A Birthday In The Buff by GreenandGolden..,

“You better not be peeking under there!”

Lilly squinted her eyes tighter shut under the silk blindfold, gripping Cathy’s arm tighter too as she stumbled over the uneven terrain.

“How much longer? I wore Jimmy Choo’s for today, and they weren’t made for blind hiking.”

She heard her friends chuckle around her, but her question went unanswered.

The sun baked down on her bared shoulders, and she mused that she’d have interesting tan lines from the criss-crossed back of her strappy red dress.

Lilly had picked it out specifically for her birthday.

‘My flirty 30’s are over. Go out with a bang…fuckable 40’s maybe?’

The dress scooped low at the neckline, and even lower at the back. It also came down mercifully low to her knees but besides that it had still been the most revealing outfit she had worn in many years; cinching in her small waist with a web of thin spaghetti straps interlacing at her lower back.

The scarlet hue brought out the warm copper in her otherwise chocolate brown locks, and sharply contrasted the forest green of her eyes.

The saleswoman had described it as ‘knockout’.

It wasn’t every year she turned 40, and after two kids and one failed marriage, her relationship with her own self-worth and self-esteem had been rocky. It had been 8 long months of depression, ice cream, determination, diet shakes and CrossFit…In that exact order. The ups and downs had landed her roughly the same weight as before the divorce, at 10.5st, and she had finally settled down into the comfort of ‘this is just me’.

With ample breast and arse, and a naturally tight waist, she would comfortably fit into the ‘hourglass’ category. She didn’t have the flawless skin of old Hollywood bombshells, nor the perfect rosey button nipples-and god knows she had tried and failed to kill her ‘fupa’ with crunches-but she loved the skin she was in.

She had ditched a wardrobe of frumpy high neck tops and ill-fitting jeans, and spent a considerable chunk of her Christmas pay check on an entirely new, figure-hugging wardrobe. Her ‘butterfly wardrobe’ as she had coined it to her friends.

‘I’ve been the sad little caterpillar, and now I’m emerging from the chrysalis of this shitstorm, to reveal my beautiful butterfly self’

The entire speech had been fuelled by a late night margarita happy hour, but the sentiment was still genuine.

“Ow fuck…I think I’m getting a blister Cath.”

“We’re nearly there! Jesus. I’ll carry you the last 5 minutes if it means you’ll stop complaining!” Jack spoke up from behind, with mock exasperation.

“You said this was brunch…brunch doesn’t require a hike!”

“It is brunch. I swear on my life it’s brunch. You said you wanted brunch so here we are…I mean it’s a special brunch obviously because we couldn’t just go get mimosas in Browns like every other weekend for your big birthday.”

‘Brunch’ didn’t even sound like a word to Lilly anymore.

“Okay but special how? I’m not good with surprises! How long have you known me.”

“GOD! Take the blindfold off her Cathy before she gives me an aneurysm. We’re fucking here ok!”

The silk fabric was slipped free and Lilly stood before a large wooden sign adorned with a halo of wildflowers.

‘Nude day 2022

Meet-and-greet mixer’

Her whoop of incredulous laughter was resounding amongst the expectant silence of her friends, their bright smiles and raised eyebrows all directed towards her.

“Nude?!…wait, I don’t think I understand.”

“You said you wanted to do something big for 40,” Melanie giggled from Lilly’s left.

“Yer I meant I’d book a skydive or get my belly button pierced or something…”

“We can do that too, but for today…”

“So…I’m having lunch with a load of naked people?”

“Brunch Lilly,” Jack scoffed.

“But with naked people?”

“Yep! Lots of them. The nudist society holds this taster session every year. You were doing your ‘new, confident me’ thing and Cathy thought it fit the bill,” Jack continued.

“And you might even meet someone…would be nice to see them without their kit on before the first date ey?” Kate interrupted from behind.

Lilly barked out another laugh, in lieu of the words she couldn’t find.

“So…are you up for it?”

“I…guess so! But…wait, do we have to literally all be naked too!?”

Lilly hadn’t thought it through until that moment; focusing only on the prospect of a crowd of naked people, and not on her own impending nudity.

“What did you expect?”

“I just…I don’t know! I spent £90 on this fucking dress.”

“You spent even more on that personal trainer, so show that off instead! Come on Lil, when will you ever do this again? Better to do it now rather than saving it for the 50th when everything will have gone south,” Jack spoke up again, reaching a hand out to grasp Lilly’s shoulder reassuringly.

She cast her eyes across the group; barely contained glee on some faces, and mild regret on others.

Despite the fact that her friends had been gathered from far and wide-work colleagues, old school buddies, neighbours, and one sister of an ex-boyfriend-they had gravitated to each other. She stood as the keystone of the group; the curator of her ‘little gallery of weirdos’ that had grown to love each other as they had.

“Come on…just say fuck it,” Jack egged her on.

‘There’s being proud of your body…and then there’s this’

She took one deep breath, and nodded, not letting herself think any more about the reality of a nudist event, for fear of talking herself out of it.

“I haven’t even shaved my fanny, but fuck it.”

– – –

Ten minutes later the group stood at the checkpoint.

They had been directed down a narrow path cut directly into the woods. Underfoot was a level layer of short soft grass, littered with yellow and blue wildflowers, and lining either side of the path was a row of unlit lanterns. Above their heads was a thick shady umbrella of dark foliage, sharp beams of yellow sunlight cutting through the trees, and the gentle melody of distant songbirds.

“They use this for weddings sometimes,” Cathy answered Lilly’s unspoken question regarding the beautiful scenery.

The path had led to an incongruous set of port-a-potty style changing rooms (which seemed entirely pointless to Lilly), and a row of lockers. Two young ‘event officials’ had explained that the group would de-robe, store their belongings, and continue down the path to the entrance. They were to leave their phones and only take essentials. Nudity was ‘non-negotiable’, and those who wished to remain clothed wouldn’t be allowed access, and would be directed to upcoming ‘clothing-optional’ events.

Lilly mused that for a ‘taster’ session, it was a baptism of fire.

The officials were clothed, to the group’s surprise, but Melanie pointed out that it may be to discreetly redirect hikers who could wander onto the path accidentally, or those looking to surreptitiously and illegally photograph the event. This did however make it all the more jarring for Lilly, when her friends began to regroup from the changing rooms. She had seen some of them naked at spas in the past, and quite frankly, Jack got his clothes off at any and every opportunity, but still, Lilly found it stranger than she had thought she would.