The Banker's Holiday

Day 1

ERICA SKIPPED to the next track on her iPhone and looked out of the window. The sun glinted off the waves thousands of feet below whilst the odd puffy wisp of cloud passed by underneath them. They'd just started their descent. It wouldn't be long now: in just over three hours they would be on the ground and the real start to the summer holidays. Just the stopover in Miami and then the short hop to Owen Roberts airport to go.

Her excitement was mounting. She thought of beaches, barbecues and parties but mostly about boys. Tall boys, blonde boys, bronzed boys, smiling boys, near naked, board-shorted, muscled boys still dripping from a cooling dip in the sea. She felt a gorgeous tingle at the thoughts.

Erica had been to the Cayman Islands several times before, but only for a week or two. This time Daddy had been marvellous and they were spending almost the entire summer vacation there – six weeks – although Daddy would have to work for a couple of those, it was part of the deal: work and holiday.

For Erica it was a perfect break between Year 11 and her final year and she knew many of her friends were so jealous. They would be even more jealous with her tales of beach parties and adventures with boys. There would be a lot of those. They were staying on the southern end of Seven Mile Beach. Seven whole miles of beach and boys!

Six weeks was plenty of time for a serious romance and that was her aim. Who knows, maybe two romances? That would be one in the eye for Priscilla, who thought she was God's Gift to the male of the species. Not everybody would have such long holidays she reasoned, so two, even three romances were possible, although maybe it would be better with a local boy and just one long luxurious romance, as all the shy preliminaries would cut down on the actual loving time with more than one romance. Besides, she wasn't a tart like Jo. Plenty of time though to spend a few days finding the best places, with the best hunks and making herself look totally desirable for the right boy.

She smiled to herself as she thought about holding court back at school and relating all the intimate details. The looks on their faces, the shock, the giggles, the questions to which she would have all the answers, given out slowly, keeping them all on the edge of their seats. Imparting the secrets of her seduction skills and the wisdom of her carnal knowledge.

That part was a little hazy in her imagination. Of course she'd kissed a boy. Three times. Three different boys. The first two pecks on the lips, but last month at the Year 11 dance, Miles Taylor from the boy's school had kissed her and their tongues had slithered past each other's, then he'd squeezed her breast. The excitement was brief, because she'd spotted Miss Woods' roving eye cast their way and hurriedly dragged him off to the refreshment table, where that strumpet Jo had snaffled him for a dance before she could stop her. Bitch. So that, to date, was the limit of her sexual experience.

The opportunities were scarce. Most of the year she was at school, and social events where there were boys, rare. In the holidays they were either abroad, or split the time between their country house and their London one. The country was a small village, in the middle of nowhere, although she'd managed two of her kisses with village boys, but there was not a huge choice and it was Rumoursville. She knew hardly anybody in London and was rarely allowed out on her own beyond the locale.

It was largely the same for all of them. The senior girls were allowed to go out in to the town once every two weeks on Saturday afternoons, but that didn't leave a lot of time. You were with friends and there were shops to see and gossip to swap with girls from other houses. Erica had had that privilege for a year and it was good to get out of school. Unfortunately Miss Woods had seen fit to make sure Jessica, her one true good friend, was in town on alternate weeks to Erica, so that put a dampener on things. A couple of years ago a girl had snuck out in the evening, but been seen in the town and expelled, although since she was a troublemaker that was probably the last straw. The school was in any case several miles outside of the town.