One Night Flame

by Beverly Evans

  Whatever. That’s not the important thing.

  It’s Henry. I know he’s new in town, and he’s strangely awkward, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he’d go out and start socializing as much as possible to meet people. All of these homeowners are the kinds of people who go out and get involved in the town, and it’s a small town.

  The part of me that doesn’t like Henry wants this to mean something, but honestly, it probably doesn’t. I make a note of it. Besides, just because he’s a dick doesn’t mean he’s a fucking criminal. Still, I decide to stalk Henry’s social media a little bit. He added me on Facebook and followed me on Instagram, just because we’re coworkers, but I don’t talk to him or anything. I’m usually a silent observer on social media anyway. Henry isn’t. Most of his posts are flexes — shirtless selfies at the gym, mixed with pictures of hot women he’s friends with. The rest are of the station or other things he’s into, like gaming.

  All in all, kind of dull. He’s an odd one. I don’t get how someone so awkward in person can seem so sociable and, on the surface, what most would consider kind of cool. Proof that social media is mostly fake since he seems like a raging narcissist in person. I close Facebook and open up my email again.

  “You got on me for checking my work email at the last family dinner, yet here you are on vacation, doing the same thing,” Nadine’s voice jolts me out of everything as she suddenly appears in front of me.

  “What?” I look up at her. She’s only wearing a bikini top and running shorts, plus the hat she’s had on all day. I try my hardest not to check her out, especially since Andy and Angela are right behind her. “Oh, yeah. It’s a hard habit to break. Guess I can’t blame you, can I?”

  “I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with email like that anymore.” She stretches and sits down at the picnic table with the food and plates on it, across from mine. Andy sits next to her, and Ang sits on the opposite side of the table. Having Andy sitting next to Nadine is actually helpful, if not painful. He’s like our chaperone, whether he realizes it or not. I’m not sure if he notices anything’s up or not, but he can be deceptively perceptive sometimes. He just chooses not to show it.

  Lunch goes smoothly, and once everyone’s nice and tipsy, Dad offers to take us out on the lake.

  “I get seasick,” Ang frowns, glancing at Andy like there’s more behind the words than it appears.

  I’m pretty sure I know what that thing is, but I don’t want to think about that. She and Andy started as a friends with benefits situation, and since he didn’t think that we would ever hang as a group, Andy told me about how great the sex is. That made for an awkward first meeting, but I’ve mostly gotten over it.

  “I’ll stay behind with you,” Andy says, standing and offering his hand to her. “We can layout and chill.”

  “Okay, I guess it’s just us, then,” Dad says to the rest of us.

  I shove my hands into my pockets, suddenly feeling like staying behind too. I want to go on the water — it’s been a while since I have — but being crammed on a tiny boat with Nadine while our parents are all couple-y next to us is going to be torture. Nadine doesn’t seem to be freaking out as much as I am, but then again, I probably look just fine on the outside.

  I go to change into my swim trunks while Dad gets the boat ready. By the time I come back out, Nadine’s ditched her shorts and is spraying herself down with sunscreen and bug spray. It makes her olive-toned skin shine temptingly against her tiny pink suit. There’s so much exposed skin that I don’t know where to look.

  “Mind if I borrow that when you’re done?” I ask, trying to keep it casual.

  “Sure, no problem.” She pauses her spraying. “Do you mind helping me get my back?”

  She hands me the can and turns around. Our parents are already on the boat, so no one’s close enough to see my bright red face or where I’m looking. I spray down her back and hesitate to put my hands on her skin. She glances over her shoulder, as if to prompt me, and I get it over with. I rub in the sunscreen, taking my time on her upper back but rushing around her lower back and the skin above the low waistband of her suit like they’re made of lava. Her skin feels so warm and nice that I don’t want to stop. But I do, before things get creepy.

  “Need help with your back?” she asks when she turns around. Her eyes go up and down my torso for a second before she pointedly looks away. Did she just check me out? My ego gets a boost, but I glance around to see if anyone notices.

  “Yeah, thanks.” I turn around and let her spray me. She starts with the back of my neck and makes her way over my shoulders, almost teasingly slow. She’s using a little more pressure than I did, like a gentle massage. It’s so nice that I want to lay down and have her give me a full body massage. I can imagine her on her knees, naked, rubbing me down with oil before she rubs herself down.

  I laser my gaze to a tree and think about the properties of tree bark to calm my ass down.

  She has to notice the effect that she has on me, both physically and mentally, and that I want to touch her all over. Mentally, I’m wondering what the deal is. She insinuates that she wants to be just friends, but here she is, practically dangling herself in front of me like she’s down for something again. Did something change? Or is it just the fact that we’re both pretty naked that’s making that shift in the air?

  I help her onto the boat and climb in after her. Babs is sitting on one side, so I sit on the other, while Nadine sits next to me. Having her body that close to me makes me nervous, but at least she’s not directly across from me where I’d have to stop myself from looking at her all the time. I put on my sunglasses, which are dark enough so no one can see where I’m looking.

  “Let’s make a loop first,” Dad says, pulling away from the dock.

  “Don’t go too fast. I don’t want to fall off,” Babs says, clutching the seat when we speed up a little.

  “You aren’t going to fall off, Mom,” Nadine chuckles. “This isn’t a speedboat.”

  “There are fish in the water, and I don’t want to touch them,” Babs says with a sniff. “Just being careful.”

  “Hun, I don’t understand how you can gut a fish like it’s no big deal, but you don’t want to go into the water,” Dad says with a laugh.

  “When I’m gutting a fish, he’s already dead, and he’s in my house. If I go into his house, he has every right to mess with me.” Babs shudders, which makes Dad laugh again.

  They smile at each other, and it’s almost disgustingly cute. I’ve never seen Dad look at anyone or anything as lovingly as he looks at Babs. Even in photos from his wedding to my mom, he looked like a regular, happy guy, the terrible early nineties fashion aside. I know he loved my mom dearly and still misses her, but there’s something about Babs that must be extremely special to make him like this.

  “How’s the new place, Nadine?” Dad asks.

  “It’s nice. It’s really big,” she says, sounding genuinely upbeat.

  It’s almost a 180-degree shift from dinner the first night we were all together as a family, and I can tell Dad’s happy about it. When he and Babs first started dating, he was worried about winning Nadine over. He already knew Andy, so that wasn’t a problem. Dad knew that Nadine and I never got along, so he assumed that she would be difficult.

  “You and Noah are neighbors?” Babs asks, reaching under her seat. She unearths a six-pack of beers and offers one to each of us. I take one.

  “Yeah.” Nadine glances at me and twists the top off her beer. “Noah was really helpful when I moved in.”

  “That’s sweet of you,” Babs says in the warm, genuine way that made me like her right away when we first met.

  “It’s no big deal.” I shrug.

  “It’s nice to see you both becoming friends,” Dad says, slowing the boat down as we get close to the center of the lake. The breeze offsets the blazing sun, and I feel myself start to tan on my shoulders. I turn my hat backwards to protect my neck.

  “Yeah,
things are fine,” Nadine nods. She takes off her hat and lets her hair loose in the breeze. It tickles me, and I can smell the coconut shampoo she uses. I want to bury my face in it.

  I wish I could just fucking relax, but Nadine’s hips are pressed against mine, and there are only two scraps of fabric between us. The fact that she’s not shying away only makes me want her more and makes me think that she’s feeling the same way.

  Too bad we’re sitting right here with our fucking parents.

  “Yeah,” I finally say, realizing that the others want me to say something. “It’s nice having a neighbor. That house has been empty for a while.”

  Dad steps away from the steering wheel and sits down next to Babs, putting his arm around her waist. She clinks her beer bottle against his, and they both drink.

  It suddenly feels like we’re on a very weird double date, and I hate it.

  “Andy mentioned that you cooked for everyone the other night, Deenie,” Babs says. “Getting the cooking bug again?”

  “Yeah, but I had some help.” Nadine looks over at me. “Noah’s kitchen is really nice.”

  “Noah was in the kitchen with you? Actually helping?” Dad says it like Nadine told us I’d made a unicorn appear out of thin air.

  “Hey, I can learn to cook,” I protest indignantly. “Nadine’s teaching me, so I don’t die of malnutrition.”

  “You’ve done the impossible.” Dad grins, and I roll my eyes at him.

  Nadine laughs, though, and bumps my shoulder by accident. Both of us jolt away from each other and do a shitty job of pretending that nothing happened.

  My dad is a pro at communicating with me without saying anything, and I have the feeling that he’s going to be wondering what the fuck is going on. But I know as much as he does. I know I flirted with her a little the night she came over to cook, but I like to think I kept it at a friendly level the rest of the night with Andy there. We need to talk about whatever the hell this is.

  Sensing the awkwardness, Dad puts on some music, and changes the subject to the lake and whether we like the properties or not. There are bigger, fancier cabins not too far from here that they want to buy together. Since they booked the cabins a little last minute, we weren’t able to get one big one.

  Once it gets too hot to sit in the middle of the water an hour or so later, Dad takes us back to the dock so we can swim. Angela and Andy are nowhere to be found, so I’m guessing they’re inside doing things no one wants to hear or taking a nap.

  I’m happy to have a little time to myself in the water, at least. I swim out alone, trying to focus on the movements to dial down my stress. Whenever I shut Nadine out of my mind, my brain flips over to work and all the things I’m missing. Thoughts of work mingled with whatever the fuck is happening with Nadine have me pushing my body harder than I should, considering that I’ve had much more beer than food today. This is the least relaxing vacation ever, and we’ve been here for less than twenty-four hours.

  I come back and get out later, finding Nadine and Angela laying out in the sun on towels and Andy setting up a volleyball net. I pointedly look away from Nadine even though I could probably get a good look at her boobs from the side from the way she’s laying on her stomach. The way her bikini bottom is cut shows off her firm, round ass.

  “Want to play a little bit?” Andy asks me, tightening the net.

  “Nah, I think I’m going to rehydrate and rest for a while.” I head inside, then take a shower to rinse the lake water off of me.

  Being alone makes me strangely angry. It’s a vacation, sure, and laying out in the sun feels good. But why does Nadine have to look so fucking good? It’s like I’ve walked into a weird version of hell. I hop out of the shower and dry off, taking a peek into her room. Her duffel bag is on the bed. Her room is actually a little bit bigger than mine and has an easy chair. Without warning, I imagine her in the bed, stark naked, and I get so annoyed that I groan.

  I need to get over myself and just interact with her like a normal fucking person. Just because she’s sending mixed signals doesn’t mean that I have to also.

  I get dressed and go back outside to the fire pit, which Andy’s now lighting in anticipation of sunset. The smell of ribs on the grill fills the air, making me hungry all over again. Someone else has taken over the music instead of Dad, so music that came out sometime in the past twenty years is playing just loudly enough to accentuate conversations. Babs and Dad are standing close to each other in front of the grill, staring into each other’s eyes and talking about something. Dad kisses Babs on the forehead tenderly.

  “How’s the water?” Andy asks me when I approach him.

  “Not bad.” I examine the fire pit. It’s well put together and safe. “How’s the inside?”

  He gives me a goofy grin, the ass, and says, “Not bad.”

  Angela comes slinking up and hands Andy and me another beer. We should really slow down, but it’s a vacation. When else can you be drunk all day?

  “Where’s Nadine?” I ask.

  “Why?” Angela asks, her eyebrows waggling. “You miss her?”

  “I’m just curious,” I say with a little more heat than I intended. Getting a little rise out of me seems to be Angela’s goal because she smirks. “She’s the only one not here.”

  “Oh.” She shrugs. “It just seems like you guys had a thing.”

  “Jesus, Ang, no,” Andy says, laughing deep down in his belly. “Are you joking? The day they get together or even like each other like that is the day pigs fly.”

  I force myself to laugh too. Thank god, Andy’s oblivious. But Angela isn’t, which is worrying. She’s smart — smarter than Andy, according to him — but she doesn’t have over ten years of history on us that would make the idea of us being together hilarious. But then again, is it really that laughable for us to be together? Besides the sexual tension and our bickering if I push her boundaries a little bit too much, we get along with each other. We even have fun.

  “Plus, they would be step-siblings dating, which is weird,” Andy adds, throwing back his beer a little too quickly. At least I know he’s truly oblivious because Drunk Andy’s truth filter is about as good as a bag with the bottom cut out.

  “But it’s not like they grew up together like that,” Angela points out. “So it’s not that weird.”

  “What’s not weird?” Nadine asks, walking out of the back door of the cabin. She’s changed into a loose button-down over her jean shorts. Like a sensible person, she’s drinking from her water bottle.

  “Step-siblings dating,” Angela explains, her words slurring on the ’s’ sounds. Apparently, she and Andy are the same kind of drunk.

  “Oh.” Nadine frowns and looks confused.

  “Anyway!” I say, trying to cut the tension. “You guys want to start eating or something?”

  “Sure, that sounds perfect,” Nadine says quickly, turning and power walking toward the food table.

  Angela gives me a look, then pointedly looks at Nadine’s back, then back to me. I don’t want to glare at her, but god, is she making things a helluva lot harder. Instead of reacting to her blatant non-questions, I follow Nadine to the table. I sit on the opposite side of the table, as far from her as I can. Ang and Andy fill in the other spots, and Babs starts to bring over some of the potato salad and other food.

  With Nadine out of my direct line of sight and our parents joining us, the conversation shifts away from us and onto anything but. The food is incredible, as usual, and we settle into a comfortable, friendly vibe. Angela tells stories about her job in PR, and Andy tells stories about the dumb shit we did in college (well, the tamer stories.) It’s one of those long, drawn out meals that shouldn’t be overly memorable, but I feel like it will be. It feels like we’re an actual family, and I can tell that nothing in the world makes Babs and Dad happier.

  Later, we all migrate over to sit around the fire pit, roasting marshmallows and joking around. The hours pass by faster than they have all day, and before we know it
, our parents are yawning.

  “I think we’re going to head to bed,” Dad says. “We can figure out what to do tomorrow in the morning once everyone’s up.”

  “If we aren’t hungover. Goodness.” Babs stands from her chair with a wobble, and Dad catches her. She giggles like a schoolgirl and clutches his bicep.

  “I’ll handle the rest of the cleanup,” Nadine says, standing smoothly.

  “You want help?” I ask.

  “No, it’s fine. We got most of it earlier,” she says, sweeping dirt off her butt. My eyes go to the movement reflexively, and I make myself look away before I look too long.

  Angela snorts at this, which makes Andy laugh too. I don’t hide my glare this time. If I chuck them both in the lake, they would just swim back to shore, wouldn’t they? They’re not that drunk. They’re just drunk enough be fucking obnoxious. I slowed down on the beers after we ate, as did Nadine, but they didn’t.

  Since everyone is heading inside, I put out the fire pit, making sure it won’t reignite. Then I head inside too after making sure Nadine really doesn’t need help.

  “Good night, you two,” Angela calls from the base of the stairs. “Don’t stay up too late.”

  She takes a flying leap toward Andy, and he just barely manages to catch her. They both cackle at each other as he carries her up the stairs, the sound cutting off when one of them slams the door to their bedroom.

  “God, it’s been a while since I’ve been around Andy when he’s that drunk,” Nadine says with an eye roll. She walks over to the mini kitchen to wash her hands.

  “He’s just as obnoxious as he was in college when he’s this plastered.” I roll my eyes too. “Back then, I was just as fucked up, so I didn’t feel it as much.”