I started. Did he realize I was staring at him?
“Huh?”
“You’re not in school anymore. Not a kid, either. No need to be so formal. Listen, I’m going to work the gate. You have the pool, okay?”
I nodded. That meant he’d be down checking passes while I sat up here, yawned and did my best to pay attention. For some reason I wasn’t allowed to swim while I was lifeguarding, so I’d bake for an hour or so until he came to relieve me and we switched places. The first few kids came in. They walked from around the neighborhood, or their mothers dropped them off. I waved and leaned on my hand and yawned as they flopped in the water.
Tomorrow, I’d have to remember to bring a book. For now I swung my legs, and watched the kids splashing around in the shallow end. The occasional daring tween would slide out into the deep end for a while before swishing back over to join the others. A couple of boys, fifteen or sixteen, showed up and finally populated the deeper side of the pool. They eyed me openly, but it was different, now. There was an invisible wall between us. I was out of their league.
It felt longer than two hours when Mister… when Jim came over, bare feet slapping on the concrete as he jogged. He nodded when he met his gaze and I started down. When my feet touched the hot concrete I yelped a little. My butt almost brushed his chest as I climbed down in front of him.
It was totally innocent. He just wanted to get up the ladder, but we were in each other’s spaces. He was very tall. My head barely came up to his chest. He swung his arm over me to grab the sides of the ladder as I slipped out from under him and I caught a whiff of his armpit. It sounds stupid, but there was a sudden flutter deep in my chest and a little flicker from between my legs as I breathed in his sweaty musk.
Then, he was over my head. Literally. I looked up at him, shading my eyes from the sun, before turning and rushing to sit at the plastic folding table by the front gate. By the time I sat down, my heart was hammering in my chest. I looked back and there he was, sitting lazily, leaning to one side, chin on his fist.
“Hey miss,” a little kid said, sliding her pass across the table.
Startled, I jumped, made a little noise, then took the pass and scribbled down the number, and slid it back. The kid handed the plastic card off to her mom and ran to the pool, shrieking in childish delight. The sound cut through my head, and I winced.
We switched off a couple more times, so by quitting time I was in the big chair again. As Jim pushed the last kids out to their waiting mothers and closed the main gate, I descended. He came back, now fully dried from the sun. HIs shorts had slid down again, and when he saw me he unconsciously tugged them up.
I caught a hint of something. A shape under the airy fabric. A hardness. Something in my middle twinged, and I bit my lip. His eyes flicked to my chin and then my eyes, and he coughed as he headed into the men’s side of the pool house to change. I didn’t bother with that. I went to my locker and got my keys.
When I walked back out, a little thought flickered, a whisper in the back of my mind. You’re all alone with him.
“Let me walk you out to the parking lot.”
I jumped, caught off guard.
“Okay,” I said.
It was a harmless, if unnecessary gesture. Nice neighborhood, broad daylight. It gave me a chance to be close to him, though. He must have showered. He smelled crisp and soapy and his hair was wet, smeared against his head. He pushed his glasses up his nose. Nothing was said until we reached my car.
Maybe it was my imagination, but as I opened my car door he took the corner in his hand and opened it for me, and moved closer. I felt his gaze, like he was touching me. On my neck, around the fringe of my hair where a few loose locks had slipped from my ponytail. On my back. My red lifeguard’s suit wasn’t as revealing as you would expect but his eyes swept over the swell of my breasts, too.
I felt… womanly.
When I sat down in the seat, heat was pooling between my legs.
“See you tomorrow,” he said.
I pulled the door shut and sat there, watching my hands tremble as I squeezed the steering wheel. I don’t remember driving home, or walking into the house. I do, but they’re just a blur. I ended up in the shower, standing under the hot water, staring at the wall.
Every time I blinked the image of him sliding out of the pool filled my mind, bringing with it a heady dizziness and a dull throb in my sex.
I leaned back on the wall and slid my hands down between my legs. The wetness there was not from the shower. My legs squeezed my hands and I bit my lip. I sank down to sit in the tub and let the water flow over me and there, curled up in a ball, I started playing with myself. I remembered seeing him in those shorts, with what I was sure was a hardon.