dry. His heart hammered against his ribs. They moved like they were approaching a firing squad.
The fourth hour had been sitting by the pool, naked, not looking at each other, not looking at anyone else, just staring at the water like it held answers. The sun was warm but Alex felt cold. Exposed. Every nerve ending screaming.
"This was a terrible idea," Lena said quietly.
"Give it time," Alex said, not believing himself.
"How much time."
"I don't know."
Lena stood. "I'm getting a drink. You want anything."
"Water's fine."
She walked toward the juice bar, and Alex watched her go, feeling the weight of every bad decision that had led them here.
He was about to follow her when he heard it.
A laugh. Familiar. Impossible.
Alex's entire body locked. His heart stopped, then kicked into overdrive. His mouth went dry. Every muscle tensed.
He turned.
And there, walking through the gate with Chloe, carrying bags like they owned the place, was David.
The world tilted.
Time stretched. Alex couldn't breathe. His vision narrowed to a tunnel with David at the center of it.
David saw him at the exact same moment.
They locked eyes across thirty feet of pool deck.
David's face went white. His steps faltered. The bag slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a dull thud.
Neither of them moved.
"Oh my god," Alex whispered.
"You have got to be kidding me," David said, loud enough that Chloe looked up.
"What's wrong," Chloe started, then followed his gaze. Her eyes went wide. "Oh. Oh wow."
Lena returned with two bottles of water, saw Alex's face, followed his stare. "Who is that."
"David," Alex said. His voice sounded far away. "From the gym."
"Your gym buddy David."
"Yeah."
"The one you..."
"Yeah."
Lena's expression shifted. Something clicked into place. Her jaw tightened. She looked at Alex, then at David, then back at Alex. She did not say anything. She did not need to.
For a long moment, all four of them just stood there, frozen in a tableau of mutual horror and disbelief.
Finally, Chloe broke the silence. She walked over, hand extended, completely unbothered by the absurdity of the situation.
"Hi. I'm Chloe. And this is... well. This is incredibly awkward."
Lena laughed despite herself and shook Chloe's hand. "Lena. And yeah. Understatement."
The men had not moved. They stood ten feet apart, both naked, both desperately trying to figure out how to be normal about this. Alex could feel his pulse in his throat. David's hands were clenched at his sides.
"So," David said finally. His voice was tight. "You're here."
"Yeah," Alex said. "You too."
"Third time actually."
"Oh."
The silence that followed was excruciating.
"You know what," Chloe said brightly, turning to Lena. "The juice bar has amazing smoothies. Want to grab one and let these two figure out how to have a conversation like adults?"
Lena looked at Alex. Then at David. Then back at Chloe. "Yes. Absolutely. Let's go."
At the juice bar, Chloe ordered a mango smoothie. Lena asked for whatever was cold.
They stood side by side, watching the blender whir, neither of them speaking.
"So," Chloe said finally. "This is weird."
"Yeah."
"How much did you know? Before today?"
Lena took a breath. "I knew Alex wanted to come here. I knew he'd been... distracted. Looking at Instagram a lot. I didn't know it was because of David."
Chloe nodded slowly. "David's been worried about Alex finding out we come here. Terrified, actually. He was convinced Alex would mock him at the gym."
"Alex doesn't mock people."
"No. But he doesn't talk about his feelings either. Does he."
Lena looked at her. "No. He doesn't."
The blender stopped. The bartender handed them their drinks.
"David told me about the gym," Chloe continued. "How Alex always seems so confident. So sure of himself. David idolizes him a little, I think. It drives me crazy."
"Alex stalks David's Instagram," Lena said flatly. "He saw your posts from here. That's why we came."
Chloe's eyes widened. "Wait. He brought you here because..."
"Because he saw David had the guts to do it and he needed to prove he could too." Lena took a long sip of her smoothie. "I'm married to a man who measures himself against everyone. Including your husband. And I didn't even know until right now."
They were both quiet for a moment.
"Men are idiots," Chloe said.
"Agreed."
They looked over at the pool. Alex and David were sitting on adjacent loungers, talking. Not laughing yet. But talking.
"You want to go back over there?" Chloe asked.
"Not yet," Lena said. "Let them squirm a little longer."
Chloe smiled. "I like you."
"I like you too."
Back at the pool, the women gone, Alex and David sat in excruciating silence.
"Third time," Alex said finally.
"Yeah."
"You didn't mention that. At the gym."
"Didn't come up."
"Right."
David sat down on a lounger. After a moment, Alex sat on the one next to him. His hands were shaking. He gripped his knees to steady them.
"So," David said. "What are you really doing here."
Alex opened his mouth. Closed it. The truth sat on his tongue, heavy and sharp.
"Lena and I," he started. "We needed... something. I don't know. I thought this might help."
"Help with what."
"Connection. I guess."
David nodded slowly. He looked at Alex, really looked, and saw it. The same thing he had felt scrolling through Alex's Instagram at 2:47 in the morning. The same inadequacy. The same desperate need to measure up.
"You saw my posts," David said. It was not a question.
Alex flinched. "Yeah."
"And you thought..."
"I thought you had something figured out. Something I didn't."
David laughed, bitter and sharp. "Man. I spend half my time at the gym thinking you have everything figured out. Your lifts. Your confidence. The way you just... exist without apologizing for it."
"Are you serious."
"Dead serious."
They sat in silence, the weight of that admission settling between them.
"This is insane," Alex said finally.
"Yeah."
"We're sitting here naked having an existential crisis about who's more insecure."
"Yeah."
"And our wives are over there probably becoming best friends while we..."
"Yeah."
They both started laughing. Not polite laughter. Real, uncontrolled, absurd laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.
When they finally stopped, David wiped his eyes. "Okay. So. We're here. Both of us. For whatever reasons. Might as well make the best of it."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. But Alex."
"What."
"If you came here to compete with me about who can be more zen or whatever, you're gonna be disappointed. Because I'm terrible at volleyball and I sunburn in like ten minutes and last time I was here I cried during yoga."
Alex blinked. "You cried during yoga?"
"Pigeon pose, man. It's intense."
Alex felt something loosen in his chest. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay. No competing. Just... being here."
David extended his hand. "Deal."
They shook on it, two naked men making peace by a pool, while their wives watched from the juice bar.
"They're shaking hands," Lena observed.
"Men are weird," Chloe said.
"Agreed."
The weekend unfolded in fragments.
Dinner that first night. The four of them at a table, conversation stilted at first, then easier. Chloe telling stories about their first time at Sunrise Shores. David's terror. Her own. The couple from Vermont who made them feel human.
Lena listening, asking questions, her guard slowly lowering.
Alex watching David talk, seeing him differently now. Not as competition. Just as a person trying to figure things out same as everyone else.
But then someone at the next table leaned over. An older man with kind eyes and a deep tan. "First time here?"
"Yeah," Alex said.
"How'd you hear about the place?"
Alex froze. His mind went blank.
"A friend recommended it," Lena said smoothly. "Said it changed their life."
The man nodded, satisfied, and turned back to his own table.
David was watching Alex. His expression was unreadable.
Alex looked away.
Saturday morning. Coffee by the pool. Lena and Chloe deep in conversation about pottery and teaching and the specific hell of rush hour traffic on the 405.
Alex and David arguing about football. Same as always. Except now they were holding coffee mugs instead of weight plates and neither of them was wearing shorts.
"The offensive line is garbage," Alex insisted.
"You don't know what you're talking about," David shot back.
"Neither do you."
"Exactly. So we're even."
But then a man walked by. Older, fit, confident. He stopped to talk to David. "Hey, good to see you again. How's it been?"
"Great, Mike. Really great." David introduced him to Alex. "This is my buddy from the gym. First time here."
Mike shook Alex's hand. "David's a regular. Good people. You picked a good weekend to come. Weather's perfect."
Mike walked away.
Alex looked at David. "A regular."
"Yeah."
"People know you here."
"Some of them. Yeah."
Alex felt it again. That spike of something ugly. David had a whole life here. Friends. History. Belonging. And Alex was just the guy copying his homework.
He looked away, jaw tight.
Lena, across the pool, saw it. Saw the way Alex's shoulders tensed. The way his smile went forced.
She looked at Chloe. Chloe had seen it too.
Neither of them said anything.
Saturday afternoon. Volleyball. Chaotic, terrible, hilarious. Nobody keeping score. David missing every serve. Alex tripping over his own feet. The women crushing them both.
"You're bad at this," Chloe called out.
"We're aware," David yelled back.
For a moment, Alex forgot. Forgot why they were here. Forgot the Instagram posts and the jealousy and the competition. He was just playing a stupid game with people who didn't care if he won or lost.
It felt good.
Until he looked over and saw David laughing with a stranger. Easy. Unguarded. The way Alex never laughed.
And just like that, the weight was back.
Saturday night. Hot tub. All four of them. The conversation had turned philosophical in that way conversations do after dark when you're comfortable and slightly drunk on too much sun.
"Can I ask you something," Lena said, looking at David and Chloe. "Why do you keep coming back."
Chloe and David exchanged a glance.
"It's the only place I don't feel like I'm performing," David said quietly. "Everywhere else, I'm trying to be stronger or smarter or funnier or something. Here, I just... am."
"Same," Chloe added. "It's not about the nudity, really. It's about everything that comes off with the clothes. The expectations. The comparisons. All of it."
Lena was quiet for a long time. "I didn't want to come here," she said finally. "Alex basically had to convince me. And I spent the whole drive here convinced this was the worst idea we'd ever had."
"And now?" Chloe asked.
Lena looked at Alex. Really looked at him. "Now I'm just trying to figure out why it took getting naked with strangers for us to start being honest."
Alex felt that land in his chest like a weight dropping.
Lena wasn't done. "I've been sitting here all weekend watching you watch him." She nodded toward David. "Wondering when you were going to actually look at me."
The hot tub went silent.
David and Chloe exchanged a glance. David stood. "We should... give you two some space."
"No," Lena said. Her voice was calm. Controlled. "Stay. I want witnesses."
Alex's stomach dropped.
"Alex came here because of you," Lena said to David. "He saw your Instagram posts. Saw that you'd been here. And he decided he needed to prove he could do it too."
David's face went pale. "What?"
"He's been stalking your profile for weeks. Comparing himself to you. Measuring himself against you. And when he saw you'd done this, something brave and vulnerable and real, he couldn't stand it. So he dragged me here. Not for us. For him."
Alex couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe.
"Is that true?" David asked quietly.
Alex looked at him. At Lena. At Chloe.
"Yeah," he said finally. "It's true."
The conversation drifted after that. Or tried to. But the air had changed. Chloe made an excuse about being tired. David followed her out of the hot tub. They said goodnight without meeting Alex's eyes.
Lena stayed.
Alex stayed.
"I'm sorry," Alex said finally.
"For what, exactly."
"For lying. For bringing you here for the wrong reasons. For... all of it."
"You know what the worst part is?" Lena's voice was quiet. Almost gentle. "I actually liked it here. I liked Chloe. I liked the conversations. I even liked the stupid volleyball game. But every time I started to enjoy it, I'd look over and see you watching David. Calculating. Competing. And I'd remember that this whole thing was never about me."
"It should have been."
"Yeah. It should have been."
They sat in the water. The stars overhead were bright. The night was warm. It should have been perfect.
Instead, it just felt sad.
Later that night, back in their room, Lena sat on the edge of the bed. She looked exhausted.
"You didn't come here for us," she said. Not angry anymore. Just tired. Just stating fact.
Alex sat next to her. "No."
"You came here because of David."
"Yeah."
"Because you saw his posts and felt... what. Jealous? Inferior?"
"Both."
Lena nodded slowly. "And me. Did you think about me at all when you decided this was what we needed."
Alex wanted to lie. Wanted to soften it. But something about the last two days, about sitting naked in a hot tub having real conversations, about watching David cry during yoga, about all of it, made lying impossible.
"Not enough," he said. "I was thinking about me. About what I wasn't. About proving something that didn't need proving."
"To who."
"To myself, I guess. To David. I don't even know anymore."
Lena was quiet for a long time. When she spoke again, her voice was different. Harder.
"I like Chloe. We're getting coffee next week."
"Okay."
"And I actually didn't hate this weekend. The place. The people. Even the weird conversations about hot dogs."
"Okay."
"But Alex." She turned to face him. "If we come back, and we might, I'm picking the place. And the reason. And it won't be about David or anyone else. It'll be about us. Understood?"
"Understood."
"And you need to figure out why you measure yourself against everyone. Because I can't fix that for you. And I won't compete with ghosts."
Alex nodded. "I know."
She kissed his forehead. Not affectionate. More like a benediction. Or a goodbye.
"Get some sleep. We've got brunch with them tomorrow before we leave."
Sunday morning. Brunch. Scrambled eggs and fruit and the uncomfortable silence of people who have said too much and don't know how to take it back.
"This was weird," David said finally, raising his coffee mug. The gesture felt forced.
"So weird," Alex agreed, clinking his mug against David's.
"We should do it again sometime," Chloe suggested, but her voice lacked conviction. "Maybe not here. But somewhere."
"Dinner," Lena offered. "Somewhere with clothes. I want to ease back into normal society."
They all laughed. But it didn't reach their eyes.
Goodbyes in the parking lot. Hugs that felt obligatory. Promises to text that everyone knew wouldn't happen right away.
Alex and Lena got in their car first.
For the first few miles, neither of them spoke.
Then Alex tried. "That was good, right? I mean, overall. We should definitely do that again."
Lena didn't respond. Just stared out the window.
"Lena?"
"Mm."
That was it. Just a sound. Not agreement. Not disagreement. Just acknowledgment that he'd spoken.
Alex's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
They drove in silence for another ten miles.
Then Lena said, "It was nice. Seeing them."
"Yeah," Alex agreed, relief flooding through him.
"Did you have fun."
"I did," Alex said honestly. "I actually... I liked it. Maybe we should go back again."
Lena was quiet for a moment. "We will."
Alex glanced at her, relieved.
"But to a different place," she continued, her tone still light, almost conversational. "I'll pick next time."
The words hung in the air.
Alex's hands tightened on the steering wheel.
She knew. Of course she knew.
Lena stared out the window, her expression unreadable. She didn't elaborate. Didn't accuse. Didn't need to.
The message was clear: I know why you picked this place. I know what you were chasing. That's over now.
The rest of the drive was quiet. Not angry quiet. Just the kind of silence that settles when the truth has finally been said and there's nothing left to hide behind.
Alex kept his eyes on the road, his mind running through everything. The Instagram posts. The jealousy. The stupid competition he'd built up in his head. The moment with David in the hot tub when they'd both admitted they were mirrors for each other's insecurity.
And then Lena exposing all of it in front of them.
And now Lena had seen it too. Had named it. Had taken control.
She didn't say another word the entire way home. She didn't need to.
In the quiet of the car, Alex finally understood what David had said about the nudity stripping everything away.
Lena hadn't needed to see him naked to see the truth.
She'd just needed to pay attention.
And now that she'd seen it, there was no going back to pretending.
The weight he couldn't lift wasn't in the gym.
It was the honesty he owed her.
And himself.
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