“Good,” I continued. “Now let it out and do it again. Slowly. Put more weight into your shoulders until your head floats naturally. Okay, now your arms can extend over your head…just slightly.”
Fuck. Looking at her arms coming together over her head was almost my undoing. I needed to get it the fuck together. She’s a young girl—fucking twenty! But Zoey didn’t seem shy or embarrassed to be almost naked and alone with a man in a pool. She didn’t seem the least bit self-conscious about her body, neither was she flaunting it. And that fucked with my head.
“Use your abdominals; they’ll help with the balance. Don’t forget to kick your legs, but not wildly.” I kept with my instruction until I could see her progression in staying above the water. I tried to keep quiet to allow her to focus on her balance.
When she was damn near floating alone, I asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?”
Zoey’s eyes shot up to me, but she didn’t lose her balance, neither did she change her breathing pattern. I wasn’t planning on asking her that, but so many things about her intrigued me. Between Zoey paying for her own lunch at the diner last week and our conversation at the restaurant, I was somewhat fascinated by her.
“Yes,” she answered evenly.
“Where is he when you’re here, playing sidekick to your cousin during the day?”
“He works,” she supplied quickly, trying to maintain her breathing pattern. “He’s kind of sort of not my boyfriend.”
That statement took me by surprise. I found my face wrinkling. Zoey released her weight over the water, losing her balance to stand.
“Thanks for that,” she offered with a smile. “I think I finally get the idea. I’m going to practice. I’ll have it down pat before you know it.”
She sidestepped my question and reaction to her answer to it. I didn’t get the impression she did it deliberately; she just didn’t find her response significant enough to dwell on, I had supposed. But I, for some stupid reason, wanted to dig.
“What do you mean he’s not your boyfriend? Either he is or isn’t. I didn’t know there was an in between.”
Zoey paused to consider my comment. She shrugged and said, “It’s just something that we fell into. Someone I found myself dating.” She quieted for a moment, contemplative again. She shifted next to me, resting her elbows on the ledge of the pool. “He’s a nice guy…”
“But?”
“But…I don’t know…there’s not that wow factor there. I want that wow factor…,” she gestured with a swing of her arms, “…with a guy. I’ve had it before and know it exists.” Her eyes fell. “It just doesn’t exist with him. He’s really nice, very responsible…good man of God. So, we just hang out.” She stretches her eyelids.
Man of God. She’d mention God and church before. Is that important to her? And what was up with that wow factor? Was that code for simple attraction or sexual chemistry?
“So, have you had a lot of those wow factors?” I attempted covertly. I found myself desperate with wanting to know.
I didn’t mean to pry, but Zoey was throwing me off with her signals. It would have been easy to dismiss her as a groupie, an opportunist, but that didn’t match her actions. I’d given her several chances to out herself. But nothing.
Although she didn’t call me out on my prying, the way Zoey lifted her brow told me she had a clue as to the nature of my inquiry.
“I’ve had enough,” she answered and swam off.
I stayed in place for a while, stumped while Zoey took more laps, appearing content in solitude. Eventually I decide to do the same. This girl is an anomaly.
At one point when I came up for air, I heard, “So where’s your girlfriend?”
I swiped the water from my eyes and saw Zoey floating while holding on to the ledge. “Huhn?”
“Your girlfriend. Where is she? And is she okay with you hanging out at the country club after training while Alton cheats on his girlfriend?”
Oookay. “Well, first of all, I don’t know what the situation is between Alton and Tynisha.”