“You should,” Trey whispered.
“Y’all need to learn to mind your own damn business,” Diana said.
Marcy reached into her bag and pulled out her sunscreen. She stood up confidently and rested her foot on the end of the lounge chair while languidly rubbing her leg. Stafford looked. And he kept looking.
“All right then. That’s a promising start,” I said.
I saw our summer friend Julian, notoriously single, notoriously hot, and partially out of the closet, walking through the gate. Marcy and I had felt relieved when he finally came out to us. Only days before his announcement a couple years ago, I had been saying, “I just want to know. I mean, if he is, we could vacation together and he could be my plus-one to events that Greg doesn’t want to go to. If not, that’s inappropriate.”
“Exactly,” Marcy had said. “And you know whether to keep him in the back of your mind as a possibility if Greg dies.”
We had both burst out laughing.
“Okay,” I said. “You get in the pool and chat Stafford up. I’ll check in with Julian.”
I waved, and he sauntered over. Eyes turned left and right because, believe you me, that man spent a lot of time in the gym. When his shirt was off, there was drool coming from every which direction. He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “Hi, gorgeous. You look as fabulous as I’ve ever seen you. How’s the divorce treating you?”
“It’s treating me pretty great,” I half lied, eyeing Marcy as she laughed flirtatiously. Then I added my signature line: “It was a beautiful chapter in my life story, and now I’m ready for a new one.”
“Getting any action?”
Diana chuckled knowingly. I shot her a look. But Andrew did run through my mind.
“I heard that I’m-too-sexy-for-my-shirt Andrew has a thing for you,” Julian said.
“How in the world did you hear that?” I was truly shocked.
“Well, let’s see.…” He put his finger up to his chin. “Derrick overheard Brooke on the phone saying that someone at the club had asked you out, which obviously wasn’t much to go on. But then Derrick was playing tennis later that afternoon and he saw Andrew smiling and texting, so he asked Tina who Andrew was dating and she said no one, but she wished he were texting her with that smile.” That made us both laugh, as Tina was at least seventy. I motioned for him to continue. “So then Tina asked herdaughter Margot if she knew who Andrew was dating, and when Margot asked her little cousin Roger, he said that he had seen Andrew at Hook, Line, and Sinker with one Ms. Gray Howard.”
“Damn,” Diana said.
“You should be in the FBI,” I added.
Julian gasped. “So it is true! I want to eat whipped cream off his abs.”
“So do I!” I said, laughing. “I’ll keep you posted.”
“And that, my dear, is why we’re summer soul mates.”
“Speaking of soul mates,” I whispered, glancing toward Marcy and Stafford, who were still chatting, “what’s the deal with Stafford?”
“None of the rumors are true,” he said. “Alice is trying to blackmail him.” He paused dramatically. “From rehab.”
“Hmm. Blackmail. Not a bad plan. What you got on Greg?”
We laughed again. “You have everything on Greg you’d ever need all on your own.”
“And yet I’m losing this damn divorce.” I finally turned and said, “Julian, I want to introduce you to Trey.”
Julian pulled his sunglasses up onto his head as Trey stood up. “Oh my Lord, we finally meet in the flesh. All I have heard about from this one is Trey this and Trey that.”
Trey laughed and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you,” he said.
Julian looked at me, confused. “Wait. He’s straight?”
I sighed. “Is this some sort of new cultural norm I’ve missed out on? Like I have to inform everyone now if someone is straight?”
“He wears his hair like that because he’s a Yankee and says ‘girl’ because he’s up Gray’s butt,” Diana said. “Now you’re all caught up.”
