Page 33 of Bad Summer People
“I’m not sure, but maybe you should keep it to yourself. I don’t want the burden of this information!” Robert said it lightly, but he meant it. She should shut up about it. No one needed to know.
“Okay, up to you!” she said, disappointed.
He could tell he’d hurt her feelings. He smiled charmingly and put his hand on her arm, her skin clammy to the touch. “I try to not learn too much about my clients, for obvious reasons,” he said.
Now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense that Jason was with Jen. Jason, who seemed so threatened by Sam. Jason, who ignored his hot wife. Robert squeezed Rachel’s arm and let his fingers linger for two seconds too long. Rachel’s face turned pink.
“But I want to say thanks again for the heads-up about Susan. I’ll stay far, far away from my female clients from now on.” He gave her a little wink, stood up, and left her house.
It was completely dark by then, and the air felt chilled. Robert wished he had a real plan for his life. What was he doing messing around with a married woman? There was no future there and none in this job. He’d worked with a guy in Los Angeles named Rick, another former college player, who’d been saving up his money from teaching to put himself through law school. He was now an entertainment lawyer; Robert sawhis updates on social media. Robert should have done that, too, but he’d just always assumed something good would come along. He looked and acted the part—it should have fallen into his lap.
He turned on Harbor, which cut through the middle of town, and continued on to Neptune, where he lived.
The lights were on in most of the houses, and he could see people going about their evening routines, watching TV and reading books. The picnic was done by now, and he assumed everyone was taking it easy for the rest of the night, given that they’d all started drinking heavily at 6:00 p.m. He considered texting Lauren to see if she could sneak out, but decided not to. Instead, he opened his Citibank app to check the balance of his “new” account—$5,200. That was twenty-six lessons that he’d charged to himself. Twenty-six times he’d chosen to do the wrong thing.
As he stared at the number, he was startled by a loud sound, causing him to nearly drop his phone. He looked up to see an enormous deer, a stag with antlers that belonged on a trophy wall, standing directly in front of him on the boardwalk, not moving. Robert knew it wasn’t going to attack him—right?—but he felt deep fear, anyway. Should he run? A second later, the stag was joined by another, smaller deer, which Robert assumed was a female.
Robert froze. He saw his phone light up with a text, but he didn’t want to check it until these two deer got out of his way. The antlers on the stag were truly intimidating, and animals were volatile. He’d never heard of someone getting gored by a deer on Fire Island, but there was a first time for everything. And this summer was already unraveling in unpredictable ways.
After another moment, the two deer casually stepped back into the grass, one after the other. Robert continued to his house, just a few yards away. He was relieved for the evening to be over, even if it meant it was just him alone with the bugs.
He stepped inside, the screen door squeaking loudly, and faced his shitty little setup; raggedy love seat, crummy rattan rug that had probably seen three tennis pros before Robert. Before he could switch on the light, he felt arms around his waist and a hand sneaking its way into the top of his shorts. He turned around and playfully pushed Lauren up against the door.
“What if I thought you were an intruder? I might have killed you,” he said, kissing her. She was still in her dress from the picnic, a sky-blue number, and he buried his face in her chest.
“You wouldn’t kill me,” she said. “At least not on purpose.”
They had sex standing up, a position they both liked, and afterward, Lauren used his grungy bathroom and then sat on his couch. He was always embarrassed when she was here.
“What did you tell Jason?” Robert asked. He spotted an ant crawling on the floor near Lauren’s foot, but he didn’t do anything. He didn’t want her to know.
“Just that I was going to get drinks with some of the girls. He didn’t ask who or where. We’re good. I think the whole Sam thing threw him for a loop. He was sitting on the deck like a zombie. How strange was that?”
Robert didn’t like that he had information about Jason that Lauren didn’t know. Should he tell her what Rachel had said? She seemed to hate Jason, but Robert couldn’t predict how she’d react to the news. He’d keep it quiet for now.
“It was very odd,” said Robert. “And you know I find a lot about this town strange, but that took it to another level.”
“I think he’s having a nervous breakdown or something,” said Lauren. “But Jen should be helping him—she’s a psychologist! They’re clearly in a bad place. I mean, Sam was accused of sexually harassing someone. He’s saying she’s cheating. It’s such a mess.”
“No, none of that seems good for a marriage,” said Robert. He sat down next to Lauren and cupped his hand around her breast. “This probably isn’t good for a marriage, either.”
He kissed her stomach and pushed her dress up, going down on her until she climaxed. She pulled her dress back down and slumped attractively.
“What if someone finds out about us?” Lauren mused. They often came back to this topic, poking at it but never fully engaging. “Jen saw me coming out of your hut on July 4. At least, I think she did. Though she hasn’t said anything about it.”
“Then your husband will be pissed, and I’ll lose my job.” Robertshrugged. “Rachel made me come over to her house tonight.” He’d been saving it until they were done fucking. He hadn’t wanted to ruin the mood.
“Why? Was she hitting on you?” Lauren giggled.
“At first, I thought she was,” said Robert. “But then it turned out she was warning me.”
“Warning you about what?”
“About us.”
Lauren sat up straight. She pushed her hair out of her face. “What did she say?” she asked.
“She said that Susan Steinhagen had noticed that we were”—here Robert did air quotes—‘getting cozy.’ Rachel was telling me to cool it, basically. She was trying to be nice, I think. I totally denied everything. She believed me. She’s a dummy.”
