The Woman in 3B - Eliza Lentzski Page 0,40

stopped to ask us if we knew anyone at the party. We were young and pretty. Those qualifications were all the identification required.

One of the women from the loungers got up from her chair and settled next to me at the pool’s edge. She dangled her feet over the concrete edge and let her heels sink into the chlorinated water. I smiled in her general direction, but didn’t officially address her.

“Alice, right?” she asked.

I nodded.

“I’m Amy,” she introduced herself. “I’m married to Anissa’s brother, Sam. He’s the one with the tongs.”

“Your husband is a grill master,” I remarked. “My cheeseburger was cooked to perfection.”

The woman—Amy—didn’t directly reply to my compliment. “Do you work with Anissa?” she asked.

I could tell she was trying to parse out how we knew each other, and why I’d crashed their family get-together.

“No. I’m a flight attendant,” I said, absently moving my feet in the water. “Anissa has been on a few of my flights.”

Amy’s features pinched in confusion, but she was polite enough not to ask any follow-up questions. I could understand her confusion, however; I myself couldn’t really understand what I was doing here—sitting poolside in one of Anissa’s bathing suits—while her family looked on.

“Woo, it’s hot,” I breathed. I waved my hand near my face like a fan. “I’m gonna go in,” I said, jerking my thumb in the direction of the water. “It was nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” Amy said with a nod.

I slid into the pool, careful not to splash the other woman. I quietly hissed when the colder water hit my exposed abdomen. The day was actually mild compared to how hot it typically got in the summer, but going in the pool was a convenient excuse to get away. I swam a few feet before glancing back at Amy. She continued to stare in my direction, but the mirrored lens on her sunglasses made it difficult to interpret her expression.

I half swam, half bounced on my tiptoes towards Anissa and her nieces and nephews. She was still “It.” Every time she emerged from underwater, popping up like a submerged cork, her nieces and nephews shrieked with glee.

I stood still while one of her nieces doggy-paddled toward me. Of the five children in the pool, she looked to be the youngest, maybe five or six years old, but I wasn’t very good at identifying kids’ ages. I’d once offered pilot’s wings to a boy who ended up being twelve and was therefore too cool for that kind of baby stuff.

Anissa’s niece wasn’t a strong swimmer; I heard her gasps and grunts as she barely stayed afloat. I let my arm float on top of the water, and even though I was a stranger, she immediately clung to the proffered limb like a buoy in the ocean.

My mouth opened in silent surprise when she grabbed onto my shoulder and crawled around to my back. She clung onto me like a human backpack and used me as a shield between herself and Anissa. I played along, bobbing in the water, keeping our distance from Anissa, but close enough to still be included in the game. Each time I floated too close for the little girl’s comfort, she squealed and dug her nails into the tops of my shoulders.

Anissa popped up from the water a few feet away. “Marco!” she yelled.

“Polo!” her niece hollered close to my ear. The volume made me involuntarily wince.

Anissa, with her eyes still closed, shot towards the sound of the voice. Her hands seized onto my upper arms. “Gotcha!” she triumphantly exclaimed.

Her niece shrieked in my ear. She escaped, using my back as a spring board, as she launched herself to a different part of the pool.

Anissa’s eyes popped open, and her hands remained wrapped around my thin biceps. My arms were probably my favorite body part. I was pretty scrawny everywhere else, but lifting luggage into overhead compartments had left me with toned biceps and triceps.

Anissa’s cheeks were slightly flushed and her mouth was open from heavy breathing. Her cleavage heaved up and down beneath her bathing suit covering. Hair stuck to the sides of her face and her mascara had started to run beneath her eyes, but I thought she looked as beautiful as ever.

“You got me,” I murmured.

“Hey,” she breathed. She dropped my arms and ran her hand over her face to wipe away the excess pool water. “I didn’t know you were playing.”

“I didn’t have much choice,” I softly laughed.