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Caitlyn Kiramman's favorite place in the world was the massive bay window on the north facing wall of her bedroom. The space was piled high with the most comfortable blankets and pillows she owned and she'd often pass hours reading a book or simply staring out into the expanse backyard, dappled with gardens, topiaries, and a pool.
At its summer peak, the pool was a continuous cool blue, a perfect rectangle in the well-manicured lawn that was often filled with guests. When it was lonesome, Caitlyn felt its pull from the window. It called for her. It wanted to wrap it's refreshing body around her in a comforting embrace she usually kept reserved for the underside of the pillow.
The pool was a constant temptation that Caitlyn didn't want to concern herself with. It remained a symbol of her parents' status. Their parties often dragged through the entire downstairs and yard as Caitlyn huddled in her window, trying to read past the same line in one of her books. She knew that if she dipped a toe in that pool, she'd be stuck in the life her parents had built for her, the same one she spent too much of her time running away from.
Nonetheless, the stranger hopping the fence into the yard while wearing a dark jacket and a hood pulled over their head was a concern one late spring day.
Her spine rigid and tight, she watched the person fiddle with the large filter at the side of the house before disappearing under the awning and out of Caitlyn's view. She bolted from her window and grasped the first rigid thing her hands came in contact with. She wielded her new weapon over her shoulder, ready to strike down as she stealthily descended the stairs and pressed herself flush to the wall. The sliding glass doors leading outside were just in her line of sight. The person had shucked their jacket and left it draped across the expensive patio furnishings, but there was no sight of the interloper.
She maneuvered silently until her back was to the same wall as the sliding glass doors and she ducked her head this way and that to try and get a view of the person. She only managed to make out a pointy elbow lined with dark tattoos. The person disappeared away from the window and Caitlyn used that opportunity to slide the doors open, agonizing inch by inch until she could squeeze through.
The person was in full view now. They were crouched at the side of the pool again and were quietly singing to themselves as they fiddled with the pool cover straps that tied it to the concrete. Whatever they were doing made no sense for a thief, but they were an intruder that needed to be taught a lesson. Caitlyn shuffled just behind them and raised her weapon a little higher.
“Don't move!” she ordered in the sternest voice she could manage. The person swung around at the first sound, fists jumping up in a ready position, but freezing at the weapon in Caitlyn's hand.
“Is that a vacuum?” they asked. Caitlyn blinked, thrown off, and lowered her weapon to look. It was indeed her hand-held vacuum. The clear green plastic showed it was full of the crushed cereal she'd accidentally stepped on two nights prior during her midnight snack. Suddenly self-conscious, she lifted it and scowled even more menacingly.
“What about it?”
The prospective thief stared at it and their posture loosened, their fists falling and the shock melting from their shoulders as their lips quirked into an amused grin.
“Were you going to hit me with a vacuum?” they teased.
Caitlyn finally took the lack of immediate danger to really look at the person in front of her. It was a young woman, close to her age, with a vibrant shock of messy pink hair that fell over one of her powder blue eyes. The other side was buzzed close to the skull which showed off a pair of piercings high in her ear. Her sharp nose also boasted a piercing. Her broad shoulders and the biceps peeking from under the beige polo shirt hinted that the fists she'd raised on instinct were weapons she actually knew how to wield and not just an idle threat. The tattoo Caitlyn had initially seen on her elbow was also not the only one. A dark shape at the base of her neck and the backs of her arms told the story of lines criss-crossing over hidden skin and Caitlyn felt her face grow hot.
“I still might,” she grumbled after a long moment. The girl grinned wider.
“We can stand here until you make up your mind, I get paid by the hour.”
That was curious.
“Who pays you? Why are you here?” Caitlyn asked in rapid succession. The girl stared blankly at her for a moment, clearly disbelieving. She raised one eyebrow and pointed to the embroidered words on her chest.
'Lane Pool Services' it read in neat letters. Just under it, in a smaller, cursive font was 'Vi'.
“The people who live here want their pool taken care of. I am the person doing that,” Vi - presumably - answered slowly like Caitlyn was too slow to understand. Embarrassment rose with heat up Caitlyn's body and she bit her lip to force down the redness spreading across her face. She lowered the vacuum, but didn't relax her grip as Vi continued to watch her, clearly half way to laughing. “Is that your choice?” she asked.
Caitlyn bit her lip and stepped back. It was easier to breathe and feel the cool morning air against her skin with the increased distance. It registered to her at that moment that she was indeed still in her pajamas; an old shirt she probably should have thrown out years ago and a pair of too-short sleep shorts she definitely should have thrown out years ago. The heat across her face deepened. Vi's light eyes stayed focused on her as she moved away.
“I'm Vi,” she said, holding out a hand. Caitlyn looked at it for too long before taking it and giving her a quick, firm handshake.
“Caitlyn,” she replied. She didn't let go immediately, the warmth, roughness, and smoothness of the skin in her grasp intriguing. She could see a handful of scars across the knuckles and a longer one that climbed up the wrist and twisted suddenly halfway down the forearm.
Curious, she turned the hand to get a better look at it and traced its shape with her other thumb. It was at least a decade old, the skin old and the scar fading in some parts, but it had clearly been deep judging just by how shiny and wide the scar tissue was. It was warm too. The tattoos on the back of the forearm barely reached that part of the arm and Caitlyn didn't stop herself from moving from the scar to the dark ink. It was only when her hand brushed the soft skin of the inner elbow and the hand she held jumped that she remembered she was feeling up the arm of a near complete stranger.
She snapped her head up, mortified, but found light blue eyes soft as they watched her.
“Tickled.” Vi was barely holding back a laugh. It was enough for Caitlyn to snatch back her hands (locked together behind her back there was no way they could do something so absurd again) and take another two steps back. Vi didn't move, her hand still out in front of her like it was still in Caitlyn's gentle hold. “I'm just going to get to work, but you don't have to leave. I mean, you live here, so do what you want.”
Vi was nonchalant and relaxed, but her tone gave the impression that she didn't actually want Caitlyn to leave. Still feeling the embarrassment of the moment before, Caitlyn dropped herself awkwardly into one of the patio chairs to watch Vi move about the pool. It was a second longer before Vi fully grinned, all sharp teeth, shook her head, and finally got to work.
She crouched at the pool-side again and Caitlyn could see that she was pulling the pool cover straps from the anchors that jutted upwards out of the pavement. It was a slow, long lap, of repeated bending and standing, moving a foot over, and bending again until the pool cover was limp over the water. Vi pulled and tugged at it, the heavy weight fighting her as she dragged it out over the fence that surrounded the pool and laid the cover flat on the grass. It took another minute to flip it so the underside stared into the mid-morning sun.
As she worked, Vi grunted and huffed, her arms bulging and straining under the wet weight of the cover. Her shirt was half drenched by the time it was laid out across the ground. Caitlyn couldn't help but notice all three of the polo shirt's buttons had popped open during the effort.
Vi didn't stop. She pulled a handful of tools from a large wooden chest against the side of the house and laid them out. Next, she lifted a number of heavy white plastic bags. Those she stacked carefully at the pool side before closing the chest. The pool water was green, but Vi didn't look put off as she dipped tool after tool, checking numbers and levels. Eventually satisfied, she produced a folding knife from her back pocket and carefully tore a corner from one of the plastic bags. The bag was up-ended into the water sending pounds of white powder into the water. She repeated the process once more and moved to the other side of the pool where a long pole with a flat, square net on the end was racked against the fence. She lifted it easily and sunk the net into the water, mixing in the white powder.
“What is that?”
Vi looked up at Caitlyn, surprised and it took a moment for the sitting girl to realize she'd asked the question out loud. Could she go longer than five minutes without making a fool of herself? Apparently not.
“It's shock, or chlorine. It'll kill all of the bacteria that's been growing in the pool over winter and make the water that nice blue once it gets there,” Vi explained patiently. She lifted the pole out of the water and trapped in the net was a ness of moss, leaves, twigs, and-
“Is that a mouse?” Caitlyn shot to her feet and crossed the distance for a better look.
Vi was smiling again.
“It's actually a mole. See it's got no eyes? There will probably be at least another rodent in there, more likely than not. They crawl under the cover looking for warmth, shelter, or drinkable water in late winter, early fall and can't find their way back out. It's sad, but there isn't a lot you can do about that.” Vi moved the net so it was positioned over a heavy duty garbage bin Caitlyn hadn't noticed before and turned it, the mole and detritus falling harmlessly into it.
Vi continued on, opening another two bags of chlorine, dumping them, mixing them. After the fifth bag, she checked levels again on the tools. The unopened bags were placed carefully back in the wooden chest and Vi took up the pole again, making slow laps of the pool and scooping out whatever had fallen into the water during the colder months. She'd been right in her estimation and pulled out another tiny rodent (a vole this time).
Caitlyn found her seat again, but kept her eyes on the woman making careful work of cleaning the pool. Her focus was intense, even when her eyes would lift and find Caitlyn's from across the pavement. She would smile warmly, before fishing around the murky water again. It was a rhythm that sent palpitations through Caitlyn's body. There was absolutely no denying it, the woman was gorgeous. Further, if Caitlyn's own gaydar was any judge of these things, Vi seemed attracted to her.
It was incredibly tempting to march across the warming concrete and grab front of that disgustingly beige shirt to yank her in for a kiss that would likely be reciprocated, but Caitlyn was aware of her family and community. If anyone found out she'd started something with 'the pool boy' she'd be laughed out of any event. Even if she hardly wanted to be there in the first place.
“What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you have like, I don't know, school or a job?” Vi asked as she moved closer to Caitlyn's chair on her rotation. Caitlyn flushed and dropped her eyes.
“Normally yes, but not today.” She didn't feel like explaining what happened and embarrassing herself again in front Vi. The water made a swishing noise, followed by splattering as the pole and net were lifted. This time there was nothing in the net and Vi simply set the end of the pole on the ground like a staff and leaned her weight into it. Her eyes examined Caitlyn with curiosity.
“Don't want to talk about it?” she asked softly. Water sluiced down the pole and dripped over her hand and down her elbow.
“It's really unflattering,” Caitlyn mumbled, her eyes locked on the appendage.
“Well, you almost hit me with a hand-held vacuum earlier, so it can't be much worse than that.” Vi's lips twitched upwards again and she was teasing and Caitlyn loved it.
“I was fired last week,” she admitted. “And now I’ve moved back home with my parents because I couldn’t afford rent. Things are going really great.”
Vi cocked her head.
“What did you do? Send out a company wide email meant for one person?” she asked lightly. She clearly wasn't trying to make Caitlyn feel bad, but the memory of the previous week and the utter mayhem that she'd caused made all the synapses in her brain fire off shame at the same instant.
“I was a whistleblower to the paper about corruption going on in the police department. I was working for that police department, and now I'm not.” She shrugged, falling back in her chair to slouch in defeat. Vi didn't answer right away, choosing instead to look her over from head to toe. Caitlyn wished she knew what Vi was seeing.
“I think you're the only cop I've ever heard of trying not to be part of their shit club,” she said after a moment. An almost proud smile lit up her face. “I think you should be happy about it. They all suck and deserve what they get.”
“Yes, but-”
“No, none of that.” Vi solidified her stance. “You did the right thing and the worst is done. Now you've gotta move on and enjoy the summer.” She gestured in a wide sweeping motion across the yard and pool. “You have to take advantage of all this, celebrate a little, have fun. Do you know how to have fun?” Teasing again.
This girl was going to be such trouble.
“Of course I do. I have friends and do things,” Caitlyn scoffed. She regretted it instantly, as she could hear exactly how fake it sounded even to her own ears. Vi caught it too and outright laughed.
“You'll have to prove it to me sometime.”
And that. That was where Caitlyn pinpointed everything hinging on. Because in that moment, Vi's gaze was heavy and heady and she meant it. She was asking for something Caitlyn desperately wanted to give, but was wildly fearful of. The invitation was there and all she had to do was accept it. Accept that this incredible specimen of a human wanted her and was so willing to actually let her know that. The half-lidded eyes stayed on her as she floundered for words and found none.
“Okay.” It was more a squeak than an actual response, but it did the trick. Vi grinned, almost bashful, dipping her head to hide the smile.
“I look forward to it. In the meantime,” she looked over her shoulder at the green water, “I still have a little more work to do today.” With one last long look, she turned back to the pool.
Caitlyn sank further into the chair as she watched Vi clean out the filters and dump the last few globs of trash into the heavy duty bin. She pulled her legs up onto the chair and into her chest in the hope it would curb the craving to grab the woman she'd watched work for the past two hours.
The sun was fully overhead when Vi closed the lid of the bin and returned the pole to its place along the fence. She hesitated there, but still followed the fence to Caitlyn's chair, her hands stuffed in her pockets.
“I'll be back in two days to check the chlorine and filters. I mean, I'll be back every two days for the rest of the summer. Just, you know, in case you wanted to talk again,” she said, the usually smooth tone of her voice giving way to the anxiety she felt. For the first time, Caitlyn felt their equal footing and smiled at her.
“Sure. I'll look forward to it. No vacuum this time.”
Vi laughed, genuine and full.
“Great.” She offered a smile and an exaggeratedly large two fingered salute before hopping the pool fence and walking through the Kiramman yard until she rounded the corner out of sight.
It wasn't until Caitlyn had blinked the giddy fog from her eyes that she realized Vi's jacket was still where the woman had left it hours earlier. She picked it up and ran her fingers over the tough material. It was the kind of thing you spent money on once and had it for the rest of your life. There were all kinds of light tears and discolorations that told tales of adventures Vi narrowly escaped. Or - she touched a weird puncture in the shoulder - maybe didn't escape. The sudden urge to bury her nose in it and take a whiff nearly knocked the wind out of her, but she resisted. That would be inappropriate for someone she only met that day. The jacket was tucked into her elbow and given a sturdy hanger in her closet.
Caitlyn was in a daze for the rest of the day. Her parents got home and she gave them cursory greetings. They clearly noticed something off, but when she didn't actually seem upset, they let her off the hook with nary a frown. Later that night, finally alone in her room, she pulled her laptop over her crossed legs and opened it.
Now, she wasn't proud of it, but her fingers typed in her usual search engine and found Lanes Pool Services after only a click. The website was clearly low budget and only seemed to exist because someone said it had to. The logo stitched on Vi's shirt was the same as the one badly rendered on the homepage. The colors were - thankfully - inoffensive and the links were clear along the left side of the page. Caitlyn navigated to the 'Our Team' tab and was met with a group photo where each person seemed to actually mean the smile they gave the camera.
Vi was there, left of center with an arm draped around a girl with blue hair and a young man with wild brown hair and eyebrows too large for his face. Another two young men - one towering head and shoulders over the rest with his round face and another with brown skin and a shock of white hair - were crowded under the arms of a mountain of a man. He was older than the rest by a longshot. Caitlyn might have even guessed him to be her father's age.
There were little bios at the bottom of the page, only a handful of sentences each, but Caitlyn slammed her laptop shut when her eyes wandered over Vi's name. She wanted to know Vi, really know her, and it felt like cheating to get the cliff notes from her company website without Vi's permission. With a huff, she set her computer aside and laid down to sleep.
The next day passed slowly as Caitlyn tried to find anything to busy herself with. Now out of a job and still technically in the middle of a legal case, there wasn't much she could do outside of her house. It'd been suggested to her that she 'stay available'. She itched to get on the job hunt and make herself useful, but she figured if she was forced to be unemployed for a while, at least she had the fall back of her parents house and money. It rankled, still, but she knew it was a necessity for the moment. Plus, it was summer and Vi was right.
She spent the morning of Vi's supposed arrival actually changing out of her pajamas into nicer clothes. Nothing Vi would look at and say 'oh, did you make an effort for me?' but enough that she didn't look quite so unprepared. And maybe she could strike just the right balance to be 'effortlessly pretty'. She slapped her hands to her face and groaned.
She was being ridiculous.
It was exactly the same time as two days before when Vi hopped the pool fence again. Caitlyn ripped Vi’s jacket from the hanger and sprinted down the stairs in the outfit she'd settled on and stopped just before the glass door, allowing herself a moment to catch her breath. With one last slow exhale, she pushed the door aside and stepped onto the patio like it was just a normal casual day. Vi was hunched over the pool water, mumbling to herself and scratching her head. Caitlyn debated interrupting for only a moment.
“Something wrong?” she asked. Vi shot to her feet and whirled around. Instead of her jacket, she was in an old hoodie, almost just as worn-down as her other outerwear. It was plain black and, in combination with the terrible beige hoodie, it almost looked like she was shirtless for a half second. Caitlyn did not blush at that. She did not.
“Oh,” Vi positively melted at the sight of her, “not anymore.”
Caitlyn did blush at that.
“You, left your jacket here,” Caitlyn held it out, but couldn't make her get any closer. Vi's eyes flickered between the two, indecisive or unsure. Then, she shrugged.
“Keep it for now. It's kinda out of season anyway. I won't need anything more than a hoodie for at least a few months. I'll take it back on my last day here, how about that?”
It was really too much that a person could be so charming and attractive at the same time. Between Vi's eyes, muscles, smile, and that damn voice, there was nothing Caitlyn could do.
“If you're sure.” She draped the jacket over a chair and sat down again. The chair was already sun-warm and it served as a proxy hug as Caitlyn settled into it, watching as Vi grabbed the pole from the fence once more to pull out newly fallen debris. Thankfully there were no dead animals in the water, only leaves that were halfway to decomposition. Then, once those were taken care of, she pulled the same tools as before out of the wooden chest and another three bags of chlorine.
“So, what are your summer plans? Any pool parties?” Vi asked as she punctured a bag. Caitlyn shook her head.
“None that I want to attend. My parents are holding some sort of party in a week that I will surely have to show my face for,” she sighed. Vi laughed and dumped the bag in the water. The caustic smell of it burned the inside of Caitlyn's nose.
“Not one for parties?” Vi asked. She reached for another bag, her knife covered with the white powder.
“Not at all. If my parents let me, I'd hide in my room with all the lights off.”
“That's a great image.”
“I'm glad you think so.”
“Are you?” Their eyes connected and Caitlyn wanted to run. Towards, away, she wasn't sure, but the look on Vi's face was more intense than any a girl had ever given her before, even more than the girl she'd dated for nearly a year. Vi looked like she was a second away from dropping the bag and knife and marching across the pool to devour her. Vi looked like she would happily sink her hands into Caitlyn's skin and leave them there if given the chance. Vi looked like she wanted Caitlyn in every way she could have her.
“Yes,” Caitlyn managed. Vi watched her for a sign of a lie and shook her head with a smile when she didn't find one.
“I think I could take you to a party you didn't hate,” she announced.
“What if I didn't want to go?” Caitlyn challenged.
“Then I guess I'll just have to do my best to convince you.” Vi dumped the last bag and stood with a grin.
“I guess you will.”
Vi set back to work mixing the chlorine into the pool, and checking levels, and pulling out muck. Water splashed over her hands and arms and when losing her grip on the pole, the resulting large splash sent water careening over her face and neck. It was surely meant to be a tease when Vi made direct eye contact and lifted the hem to wipe it off. Caitlyn's mouth went dry and she had difficulty swallowing the sudden lump in her throat.
They both jolted when the sliding glass door opened.
“Caitlyn? Ah, there you are.” Cassandra Kiramman was an imposing woman. Caitlyn had gotten her height from her father, but the sharp sharp features and devastating countenance were direct copies of her mother. The woman stood with her back impeccably straight with her shoulders drawn back and her chin always raised just enough to be looking down on whoever she spoke to. Her hair was always perfectly in place, styled and pinned to perfection. Her clothes never had a wrinkle as if she forced it that way through sheer force of will.
She stepped through the door with a pile of letters in one hand, the other flicking through them with vague disinterest. “Have you read that article I sent you? You may find it interesting in regards to- oh. Good morning,” she greeted, caught off guard by the sight of Vi, one of her hands half tangled in her own shirt.
“Hi. I'm with the pool company,” Vi explained. She stood straighter under the scrutiny of her employer.
“I see.” Cassandra looked Vi up and down, hummed and turned back to her daughter. “Did you read the article?” she asked again.
“Uh,” Caitlyn stared wide-eyed at her mother, entirely wrong footed. Just moments before, her thoughts had been so far out of the realm of what she would want to think around her parents that she jumped to her feet, which unfortunately gave her mother the indication that something was wrong. She felt the narrowed eyes of her mother bore into her. Oh no, there was going to be a conversation later. “I have not, I will go do that now.” She all but sprinted through the sliding glass doors and almost sighed in relief when her mother followed just behind her.
“Caitlyn, are you unwell?” she asked like it was the only explanation for Caitlyn's behavior and not the woman who was wet and had abs.
“Yes, actually, I am. I'm just going to go lay down in my room and read your article before dinner.” She turned on her heel and sprinted up the stairs to her room.
“It's not my-”
Caitlyn's door slammed shut and she pressed her back against it, trying to chase away the flush that had overtaken her face. After a handful of minutes where she felt like she could breathe again, she wandered over to her bay window and collapsed into her pillows. Vi stood below, dumping the last of the pool muck into the garbage bin. The pole went back onto its usual hook and then Vi hesitated. She fiddled with the zipper of her hoodie and watched the sliding glass doors like she hoped someone might walk through them. Caitlyn groaned at the idea that it might be her. Then, her shoulders a little droopier than before, Vi hopped the fence and disappeared.
It was well after dark when Caitlyn slipped outside to grab Vi's jacket. She didn't think twice before stuffing her nose into the collar and inhaling deeply.
The next few days were busier than she was hoping for. Between listening to lawyers talk about her case and her parents asking her opinion for everything regarding the stupid party she didn't even want to go to, no opportunity presented itself for Caitlyn to sneak off and talk with Vi as she cleaned the pool. She wanted to bask in the woman's self-assured personality and the warmth of her eyes and the steadiness of her hands. Instead she nodded with empty ears.
Even through her parents' party, she didn't remember a single detail when listening to her mother's business contact talk about his yacht or even reply when he asked if he could get her a drink. Her focus was on the clear blue of the pool and how crystalline it looked reflecting the string lights hung around the awning. The water had been a cloudy green until two days before when the chlorine and careful work of the hired pool attendant made it aristocratic ready. It was easy to imagine Vi scooping all kinds of who knows what out of the water with an easy smile and soft eyes.
Risking her parents' disappointment, Caitlyn excused herself for the night and threw her bed covers over her head. She listened to the party grow rowdier as the attendees got drunker. There was splashing and hollering and belly laughs that had passed from Exuberant Drunk, to Messy Drunk. A glass shattered and Caitlyn squeezed her eyes shut and wished it'd all go away.
Morning came with a slow breath.
The sun had already pushed its way into Caitlyn's bedroom, illuminating the space with a soft glow that warmed her bed in increments. First, her feet, then calves, up the length of her thighs, over her hips, along her back and shoulders, and then finally her cheeks. At the touch, she opened her eyes and sighed.
As grateful as she was the party was finally over, it meant Vi wasn't due for duty until the next day, leaving this one to be an irritable mess of doing nothing. She pushed herself to a sitting position and tried to remember if there was even anything worth highlighting to Vi. Her mother had spent half the night scowling at her and the other half pushing her towards daughters of people she's never met. Most of them didn't much care for her (which was fine) and she tuned out any of the men who couldn't take a hint (less fine, but ultimately not worth thinking about). Her father gushed about her to any guest within earshot and as much as she loved him, she simply did not want to deal with that. Thus, she just wanted to fight about it all.
She moved to her bay window and watched as the groundskeepers trimmed hedges and clipped low hanging branches. One of them tended carefully to the expansive garden. She zoned out so completely watching the repetitive motions that she nearly missed the figure hop the pool fence. She jerked to attentiveness as Vi crouched at the poolside with a shake of her head.
Caitlyn didn't need a hint.
She sprinted out of her room, yanking on a hoodie of her own to cover her pajamas and wrenched open the sliding glass door.
“Vi,” she breathed. Vi had grabbed the pole to start fishing out the dark shapes from the depths of the water.
“Wow, did you run down here?” she asked, her voice dripping with amusement.
“Yes,” Caitlyn answered, just as winded. Vi stared at her in obvious bewilderment, the shock of Caitlyn being so open with her undoing some of the cockiness she'd walked in with. She dropped her head with a bashful smile and lost it the moment she pulled the net out of the water.
“Jesus, did someone shit in your pool? You rich people are something else.” She dumped the mystery loot directly into the bin. “Maybe it was like, a badger or something. You know what, I don't really want to know. At least the glass is dark and easy to see.”
She dipped the net again and Caitlyn's eyes were drawn to the ropey lines of her forearms as she moved.
“They were exceptionally loud last night. Is it rude if I ask why you're here on your day off?” Caitlyn asked as she closed the door behind herself with more grace than she'd opened it. Vi shrugged.
“No more rude than me asking why you didn't go to a party at your own house,” she said with a pointed look. “I'm just on cleanup duty today. Getting rid of all this nonsense is all I'm really here for today. Officially, anyway.”
The cryptic statement was followed with a shrug that dropped something heavy and squirmy into Caitlyn's stomach.
“And unofficially?” she asked. Her throat felt like sandpaper as she watched Vi shrug again.
“Maybe I'm also here to ask you on a date.”
What Caitlyn wanted to say was 'yes!'
What Caitlyn wanted to say was 'sometimes I look at you and I can't believe how I feel about you because I don't know you.'
What Caitlyn wanted to say was 'I want you to wreck me.'
What Caitlyn actually said was: “ow,” because there was a broken piece of clear beer bottle sticking out of her foot.
Both of them stared blankly at the sudden outpouring of blood before Caitlyn doubled over in pain and Vi darted forward, ripping off her comfortable black hoodie and wadding it up into a ball. She checked first for large pieces and then tied the sweatshirt tightly around the wound. Caitlyn gripped Vi's shoulder and pointed over her shoulder towards the house.
“My father- doctor-” she gasped. Vi didn't need any more instructions. She scooped Caitlyn off her feet and maneuvered them both through the sliding glass door. She tried not to jostle Caitlyn as she hustled up the steps, but there was no stopping the occasional howl of pain. The noise pulled Mr. and Mrs. Kiramman from their room (somehow still looking incredibly put-together for wearing pajamas) and Mr. Kiramman directed Vi to the nearest bedroom while he grabbed his first aid equipment.
Mrs. Kiramman took a post at her daughter's shoulder to offer what support she could in a situation so outside her expertise. Her husband returned and carefully peeled back the ruined hoodie to get a better look. He frowned.
“Caitlyn, it looks like there is a piece still in there. This may hurt,” he warned.
“Wait!” Caitlyn startled, jerking her foot away, “can't you numb it or-”
A gentle hand guided her face away from her father to meet Vi's worried blue eyes.
“I'll distract you.”
And then Caitlyn was well and truly distracted. Because instead of telling a joke or telling her a new fact or even pinching her, Vi kissed her.
Vi was gentle and hesitant and the whole thing only lasted a handful of seconds before Caitlyn's father exclaimed triumphantly, but suddenly everything felt different. There was a bubble around the two of them that pushed the rest of the world into a fuzzy haze. Only the two of them were in focus as they tried to make sense of what had happened. Sure, they'd flirted and stared and hinted, but the kiss was real and tangible. Vi stood abruptly and everyone turned to watch her.
“I'll just, uh, finish up. Feel better.” Stiff and awkward, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and turned out of the room. The family stayed quiet until they heard the soft sound of the sliding door open then close. Caitlyn's father went back to work with his eyebrows in his hairline. Even her mother had an inscrutable expression on her face.
“What?” Caitlyn snapped. Her whole head felt miles away.
“Nothing,” her mother replied with a half shake of her head, “just…the pool girl?” She might have sounded condescending if not for the faint impressed note in her voice. “Didn't realize you had it in you.”
Caitlyn dropped her head into her hands with a groan and her father chuckled.
For the next week Caitlyn was confined to her room in the effort to keep her from moving around. Her father brought home a pair of crutches that - while useful - were extremely uncomfortable and difficult to get used to. More often than not, she simply stayed in bed with her foot propped up on a pillow so that she wouldn't have to struggle around on them. Her parents didn't seem to mind and brought up plates of food for each meal to eat as a family in her room. It was something a teenage Caitlyn might have bristled at, but she found herself touched that they wanted to spend time with her that way.
Any contact with Vi was limited to what Caitlyn could make out of the woman through her bay window. She watched as Vi hustled through her work and was in and out of the yard in record time. She kept her head down and didn't once look up to search for a pair of eyes. It was demoralizing. Caitlyn had no other option but to overthink everything. Did Vi regret it? Had she realized that she was far too good for Caitlyn?
Caitlyn busied herself with studying her case. She wouldn't be more than an important witness with how much paper trail existed, but messing up was not an option. Her court date was days away and she believed in preparation the way some people believed in a higher power. She banished all thoughts of pink haired women, wrapped herself up in Vi's (now clean) black hoodie, and went over all her notes she'd taken with the lawyers. Everything else was immaterial.
The week passed in a blur and everything was done.
Her day in court went perfectly, the trial looked to be progressing positively, and her foot had healed enough for her to walk on. The first place her appendage took her to was the pool patio just after sunrise. She bundled herself in Vi's hoodie, pulled on a thick pair of slippers, and cozied up in one of the patio chairs, dozing lightly as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Between the near non-existence of her shorts and the threadbare coverage of the hoodie, she was comfortable. So comfortable that she missed Vi's arrival.
“Hey.” The soft voice was accompanied by a barely there touch to her hand. Caitlyn fell into wakefulness like it was a stack of pillows, full of feather down and freshly plumped. The sight of Vi in her terrible beige polo and a pair of bright shorts was waking up to a dream. Her hair looked extra soft.
“Vi,” she murmured, voice rough, “you're here.”
Vi huffed a fond laugh and nodded.
“Yeah, this is part of my job, I'm usually here.” She stood straight, out of Caitlyn's bubble and took a step back. But Caitlyn didn't like that and reached out to grab her hand before she could move too far out of reach.
“You never visited.” Caitlyn watched Vi's face tighten and even though she didn't take back her hand or step back again, she could feel the way Vi retreated. Her eyes roamed the side of the house, the lawn, the patio, anything but the woman in the chair in front of her.
“I don't think your parents would like that,” Vi grumbled.
Caitlyn rolled her eyes and scoffed.
“My parents aren't in control of who visits me. I'd have liked to see you,” she said.
“Would you have?” Vi asked, voice suddenly sharp and her eyes snapping to lock on Caitlyn. “You didn't answer my question and when I kissed you, you just stared at me and didn't say anything.” Her shoulders sloped in defeat. “I didn't exactly take that as a positive response. I'm sorry for reading everything wrong and coming on to you. I'll leave you alone.”
She made a move to take back her hand and maybe get to work, but Caitlyn gripped her fingers tight and interlaced them as she shot to her feet. Her tender foot smarted under the shift, but she ignored it.
“Vi, that's not it at all. You caught me by surprise. I wanted to- I was going to say 'yes' when, you know. And then the kiss,” Caitlyn's face reddened without her permission at the memory of it, “I was very surprised. I didn't know what I should say at that moment.”
Didn't realize you had it in you.
She blushed again at the unbidden memory of her mother.
“When you said you wanted to ask me on a date, I was ecstatic. I might have kissed you then myself, had I worn shoes.” She watched each miniscule muscle on Vi's face as she spoke. Worry began to worm its way in when Vi managed to remain entirely motionless as she spoke. Not a single twitch or involuntary spasm to give away a single thought in her head. Only once she went quiet did Vi slowly tilt her head. Then, a blinding grin blossomed across her face.
She didn't say anything before kissing her for the second time.
In the relative solitude of the pool, Caitlyn melted into the touch of a calloused hand on her face and kissed back eagerly. There had been days where the warmth of Vi against her was all she could think about and she was consumed by the desire to repeat it. She let herself bask in it and held Vi's face at the wrist, keeping it in place at the cheek.
“You were going to kiss me?” Vi asked, on the verge of giddy when they paused to breathe.
“Before I got glass in my foot, yes.” They giggled into one another's neck, overwhelmed by the thought of something going so right. "Also, I'm finished with my part in the trial," Caitlyn tacked on.
“How'd it go?” Vi's thumb brushed distractingly under her eye.
“Very well. So well in fact, I was wondering if I should celebrate. Do you know of any parties I should go to?”
Vi laughed and pulled her in for another kiss.
The rest of the morning was a wash. Vi tried to do her work and kept messing up, or losing count, or beaming with giddy excitement to Caitlyn, curled up in her usual chair. On her part, Caitlyn could scarcely force her eyes away as water dripped slowly down Vi’s forearm and fell from the inked point of her elbow. She was only ever distracted by the pink dusting over Vi’s cheeks or the color of her eyes when the sun hit just right.
Eventually, Vi managed to get through her work and hovered by the fence like she was trying to pick words out of the air. She shuffled closer to Caitlyn’s chair and Caitlyn took pity on her, standing up and pausing to stand just before her. Vi stopped her thinking to just take her in, light blue eyes skating over every inch until she smiled.
“Can I take you to a party tonight?” she asked.
Caitlyn nodded before she’d finished asking. ‘Can I take you’ was all she needed to hear.
“Of course. Maybe-” she shot a look over her shoulder, half expecting to see the familiar shapes of her parents in the windows, “maybe come to the front door,” she teased. Vi laughed and shoved playfully at her shoulder.
“I’ll be out front at nine. I’ll see you later?” It was more questioning than she maybe anticipated with the way her nerves and insecurity were suddenly on full display. Caitlyn didn’t give those feelings a chance to settle in.
“I’ll be ready,” she promised. To punctuate, she ducked her head and left a slow, lingering kiss just off the corner of Vi’s mouth. When she pulled back, Vi’s eyes were half-lidded and the pupils were blown wide.
“Nine,” Vi breathed again and forced herself out of Caitlyn’s proximity.
Caitlyn watched her go and waited for her to be out of earshot. Then she waited another three minutes and dropped into a crouch to let out an excited shriek. She sprinted back into the house, passing her mother, confused and half awake, as she pounded up the stairs and slammed the door to her room shut.
An electric current of energy zapped through her body and there was no way to contain it and no outlet. There was still more than ten more hours before Vi’s car was set to roll up to her driveway.
She walked laps around her room with her ears drumming with the sound of her pounding heart, but that only took her an hour closer. Her laptop distracted her for a while more with the slow grind of job searching (though, with the trial technically still in progress it was debatable how far she’d get with it). A book gave her another couple hours. Eventually, she resigned herself to the spare desk in her mother’s office, reading reports handed off to her for highlighting important details her mother couldn’t be bothered with. She shoved the snacks into her mouth that her father brought them at regular intervals and she tried to think of anything else besides the outfit she was building in her head.
It had to be nice, but not stuffy, and not too nice. Sticking out would be unhelpful, but she wanted Vi’s eyes to be stuck firmly on her through the evening. It was a delicate balance to strike.
Dinner came and she squirmed in the chair the whole way through. Her manners were far less lady-like than usual and her parents stared at her while she virtually shoveled food into her mouth.
“Caitlyn, are you well?” her father asked as she chugged down half her glass of water.
Caitlyn nodded and swallowed thickly.
“Yes, perfect. Actually, I’m- you should know, I’m going out with a friend tonight.” She scooped a forkful of some kind of beans into her mouth to keep herself from talking too much.
“Jayce? Oh he’s a lovely boy,” her mother commented absently as she cut the steak on her plate.
Caitlyn hesitated, then shook her head.
“A different friend. A new friend.”
Her parents eyed each other, then her.
“A new friend?” her mother asked, “but you’ve not gone anywhere. When did you meet-” Comprehension dawned on her face. “Ah.”
Her voice was completely devoid of tone and Caitlyn hated the way fear filled her stomach. She hadn’t particularly expected anything different, but she liked Vi and she wanted her parents to like her too.
“Yes, a new friend,” Caitlyn restated.
“The pool girl, I see.” Her mother was a step away from judgmental and not quite disdainful, but there was nothing in her voice or posture that was explicitly disapproving. Not a lost cause, then.
“Ah! She was an interesting character. Carried you all the way upstairs when you hurt your foot!” her father said cheerfully. “Incredible strength, really.”
Caitlyn smiled at her father’s simplicity. He was a man who focused on the tangible; the wounds he could fix, the people he loved, and the things he understood. He kept himself firmly out of the way of his wife’s politics and never made base assumptions without irrefutable evidence. It made him a grounding force in Caitlyn’s life.
“Quite. If you’ll excuse me, I should get ready.” Caitlyn slipped out of her dinner chair and power walked to her room.
She dug out the outfit she’d been thinking of all day and immediately hated it. She rifled through her closest to find something she liked better and finally settled on something. Her leg bounced anxiously as she sat on the front porch.
The sound of an engine rip-roaring down the street was the first indication that Vi might have arrived at 8:54pm. Caitlyn craned her neck to see down the street and was rewarded with the sight of a sporty looking motorcycle coming to a slow stop at the end of her driveway. The sleek, light blue machine purred happily between the thighs of the woman straddling it, until she twisted a key and the engine came to a rumbling stop.
The rider swung their leg over the side and lifted her pink helmet. Caitlyn’s mind shifted to slow motion as Vi shook out the flatness in her hair and ran a hand through it to get back her ‘artfully tousled’ look. Her eyes landed on Caitlyn and her lips spread into a wide grin.
“Hey!” she called, as Caitlyn pulled herself out of her daze and crossed the lawn. “I’ve got another helmet for you. You look, um, very nice.”
Her gaze moved slowly over the length of Caitlyn’s body and she could have done a fist pump with the way Vi’s face colored.
“Thank you, you do as well.”
It wasn’t a lie either. Vi was finally out of the beige polo. In its place was a black t-shirt that fit snugly over her shoulders and arms with a shallow v-neck to bring Caitlyn’s eyes to the hollow of her throat. Her cargo shorts were free of stains and her sneakers were well worn, but well cared for. A matte black helmet blocked her vision and she looked up to find Vi watching her with a smug smile.
“C’mon, let’s get you to a party.”
She helped secure the helmet over Caitlyn’s head and instructed her on where to put her hands to keep her firmly on the bike. Caitlyn nodded, held tight to Vi’s waist and squeezed her thighs. The sudden roar of the engine startled her and when it lurched forward, she wasn’t able to stop herself from pressing her front flat to Vi’s back. The proximity did allow her to feel the laugh her driver let out as they began cruising down the street.
The drive was twenty minutes of lazy meandering. Vi clearly knew where she was going but didn’t seem in any great rush to get them there. Instead of blasting past slow cars or weaving expertly in between traffic, she went slowly and stayed in one lane until she needed to turn. Caitlyn watched as the neighborhood shifted around them. The yards grew smaller, the houses tighter packed with varying states of disrepair.
Vi pulled up to a cramped looking rowhome sandwiched between two other narrow houses. It looked well kept and the cracked driveway had a car parked all the way up to the garage. Another three cars were parked on the street. She handed the helmet to Vi who locked them both with the bike and together they walked to the front door. Butterflies roiled in Caitlyn’s gut, but she didn’t slow down when Vi pushed the front door open.
The house was absolutely a home.
It was almost alarming as a first thought, because the second one became ‘what do I live in?’ There were photos lining the walls from years of accumulation and care. Each photo was in an unmatching frame that hadn’t been touched since it was hung up. The furniture looked just as lived in, the couch cushions concave and stained and the wood from the tables chipped and scuffed. Caitlyn wanted to run her hands over the aged surface and absorb the life it’d lived.
That wouldn’t be possible with the way a set of plastic cups were set up at each end. She watched as a tall man with scruffy brown hair she recognized from the Lanes Pool Services photo scrunched one eye shut and deftly tossed a tiny white ball across the table. It plunked off the rim of a cup and bounced onto the floor. He groaned and his opponent, the blue haired girl also from the photo, cheered loudly and nabbed the ball off the ground.
When Vi became visible to the game players and the two people fiddling with a set of speakers in the corner, they all greeted her enthusiastically with yells and shouts of excitement. Vi waved warmly and pressed a gentle, guiding hand to Caitlyn’s lower back towards the room to their left. Caitlyn ignored the way the blue haired girl eyed her suspiciously.
The kitchen was far brighter than the previous room, but just as homely. The countertops were incredibly dated and the cabinets were just as dinged up as the furniture, but Vi led them to a large keg propped up in the corner. She pulled two cups from a stack and filled them both, handing the first to Caitlyn.
“There’s a pool out back where most people probably are, but we can just hang out in the living room if you’d prefer. One of my friends is moving cross country and he just wanted to see everyone before he left,” Vi explained with a slight jerk of her head towards the back of the house.
“I’m following your lead. You made some big promises on this party,” Caitlyn teased.
Vi laughed and agreed with a nod.
“I sure did, follow me.”
They called next game at the beer pong table (the game the blue haired girl and the large man from the website had been playing when they walked in) and Vi watched with a gaping mouth as Caitlyn sank every shot. She was no slouch either, however, and quickly the two of them devolved into giggling messes. Another pair of people pushed their way to the game so Vi dragged Caitlyn to the improvised dance floor which was crowded with people swaying to the bumping music.
Vi and Caitlyn crowded into each other's space and draped arms over shoulders and laughed as they moved in perfect sync. Caitlyn laughed as Vi exaggerated her moves or sang the words in her ear with new, improvised lyrics.
When they needed a break, breathless and sweaty, Vi led them around the party to introduce Caitlyn and catch up with her friends. Some of them were brand new and it took Caitlyn's politician brain (soaked through as it was with alcohol) extra effort to remember them and others were her co-workers that already had a place in her mind with a beige polo. All of them were kind and verging on a good buzz. Only the blue haired girl - Jinx, Vi's sister - looked at her like an intruder and, after a bizarrely detailed conversation about shooting a handgun versus supporting a rifle, even that distrust fell away to the mood of the party.
Pizza arrived and they fought for another slice each before another wave of dancing. When once again the press of bodies and thumping of the music became too much, they slipped out to the small backyard where a small in-ground pool played host to a number of laid back conversations. They stood on the deck and chatted idly about everything and anything.
Vi spoke about her makeshift family and how she got into pool cleaning. Caitlyn talked about mystery books and growing up with a best friend nearly ten years her senior. Their fingers laced together and the warm summer night air blocked out the real world just for them.
It was broken by a shout and two people - Mylo and Ekko - sprinted out the back door and launched themselves into the still pool water. They broke the surface laughing as a handful of more people followed their lead and crashed into the water.
Caitlyn laughed and cheered with the growing crowd of onlookers but startled into silence when Vi set down her drink and yanked her shirt off while kicking her shoes from her feet. With maybe the most charming grin Caitlyn had ever seen, Vi jumped in with a wild cannonball.
When her head popped back out and she shouted, “C'mon!” while looking more inviting than a person had any right to, Caitlyn had a thought for the second time.
This girl was going to be such trouble.
And she jumped in.
She sank low into the warm water and watched as Vi dived down to meet her.
There, tangled in the water with the woman who felt like a new beginning, she had another thought.
Maybe parties weren't so bad.