Poolside Pondering

Were Martin to design an afternoon, he’d be hard pressed to do better than this one.

He was basking on a lounge by a pool in the tropics. Katie appeared regularly to refill his margarita. A stunning redhead was swimming laps and doing yoga nearby. All that, though was icing on the cake of his conversation with his new vibrant young violinist friend, Sophie.

He knew her by report from Andi. After spending an hour in her company, he understood why his trainer had fallen so hard for the girl.

She was, for one, beautiful. Her skin was flawless, unblemished ivory. Her Korean heritage had given her nearly black eyes and thick black hair. She carried herself with practiced grace and poise, but when she allowed herself to smile, she had a look of mischievous cunning about her. All that was packed into an undersized package of gentle curves contained in what could only very technically be called a one-piece bathing suit.

It was modest compared to a lot of the string bikini being flaunted by her partner, but that wasn’t much of a comparison. Andi was dressed to make Sophie and anyone else in view have heart palpitations.

Sophie had managed to find a suit that sufficiently covered her skin with fabric to feel clothed, but most of that was a fine mesh. The only opaque parts were bands of black over her breasts and nethers. Two towels draped over her lap and shoulders helped her not be constantly self-conscious.

Sophie was also a collection of contradictions which Martin couldn’t help but find fascinating. She was shy, yet exuberant when speaking about her passions. She was sheltered and naïve, yet frighteningly intelligent and curious.

They’d traded book recommendations and reviews until Andi got bored and swam off.

Eventually the conversation shifted to something he’d been worried about.

”Andi says you’re a ghost writer,” posed Sophie, testing his reaction before continuing. “Do you know who wrote any of those books on our list?”

Martin watched Andi float by in the pool as he thought, just a pair of breasts and a face with a placid smile showing above the surface. “I know that some of them were ghost-written. I saw the requests going around.”

Sophie nearly burst with excitement at having her theories validated.

”But,” he halted her rising delight. “I can’t tell you which or who wrote them.”

Sophie gave him a pouting scowl, a look of being betrayed by her new friend.

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” he explained. “Our industry is very secretive by necessity. I only know a couple of other folks who do it, and I don’t know what work they’ve done. A lot of projects come with non-disclosure agreements which would ruin me if I broke. More than that, if I started blabbing about what I’d written, nobody would trust me again. That’d be the end of my career.”

Sophie didn’t like his explanation. “But you could be famous,” she said. “And don’t you hate that other people are taking credit for your work.

Martin shook his head. “They get credit, but I get to use their name. Besides, I’ve seen what fame does to people. It’s not good for a person to have that kind of power. It messes them up.”

”So you won’t tell me anything?” Confirmed Sophie.

“I will neither confirm nor deny that,” replied Martin. He sat back to sip his drink and watch Andi, who was pulling herself out of the pool and beginning to do some fairly provocative yoga.

Sophie followed his gaze, and they both enjoyed the display for a while.

Eventually Sophie braved a question. It was meek, and quiet, quite unlike the animated woman who he’d debated literature with. “Do you like her?”

The implication of what she meant by like was clear. Martin continued to choose his words carefully. “I think everyone develops a little crush on their trainer,” he said. “And I think she knows it. She made it abundantly clear that she’s crazy about you, and all my advances would ever get me was more push ups.”

Sophie pulled herself into a ball. Being known to be a lesbian made her feel more exposed than the swimsuit. “She told you?”

”Of course,” said Martin. “She never shuts up about you.”

Sophie was uncertain whether that made her feel better or worse.

“I just…” She was about to say something out loud she’d never said to anyone. Something about this guy felt safe, though. He could keep secrets, he didn’t care about her being gay, and as weird as it sounded, there was something comforting about the way he smelled. “I sometimes worry I’m not

enough for her.”

Martin stole a glance at the woman. She was snack-sized, but he imagined quite a delicious and satisfying snack. That wasn’t what she meant, though.

”She’s so experienced and adventurous,” Sophie mumbled. “She’s pansexual and polyamorous. I didn’t even know what those words meant until I met her. I feel like I’m holding her back.”

That was new information to him, and Martin had to fight back the thrilling idea of sharing Andi. “I’ve seen the way she looks at you,” he said. “That girl would do anything you asked her to.”

”I know,” said Sophie. “She’s said that, but I can’t even… We can’t… With the lights on.” A flush spread across her face and chest at the mere thought of saying what she was thinking.

Martin was quite proud of how well he retained a detached and wise sounding persona as he gave his advice. “One thing I know, having trained with Andi, is that she is patient. She’ll help you push your limits if and when you’re ready, but not before. You just let her know what you want.”

There was a long pause as Sophie took in the comforting words. They both watched in awe as across the pool, Andi powered herself up into a handstand, then spread her legs out to the side in perfect splits.

Sophie, almost hypnotized by the view of her nearly nude girlfriend, said, “What if I’m afraid of what I want?”