The regular swimmers had all gone home and I was waiting on the deck for Nancy to arrive. A few of the other members of the therapy class had shown up so I was sure she’d be here soon. I was up front by Penny when Reed came around the corner to the exit, stopping in my view. I turned away from him, and as I did I saw Nancy and her mom walking up from the parking lot. I decided to meet them outside, and when Nancy saw me coming, she ran up to me and jumped at me giving me a huge hug.

“No-line, No-line, No-line!” she said with the most thrilling enthusiasm heard by my ears. She had a hard time saying my name, and it came out with the cutest accent.

“Hey there, pretty mermaid princess. You ready to swim?” I asked her, kneeling down and letting her twirl in front of me. She just turned to me and nodded yes with a huge grin. I stood up and told her mom I’d meet them by the pool and she thanked me and headed into the locker room.

When I turned back around, Reed was staring at me, the faintest of smiles on his face. I just smiled back softly, mostly out of respect for the joy that Nancy brought me. I walked through the gate to Penny’s desk and pulled out the paperwork for Nancy’s lessons. We had a checklist to work through each day and when she was done I was going to give her a special diploma.

“What’s going on?” Reed asked quietly, almost afraid to speak. He coughed a little to clear his unsure throat.

I just looked him in the eye, my brow furrowed a little. I was confused that he was asking and still suspicious. I wondered if I would ever stop being suspicious again. “Uhhh… I’m volunteering?” That’s all I gave him.

He smiled with his familiar face, the one he used to show me when I said something sarcastic. “Yeah, I get that. But what’s it for?”

“Hmmmm. Well, it’s this cool program Todd told me about the other day. I’ve been thinking that maybe I want to get into special education in college. I’ve been working with Nancy. She has extreme anxiety, and our swim lessons make her forget about it for a while,” I paused for a minute, looking up at him and then back down at her checklist. “We’re sort of good for each other, you know?”

One final brief smile shot from my mouth and then I left for the pool deck where Nancy was waiting for me. We slowly climbed into the water and went through our floating exercises, her giggles filling the air with this perfectly soothing sound. She was a magical little girl, and when I saw her conquer her fears, it made me stronger. I knew that I owed my strength today to her.

When I turned her back around to head back to the other end of the pool, I noticed that Reed had stayed to watch our session. He was sitting on the bleachers with his knees bent up and his arms folded on them, his chin down like he was studying me. He seemed lost a little in his thoughts, and when he wiped his nose along his sleeve a little I thought that perhaps Nancy’s giggle had gotten to him just a little, too.

Reed stayed to watch a little of my next session, too. We didn’t talk at all during the day, but he stayed after to talk to Penny for a bit and then I caught him lingering by the bleachers again. I didn’t ask Penny what they had talked about, but I had a feeling it might have been a little about me.

Wednesday morning was the first one on my own completely. No Tyler keeping me company. He had a special practice with his private diving coach. It was strange how much time dragged without Tyler or Reed around to distract me, both in their opposite ways. They both walked into the aquatics center at the same time and seemed to be behaving friendly towards one another. Reed sat on the other end of the counter from me, still respecting my need for distance. Tyler slid over and put his arm around me and I saw Reed’s face grimace a little.

The day went along as usual until my first break with Tyler. He bought me an energy drink, which wasn’t new, but then he toyed with me a little, holding it over my head and pulling it out of reach whenever I grabbed for it. On the last attempt, he caught my arm with his hand and pulled me close, intimately close. “I’ll give it to you on one condition,” he smirked.

“Hmmmmm, I don’t know. I don’t want a cherry energy drink that badly, Tyler. I don’t know that this deck is really stacked in your favor,” I joked, but I was also trying to hide my own fear over where this was going.

“OK, you drive a hard bargain,” he smiled again. His body was so strong and wide, his broad chest almost swallowed me whole. “I’ll throw in this bag of Red Vines.”

That had me laughing uncontrollably. I gathered my composure and then asked “what are your terms, sir?”

“Dinner,” he said, but then held up his hand. “Uh…a date. A dinner date.”