Page 97 of Perfect Mess

“Sounds about right.” Gary held his cup in the air. “Cheers!” He took a long sip. Taunting me. I watched as his tongue flicked over his lips, scraping at the salt remnants.

I took a sip of my own. The tartness of the lime juice and the sting of the tequila washed down the back of my throat. The puddle of warmth that I was becoming all too familiar with started oozing through my body again.

What am I doing?Now that Gary knew that Janet and Jack were together, what was he still doing here? There was no way my plan could possibly work after that. I should have turned around and gone back inside.Unless …Maybe Gary was sticking around for some ulterior motive. Maybe he was still in love with Janet and didn’t really care if she was seeing Jack or not. I had to find out what he was up to. Perhaps, just maybe, the plan wasn’t completely dead after all. Besides, I had gotten this far.Can’t turn around now.

The hour of judgement was at hand. Time to sink or swim.

Still clutching the towel around my body, I poked my toe in the water, then claimed an exploratory foothold on the pool step. I took my time acclimating to the water, swishing my foot back and forth. It wasn’t because the water was cold. In fact, the pool felt like a warm bath. Baking in the Florida sun all day, the swimming pool had become a giant hot tub.

It wasn’t the water I needed time getting used to. What I needed was time to think. I needed time to figure out what I was going to say to Gary. I needed time to figure out what Gary was up to. I also needed time to figure out how to make an invisibility machine so Gary wouldn’t see me in Aunt Catherine’s rated R bathing suit.

“Hey Mary, watch this one.” Kyle lined up for another run. Once he saw he had my attention, he dashed toward the pool and jumped in for another big splash.

That’s when I knew what I had to do. Like Kyle, I just needed to go for it. Throw caution to the wind and dive right in. I would find out what Gary knew, or at least, what Gary thought he knew, and deny anything and everything unless he had some kind of proof. And then if that didn’t work, I would simply join a convent and live out my remaining days as a leopard print bikini wearing nun.

Downing the rest of my margarita in one gulp, I ripped off the towel and dove into the water. Except it was more of a belly flop, with the grace of a breaching narwhal that was drunk and had vertigo. For one horrible moment, I feared I had given myself a concussion when my cheek hit the water, and Gary would have to scoop me up off the bottom of the pool and resuscitate me with mouth to mouth. I could picture Purrfect sitting on the deck, pointing and laughing.

But somehow, miraculously, my flailing arms propelled me to the far side of the pool next to Gary. I took a moment to gather my breath and my thoughts. And my sanity.

“I can see now why you don’t go in the pool,” Gary teased.

“I told you I wasn’t much of a swimmer.”

“Swimming? Is that what you call that?”

I swooshed my arm and sent a spray of water toward Gary’s face. Ducking under the surface of the water, the splash sailed over Gary’s head right into Purrfect, who had only recently returned from the house. Howling in disgust, Purrfect raced back inside.

When Gary emerged again, he was on the other side of the deep end, well out of harm’s way. “Nice suit, by the way.”

“Gee thanks,” I replied, with all the fake sincerity I could muster.

“You look good in cheetah print,” Gary said. “Yellow and brown spots seem to suit you.”

I frowned as I looked down at my bikini top. “I thought this was leopard print?” It was at that moment that I realized not only was the bathing suit hideous looking, it was also generously see-through when wet. Hopefully Gary would mistake my nipples for leopard spots. Or cheetah spots. Or Justin Bieber horns.

“No, I’m pretty sure that’s cheetah,” Gary said. “I think leopard spots are bigger and less rounded.”Okay, he definitely saw my nipples.

Leopard. Cheetah. I didn’t care if they were the spots of a purple polka dotted alien species from outer space. The less time Gary spent looking at my bathing suit, the better. So I continued my new strategy and just went for it.

“So,” I said.

“So,” Gary echoed. He swam to my side of the pool, arms sweeping through the water in long graceful arcs. The muscles in his arms looked like steel cables, taut and quivering.

“So, what do you know about Jack and Janet?” I asked. “Or what do you think you know?”

Gary waded in place, the current from the pool jets nudging him toward me. “I saw them together.”

“Of course you did. They’re friends.”

“It looked like they were more than friends.” A lock of Gary’s wet hair stuck to his forehead. I felt an urge to reach out and brush it off to the side, but I restrained myself.

“What do you mean, more than friends?”

Gary drifted closer, then propped his elbow on the deck next to me. “I saw him at the closing ceremony. Janet put a medal around his neck.”

“Yes,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice from cracking. “Of course she did. She was a volunteer. That was her job.” I looked down into the depths of the pool. Perhaps if I slipped underneath the water and held my breath long enough, Gary would get bored and go away.

“I saw the way she looked at him.”

---