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“Sure. But I’m gonna refill my glass first.”
“Before you do that, do you mind telling me why you stopped shaving? I’m so used to seeing your smooth skin.”
“I got tired of shaving every day.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I like it. I’m just gonna have to get used to it.”
Avery reached up to touch my face and I jerked my head back.“Don’t do that,” I spat.
“I just wanted to touch you is all, Zac.”
“One step at a time.”
Avery stared at me then nodded. “Okay. I’ll meet you by the pool.”
I watched her walk to the back door and as soon as she closed it behind her, I grabbed my cellphone out of my shorts pocket and opened up my text log with Stevie.
Me: Hey, you! Just wanted to let you know I’m thinking about you.
I waited for that little bubble with three dots in it to appear, letting me know that she was texting me back, but in the time that it took me to get another drink I never saw it. I wondered what Stevie was doing. Was she floating in her pool? Did she decide to take a late run at the trail? Or was she intentionally not texting me back because she decided she couldn’t continue on with our relationship after seeing me with Avery at Whole Foods and also seeing me act like I didn’t know her? I checked one last time before joining Avery outside and there still wasn’t any reply from Stevie. My stomach was in knots and my heart would not stop jumping around inside my chest.
When I first walked outside, I didn’t see Avery anywhere but I did see her glass sitting on the pool deck beside one of the lounge chairs. Then she popped her head up above the water in the deep end and smiled at me. I was walking toward her when I realized she was completely naked and I shook my head to myself.
So much for taking it one fake step at a time.
“Come take a swim with me,” she said.
“I’m gonna relax right here, Avery.”
I sat down on one of the other lounge chairs and continued sipping on my Hendricks and tonic while Avery swam around in the water. After only a couple of minutes, she came over to the edge of the pool, right in front of me.
“Are you relaxed now?” she asked.
“Getting there.”
“Zac, I don’t expect you to welcome how I’m feeling about us and how I’m being toward you overnight. I know this is gonna take time.”
“What’s gonna take time?”
“You and I working things out.”
“Avery, you haven’t once asked me how I feel about all of this. You haven’t asked me if I want us to work out. You’re assuming that I do.”
“I got the impression that you do since you were willing to talk to me when I got home, then go grocery shopping with me, cook a meal with me, share that meal, make me a drink and come out here.”
“It’s better if you and I communicate and do it peacefully. We also have to eat and it’s better if we do that in peace too, as well as drink in peace, swim in peace—just live in peace. All I want is a peaceful life and it hasn’t been that way with you,” I said, instantly realizing that I might have said too much.
I was expecting Avery to come back at me with an onslaught of four-letter words and for things to escalate from there, but they didn’t. She got quiet, and it reminded me of how Stevie got quiet on the phone when I let her know I couldn’t see her tonight like we’d planned.
“I know that’s all you’ve wanted, Zac, and you’ve tried really hard to have that kind of life with me. Again, I’m sorry. I’ve fucked everything up.”
“Where is all of this coming from? Why the sudden change of heart?” I asked.
Avery shrugged. “I told you that I’ve just been thinking about us.”
“Yeah, but what prompted it?”
“A dream that I had while I was at my mom and dad’s.”
