Sex and the South Beach Chicas

1 Las Amigas Tori got lucky. She was sure that was what her friends had wanted to happen six months earlier on the night of her thirtieth birthday, only they hadn't really expected that it would. Boring and predictable Victoria Rodriguez had thrown caution aside and indulged in a night of incredible -- she wanted to say sex, only it had been more than that -- with Gil. He totally lived up to her and heramigas' requirements for the title of Extreme Boy Toy, or as he had playfully become known, Mr. PerfectPapi Chulo. His moves on the dance floor were nothing like Ricky Martin's, but his moves in bed . . . Not to mention eyes as blue as the waters in Biscayne Bay and a lean sculpted body. But what really did her in was Gil's scrumptious little boy grin that just made her want to eat him up when he used it and exposed the cutest damn dimple she'd ever seen. So now, six months later, she was not only living in sin with Gil -- albeit lusciously rewarding sin -- she was considering spending the rest of her life with him. And Gil, her PerfectPapi Chulo, appeared to feel the same way. This usually meant a ring and an engagement and a shower and a rehearsal, complete with dinner, followed by a wedding with lots and lots of friends and family, only . . . The Tori that had emerged after that big birthday night didn't want to deal with all those conventions and the problems they usually wrought. She also had concerns about her family's reaction to the news, since nothing she did ever seemed to please them. More than anything, she wanted to get heramigas' impressions on what to do. But she worried that heramigas, having just handled the defection of one of their high school friends to the bonds of holy matrimony, might not be ready for her revelation that she and Gil were thinking about making the big leap into marriage. Lost in thought, Tori slowed her pace as she walked from Gil's oceanfront condo on Collins, where she now lived, toward her friends' restaurant on Ocean Drive. Since the condo lay just beyond the end of Lummus Park, the first block was relatively free of the tourists and party animals that crowded the central portion of the Art Deco district. A strong ocean breeze blew across Lummus Park. A block away, he colorful pennants atop the Cardozo snapped with the breeze. A bit farther up, the oversized umbrellas protecting the alfresco dining area of another restaurant fluttered ominously. The breeze made it a little chilly for Tori. She slipped on her suit jacket as she passed by the mansion where Gianni Versace had once lived and died infamously. Before the black gates with the fanciful golden Versace emblems, fans and curiosity seekers posed for photos. She stayed her course along the opposite sidewalk, where there was less activity. Normally she would have turned up Thirteenth Street to meet her friends at the Washington Avenue gym where they worked out on Monday nights. But tonight Adriana and Juliana had a meeting at their restaurant, which forced them to pass on the workout, but not their usual Monday night dinner afterward. A dinner they were having at her friends' restaurant because of their prior engagement. Not that she minded. A goddess of the kitchen, Juli could make day-old bread tasty. Her skills, combined with Adriana's business savvy, had earned the nearly three-year-old restaurant its share of both local and national awards. As she strolled to their building, one of the Mediterranean Revival structures along Ocean Drive, the breeze shifted direction and blew at her back as if to hurry her along, but she took her time, enjoyinPineiro, Caridad is the author of 'Sex and the South Beach Chicas' with ISBN 9781416514886 and ISBN 1416514880.