Kristine Joy, Writer

Reilly – 2:40 PM Wednesday

“Perfect” was the word that came to mind when Reilly caught herself staring across the deep end of the pool at the fellow fellow life guard. Her eyes were supposed to be, at all times, scanning the deep end for flailing arms, or a man, woman or child sinking limply to the darker depths of the Redwood Area Swim Haven. 

And no, the party responsible for naming the public pool did not consider the possibility that the chosen name would wind up exclusively being referred to by the unintentional acronym, RASH. This made for quite the headline when the Aquatics Manager, Kate, wrongly mixed the Spring chemicals in 2022, “Aptly named, RASH, to blame for widespread skin issues.”

Reilly’s eyes may have been astray, but she could see that Braxton’s dark brown eyes had their joint patrol blanketed. His manner of intensity conveyed a sense that he was always on guard, even when off-duty. The Summer lifeguard hires often stuck around after close for evening soirees, but Braxton usually used the time to train. He’d swim 6000-7000 meters whilst the others, only some of whom were of age, would drink 6-7 beers.

Out of the corner of her eye, Reilly saw Kate step out from the main building and onto the pool deck for her hourly round. Reilly respected Kate, but didn’t particularly like her, or probably more accurately, she didn’t like 3 of her 4 kids. 

Her son, Trigger, and Reilly had had a short romance; meaning they kissed when they were 14 years old. The day following the peck and run, Trigger wouldn’t make eye contact with Reilly and never talked to her again. According to the rumor mill, Trigger’s siblings, Tristan, Trina and Trap, had told him that he was too good for her because they had money, and well, her family did not.

To be fair, no one in Redwood had the kind of money that the Taylor’s did. Trey Taylor was the CEO of FairPlay, a dynasty in the gaming industry. No one knew why they lived in Redwood other than the fact that there were few other places where there was enough land for you to have an airstrip in your backyard. And no one knew why Kate worked as a local Aquatics Manager at a run-down pool when the pool at her own house was quadruple the size. Could her calling possibly be to circle the pool deck on an hourly basis in the blistering Summer heat and to manage swim lessons for tots?

Kate glanced up at Reilly in the chair and Reilly returned the fake half smile before reaching for her whistle in the event the next patron up on the diving board began their approach before the previous jumper had reached the ladder.

The next few hours dragged, but Reilly had a plan to connect with twenty year old Braxton after hours this evening if he stuck around. She never had anything better to do and being her third Summer of work as a lifeguard at RASH, she actually considered some of the other lifeguards to be friends. 

Braxton – 6:06 PM Wednesday

The pool closing isn’t always a swift process, but this evening had been easy breezy.

Braxton and Trap were always on chair duty because they had the muscle to stack and lift 8 at a time, where as most of the younger teen boys and all but one of the girls, could only lift 3. Braxton knew that eyes were often on his tanned body, Elrod’s eyes included, as he worked and though flattered, he didn’t love that most people never looked beyond the jock to see that he was even more so, a curious intellectual. 

After the work was done, he retrieved his gear from his Camaro and made a quick change into his drag suits (to be differentiated from the drag attire adorned by Elrod on a Friday night out). 

On his way to the lap lanes, he crossed paths with Reilly. She put her hand on his forearm and asked if he was going to join the party after his workout. He looked around, wondering if anyone was watching the interaction, and stuttered, “If I’m not too tired, maybe.” She smiled, “I hope so.” He continued on his way, but could feel her watching his behind from behind. 

Reilly had been a year behind him in school, and he’d always found her attractive both in a physical way and because she was more authentic than most of the other girls in Redwood. But, he had plans and those plans did not involve Reilly tonight. He probably shouldn’t have left his joining open-ended, but she had caught him off guard. 

He jumped in the pool, let himself fall to the bottom, kicked up and set out to destroy the practice session.

Kate – 6:42 PM Wednesday

Kate sat in her office sipping a gin and tonic. She knew better than to drink WITH the lifeguards, underage or not. But, between Trey’s travels and travails and the parenting of 4 kids left 99% to her, she sometimes needed a windowless office with a door that she could lock and a drink.

She loved her husband, and their life, but his needs always being ahead of her own had worn on her.

For instance, it was his ego behind his insistence that the name of all 4 of THEIR kids start with a T. Why not a K like Kyle? Or Krista? Or Jack or Diane for that matter? And did he really need to drive an Audi TT Convertible on top of that? “What else would TT drive?” she could hear him quipping in her head.

She took the last swig of her drink and stashed the alcohol back in the filing cabinet behind the decades old pool sign-in sheets. Everything was electronic now, but keeping the paperwork on hand allowed her to conceal her indulgence/need/indulgence/need. She also knew the paperwork was still there because the City had made it mandatory in the event that another lawsuit happened on her watch. To this day, Kate was baffled as to how the chemicals had been so off given her detail to details. 

Kate shut the door behind her and headed out to tell the lifeguards that she was headed home, and to find out which of them was going to lock up (and be accountable for clean up). She knew she’d get in trouble if certain members of the City Council found out that she allowed them a place to drink but the alternatives were less safe to her mother’s sense and they had kept her trust when it came to the degree of drinking and her zero tolerance for drinking and driving (differentiated from her personal one drink policy tolerance). 

She took the long way around the pool so that she could walk alongside Braxton hard at work. His work ethic reminded her of her days as an elite swimmer. She still trained, but only at RASH as the sun rose, on the days she could sneak time in for herself. Never at home, in her own pool, because she felt judged for taking time to herself.

Braxton – 7:23 PM Wednesday

Braxton came into the wall with gusto. Despite the difficulty, he found his assigned workouts to be exhilarating. He crossed his arms on the pool deck and waited for his breathing to return to normal. He spotted Kate talking to Reilly and that made his heart race more, not less. She did have that effect on him. 

He started his cool down laps and awaited his cue. When he got it, he swam another easy 200 and then hopped out. He grimaced his face to show fatigue and waved good-bye to Reilly and his friends as he made his way to the locker room. 

Braxton changed into street clothes and exited the front of RASH. He took steps towards his car before spinning right back around.

Reilly – 7:44 PM Wednesday

Reilly had disappointedly seen Braxton wave good-bye and watched him enter the Men’s Locker Room. But, from where she was sitting, she could see the exit to the parking lot and hadn’t seen Braxton’s forest green Camaro exit the lot despite the time that had passed. 

Without giving a reason, she wandered over to the corner of the fenced in area and saw his car still sitting where it had been parked when she arrived to RASH earlier that day. No one had noticed her wander off, and thus, she meandered towards the building, went through the Women’s Locker Room and found herself studying his empty car in the otherwise empty parking lot (excepting the vehicles of the other lifeguards…and Kate’s?).

Reilly re-entered RASH through the reception area and wandered down the main hallway. Despite it being the main hallway, it was rarely used. Nearly all of the staff, and patrons, entered the pool via the Men’s Locker room on the left or Women’s Locker Room on the right, with most kids, boys and girls, trailing their Mom to and through the right side.

The doors to two of the three administrative offices hung open, and the lights were off. As she walked by the open doors, there was enough light from the hallway for her to spy the twenty year old metal desks and chairs that made the spaces stale excepting the always fresh smell of chlorine. She came to the third door, Kate’s office. There was light peaking out from under the door frame and it appeared that the door was shut, but hadn’t clicked shut. 

Kate heard two distinct voices from the inside audibly engaged in what they were doing; she looked left, looked right, turned the doorknob and silently pushed it open enough to slide her phone in the slit and start recording.

Braxton: My workout was hard, but not as hard as I am right now.

Kate: Are you UP for some breaststroking?

Reilly could hear them fondling each other, giggling at their wordplay and moaning.

Kate: You must want another Camaro, huh?

Braxton: That’s not why I’m here and you know that. I fell for you that first morning that I watched you swim, and watching you swim is still one of my favorite things to do on this Earth, maybe only second to doing you.

Reilly couldn’t see the action, but she’d watch it later on her phone if she could do so without barfing. Apparently, she’d been hired as a lifeguard and Braxton had been hired for the whole shebang.

Kate: I only have 10 more minutes. You want the sunset special or should we mix it up?

Braxton: Will you sit down in the chair and take me in your mouth?

Kate: And then what?

Braxton: Lay down on the desk for me.

Kate: I’d love nothing more.

Reilly stayed put and kept the camera rolling. She didn’t think she had a manipulative bone in her, but now that Kate had Braxton’s bone in her, and seemingly everything else in the world, she felt as if she were owed something.

The climax was obvious and Reilly took that as her signal to go. She returned to the pool deck with visions of her own Camaro, make it a Corvette, red, and a PAID stamp on her growing tuition bill.

Kate – 8:18 PM Wednesday

“Late again? The pool closed two hours ago,” Trey chirped.

“I didn’t even know you were home from your trip, and with which secretary this time, and the kids are busy being kids,” said Kate, as she looked down at a new text message from Reilly. Odd, she thought. There must be something wrong at RASH.

Her husband stamped off at her accusation that they both knew was the full truth and nothing but the truth.

The text had an attached video and asked for $5,000 per month for 5 years. She started to play the video and immediately stopped. She was there so she didn’t need to see how it played out (blissfully, lovingly, lustfully). As much as she knew she was in the wrong, and two wrongs (that of her husband first, and second, and third…) certainly don’t make a right, Braxton made her feel alive again. He saw her, and not just on the outside. And her husband hadn’t seen her in a decade.

She guffawed over the money; more annoyed at yet another person in this world who thinks money is central. Fine. She would wire $300,000 to Reilly in exchange for the video being destroyed and the problem going away immediately. 

Reilly – 1:10 PM Thursday

Reilly sat in her lifeguard chair, not fulfilling her duty to watch the deep end, but didn’t care. Her eyes were locked on the open hallway door where Kate stood. They locked eyes and Kate started towards her.

Staring straight ahead, and in a lower voice, Kate said, “We’re square and done, right?”

“Yes, thanks for doing business, literally,” Reilly laughed and looked across the pool at Braxton, “Does he know?”

Kate responded, “Keep your eyes on the pool.”

“Is that a personal or professional opinion?” Reilly retorted.

Kate – 1:12 PM Thursday

Kate walked away from Reilly, but towards Braxton, internally debating whether to choose her libido system or her value system. She had always gone with the latter up until Braxton. And she’d only buckled under (literally!) the intensity of his gaze upon finally accepting the feeling in the pit of her stomach that she’d never be enough for her husband’s ego that needed gorgeous young secretaries to fawn over him.

She wasn’t one to fawn, never was nor could become a “looker” with age and thus, wouldn’t ever be enough for her husband.

Trey – 8:06 PM Thursday

He sat on their family room couch, alone, staring blankly at their picturesque family portrait.

He looked at his watch every 5 minutes and tried to wrap the head on top of his neck around his wife’s absence.

He did regret the fact that he’d dumped chemicals in the RASH pool a few years back in part because of the embarrassment factor for Kate, but more so because of the fact that his plan didn’t work anyway. When he was home, he wanted Kate home and couldn’t figure out why she chose to work when she didn’t have to.

Before Braxton, he had suspected her of staying after hours with Richard (Dick!). And it was this suspicion that derailed him into a life of infidelity.

Deep down, he knew that his admittedly “flavor of the year” secretary could not give him what he so desperately wanted – for Kate to make him feel “on top of the world”, not better than anyone else, but simply, joyful.

Trey checked his watch once again, saddened, and wondered if he needed to find the desired sense of happy contentedness within himself?

A read that inspired part of the above fictional short story:

The Little Guide to Contentedness

May we all find Happy Contentedness!

And communicate with our spouses! 😉