It is cold outside, but very bright. Typical Valentine’s Day. I can still feel the dry cold even inside the building. Leaving here with you and having a nice evening together is all I want right now.
I can hear the echoes and splashing, but I know where the pool is from here. I know I am late, but I also know you are busy. I pass through the locker room, where I hear talking and showers and hair dryers. The air here is very wet and very warm.
I pass the rows of lockers being used by men in various states of dress. I follow the sound of water, but I would know the way blindfolded. Once through the final door, I feel the air: humid as an equatorial forest. The pool is full from end to end with swimmers. Divers bounce or stand on boards and platforms. A group of elderly women walk laps up and down a far lane. The bright late afternoon sun outside is dulled by the fogged ceiling-to-floor windows.
It is easy to find you, even in all the people. Your jet black suit and red swim cap and eye-covers are a contrast to the bright suits and trunks of the other casual swimmers.
You slide easily through the water in your lane, barely moving the water before you. Your sleek body slick poetry in fluid motion. It’s almost an insult to watch the liquid serenity of your lane intruded by the chaos of the lanes on either side of you.
As I stand there — as always — I watch you. The way your mouth opens and sucks in air as your face dips back into the water to slide onward. Your focus complete, as you glide from end to end.
Arms peel out of the water only to cut back in again, legs fluttering and smooth as glass. I step further away, so you don’t see me. But I can still see you. God, I love seeing you. It’s funny how something as simple as breathing or walking can drive a person’s lust for another. But it does. The light reflecting off of you and racing to my eyes coaxes such worship, such devotion.
I know you are on your final lap, because you always turn over onto your back for the last hundred meters. For me, the rest of your swim is just foreplay to the sex of your backstroke. Your chest heaves as your breasts rise and fall in the water around you. I can see your nipples through your suit. Or maybe I can only imagine them. It doesn’t matter either way. Your mouth again; your lips drawing in every breath and then pressing it out again as your arms fan upward and back into the water.
As your legs kick slowly to your body’s rhythm, I see your thighs. Your arched back helps to sculpt the perfect form of you in liquid. With God’s hands I could never sculpt better.
Your last 20 meters, and my heartbeat grows harder. 10 meters, and you are that much closer to me. 5. I am here waiting for you beside the cage of fins and tubes and lane markers. I wait almost everyday here for you to finish so we can leave together. A life truly just short of perfect.
You climb out of the water, dripping as the liquid slides from your body. You slip your eye-covers and cap from your head and run your fingers through your hair. Again… back arching, inhale, glistening legs. Every drop of my blood begs to be next to you. I can feel it pulling me in your direction, a carnal gravity.
You bend over, away from me, to pick up your towel from the bench. Your curves are a glory of human geometry. As you dry you see me, but I quickly look away. I push the cage over to the wall and walk back toward the locker room.
As I look back at you I see that you did not really see me at all. I drink, for one last perfect second, all of you that I can… praying to drown in you. It is never enough to last until the next time I see you.
The locker room door closes, and I move my way slowly from the wet warmth that is all I know of you, back to the dry, too-bright cold that is all I ever really know.
Sad and compelling at the same time . With a touch of creepy mixed in .
Exactly what I was going for. 😉
Which is better… the distant idealistic crush with no imperfections, or walking together as rough-edged puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit?
TO-If she doesn’t have a tattoo of a dagger, just walk right up and introduce yourself. Ask her if she’d like to run down a dark alley sometime…..
Suuuure, because chicks love guys with a creepy pick up line! That kind of pickup only works on the dagger tattoo kind of female. Seriously, TO, your imagery is amazing, but you’re not allowed any more unless you go ask her out in a non-creepy way.
JoyB-His bio says he likes running down dark alleyways. I say he’s better offering that than offering to sleep with her in an HVAC duct. Also part of his bio. I just picked the least creepy date…
LPD, Does your wife have any of the big mitt style oven mitts? If so, please ask her to whack you with it. LOL. You stink at pickup lines. JB
My wife is above my pay grade for sure but I make her laugh. Many years ago she was being harassed by someone she wasn’t inviting for conversation. I noticed her distress. So my pickup line was to get between her and Mr Wonderful and I said something profound like “see you around pal, take a hike” (nice version). That was our initial meeting. I guess our first date was dinner after that. We’ve been together for around 25 years….
If I wanted to go full mission creep here, I’d try something like, “Excuse me, Miss. But do you think this rag smells like chloroform?”
Well that’s one way to get a first date.
It’s the *second* date that’s always the toughy on that route, though.
#lessonslearned
😂😂 No doubt. After all, how could you top.that first date?
If I managed to find a chick who had sleep issues or just needed a good night’s sleep… I think we might click.
“Well, I figured when you passed out like that just outside the bar next to my van, you just needed to sleep. So, I just let you sleep for the last 16 hours there on the shag couch there in the back of the van. Next to the lava lamp and airbrushed picture of the wolf howling at the moon. I hope you don’t mind.”
I’m laughing my ass off. I don’t know one chick who doesn’t have sleep issues or wouldn’t welcome one night of solid sleep. Many 2am conversation with Mic- Mac and TexJ,3.
I think the implication there — with the creeperness — is that it wouldn’t exactly be uninterrupted sleep. I’m definitely a freak. And although I’m no Bill Cosby, I’m certainly not going to waste good chloroform on someone just to watch them sleep in the back of my imaginary van. But you may be onto something here… What if I got into the gigolo business, but with a twist: I meet my Jane at her hotel. When she wakes… “I hope you slept well. After you were out, I went through your purse, found your address, went to your place,… Read more »
HAHAHAHA! Redefining creepy to give it a totally swoonworthy feel? The ladies will be lining up….
I know. Opening jars, fixing things around the house and rubbing my feet,? What is this madness? 😂😂
The jars in the fridge 😂
I’m dying….
Creepy or not, now I’m thinking where do I sign up? You had me at opening jars. 😂😂
I didn’t wanna get too many customers up front, so I back-spaced over returning library books…
In reality, you ladies would end up missing several days of work. “Sorry. After changing the oil in your car, I realized it’s easier disposing of bodies than old oil… You’ve been out since last Thursday. But I did rub your feet for each of those 4 days you’ve been out.”
Dude, I’d probably take the oil disposal over the foot rub (ticklish feet, so it’s definitely better to give than receive on that one, unless it’s seriously strong chloroform.) But the dishes and laundry and task list on the fridge…… 🤔
I don’t know the foot rub sounds really good right now. My foot and ankle are killing me.
You can have my share. 😉 And you’ve earned an awesome foot rub or four for all the walking you’ve been doing!! ❤️
You are absolutely correct that is is easier to dispose of bodies vs old oil. Not that I have experience in disposal of bodies….though I have buried one of the cats in the backyard. I suppose that counts. 4 days out is fine with me. Just make sure you feed the cats. They pounce on my head and bite my hair if not fed.
I change my own oil, and if you touch my feet, I will kill you. But, if you roll me up in your arms, to sleep, like my late husband did, I will love you forever. It is great comfort. I miss him every day, but moving on, and growing is all I have ever known, Sir!
Seriously how you are not behind bars is amazing. I am going to have to keep some cash on hand for the new passport and bail 🙄
Hahahaha. It takes a lot of work to maintain a global footprint, without leaving footprints. Plus, do you know how hard it is to be broke in several currencies?!
Well, clearly, you’re not talking about a long term night shift, healthcare worker, like me. Hospitals do not close at night or on Holidays. I work them all. Stay away from my feet, Sir. They are tired.💋💋💋
If she bails you out , you got a keeper 😎
Yeah , not enticing 😳
I cannot even imagine how many miles I have swam in lakes, rivers, pools. Pools more than anything. There is something sublime about the human form in water. You captured it perfectly, the picture is amazing, I have seen both worlds just like this, many times, at the event horizon of water and air. You have captured it all so perfectly.
Mason, you probably got more miles in a pool than any 15 people I know. So your vote here is really meaningful.
Memorizing and pulled me in to see where we were going. You have such a way with words. It’s like magic pulling you in waiting to see what is revealed in the next sentence.
Thank you for coming along for the ride! 🙂
What wonderful imagery, TO. (Sounds much better than “Ody”. lol) The lonely hunger just cries out of his heart…as well as his solitary choice not to offer something he can’t fulfill. At least…that is my sense of the story. Thanks for taking me out of the mundane for a while as I process your story to my own satisfaction. 🙂
That’s a great observation there, Susan. I didn’t really think about it from that angle, but you’re right.
Ah Ody, this makes me kind of sad. Kind of like Gatsby holding parties so that he can see Daisy with the hopes of a relationship. Always keeping his distance. Enjoyed!