The next morning Angela decides that she will make an early start. She makes her coffee and her juice and heads for her study.

She finishes her work at 3pm and allows herself to take the rest of the day off.

She walks upstairs, puts on her bathing suit and a light sundress. Putting her hair up in a ponytail and grabbing a big towel.

Walking outside felt like she walked into a wall of heat. She was so happy she has air-conditioning in her own house. She puts her towel and keys on the same table as last night, walks to the edge of the pool and dives in. She swims her first lap ands stops when she reaches the edge of the pool. She looks out over the pool.

~Wendy and Herb did make the right decision with this pool. This is just perfect.~ as she looks at the other side of the pool. ~Maybe we should consider having a pool as well.~ She starts swimming again.

When she finishes her swim, a voice startles her.

"Angela Bower."

"Oh my God, you scared me."

"What are you doing in Wendy's pool?"

"What is that any of your business Joanne?"

"Well this isn't your house An-ge-la!"

"It isn't ours either." Joanne's husband stood behind her. "Hi Angela."

"Hello Walt. How are you?" Angela exited the pool.

"I'm.." Walt lost all ability to talk seeing the tall, slender body leave the pool "Better."

"Angela?!" Joanne yelled.

Angela grabbed her towel, dried her face and wraps the towel around her. "What is it Joanne?" she knew exactly what she was doing.

"You know what you're doing Angela!"

"Yes, of course I do. I am housesitting for a friend who told me to use the pool whenever I wanted to cool off." She looks at Joanne and Walt "And I know Wendy did not give you permission to use it." As she points towards the towels in their hands.
"She's right Joanne." Walt looks like a kid that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Well, maybe Wendy also gave us permission?"

"Furthermore." Angela towered over Joanne. "I am in contact with Wendy. If I see you on her property without her consent, I will be informing her. Herb and she will be taking action and probably finding a new insurance agent." She looks at Walt who is trying to look down her towel.

Joanne catches her husband looking at Angela. "For God's sake Walt!"

Angela opens her towel to Walt "Here, take a better look." Walt's eyes grow as big as saucers as he tries to take in every inch of her body.

"Angela!" Joanne gives her a dirty look.

"Why are you so bothered Joanne? It's less than what you show your dry cleaners."

"What?" Walt turns to face his wife.

"Oh she is just spreading awful rumours about me." Joanne panics.

Walt looks at Angela, she shrugs. "I would like you two to leave now."

"Wendy will hear of this." Joanne wasn't giving up.

"Oh I'm counting on it." Angela smiles "I will tell her all about this when she calls me."

Joanne was no match for Angela.

"So where is Tony?" Joanne smirks "Your toy."

Angela shot her a look. "Listen very careful Joanne, I would tread lightly if I was you." She says through gritted teeth. "Don't start this battle, because you cannot and will not win this." Her dark eyes pierced through the weaker woman in front of her. "You WILL speak respectfully of both me and my best friend, now and in the future. If you can't bring yourself to say anything nice about us, I suggest you shut up and just go to your own house."

Joanne stepped back at Angela's words. She opened her mouth.
"Be very careful Joanne, chose your words wisely." Angela could take people speak ill of her, but no one and especially not Joanne Parker had any right to say anything about her family, especially Tony with his heart of gold.

"Have a good evening Angela." Joanne coward away.

"You too Joanne, Walt." She softly nods.

When Joanne and Walt are out of her vision, she grabs a chair and inhales sharply.

"That insufferable, hateful woman." She whispers under her breath.

She needs to get rid of her anger and decides to swim a couple of laps again.

Wednesday comes around, her entire body is aching.

She knew she pushed her body too far when she swam the last 20 laps. But she needed to get rid of the anger she had felt when Joanne Parker had spoken her words.

Because of the weather, she puts on shorts and a sleeveless shirt. She hated setting the air-conditioning too cold, as she was home alone. She'd prefer dressing down. Not only did it save on electricity, it was good for the environment as well.

She had a 10am telephone meeting with Jack. They spoke of their schedules and the visit to London. Dana and Angela would go next month and Jack would go in September. This would make it easier for them as they have kids.

"Do you need me in the office this week?" Angela asks.

"No, boss. We've got this."

"Good." She laughed. "Could you send me the draft for the latest flavour of Guachamunchies?"

"Sure, I will have a messenger send it to you in the early afternoon. You also want a bag too? They send us enough."

"Why not. It was chilli cheese right?"

"Yes. They're better than the original I have to admit that much." Jack said. "I like the spiciness of this flavour."

"Thanks Jack."

Just like Jack said, the messenger brought the package a little over noon. She offered him a can of soda to cool, which he happily took. She was about to walk back to her study when the doorbell rang again.

She puts the packages on table behind the couch and opens the door.

"Hello?"

"Hello Mrs. Bower?"

"Yes, can I help you?"
"Well yes, Mrs. Wittner told me I could come here about the pool." He pointed towards the Wittner house. "I'm Jake, the pool guy."

Angela looked at the handsome man in front of her. She estimates he is about 10 years younger than she is, his physical job had done wonders for his body. She couldn't help but admire the man in front of her.

"I am at the right place, aren't I?"

"Oh yes, I am so sorry, yes this is the right house. Wendy.. uh Mrs. Wittner gave me the keys. Could you hold on a second, please come in and close the door. Would you like a cold drink? I have homemade lemonade, soda or water. Must be awfully hot cleaning pools all day."

"Lemonade would be great. Thanks Mrs. Bower."

"Call me Angela, you can come in to the kitchen. The keys are there too."

She pours 2 glasses of lemonade.

"Here you go." As she hands him a cold glass. "I put the keys here because I took a swim yesterday. To be honest, I was expecting you tomorrow."

"Yes, but I was in the neighbourhood, so I thought I do it today. Because of this heat we decided to make an early start."
"We?" she took a big sip of her lemonade.

"My brother and I started this business. I do this side of the town and he does the other side." He finishes his glass.

"Come on. I will walk with you." As they head towards the Wittner residence. "What key do you need?"

"Just the one to the pool shed." He smiles.

Angela is taken aback by his beautiful smile as she blushes. "Right. Silly me." As she opens the shed.

"Do you need anything from me?" She asks.

"No I will do what I have to and then I'll bring you back the key." He bends to pick something up and Angela stares at his behind. ~Almost as good as Tony's.~ she blushes at her own thought as she walks back to her house.

She grabs the package, takes it back to the kitchen and opens it when there is a knock at the door.

"Come in." she says.

"Mrs… I mean Angela. I am really sorry to bother you. But last week my brother did the Wittner pool and he finished all the bleach tablets. I don't have them in my truck as I usually leave stock in the shed. I guess my brother finished it last week and forgot to write down that I needed to take some with me. I am so sorry for your inconvenience."

"That's okay. I'm glad to able to have a conversation." She laughs. "My son is off to his father, my mother is on vacation, my housekeeper is back home in Brooklyn and his daughter is visiting a friend. It does get quite boring on my own." She smiles.

"You have a male housekeeper?"

"That's what you got from that?" she laughs.

"Well yeah, no disrespect to either him or you. But that's something you don't come across every day. And he is just your housekeeper?"

"Excuses me? Of course he is."

"Oh I think I might have put my foot in my mouth. I didn't mean to imply. I am sorry."

"It's okay, the entire neighbourhood thinks we're sleeping together, why wouldn't you?"

"Because I should know better. The amount of rumours that are being spread about the pool guy. I mean people don't really tell me the rumours, but some of the housekeepers around the neighbourhood do." He looks at her. "So I kinda heard the rumours about you. Not that I knew they were about you, but I've heard the stories about the high end, ad exec with the male housekeeper."

"So the rumours about Joanne Parker and you aren't true either." Angela winks at the young man.

"Who's Joanne Parker?"

Angela laughs. "There is a rumour, Joanne Parker and you are sleeping together. And she doesn't even have a pool."

"So Angela, there we are. Two people heavily rumoured about." Jake laughs.

"So are any of the rumour true?" Angela blatantly asks. "You see I find it's easy to talk about people, it's much harder to ask directly."

Jake laughs. "No the rumours aren't true. I've been in a committed relationship for 5 years now. And I appreciate the directness. What about you? Are the rumours between your housekeeper and you true?"

Angela chuckled. "No." she halted and looked at him "Not exactly."

"Not exactly?" Jake was curious.

Angela opened the bag of Guachamunchies and offered him some, he grabbed a few. "Yeah you see, Tony, my housekeeper, and I have become best friends over the years he has been working here. I wouldn't mind it becoming more than just friendship." She avoided Jake eyes. "Oh my God I can't believe I just told you my deepest darkest secret. Please don't tell anyone, especially around here." She pleaded.

"These are great." Jake finishes the last of the chips in his hand. "Your secret is safe with me Angela." He looks up at her. "If I tell you my deepest secret, I trust you will keep it."

Angela gave him a curious look. "Well of course I will, I just told you mine."

"With the risk of sounding very cocky maybe a little arrogant, I know I look good. I've worked for this body, hard and I know my face isn't bad either." He looked at her face trying to find any trace of sarcasm in her face before he continued. "Lots of people think I sleep with all these desperate housewives here, but what no one knows. I've been happy with my boyfriend for 5 years now. I am not interested in all these women."

Angela's eyes grew. "You're gay?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."
"Not what you were expecting of gay man?" he smiles at her as he speaks a couple of octaves higher. "You think we all talk like this? And we all look feminine?"

"Oh God no. I work with actors and models every day. I've met many gay men and women. I don't care who you love. Maybe I'm just surprised because of all the rumours." She smiles at him. "And I know being an openly gay man in this day and age mustn't be easy."

"That's why most people think we're just roommates." Jake has a sad look in his eyes.

"I am sorry." Angela is genuinely sad for the handsome young man.

"Don't be, I am very happy with Alex. He's awesome."

"As long as he makes you happy, that is all that should count."

"Angela, these are great." As he pops another Guachamunchy in his mouth. "The spice is right."

"That is a perfect slogan!" Angela grabs a notepad and writes it down.

"Would you mind coming at the end of the day tomorrow?" Angela asks. She feels pathetic, but she likes his company. "You're great company.. This is going to sound so pathetic, but being alone, it's not my strong suit."

"I could come at the end of the day. Who knows, maybe we can get some new rumours started."

The phone rang.

"Excuse me." She got up.

"I will see you tomorrow. Thanks for the lemonade, chips and chat." He winks.

"See you tomorrow."

"Bye Angela."

"Angela Bower." She listened for a second "Mother?"

She listened again. "Mother, where are you? I can hardly hear you."

"What? Yes I'm fine. Yes mother. What? No I'm not naked.. mother! Stop putting images into my mind. Ugh.." she listened to her mother again. "No mother, no! LALALALA.."

"What? Another week? But mother! We got the Bennett account. Yes.. but mother I need you. Yes I need the account, yes mother. Oh God mother, I don't want to know this. Yes okay, I will see you then. Okay.. yes.. bye mother!" she shivers after hanging up.

Thursday rolls around. Angela finishes her work on the new Guachamunchie flavour. Adding Jake's slogan 'the spice is right'. She makes a note to make sure Jake will get his reward if the slogan is picked.

After lunch she called Jack to inform him she'd called the messenger to pick up and deliver the finished files to the Bower Agency. He would receive the package.

"Will you make sure that the people at Guacahmuncies get the proposal after you've proofread it?"

"Of course boss. I know what to do."

"I know Jack, I trust you. I will see you on Monday. Have a good weekend."

"You too boss."

Angela decided to go swimming again and wait for Jake. As her one bathing suit still smelled like chlorine, she grabbed her old bathing suit. When she put it on, the entire side tore open.

~Oh God no.~ she thought to herself. As she strips it off.

Looking through her drawer, she finds her bikini. Something she hardly wore as she felt uncomfortable in a bikini. She loves this one, it's cobalt blue with a floral pattern with a wrap for over her bikini bottoms. She puts it on and looks at herself in the mirror, she knows she is slightly skinny with small breasts but does smile at herself.

~You could have looked at lot worse.~ she thinks to herself.

Quickly grabbing a fresh towel, she heads to the Wittner's.

Tony arrives back home at 3pm. He can't wait to surprise Angela with his visit.

He had gotten fresh groceries as he knew she probably wasn't taking care of herself. He figured she'd be home around 5pm as she hates the commute in this heat.

He puts away the groceries before running upstairs to take a shower. When he finished his shower he hears laughter coming from the Wittner's backyard.

He has to walk into Angela's bedroom to see into the Wittner's backyard. The first thing he notices is Angela's bathing suit on her bed. He picks it up and sees that it's torn. He feels a lump growing in his throat. He throws it back on her bed and looks outside the window.

He sees a young handsome man at the pool shed. He is talking to someone who is sitting on a tanning bed. All he sees are legs, a beautiful pair of legs.

~Angela!~ all of his senses are heightened. He watches her dive in the pool he body is long and lean. As she swims a couple of laps and gets out of the pool again. He sees her wearing the cobalt blue bikini with the floral pattern. His mouth drops at the beauty before him. She looks gorgeous, water dripping off of her beautiful ivory skin. He feels a tingle in his pants.

~Why isn't she wearing her other bathing suit?~ he wonders.

The young man takes of his shirt. Tony sees the chiselled man in front of him, taking mental note to work out more. He watches Angela smile at him and laugh. She offers him a drink.

~Is he looking at her legs?~ Tony feels himself get angry.

He just stands there and watches their interaction. Their interaction is familiar, they've met before. He balls his fists as he feels jealousy take over.

She asks him something as he grabs the suntan lotion and starts lathering her up.

Tony narrows his eyes then closes them.

~She is not yours.. you can't be jealous..~ he repeats this as a mantra in his head.

When he opens his eyes, he sees him tickling her as she laughs. He says something in her ear and she laughs again.

At the end of their conversation Angela shakes his hand and hugs him. His hands on her hips, his sweaty body against hers. He closes his eyes again and shakes his head.

"Get real Tony. Come on, let's make dinner for your best friend." He softly says to himself.

He walks down, back into the kitchen and opens the fridge. He grabs a cold beer and opens it, sitting down at the kitchen table he throws back the beer. He feels horrible, but why? She is not his. She never was, secretly he hoped they'd find their way to each other one day.

And here she was flirting with a 20-something pool guy.

~Why wouldn't she?~ he thought to himself. He was the one that dated Kathleen, he was the one pulling away from her. Why shouldn't she?

A car starting got him out of his own head. As he looked out the window he sees the van of pool guy pulling out. He wonders if Angela is also in that van, he peeks through the window but can't see the Wittner's garden from there. He takes a sprint upstairs.

He watches Angela take a couple of laps and then she exits the pool. Water dripping again, this time she moves the tanning bed before laying down on it. She has placed the bed in such a way that if she looked up, she could see him. So he moves to the side of the window. He can see her, she can't see him. He feels his arousal grow just at the sight of her.

Angela feels watched as she moves the tanning bed.

~I must be losing my mind in this heat.~ she thinks to herself as she settles down.

She rests her head to the back of the chair and releases the breath she apparently was holding in.

All of sudden she feels fingers on her neck. She gasps.

"Ssshhh. Don't open your eyes." Tony's warm voice tells her. His hand moves down to her clavicle and further down to her chest, she pushes her upper body into his hand. As he squeezes a moan escapes her mouth.

"Oh Tony…" his hands moves to her abdomen. One finger plays with the rim of her bikini bottoms as he caresses her belly. She feels goosebumps form all over her body.

"Can I kiss you Angela?" His husky voice asks as she feels his hot breath on her ear.

She shivers.

"Please kiss me." She pleads.

That's when the phone next to her rings.

She sits up straight. "Tony?!" Looking around she finds herself alone next to the Wittner's pool. She had fallen asleep.

~Oh my God I had a sex dream, about Tony!~ she feels the wetness between her legs.

The phone rings again as she answers it.

"Wittner residence, Angela speaking."

"Angela?" Angela immediately recognises her friend's voice.

"Hi Wendy. How is San Francisco?"

Relieved by the distraction she listens to her friend ramble about her trip.

"Why did you phone your own house?" Angela asks.

"Angela, it is hot, I can't imagine you not being in the pool." She hears Wendy laugh.
"Oh God Wendy, I have to tell you. Joanne and Walt were here. Did you allow them to use your pool while you guys are out?"

"Angela.. you know me better than that! Even if we had allowed the entire neighbourhood to use it, I would never allow her to use them. Were you swimming at the time?" Angela could here the smile in her voice.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"And Walt was there?"

"Where are you going with this Wendy?"

"Have you seen Joanne? And have you seen you?" Wendy hollered. "You must have been a sight for sore eyes."

"Well.." Angela just said.

"Oh my God he feasted his eyes." Wendy cried laughing.

"He did." Angela chuckled.

"Did Jake drop by?" Wendy's voice turned thick.

"Yes he did! Such a lovely guy!"

"Quite the sight right?"

Angela chuckled, after remembering the conversation Jake and she had. "He is quite the sight."

"He's also a nice guy." Wendy's voice turned serious.
"I know, I spoke to him. He told me his brother and him started the company together."

"You spoke to him?" Wendy sounds surprised.

"Yes. You sound surprised."

"Well you know Angela, there are a lot of rumours surrounding Jake. I know they're not true, the poor guy is good at his job. But people are cruel."

"I know, I spoke to him about it. You know rumours. I mean you and I both know, there have been lots of rumours told about me."

Wendy knew what Angela was aiming at and she knew she was right. "Did you make sure Joanne saw you with Jake?"
Wendy knew her well. "Of course I did, I even asked his permission. And he told me you told him all about Joanne so he was more than happy to help." She laughed.

"Good job Angela! I will check in with you on Sunday, okay?"

"Sure, have a great trip Wendy."

"Bye."