I tossed my boxers in the laundry basket, grabbing my swimming shorts from the towel rack and quickly pulling them on, wincing as the cold, damp fabric touched my skin. I was still getting into them, and I stumbled slightly as I came out of the bathroom.
"For fuck's sake." I muttered under my breath as I hitched them up the rest of the way, grabbing my keys and heading out the glass door and on to the gate. Jamie and Ellie were already waiting outside - her with a big grin and her hands casually on her hips, him holding a large bundle of something plastic under his left arm, and hauling a cooler box in his right.
I frowned at her as I unlocked the gate. "I guess we're not doing that whole 'invite and agree' thing any more, huh?"
I'd slept like the dead, after my surprising evening with Jamie, so I was quite well rested. But I'd just been woken up by the phone call from Ellie, informing me that the two of them were already here, and we were having another day around my pool. Though still groggy from waking up, I'd had a bit of time to start feeling annoyed with her.
"It's an honour that we've grown so close." She laughed, barging past me, heading down the path. "Jamie brought something fun."
"Drinks?" I turned to Jamie, who appeared to be his normal, easy-going and confident self.
"That too. But also, pool loungers. They'll need blowing." He held up the bundle and winked.
"Oh, cool." I blushed violently and stepped back to let him pass.
I locked up the gate and made my way slowly up the path, giving myself time to calm down. As annoyed as I was with Ellie for just springing this on me - and I was annoyed, even if I'd missed a call from her and slept till nearly midday - it felt like I had bigger problems. Interacting with Jamie the night before, after what had happened, had been very difficult. But managing that in broad daylight, in front of Ellie, felt impossible.
They were already preoccupied with unfolding the loungers, so I ran inside to get the foot pump from the garage and handed it over to them. I went back inside to stubbornly make tea - they could start drinking if they wanted, but I'd just woken up. By the time I'd finished, they'd managed to successfully inflate two of the loungers.
"Jamie says you told him about Eric." Ellie said, while Jamie worked the pump on the third. "Thank God. Now we don't have to tiptoe around it."
"Yeah, we weren't doing a particularly good job at hiding it." I shrugged and smiled.
"Did you guys talk much about it?" she asked. "You've both had breakups. Hey, you both started dating them at the same time - That's so cool!"
"Ellie finds joy in the strangest of places." Jamie grinned at me.
"Sorry." She turned to Jamie. "Did you guys commiserate? He's even worse at opening up than you are."
"I got some stuff out of him." He winked at me again - this time in full view of Ellie.
I blushed again, and turned towards the cooler. Damn. Could you die from so much blood rushing to your face that your vital organs were drained? I hoped not. My skin felt like it was on fire. I hadn't even really had time to come to grips with the situation - whatever the hell it was. I'd crashed pretty much immediately after he'd left, and Ellie had texted me awake this morning. There hadn't been even a second in which I could really start to process.
I set down my tea on the table. "Do you guys want drinks?"
"Yes please." Ellie said. "We'll need cups or something - we only brought vodka and lemonade."
"Uh, sure." I ducked back inside, and opened my kitchen cupboard.
Lingering there for a moment, I took a deep breath - I needed to get a grip. Jamie was probably going to be doing this all day, since he seemed to be enjoying it so much. I grabbed some plastic cups, but before I went out to join them again, I picked up my phone from the bedside table and sent him a quick message.
______________[Please cut it out. Ellie's going to know something is up.]
The response was immediate.
[K ;)]
Well, at least that was... something. I went out to join them. Ellie had already launched herself into the pool - her lounger was shaped like a pineapple - and Jamie was standing waiting with a bottle of vodka. I handed him the cups, and he poured drinks out for himself and Ellie.
"Hand that to Ellie, and I'll help you get in," he said. I took a second to make sure there wasn't a possible innuendo there, and then nodded.
Jamie held the big, inflated watermelon slice steady, while I balanced myself on top of it. He let me go, and walked back to the table to retrieve my tea, which he carefully passed to me. He set his drink down on the edge of the pool, near the deep end, and then put the final lounger in the water - his was a banana. Because of course it was.
Ellie and I cheered when he jumped onto it, and landed without toppling over. The three of us floated around in a calm silence, sipping at our drinks and enjoying the quiet gurgle of the water as it trickled back in at the rock formation at the far end after its circuit through the filter. My tea was still a bit hot, so I had to awkwardly balance it in my hands until it became cool enough to drink.
"I could just do this every day until school starts again." Ellie said, trailing her hands across the pool's surface.
"It's going to be cold next week." I said.
"Stop ruining my relaxation fantasies." She nudged my lounger with her foot.
"Fine." I sighed happily, as we floated away from each other. It was pretty relaxing - even with Jamie here, acting the way he was.
He twisted around to face Ellie. "So did you talk to Gary last night?
She gave him a tight smile. "You've heard this before, but that's none of your business."
"Hey, why not?" Jamie twisted on his lounger.
"Because." Ellie sighed. "It went well, and you're going to ruin it."
"What does that mean?" Jamie frowned. "Were you expecting it not to?"
Ellie raised her eyebrows at him.
"None of my business?"
"Correct." She beamed. "You are so smart."
He laughed. "I know right? I guess Jay's rubbing off on me."
My eyes snapped towards him sharply. He shrugged, smiled and mouthed the word 'oops'. I shook my head and looked away. Fortunately, Ellie had spun around on her pineapple and was facing the other direction, and he hadn't made it sound too much like an innuendo. We carried on drifting around quietly for another few minutes.
Ellie grabbed the paving at the edge of the pool, and slowly turned herself around to face me. "Jay, you should order a pizza."
"I thought you were anti-pizza." I said.
"I wanted to do something yesterday. Today, I just want to have food brought directly to me without having to move."
