JENNIE
Dr. Manoban vanished from the view the moment our gazes locked, and Felix mistook my gasp of surprise as pleasure, too into the moment to think it'd be anything else. I didn't tell him what I'd seen, and Dr. Manoban never said a word about it. Not to me, and probably not to her son either. She was excellent at pretending it hadn't happened.
But I wondered how long she'd stood at the window.
How much of my naked body had she seen, writhing on the deck chair? Should I have felt unease? Disgust? I didn't. All I felt was odd and jittery, like I'd been left under a heat lamp too long. Whenever I thought about it, my skin glowed hot and was stretched too tight.
"I just got in the water, give me a second," I said, stalling for more time.
Felix shot me a helpless grin. "Sorry." Although his tone said he wasn't. "You put on a bikini. How am I supposed to keep my hands to myself?"
Six months ago, I would have found his comment playful and charming. Today, it turned me off.
He leaned back in the water, floating near me, and his brown eyes looked richer with the water reflecting in them. He was cute when we'd first started dating, and he'd since filled out as he grew into a man. He was handsome. Felix's hair was short on the sides and long on top, and lighter in color than his dada's.
My stomach hurt with worry as I watched him glide through the water, carefree. He had no idea I was about to drop a bomb.
"Hey," I started, my voice already wavering. "We need to talk."
The patio door opened with a noisy slide, drawing our attention. Dr. Manoban stepped outside, carrying a pitcher in one hand and two plastic cups in the other.
Felix grinned widely, and he asked his dada teasingly, like it was some joke I wasn't in on, "What's that?"
"Fresh lemonade," Dr. Manoban answered quickly. Too quickly.
Felix laughed. "Poor Somi. Maybe I should go over there and tell her you hate the taste of lemon. She could make those cookies again. Or the brownies. Those were awesome."
I wrinkled my forehead in confusion. Felix swam close and circled me in his arms.
"Our next-door neighbor got divorced, and now she wants my dada. Bad. Up until today, she's been trying to seduce her with baked goods." He squeezed tight, and it felt constricting. "Hey. How come you don't bake stuff for me anymore?"
"Probably because I'm busy and we hardly see each other?" My tone was more pointed than I'd meant for it to be.
Dr. Manoban walked toward the glass table perched under the umbrella and set the pitcher and cups down. "Well, enjoy."
"You think she roofied it?" Her son said it as a joke, but Dr. Manoban's gaze narrowed suspiciously at the pitcher.
"I'm sure it's safe," she said, then disappeared back into the house.
"What a glowing endorsement," Felix joked.
Under the water, his hands began to wander, playing with the strings at my hips. I squirmed away, but he didn't get the message, and my irritation reached critical mass.
"I didn't come over to have sex with you."
He shot me a confused look. "Then, why did you?"
Oh my God.
His simple question broke the last piece of my heart. He couldn't see any other reason I'd want to be here? I wasn't his friend anymore—I was just someone to stick his dick in. The realization was incredibly hurtful, and tears sprang into my eyes. My voice went shallow. "Felix, I can't do this anymore. It's over."
"What?" He went wooden, his shoulders snapping stiff. But judging by his reaction, he'd heard me loud and clear.
"You've changed. We're different people now."
His shocked expression was frozen on his face. It was painfully tense, and the only sound was the water quietly lapping at the edge of the pool. That was, until the sliding patio door rang out a second time.
"Not now," he growled at his father.
It didn't slow Dr. Manoban down. She had a cordless telephone in her hand. "It's your boss. He says you're not answering your cell."
"Fuck," Felix muttered as he swam to the edge of the pool. "My battery ran down." He stretched up a hand and took the receiver. "Hello?"
He paused, listening to the other side, and contorted his face with an annoyed look.
"No, I'm not coming in today. I don't work again until Wednesday."
My gaze locked onto Dr. Manoban's, and the thought seemed to hit us at the same time. Today was Wednesday.
"Shit," Felix said into the phone, scrambling toward the steps. "Yeah, of course. I'm so sorry. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
He flew up the stairs and out of the pool, dropping the phone on the chair cushion and grabbing the towel there. My towel, because he'd forgotten to bring one out.
"I gotta go," he said, scrubbing the water off his skin. No idea if he was talking to me or his dada. "I'm already late."
Dr. Manobab crossed her arms over her chest, visibly displeased, and Felix noticed.
"Yeah, I know," he said, banding the towel around his hips and hurrying toward the patio door. "I screwed up. Sorry."
Again, no idea who this apology was directed at. I was glad to be in the cool water at that moment, because my blood boiled. He didn't give a thought to staying and talking. He didn't say anything to me—including goodbye. As he ducked into the house, I was left floating both physically and emotionally.
My frustration got the better of me. "How did he not know it was Wednesday?"
The summer had him all screwed up, but this was his job. Waiting tables wasn't life or death, but Felix acted like having spending money for his upcoming sophomore year was.
Dr. Manoban sighed loudly. "I'm sorry about him. You know you're welcome to stay as long as you want."
Um, unlikely. "Thanks."
She hesitated. "And there's fresh lemonade."
"I know what you're doing," I said. "You're just trying to unload that on me."
She smiled and nodded like she'd been busted. "I feel bad pouring it out. If you like lemons, I'm sure it's good and probably not drugged."
I squeezed out a smile, meeting hers. We held each other's gaze for a long moment. Long enough for the smiles to end and be replaced with something different. She gave me a look similar to the one earlier and it made my pulse pound in my throat.
What the hell? I stared down at the ripples in the water, blinking rapidly. Maybe I wasn't imagining things.
"Do you want some?" Her deep voice sounded unsteady, and her question threw me.
What exactly was she offering? "Some?"
"Lemonade."
Right. I was an idiot, projecting things that weren't there. "Oh. Sure."
She picked up a cup and poured from the pitcher, and my focus was drawn to her hands. They weren't just beautiful, they were talented and worth a lot of money. How many lives had she saved with them?
Off on the far side of the house, we heard the garage door go up, a car back down the driveway, and tires peel out.
"Here you go," she said, bending down over the edge of the pool to pass me the cup.
"Thank you." I took a sip, and she gauged my reaction. I puckered my lips. "Ugh. Don't feel bad about pouring it out. It's too tart."
I set the cup on the side of the pool and turned my gaze to the steps. I couldn't stay here. I climbed out of the water as Dr. Manoban gathered up the cups and pitcher.
She paused when she noticed me standing beside the railing, my arms crossed over my chest. It was warm outside, but when the breeze blew, it was chilly. I was drenched and wasn't going to go inside the house to change until I at least stopped dripping.
"You forget to bring a towel out?" she asked lightly.
"No," I said. "Felix did, and he took mine."
She shook her head and muttered something under her breath as she went inside the house, taking the gross lemonade with her. She reappeared thirty seconds later with a folded towel and passed it to me.
"Thank you," I said. "I didn't want to go in and drip all over your carpet."
"Because you're capable of thinking of someone besides yourself."
It had to be a dig at Felix, and I had absolutely no response. I wrapped the towel around my body and pressed my lips together.
Dr. Manoban's expression wasn't exactly frustration—it looked like she wanted to say something else, but instead she held it back and just frowned. Her brown eyes filled with disappointment.
"Can I get you anything else?" she asked, hovering awkwardly. Almost as if she hoped I'd start a conversation. I searched the back of my brain to find something, but couldn't.
"I'm good," I eked out.
"All right. I'm . . . going inside."
She turned swiftly and disappeared into the house, moving so fast she didn't see my mouth fall open. The woman was a surgeon. She oozed confidence and always seemed calm in a crisis. When Felix had totaled his car two years ago, his dada had been concerned, but never lost her cool throughout the ordeal.
Seeing Dr. Manoban unsure? It made me nervous.