“I need?—”
Whatever idiotic point she was going to make was cut off by the office door swinging open and Kelly walking onto the pool deck, eyes trained on her clipboard.
“Courtney, have you gotten the report cards for Nicole’s classes yet?”
“No, she said she’ll give them to us tomorrow,” Courtney said, not breaking eye contact with me.
“Okay, well, I...” Kelly finally looked up and took in the scene before her. She frowned as she spotted Charlie and me in the pool. “Where’s your class, Madison?”
“They aren’t here,” I said. I glanced at the clock. “And I’m guessing they’re not coming since the class is already half over.”
“So why are you still here?” Kelly asked. She looked at the clock, then, as if she didn’t believe the time on it, checked her watch as well. “That was your last class of the day, right?”
“Yes, but Courtney told me I should stay just in case they showed up.”
“You’re always welcome to leave after a third of your class has passed and no students have arrived.” She looked at Courtney. “You know that.”
Courtney flushed. “Oh, well, I just thought... we should err on the side of caution. Some people arrive really late.”
“Where’s Leah, then?” Kelly asked. She glanced at her clipboard. “According to the schedule, she also has a class right now too.”
“Oh… Leah…” Courtney looked like she was at a total loss for words while Kelly just stared at her. She looked around in a panic—as if she thought Leah might just appear out of nowhere if she wished hard enough—and her gaze eventually landed on me. “Madison, do you know where Leah is? Did she go to the bathroom or something?”
She was practically begging me with her eyes to help cover for her. If she had been anyone else, or if this were some other situation, I probably would have. There were so many easy excuses for why Leah ended up leaving that wouldn’t have raised any concerns from Kelly at all, but by making one of these excuses I would be helping someone who was trying to make my life a living hell, and I was not willing to do that.
“No, Courtney,” I said sweetly. “You said she could leave. Remember?”
“You said she could leave?” Kelly asked.
“Well…” Courtney trailed off, trying to find some way to spin this that would make her look good. Right then, one of my only goals in life was to make sure she looked as bad in front of her boss as possible, so I continued on.
“She said I was the only one who had to stay for the full hour,” I said. “Because Leah’s class was shorter.”
Courtney glared at me in a way that she probably thought was scary but didn’t faze me in the slightest.
“What she means is,” Courtney said, “that I thought we should have an instructor here, just in case anyone from the classes arrived. But we only needed one, and since Madison was on the schedule for fifteen minutes longer anyway, it made more sense for her to be the one to stay. I just thought this made the most sense.”
“Courtney, we went over this in your training,” Kelly said. “If a class shows up that late, then you’re the one who has to jump in to teach them and one of us will come lifeguard for you. You have to stay for the full shift anyway, but they don’t.” She looked at us. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, guys. You’re welcome to leave now. Thanks for staying so long.”
She didn’t have to tell us twice. I tried not to look too smug as we got out of the pool and headed for the locker rooms.
“Make sure you’re on time tomorrow,” Courtney said snidely like she was trying to get a dig at us any way she could.
“We always are,” Charlie said loftily. When we reached the spot where we had to split up to go into the different locker rooms, he put a hand on my arm to stop me for a second. With the way he was staring at me, I actually thought he was going to kiss me—which would not have been good for a variety of reasons, ranging from the fact that Courtney would probably murder us right then and there to it being inappropriate in the workplace. But in the end, he just said, “Meet me outside by my car, okay?”
He glanced at Courtney so quickly that it was almost imperceivable, but it made me realize what he was doing. He wanted to make sure that there was no doubt in Courtney’s mind that he and I spent time together outside of work. He wanted her to wonder what was happening between us and make her as jealous as he possibly could. And I was more than happy to play along.
“Slight hitch in the day’s plan,” Charlie said when he met me outside. I looked up from my phone and frowned in confusion.
“Was there a plan beyond driving home?”
“No, but that’s where the hitch comes in,” Charlie said. “I need to swing by Falcon High to pick up Flo from camp. Mind if I do that before dropping you off? Seems easier that way.”
As the second oldest of six siblings, Charlie often ended up being the chauffeur, especially for the three that were much younger than him.
“Of course,” I said. “But why do you only need to get her today? Hasn’t she been at camp for the past few weeks?”
“Yeah, but Elliot normally picks her up and he can’t today. It was a last-minute change.”
