Shallow water
at the edge of the pool creates a small tide.
She dips her feet, splashing with her toes. The lean, the shrug of the shoulder demands
attention but she looks away. He glances
quickly, not to draw attention, as the sweat gathers at his brow and takes a
deep breath in and out, in and out—slowing the beat of his heart. He lets the imagery run freely in his
mind. The conversational banter, the
slick moves once again proving his irresistibility. He dashes back to reality to see his trophy
has moved in close. Lying on her back in
a sun-hugging pose, she lathers her limbs with a sun reflecting lubricant. His wistful eyes wash away his rehearsed
lines as panic of nerves forces words.
“H-hot today,” he grunts. Her eyes
penetrate the thick lenses of this summer’s latest eyewear trend, to make out
the edge of each iris, gently wrapped in a color wheel pattern of blue, green
or brown, searching for a color connection.
“Indeed,” she replies with a chuckle.
Her soft pink rose-brushed lips paint a longitude placed smile across
her face. “Oh, that smile,” he thinks,
“if it’s the last thing I see, I will die a happy man.” What passworded phrase will unlock it
again? “Come here often?” he tries. “Indeed,” she mimics. He refreshes his memory for her face but in
all the days he sun soaks in his high chair, her face he cannot find. How could she slip his sight? Blinded by the frolicking of little feet in
kiddie pools as impervious parents idle eyes to cocktails reach. He hops down off his tower to eye level be,
in hopes that she’ll approach. The
temptation of tactful transactions prompts her forward as he waits, the
red-shorted matador luring his bull.
