Page 12 of Swinging for the Deep End

“I’m confused. I just drove over-”

“You’ll be paid for the day,” I say. “No worries about that. Go call Tony. Tell him.”

“Cutter,” Nicholas says. I must have given him a death look right then… “Mr. Buckley?”

“I can’t make it any more clear,” I say to him. “You are not walking into that gym with me. Okay?”

I slam my door shut.

I realize I never grabbed my gym bag so I have to open the door again.

I reach across the seat, grab my gym bag, then slam the door again. Just to punctuate my point.

Leave me alone.

I walk across the parking lot and don’t look back.

When I enter the gym, there’s a woman behind a desk.

She stands up and smiles.

My chance of staying under the radar is gone again because I don’t have a gym membership.

So I have to tell this woman who I am.

She points at me. “Cutter Buckley.”

Okay, never mind that.

“Possibly,” I say. “Do I owe you any money?”

“Maybe just a kiss on the cheek?”

She’s an older woman but her aura is nothing but energy.

“I’m Dorothy,” she says, offering her skinny, aged hand.

I take it. Gently. “You know who I am. And why I’m here.”

“You’re alone?”

“Yes,” I say. “I don’t need a circus here.”

Dorothy lets out a Ha and shakes her head.

“What?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing. Just… it’s a little hectic here because of you.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Just making arrangements with the pool. That’s all.”

I growl inside my throat.

Dorothy offers to give me a tour but I decline.

I have no problem walking around by myself. If I want to find the pool, I’ll just follow the smell of the chlorine. The closer I get to the pool the heavier that smell is.

---