Sleep was slow in coming that night. I’d expected that, but I wouldn’t have been able to predict the reason. Instead of seeing my sister drowned, sinking into the depths, or washed up lifeless on the beach, my thoughts were filled with a short-haired blonde rising majestically from the water, her powerful shoulders glistening in the Southern California sunlight.
I finally nodded off, feeling somehow safe with her face in my mind. The next thing I knew it was morning and my mom was knocking lightly on my door. “Aly, sweetheart, I’m going to head in to the hospital, you coming?”
“No, I’m just waking up. You go on, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Eventually I found my way into the shower and some clothes. I sat in my Mini Cooper for a moment before making a decision. I turned the key, pulled through our front gate, and headed to the beach.
Taylor
I’d made the right call, coming back to work today. It felt good to be in the sunshine. I watched the people play, innocent and carefree. A boy, maybe six years old, was building a sandcastle with his father. A couple of young girls were splashing each other, while a grandma was trying to get her floatie-clad grandson to kick as she pulled him through the water. Beyond them all was the impossible vastness of the ocean, in all its incredible power, sleeping peacefully. None of them were aware a young life had almost ended here yesterday. I breathed deeply. But it hadn’t, the universe had been kind for once.
So I watched them. Was I more alert than usual? Probably, and I think my heart was beating a little faster than normal. But I was going to keep them safe. I was focused, intense, absolutely locked in to… what the hell?
“Hi, um, ma’am?”
I looked down. Holy shit! It was her! That girl, the one who’d been with the rescue yesterday. The one I’d spent three and a half hours sketching, and who’d spent all night running through my dreams. Luckily my sunglasses hid how wide my eyes got when I saw her.
Ok, play it cool. “Can I help you?”
“I, um, yesterday, uh, you saved my sister?” God she was blushing, I could see it from here. The corners of my mouth turned up into a smile. I couldn’t help it, she was adorable. And very straight. That last thought got my mind back under control.
“I remember.” I turned back to the water. Her face dropped, and she seemed nervous, actually tugging on the blue jumper she was wearing. I sighed. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s good, so far. She should get out of the hospital today.” She fidgeted some more. “The doctor said there shouldn’t be any permanent damage.”
“Glad to hear it.”
She was still staring at me. “I, um, I just.” She took a deep breath, and her lip was quivering. I wanted to jump down and hug her, but I probably shouldn’t. Make that definitely. I did pull off my sunglasses to take a good look. She had luxurious, soft brown hair that was clipped back over her ears, and her irises were a lovely, milk chocolate brown. I hadn’t noticed that before. A girl could get lost in those. They never left mine, and finally she got some words out. “I wanted to say thank you, for everything. What you did, it was incredible. You saved, I mean, everything, you just don’t know.” I saw a tear run down her cheek. “So thank you.”
“You’re very welcome, really.” I smiled at her. “It’s my job.”
“I just feel, can I, I mean, do you eat lunch?” I saw her wince at her own comment. God, that’s cute. “Do you?”
I should say no. It’s not right, and she’s straight. She’d had guys crawling all over her yesterday. “You don’t need to do that.”
“I want to, really. I feel like I have to.”
I shook my head and sighed in resignation. “I go to lunch around one, it depends on when my relief gets here.” I saw her pull her phone out of her purse and check the time. It was a little after eleven.
“Ok, meet you here?”
I nodded and leaned back into my chair, scanning the water again. When I glanced back she was gone, and I shook my head. God, I must be a masochist. Why was it always straight girls? If I had a nickel, well, I’d still be broke, but it’d happened enough that I oughta know better.
Just an example, Sherri, met her at one of Jared’s parties. She’d just broken up with her boyfriend, at least that’s what she’d said. We’d had an amazing night. I didn’t even have to pursue her; she was all over me. A week later she was back with the boyfriend, and wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence.
I remember a friend in college joking that one particular asshole we both knew was the, um, ‘the leading cause of lesbianism in California’. I think that’s how she’d put it. Sometimes I wondered if I weren’t exactly the opposite.
And now here we go again. The upside, of course, is that she probably wasn’t even bi-curious. Maybe. It would have been better if I’d’ve said no. Maybe she wouldn’t show. The really sad part of the whole thing is if she didn’t, I knew I’d be disappointed.
Alyssa
My breath was shaky as I walked away, going underneath her tower to get out of sight. I actually stopped there to collect my thoughts. It was the same feeling I’d gotten when I was around the girls on my high school soccer or softball teams, but a lot stronger. But that was just camaraderie, enjoying being with other women in friendship and a common goal. Wasn’t it?
One thing I knew for sure, I’d be there when she was ready. I had almost two hours to kill, so I made my way up to one of the sandwich shops on the boardwalk and ordered a lemonade, pulling out my phone and calling Kelsey.
“Hey, kid, how’ya feeling?”
“Good, tired. Breathing’s easier this morning. Doctors are gonna let me go home this afternoon.”
“That’s disappointing. If you’d have died I’d have gotten your trust fund.”
“Ha-ha. You say that, but you’d miss me.”
I smiled, tears stinging my eyes. “So much. But seriously, I owe you a better day than yesterday.”
“It was my fault, Aly. I did something stupid. I’ll tell you about it later. Mom’s pretty mad about the bikini, too.” I winced at that. How’d she find out? Oh, well. “Hey, where are you?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” I heard her laugh, which was a great sound. “I’ll be there this afternoon, promise.”
“Okay, I love you, Aly.”
“Love you too, sis. I’ll see you.”
I disconnected and stared out over the sand and water. It was weird. Yesterday had been the scariest day of my life, no question, but today felt, I don’t know, momentous, I guess. I watched the children play. The surf was higher today, so there were some boogie boarders a little further out.
A cold wash of panic flashed through me when I saw a girl scream and splash, but then a young man surfaced next to her and she pushed water into his face laughing. I shook my head.
Eventually the time passed, and it was closing in on one o’clock, so I walked back toward the lifeguard tower. As I approached I saw a yellow truck nearby. It started to pull away and I looked up at the tower. It wasn’t the same lifeguard, the one there now was clearly of East Asian descent with long black hair. I had to keep myself from running towards the tower. What if she’d left?
No, there she was, leaning against the front pillar looking around. She’d put a white sleeveless T-shirt on over her suit, along with the black athletic shorts she’d been wearing before. Her shoulders were bare, muscled and lean, along with incredibly toned arms and legs. I felt my mouth going dry as I approached, so I called out while I still could. “Hey!”
She turned towards me. “Hey, back.” She gave me a small one-sided smile and my heart did a little flip. “So, it’s your dime. Where’re we headed?”
“Um.” Oh crap, I hadn’t even thought about that. I’m so stupid! I was staring around open mouthed for several seconds before she rescued me.
“If you want a suggestion, Mas Taco is parked over there.” She pointed up over the beach wall. “It’s one of the best food trucks around.”
“Sure, sounds great. Lead the way.” I almost tripped over the sand when she smirked at me again.
“So what do I call you?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m Alyssa, my friends call me Aly. Spelled A-L-Y. How ’bout you?”
“Taylor.”
“Nice to meet you.” That smirk again. We walked toward the food truck in silence, but I could feel her next to me, like a heat source. The comfy kind. It was disconcerting, but really I just wanted to get closer. We ordered, and as soon as we had our food we sat at a little table under the shade of an umbrella.
She looked at me, and I tried to start a conversation, but literally no sounds would come out of my mouth.
Taylor leaned forward across the table. “So, now that you got me here, what are you going to do with me?”
I pointed at her. “Pretty Woman.”
She laughed. “That’s right, very good.”
I grinned at the compliment. “It’s one of my mom’s favorites. So you like old movies?”
“I like all kinds of art.”
I cocked my head at her. “‘Pretty Woman’ is art?”
She looked right at me with those incredible steel blue eyes. “When you watch it, does it make you feel? Does it make you think?”
I nodded, not looking away. “Sure.”
She shrugged. “Then it’s art.”
“I never thought about it like that.”
“Most people don’t.”
“So can a building be art?”
She looked at me strangely. “Sure, why?”
“It’s what I’m studying, architecture. I’m starting my senior year at USC.”
“That’s cool. So you’re from LA then?”
“About ten minutes from here. I’d just finished an internship this summer, that’s why Kelsey and I were here yesterday. Celebrating my last year in college, and Kelsey’s first year of high school.” I took a bite of my baja fish taco. Wow, that was really tasty.
“Good?”
“Mmm, so good.”
“Work here long enough, you figure out who’s up to snuff.”
“So how long have you, y’know.” I nodded toward the beach.
“LIfeguarding? Since high school. It was just a weekend gig at the local Y for awhile, then a summer at a community pool back home after my senior year.”
“Where’s home? Are you from L. A.?”
She laughed bitterly. “No, Idaho. Boise.”
“Really? How does a mountain girl end up on the beach for a living?”
“The water, I love it.” Her blue grey eyes got distant, and she looked out over the sea. “My family took a vacation to the coast when I was eight, just to Seattle and Puget Sound, but I was fascinated. I spent every minute I could after that in the water. Actually got a swimming scholarship to Pepperdine, which is how I ended up here.”