It Takes Two, page 21
“I’m starting to feel like one of those tiny little fluffy dogs that get carried around by all the rich people,” he comments. “Is it ‘bring your boyfriend to the get-together’ day?”
“It would appear so,” Jazzy agrees, kneeling to scoop up the next pile of books she needs. She looks up at him when she stands back up. “But will you come anyway?”
He sighs in a mock groan, leaning against the metal cart, his eyes squinting suspiciously. “Well, I guess so. But you have to carry me around in one of those ridiculous little dog purses.”
“Jeez, Glen.”
“And you have to promise me that we can try the panini press again soon.”
“No! Now get out of here before you get me fired from the only job I’ve ever been good at.”
He gives her a warm grin, rubbing his hand down her back and planting a kiss against the side of her face, before stepping around her and heading back out of the aisle, plucking a random book off the top of the pile on the cart to take with him as he goes.
“Jazmine,” a woman’s voice calls out pleasantly from behind her. Jazzy startles, nearly slamming her hip against the cart as she whips around to see Susan, her supervisor, approaching. “Could I speak with you in the back when you have a moment?”
Jazzy reasons that it surely can’t be anything bad as she hurries to follow Susan across the Mystery section toward the back reference desk that leads into her office. Her supervisor couldn’t have seen Glen where she was standing, and there is still the ever-present cheerful beat in the stout woman’s round, rosy-cheeked face. Jazzy doesn’t think she’s ever seen her upset about anything in the time she has been here.
“You’ve been doing such a great job here,” Susan begins once they have both sat in the privacy of her small office that feels as warm-hearted as she is with all the bright colored, heart-shaped sticky notes and various pictures of past library events. “I know we’ll all be very sad to lose you once the school semester starts again.”
Jazzy will be sad to leave as well. But there is no way she will be able to balance this, her bookstore job, and all her classes without having pretty much no time to herself.
“I’ve been enjoying it so much,” Jazzy says, “I can’t thank you enough for giving me this opportunity.”
“Well, there is something I wanted to make you aware of,” Susan continues, looking even more eager. “The country library, the one that is near the center of town?”
Jazzy does indeed know the one. It was the first she applied to, given it is much closer to her building.
“It’s been under construction for a while. Completely re-branding and everything. A few colleagues and I have been involved in getting it off the ground, and it’s going to be much larger, a tad more high-end, even. They’re obviously going to need to hire some employees and I think you would be a perfect fit. I would be more than happy to give you a good recommendation, which would mean a lot coming from me, given I know the owners personally.”
Jazzy can’t really believe what she’s hearing. She’s not exactly sure if she is qualified to work in a “high-end” library. She’s not even sure what that means.
“Well… I… thank you so much,” she stumbles out, seeing that Susan is waiting for an answer. “But I would… have to think about it. I have a lot to figure out with my new class schedule and everything.”
Susan waves her hand understandingly. “Of course, there’s no need to make a decision on the spot. I’ll email you with more details and you can decide later if you want to apply. I just thought it was best to let you know now so that you can begin thinking it over. I know how passionate you are about building a career in this field. And this might be a very great opportunity.”
***
Even their cab driver looks stunned when he drops Jazzy and Glen off at Amanda’s address. They are both left slack-jawed at the sight before them. The twisting cobblestone pathways, lush trees, expertly-trimmed bushes, and large, several story homes are far from their price range, so this neighborhood would never be somewhere they would have considered even glancing at before.
There is even a marble-plated doorbell to ring once they walk past the shining iron gates toward the house Amanda supposedly lives in alone. Though the place looks big enough to house ten whole families.
“Yoooo!” A guy with bright green swim trunks and no shirt greets them loudly as he pulls open the heavy-looking door.
Jazzy and Glen stare at him blankly.
“You two are late!” He waves a beer can at them. “Get in here!”
The man stumbles back through the house, leaving the door open as his feet slap against the polished hardwood.
Slowly, Jazzy and Glen give each other a look.
“I don’t know him,” Jazzy assures him.
“What kind of a party did you just bring me to?”
They both walk slowly through the towering home, their necks craned to try and see where the glittering, glass-looking ceilings end. On either side of them, the gold-lit house seems to stretch on for miles in endless broad hallways.
“Does it just go on forever?” Glen asks below his breath as they move toward the gigantic sliding glass doors that lead out into the backyard where the sounds of voices and laughter echo softly through the gargantuan home. The windows and doors are crisp and sharp, letting in waves of light from the unusually bright, summer day outside.
“I lied to you earlier,” Glen comments as he glances around them while Jazzy tries to pick out Liza amidst the group of people lounging out on the cobblestone patio space once they step outside. “We definitely didn’t dress right.”
“Jazz!” Amanda screeches, leaping off the lap of a very broad blond-haired man sitting on the edge of the crystal-clear pool, looking practically flawless in a bright-white bikini with a colorful, flowy silk beach robe. Amber and Julie are also clinging to similar looking men, one of them being the guy who had answered the door who looks like he almost falls out of the lounge chair he collapses into as Amber tries attaching herself to him and he tries balancing her and his beer can.
Liza is the only one without a shirtless underwear model attached to her.
“Oh, my God, I’m so glad you two could make it!”
Jazzy jerks violently as Amanda slams into her in an aggressive hug before she turns and flashes a huge smile at Glen, the sun glinting in the mirrors of her reflective sunglasses.
“Glen! So good to finally see you again!”
“Hi, Amanda.” Glen looks like he knows perfectly well exactly what Amanda really thinks of him.
“What’s up?” Liza nods toward Jazzy from where she sits with a drink in her hand under the cover of the pavilion, her gaze avoiding Glen entirely. Probably for the better.
“Hey, Liza.” Jazzy smiles warmly.
“Well, what are you two waiting for?” Amanda playfully shoves them both back toward the house. “Get those clothes off and get into your suits! This is a pool party! We’ll get you guys some drinks.”
“Bathroom’s down that hall,” Liza reaches her hand out to point to the left side of the house. “Big oak door, second one after the first right turn. Text me if you get lost.”
Once they have located the large, overly-fancy room that looks more like a small parlor than a bathroom, Glen and Jazzy both stumble about trying to change into their swimsuits. The bathroom may be large, but it is filled to the brim with items that make moving about quite a challenge while not bumping into anything. Jazzy bumps a toilet paper shelf with her butt while she’s trying to get her jeans off and has to catch it before it smacks against the fine tile floor, and Glen almost knocks over one of the fancy towel hangers when he stands up and hits his head on it.
Regardless of the harrowing odds, they manage to get by without damaging anything.
Though she is more than happy to admire how Glen looks in nothing but the pair of gray board shorts he had changed into, Jazzy feels a bit self-conscious when she steps back out onto the patio in the new turquoise-colored bikini she had bought the other day when she realized she had zero swimwear in her possession. Feeling the bright sun touch warmly against her bare stomach and legs, she wonders if she should have gone with the full-length bathing suit instead. Given that she is usually incredibly reluctant to wear things considered “sexy” in any way, shape, or form.
She crosses her arms over herself instinctually, hardly used to even Glen seeing her like this, let alone a bunch of guys she’s never met before. Though from the looks of them admiring the much more trim and conventionally attractive group of girls they are all clinging to, Jazzy is sure no one will be looking at her.
Aside from one person.
Everyone starts jumping into the pool once they come back out, the splashing water cracking against the stone, echoing in the large backyard as Jazzy feels the comfortingly cool splash sprinkle against her skin.
“I just remembered…” Jazzy whispers to Glen as they inch closer to the luxurious pool. “I’m not much of a swimmer.”
She took the obligatory swim lessons when she was five, but to be honest, she can’t remember the last time she ever set foot in a pool. Probably at her final swim lesson.
“I don’t think that’s really the point,” Glen observes, nodding toward the others who are bobbing about in the water. Amber and her male companion seem to be splashing around a little bit, but Liza and Amanda and the others are all mostly leaning up against the ledge with their drinks.
“Okay, but just so you know if I start drowning, it’s not because I’m that dumb. It’s because it’s been fifteen years since I’ve had to keep myself afloat in water.”
“Noted. Not dumb, just out of practice.”
The crisp, cool water is actually a much-welcomed relief from the sun blazing overhead as Jazzy slowly sinks into the pool and lets the icy-cold chill wash over her.
As soon as everyone has sunk into the pool, it’s almost as if all the tension has completely washed away, at least in Jazzy’s mind. Within five seconds, everyone is laughing and diving and splashing around the enormous pool while music blasts from someone’s speaker up on the patio. Jazzy even partakes in the fruity margaritas that are placed along the ledge, which makes her even more pleasantly scatterbrained.
She can hardly keep herself afloat once the smooth cement bottom of the pool drops away from her toes, but Glen holds onto her to make sure she doesn’t sink away. He stays away from the deep end though as he tries to keep them both above water. Because, as he soon informs her in a stark revelation, he can’t remember the last time he ever swam either.
“So, Amanda,” Julie asks, leaning over the donut-shaped floatie she’s on to gaze over at where Amanda sits at the edge of the pool, sipping her pink-dyed fruit drink. “How are things going with your new boy-toy?”
They all turn and look at where the blond-haired Adonis had wandered inside to get more alcohol.
“Oh, just going along,” Amanda answers, intentionally vague with her expression hidden mostly behind her overly-large sunglasses.
“Where’d you pick up this one?” Liza asks from where she is lying on one of the pool loungers, soaking in the sun. “Catalog photoshoot?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know…”
“Well, I just think that Jazzy and Glen are so cute together,” Amber chimes in from where she and her date are curled up together on the pool bed. Jazzy and Glen’s attention are drawn back to the group from where he had just been helping her back onto the pool noodle she had slipped off of. “We should all take hints from them; don’t you think Scott?”
She nudges the tan brunette next to her pointedly, much to his confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“You never hold me that close when we swim.”
“It’s just because I’m kind of a danger to myself in the water,” Jazzy explains.
“And there’s a small chance I might be as well,” Glen adds. “We both could need an emergency life preserver at any second.”
“Okay, but that is still literally the cutest thing ever,” Julie comments, taking a sip of her lime-colored drink before sliding halfway back into the water, standing along the ledge with Amanda and the short dark-haired guy with green shorts who let them in earlier. “You two are literally attached at the hip.”
“Sounds aggravating,” Liza comments without looking up at them.
“Um no, it’s adorable,” Amber insists, flipping her long, braided dark hair over her shoulder as she rolls over on the bed to reach for her orange-tinted drink she had placed on the ground. “Liza, I think it’s about time you loosen up.”
“I am plenty loose.”
“Stop grabbing it so tight,” Glen whispers to Jazzy as Amber and Liza continue their back and forth and Jazzy is busy crushing the pool noodle into her sternum for dear life. “You’re gonna give yourself a hernia.”
“Glen, if I let go, I will drop,” she whispers back, watching Julie casually and quietly moving across the water to where Liza is still lying, unaware.
“You will not, you just need to balance your center of buoyancy out.”
“... I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking—”
A shout pierces the air followed by a splash that sends the water rocking and Jazzy clamoring to grip onto the pool noodle even tighter as she and Glen both turn to see the lounger Liza had been on tipped over and Julie hastily making her way back across the pool as the others laugh.
Jazzy’s eyes widen as she stifles her own giggling once Liza resurfaces, sunglasses askew and her hair sopping wet. And to her terror, she heads straight toward her.
“Jazzy, give me that noodle.”
Jazzy leaps backward into Glen’s arms while he kicks the Styrofoam cylinder Liza’s way. “Fire away, m’lady.”
And fire away she does, chasing Julie all around inside and outside the pool, until the other woman finds a weapon of her own in a little floatie shaped like one of the robots from Star Wars that she uses to block Liza’s cunning attacks with the noodle and launch a tirade of her own. Meanwhile, Amber and Amanda and the guys have to grab their drinks and dodge out of their way. Jazzy and Glen remain within the safety of the pool, where it is suddenly less likely that they will be killed. And they get the added bonus of viewing a very entertaining showdown.
“Make her pay, Liza!”
“Shut the fuck up, Glen!”
“Hey, I’m rooting for you!”
“Be careful!” Jazzy pleads, wondering how slippery the dampened stone ground is around the pool and cringing every time one of the girls runs around a corner.
“No use, babe.” Glen sighs behind her as he continues to hold her above the water. “This means bloodshed.”
Amanda’s poor boy-toy eventually comes back outside with more drinks to find a war zone.
The chaos does calm down again after a while once Liza feels she has had her vengeance in throwing Julie back into the pool where she crashes against the unicorn floatie and goes flying several feet backward into the deep end. And Jazzy has now learned to never push Liza into the water.
Peace is settled, and they are back to drinking and relaxing, the heat of the late afternoon sun sparkling down against the crisp blue water that Jazzy slowly but surely finds less terrifying.
A sense of comfortable happiness goes through her as she swims around with Glen, chats with Liza, laughs with the guys. It’s a feeling she never really got with the friends she used to have back home. And things always seem to teeter on the bridge of tension when she has hung out with these girls recently. But right now, none of that matters. They’re suddenly all on the same wavelength for now. Even Glen. And Jazzy couldn’t be happier for the relieving distraction.
Jazzy stays in the water until the sun has nearly set and her fingers are wrinkled. The pool becomes lit with gorgeous violet-and-blue light bulbs that warm the water, and suddenly, it becomes colder outside the pool than inside. But the warm grilled steak (and roasted butternut squash salad for Liza) that is placed out on the table under the gazebo by an army of private chefs does enough to quickly warm her up again.
Glen goes to change back into his jeans and T-shirt while Jazzy goes to sit back out by the abandoned pool, her feet dipped into the now motionless water as she sips on a drink that somebody made. Liza, or Julie, or one of the guys, she can’t remember. All she knows is it tastes pretty good and is making her feel quite warm against the breeze now rippling through the air as she sits and stares out at the endless array of gigantic houses twisting through a maze of perfectly-crafted pathways and gates, trees, and bushes.
How is this some people’s everyday lives?
“Hey.”
Liza plops down next to her, her feet splashing into the water next to Jazzy’s with a dull sploosh.
“Hi.”
Even a few days ago, Jazzy wouldn’t have been comfortable accidentally brushing up against anyone here, aside from Glen of course. But whatever has changed today makes her perfectly comfortable to huddle against Liza’s heavy black sweatshirt for warmth as the other woman tosses her green-and-blue colored hair into a sloppy bun on her head.
“You look really happy with Glen.”
The words sound only slightly strained. But mostly genuine. So genuine, that Jazzy turns her head to look at her.
Liza nods slowly, rolling her eyes.
“I know, I know. I still hate his guts. But… today was a lot of fun. And I didn’t even really mind that he was here.”
Jazzy smiles, but still gives Liza a look. Waiting for the rest of her thought.
“Okay, what I’m trying to say is,” Liza grins, shoving Jazzy playfully with her elbow as she takes in her expression, “that you seem a lot happier. I would say it’s because you got yourself that gig you wanted at the library and you’re kicking ass in school, and you’re getting your own life back on track, but… I know Glen has something to do with it too.”
