Page 41 of The Power Play

“So, this is how the other half lives, huh?” I joke, nudging Charlie with my shoulder.

“The pool is heated,” he says, ignoring my comment.

“I’d hope so,” I smile up at him.

He drops two towels on one of the chairs, which I’m thankful for since I didn’t remember to bring one. I start to go over to the hot tub to get in, but Charlie stops me.

“Pool first,” he says.

“Why?”

“Everyone knows youendwith the hot tub.”

I chuckle, shaking my head. “Okay, whatever you say.”

We both step into the pool and it’s the perfect temperature. I practically melt into the water, it feels so amazing surrounding me and I can’t help but moan. I catch the way Charlie’s eyes flare at the sound, but he doesn’t say anything.

“So, why’d you want to bring me up here?” I ask, moving to float on my back.

“It’s nice up here, did I have to have a specific reason?”

“I guess not. Did you just want to hang out or did you want to…hang out,” I glance over at him to make my innuendo clear.

He shakes his head on a nervous chuckle. “I want to get to know you.”

That takes me aback slightly. I’m not used to any guy wanting toget to know me. Not that I’m usually around them long enough to try, but still. The fact that Charlie doesn’t just want to take advantage of the very willing temporarily homeless woman he has in his condo is surprising.

“What do you want to know?” my voice is hesitant.

“I don’t know, I just feel weird that we’ve talked as different people for so long and yet I don’t really knowyou.”

“Yeah, that’s true. I mean I don’t even know your favorite color.” I stop floating to look over at him like this is the most important fact to know. It might be a distraction on my part, so he doesn’t try to ask anythingactuallyimportant. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything and goes along with it.

“Blue,” he answers simply.

I scoff, “That’s such a basic answer. No, I refuse to believe it’s really blue.”

“You don’t approve of my favorite color?”

“I don’tbelieveit. That’s different.”

“Fine,” he huffs, and I see him thinking. After a couple of moments of silence, he answers for real, “Yellow.”

“Hm.”

“What? That’s not a good enough answer for you either?”

“No. No, that one is fine, but why not say that first?”

He shrugs, “When I see things that are yellow, I like and appreciate the color, but it’s not really a practical favorite to have in everyday life. It’s not like I can pull off wearing it or decorating my place with it.”

“You’re the only one stopping yourself from doing those things. If you want to wear yellow, just do it.”

He swims closer to me, “I guess you’re right.”

“Yeah, well, I usually am.”

He splashes water at me, and I gasp in feign shock before splashing him back. We continue to splash like children, and eventually I take it a step further, climbing onto him and dunking his head underwater. He grabs my hips blindly, yanking me down with him.

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