"Marco!" Meg called out, moving blindly through the pool in search of Rosie. When no responding shout of Polo came, she repeated, "Marco?"

Still no reply.

"Rosie, you're cheating!" she whined, "You have to say Polo..." A beat. "Rosie?" Finally, she cracked one eye open to find Rosie watching with wide alarmed eyes as Alex emerged from the house and headed towards them. "Ah, fuck..." she muttered to herself, already seeing where this was going.

"Hello, ladies," Alex greeted brightly as she arrived at the pool deck. "I hope I'm not disturbing you – I just wanted to enjoy the sunshine."

Neither teenager said anything – Rosie too busy watching her every movement, Meg too busy glowering.

Apparently oblivious to both of them, Alex laid a towel down on one of the chairs and proceeded to pull off the sundress she wore over her bathing suit...at which point, Rosie's jaw quite literally dropped. If she hadn't been incredibly attracted to Alex before, seeing her in a bikini would definitely have done the trick.

"Holy shit..." Rosie whispered.

Meg quite visibly rolled her eyes. "I guess we're done playing Marco Polo, then..." she muttered, more to herself than to Rosie, who was far too preoccupied to have heard anyway. Louder, then, she said, "I'm going to get a popsicle." Without waiting for Rosie to comment, she climbed out of the pool and stomped back toward the house.

"Okay, bye," Rosie said distantly, still focused quite intently on Alex who had since settled down on the deck chairs with her book.

Rosie was doing her best not to be too conspicuous as she stared at Alex from her place atop a pool float. (Luckily, her sunglasses helped quite a bit in her quest not to creep her out.) She couldn't help staring, though... Alex just looked so fucking good. Granted, maybe she was a little biased, given her – not to put too fine a point on it – all-consuming soul crushing infatuation with Alex, but she couldn't help thinking that she'd never seen someone look quite so good in a bikini.

Meg, on the other hand, was obviously in a mood. She would have gone home already and put herself out of her misery, but unfortunately for her, her aunt and uncle were out of town and she was supposed to sleep over, leaving her no choice but to watch her best friend pathetically moon over a woman who was never going to feel the same way about her.

Rosie, of course, was oblivious to Meg's consternation. As usual. She was much too busy trying to find a conversational avenue with which to capture Alex's attention. As usual. It seemed like all she ever did (or said or thought) lately had something to do with Alex. And frankly, it was getting kind of extremely irritating. (Meg had tried repeatedly to bring it up with Rosie, but it seemed like she was always too distracted to listen. As usual.)

Before she could come up with said conversational avenue, though, Emily emerged from the patio doors and approached behind Alex, resting her hands on her shoulders. Rosie's expression became more and more dour as she watched Alex tilt her head back, just in time to meet Emily's lips in a tender kiss.

"Hey, beautiful," Emily greeted her when she pulled back for air. "I wondered where you ran off to..."

Alex grinned up at her, expression a little love drunk from the kiss. "Finished your conference call?" she asked, reaching up to clasp Emily's hand and gently tugging her into her line of vision.

She nodded. "Though, if I'd known you were out here in a bikini, I'd have finished up a lot sooner," she said, letting her eyes rake over Alex's body.

Blushing, Alex playfully replied, "Well, I did suggest you blow off work and join me..."

Emily chuckled. "Why, Ms. Miller, I do think you're becoming a bit of a bad influence on me."

"Is that a complaint?" Alex asked, brow quirked playfully.

"Absolutely not," she insisted. "In fact, I kind of encourage it." With a mischievous grin, she settled in Alex's lap, her arms wrapping around her neck. "With that being said, I don't suppose I can convince you to take this party upstairs?"

Alex quirked a brow. "But I'm enjoying the sunshine..."

Emily shrugged. "Fine by me. Perhaps you'd consider making this pool deck more clothing-optional?" she suggested.

"Your daughter and her friend are right there," she replied with a nod in the opposite direction. Which wasn't exactly a no...

Lips hovering over Alex's for a few moments, Emily teased her with the promise of a kiss, but rather than give it, she turned her head at the last minute and said, "Rosie, why don't you and Meg go get some ice cream?"

Rosie shot her a glare from where she floated in the middle of the pool. She opened her mouth to make some snarky, bitter, sass-filled reply, but before she could, though, Meg interrupted with an overly eager, "Gladly!"

"Meg!" Rosie hissed between her teeth.

Meg was already climbing out of the pool, wringing water out of her hair as she grabbed for the nearest towel. "Stay if you want, but I'm getting ice cream with or without you." And with that settled, she shot Rosie a glower that was more than a little challenge.

Ultimately, after several moments of watching Alex and Emily flirt with the line between PDA and outright indecency, Rosie scoffed and gave in to her mother's not-so-subtle command to give them some privacy.

Once the two girls had slid the patio door shut behind them, Emily resumed feasting her eyes upon Alex's half-naked body. Scraping her teeth across her bottom lip, she let her gaze flick from Alex's breasts to meet her gaze. "So, about that top..."

"What about it?"

Emily said nothing, merely giving her a suggestive smirk.

"Oh..." Alex said with faux-surprise, playing teasingly with the tie keeping her bathing suit top on. "You want me to take it off? Well, why didn't you just say so?"