Chapter 4

Leah spent the early part of Saturday morning sitting at the table on the balcony watching the sun come up over the ocean. She had trouble sleeping last night but she put it down to excitement of the competition nearing and the fact that she had drank more wine than she had planned to at dinner the night before. She was never one of those people who fell asleep after drinking a lot of alcohol, infact she was the complete opposite and at times found she had stayed up all night at parties cleaning up after the sleeping people just to give herself something to do. On the few occasions that she did manage to get to sleep she often found that she would wake up at the crack of dawn eager to get going with the days plans - this was one of those days. After what seemed like an eternity watching the sun come up Leah got the house in order and organised all her things to take to the contest with her before cooking up some breakfast for her and Josh. She decided it would be best to have the food ready before waking him up because Josh was definitely not a morning person. Feeling brave Leah hammered on his door and shouted “Wakey wakey!” only to receive an aggressive reply of “Fuck Off!” Followed by deathly silence then a thud she realised he had stopped complaining to smell the food then had dived out of bed too quickly for his still sleeping feet. Opening the door slowly, Leah found him lying in a heap unsure whether to hold his feet or his nose. He had dived out of bed so fast he stubbed his toe on the bedside cabinet and flew into the wardrobe whacking his nose. She couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. His toes were just bruised but when Leah cleaned up his nose he was mortified when she had told him he would have to keep a plaster over the cut - Josh being Josh only had plasters that were bright blue with Disney characters on them. Breakfast seemed to fly by with Leah bursting into a fit of the giggles every time she saw Josh take a bite out of something with his cute plaster stuck to his nose. After washing up, Leah gathered her things and headed to the beach alongside a rather reluctant Josh who had needed a lot of encouragement to even stick his head out the front door.

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Jon and Dot had also got up early today. After having something to eat they had headed into town to take in the sights - not wanting to be accused of only seeing sand the whole time they were in Hawaii. As much as they were impressed by the place, both of them were eager to get back to the beach to watch the contest and to catch up with Leah and Josh again. As they strolled onto the beach they both seemed to see Leah at the same time, both enthusiastically pointing at the same time which made Dot laugh but Jon blush since he thought it looked like some sort of bad tourists dance. He thought it odd that on a beach of thousands they both managed to point her out but as they got closer he decided to put it down to the fact that she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She was sunbathing beside her board wearing a simple black bikini that looked great on her, then again most things looked great on her, she had a body that some women would kill for. Sensing she was being watched she turned around to see Dot and Jon heading over and waved at them. Dot was wearing a brown bikini top with a pretty little summer skirt and Jon only had on a pair of blue and white shorts. Leah thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head when she saw the mans body up close. Wow, Dot is one hell of a lucky lady, she thought, who ever said there’s no such thing as perfection? She felt it a struggle to peel her eyes away from the ripples of muscle that covered his perfectly toned stomach and seeing him smile again sent shivers down her spine, he had to be the best looking man she had ever seen.

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Leah jumped up to greet them and made some space for them to get comfortable. After a short period of pleasant conversation Jon asked where Josh had got to. Pulling towels out of the way, Leah uncovered a mans body to the other side of her then removed a hat that was lying over Josh’s face. “He had a bit of an accident today and was a bit embarrassed coming out here,” Leah answered with a grin before bursting into laughter at the look on Jon and Dot’s face trying to work out what was stuck to Josh’s nose. Josh didn’t know where to look as his face turned scarlet, “If she hadn’t started cooking while I was still sleeping then I would still be in one piece.”
“Well Mr, if you taught one side of your brain to communicate with the other then you wouldn’t have so many accidents,” Leah replied causing Jon and Dot to start laughing. “You really done that to yourself just by trying to eat breakfast?” Jon asked attempting to cover up the laughter in his voice.
“It wasn’t my fault! She’s too happy in the mornings it’s some sort of curse. I’ve been injured everyday since she’s been here. Can you believe my welcome was a stab in the belly with a fork?” With this news and the expression on Leah’s face Jon doubled over laughing, “I can’t wait to take you on tour! Why don’t you start tomorrow instead of next week? Unless you have other plans?”
“Really?” This had surprised Leah but she was more than willing to start early and they agreed the times and arrangements for meeting up tomorrow night in New York.

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“Would contestant numbers 390, 443, 293 and 398 please approach the judges and get ready to compete we are ready for you now,” shouted an Australian accent through the speakers.
“You made it!” Josh had jumped in the air at hearing Leah’s number getting shouted out to compete in the woman’s finals attracting attention from at least half the beach who were looking at him like he was an escapee from the local funny farm. She had already taken part in the smaller rounds before Jon and Dot had joined them on the beach but didn’t bother to mention it as she hadn’t felt she done enough to get through to the finals. Felling slightly embarrassed she made her way through the beach with many people shouting good luck messages to her. Josh filled Dot and Jon in on the details about what would happen now and how the points system worked in the contest. As Leah took to the water and the final began the three of them stood and cheered her, Jon pleased that Josh was attracting all the attention because of how stupid he looked which left him being able to blend in for a change. Leah and the other contestants were making a meal of the waves giving it all they had until the alarm sounded to tell them it was all over. Within 5 minutes the judges had came to a decision and announced Leah Mendez as the new World Champion. She was gob smacked. Even more so when Josh came out of nowhere charging towards her and knocking her flat on her back closely followed by Dot and Jon who each congratulated her with a big hug.

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Leah couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the night. She still couldn’t believe she had won the whole thing and there was even a party in her honour that the four of them had gone to. Her head was buzzing from both winning the contest and from the excitement of starting her new project tomorrow. People she had never met before were throwing drink in her direction all night making it almost impossible to stay sober but she managed to for the first half of the night wanting a clear head for tomorrow but after Jon and Dot gave in and started drinking she couldn’t resist any longer. The four of them sat in a booth in the club enjoying each others company until the late hours of the morning before they said their goodbyes and they all staggered home to bed.