“And you’re laughing atme?”Iask.
“Hold your breath, sunshine,” he says, placing a hand on myshoulder.
“No, no, no, no, wait a minute. You’re not going to push my head down,” I state and question at thesametime.
“I won’t push your head down, but I’m happy to if that’ssomething—”
“Stop! Just stop.” I get down on my knees, feeling more of the water cover my body, wrapping me in its glacial death grip. I can do this fast or slow. He prefers fast seeing as he mentioned getting things over with, so we’ll do it his way today. I plunge my face into the water and pull it back out just as quickly like I were bobbing for apples and got lucky within the first second. It’s freezing! Oh, why couldn’t my nannying job be on the Florida coast instead ofMaine?
“I told you to blow bubbles. Do you need me to show you how to dothattoo?”
“I know how to blow.” I leave him with that as I dunk my head back under the water to give him his stupidbubbles.
When I re-emerge, he’s staring up at the sky with a stupid grin on his face. “Good, now let’s go in a few more feet.” The water doesn’t feel as stabby now, so it’s not as hard to walk in a bit further. “We’ll start withfloating.”
“Okay, but Ican’t,so...”
“Everyone can,” he corrects me. “Put your face back in the water, but this time lift your armsandlegs.”
“I’ll just sink to the bottom,” Iargue.
“Okay, I get it, you don’t trust me, but youwon’tsink.”
At least if I do, there are only small waves over here, and I can stand back up. I dip back under and shoot my arms out first because that’s easy. Then I lift a leg, imagining what I look like now because if he can see into the water, I probably look like one of those Italian peeing statues in the middle of afountain.
However, I can tell he’s not looking because his hands just slid under my rib cage and he’s lifting me up. His hands are big; like they take up most of my stomach. I’ve gone from a peeing statue to an elegant figure skating partner who can’t keep her head up. What adult needs to learn how to swim like this? Why couldn’t I have just Googled this shit? It can’t bethathard.
One of his arms wraps around my body as I lift my head above the water for air. “Now you’re going to want to kick your legs under the water and move your arms at the samespeed.”
We’ve graduated folks. I’ve gone from a figure skating partner to a wind-up figurine like ScubaSteve.
Just as I’m starting to find a rhythm between my arms and legs, a small wave gushes into us and his arm tightens around me, but slips at the same time, forcing his hand up and around my right breast, which I can feel very clearly since the tiny wave yanked my bikini top up to my neck.You must be kidding merightnow.
The second we recover and find our footing in the sand, his hand “degropes” me, and he releases his grip on my boob. While I assumed he’d jump back a foot and apologize or something, he just nonchalantly helps me with my top. I mean, he’s pulling my bikini top back down, over my breast and letting it— “Ouch!” —snap back into freakingplace.
“This isn’t the best type of bathing suit to learn how to swim in, just for futurereference.”
I should be in utter shock. Not only did he just touch my breast, then fix my bikini top ... for me, but he is completely unaffected by the exchange. “I got it, thanks. I’ll be bathing suit shopping this weekend, trust me.” He grabbed my breast, and I’m already past the thought of how large his hand is, considering he made me feel like an A-Cup when in fact, I’m definitely a couple of cup sizes largerthanthat.
“Oh, watch yourself,” hewarns.
Another wave, slightly larger than the last one, is coming for us, and rather than find a way to avoid being knocked over by it, I obviously protect the bikini situation so I don’t have to be exposed again. Wrongchoice...
The wave shoves me forward—not once, but twice—right into Liam. I still have my bikini top and bottom on, but I’m flat against his body. Ripples from the wave are making it hard to push back from him, so I release my hands from his rippled chest, dropping them into the water, but—oh, I have an idea—not so accidentally grazing his—massive boner. We’re in freezing water, and I’m sure I’ve heard it’s nearly impossible to have that happen in such icy waters. That size can’t be possible in a resting position,though...
“So, this isn’t going well,” he finallyspitsout.
“I’d say so. We’ve both been fondled, and I stillcan’tswim.”
“It’s going to take some time. Most people don’t learn to swim in a day,” he says, ignoring the fondling part of mystatement.
“Most children, yes, I’m sure you’re right. I’m twenty-two,however.”
“We’ll just have to keep at it until you know howtoswim.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s what we’ll havetodo.”
Wave. Fucking wave. His chest is so smooth and hard, and my hands are trapped between us, so I kind of want to grab his pec just to see how hard it is, but I won’t.I should. My cheek is resting on his chest, which feels nice on my face too, and he smells like ... ocean mist with a hint of coconut from his sunscreen—a scent I want to bottle upandkeep.
