Page 10 of Coming Around Again

There were enough people from the surrounding region making day trips to Love Lake that you couldn’t assume everybody at the lake was a guest of the resort, but of course I knew all the locals.

He was tall, with a head of dark hair that waved crisply in the evening breeze. Not very tanned, and not bulky like a bodybuilder either, but his lean musculature was on display in his ocean-blue swimsuit. It matched his eyes, which were the bluest I’d ever seen on a human being, and which were trained right on me.

I’d spent the whole day being invisible, but I felt suddenly seen—and not in a creepy, leering way, but with appreciation and friendliness. That look drew me. I picked up my towel, turned to him, and very bravely said hello.

“Hi,” he said back. “I’m Desmond.”

At the time, I thought it was kind of a nerdy name, but also that it suited him. That Irish coloring made him seem almost otherworldly, like he’d sprung out of a secret fairy door, or something. Then I shook off my fancies. “Naya.”

“Naya,” he said, like he was memorizing it. “Are you…going inside?” he asked, nodding toward the hotel.

“I thought I’d go get pizza at Slice of Heaven,” I said, nodding toward the small building close to Lakeside Drive. “Want to come?”

That was bold of me. I’d never invited a guy to do anything. But it just felt right.

I paid for the pizza and sodas. We took our paper plates to a picnic table nearby, and talked.

And talked.

And talked, until the sunset faded and the night came down on us, chilling my bare shoulders. Fireflies came out and we talked on, until I started to shiver and mosquitoes started biting us, and still he lingered. “Want me to walk you back?” he offered.

“I’m going home now,” I said, sorry the evening was ending.

In the almost-dark, I saw his head draw back. “Home? You’re not staying at the hotel?”

“No,” I said. “Wait, you are?”

“All summer,” he said, with an unaccountable note of bitterness.

“Why is that bad?”

“Weird shit going on back home with my dad’s job,” he said, and sighed. “He wanted us out of Pittsburgh. Mom said she remembered staying here when she was a kid, so—” He spread his hands. “Here we are. Me, Mom, and my little sister Megan. Dad might come down for a few days if he can get away.”

I couldn’t imagine staying in a hotel all summer. I thought it, but then I realized I’d said it out loud, and slapped a hand over my mouth. “Sorry.”

He shrugged up one shoulder, then smacked at his arm. “Dammit. Mosquitoes.”

“Yeah, the skeeters are bad. Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Gazebo?” he suggested, pointing. “They don’t mind if we bring guests.”

By the end of our time together, it was late and my mom had already texted me twice wondering when I was coming home. But we’d told each other our names. About our families. Our favorite foods, our dislikes, most-loved books and movies and music, our friends, our plans for the future.

We didn’t kiss that night, but when he leaned over and moved a strand of my now-dry hair behind my ear, my body almost melted. And I didn’t tell him I was a maid at the resort; I only told him that I worked most days.

By the following week, we’d kissed so often, and so long, that I only had to look at his wide smiling mouth to feel heat in my lower belly, to feel the tips of my breasts harden as if cold had perked them up. We’d had to find secluded places and we’d nearly been interrupted a dozen times.

It didn’t matter. One kiss, and I was liquid with desire.

I was coming into my womanhood, proud of my body and happy to share it with someone who I thought got me, understood me, wanted me.

I met Megan, who was pretty cool for an almost-thirteen-year-old. Des met Clover and Maddie and Moss and Sam.

And when it occurred to me that someday I’d run into Des while carting window spray and clean towels around, I told him about my job.

He said he didn’t care.

I said I didn’t care, either, but I didn’t want to lose my job. I’d already gotten a warning from the head of housekeeping that fraternization with guests would not be tolerated, and it was too late for me to find another job as good for the rest of the summer.

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