Maybe Baby Lite (4 page)

“
Slower this time, and I
mean it, okay?” He raised his bottle of Bud and took a lengthy
swallow. Just then, Jenna’s shrill voice filled the air. I quickly
downed half of the wine cooler, grateful that Clint had turned to
watch her approach us.

“
Well, well, well, what’s
goin’ on with you two, huh? Looking awful cozy there like two snug
bugs in a rug. Tylar, hey girl, look at you! I really like your
skirt. Generally, short girls can’t pull that off.”

Jenna was probably three
inches taller than me. I was 5′4′′ and she was no more than 5′7′′
at best. I did not consider myself short. She was just being her
normal catty self. Clint shifted uneasily beside me.

“
You here alone?” I
asked.

Jenna smirked and glanced
over to where a tall, black-haired man that looked as if he may
have had some American Indian heritage came down over the hill
toward her. He was lean, nice-looking, and obviously fond of tats.
He had a white wife-beater shirt that highlighted his muscular
shoulders, tight black jeans, and pointy boots. He was at least
6′4′′, with dark, almost black eyes, and long sideburns.

“
There you are, darlin',”
Jenna squealed. “I was beginning to think you got lost.” She
grabbed his tanned arm and pulled it close. It was practically
lying across her breasts as she raised it so that it looped over
her shoulders. He seemed a bit embarrassed. “I want y’all to meet
my friend, Stuart. Stuart, this is Clint, and this is Tylar,” she
said, throwing her free arm out as if displaying prizes on a game
show. Stuart nodded to each of us, and finally noticed that Clint
had his right hand extended for a handshake. Stuart reluctantly
took it as if he wasn’t used to being introduced. I gave him a
quick wave, saying “Hey.” He nodded in return.

“
Baby,” Jenna gushed, “why
don’t you go on over there and get us both a couple of beers, okay?
Keg is fine.” Stuart nodded, again, and went off to do as
instructed.

“
Is he not a gorgeous
god?” she mused, whether to Clint or me I wasn’t sure.

“
Uh, yeah, quite the
package, Jenna,” I responded, trying to sound sincere.

“
He manages the best body
shop in town, yeah, I know, and what am I doing with a guy with so
little aspirations. But I gotta tell you, what that man can do with
his tongue and with his dick is something else! I guess you
wouldn’t understand, Tylar.”

I was pissed. How'd she
presume to know my experience with men? I started to interrupt her
but thought better of it. Instead, I drained the rest of my wine
cooler and sweetly asked Clint if he'd get me another one. Clint
raised an eyebrow, shook his head again, and was off.

“
So, Jenna, why do you
think I wouldn’t understand your attraction to such a hot guy?” I
tried to pull flippant off, but I hiccupped at the end, which took
some of the sting out of it.

“
Well, honey, it’s just
that you're still kinda young, you know? I just think you may not
have had the experience that some of the others have. You see,
Tylar, in a few years you'll see that there are men you fuck, and
then there are men you marry. Generally, the two types don’t
intermix.”

“
Is that right?” I asked.
“Well, does that mean you marry someone that you don’t like
fucking?”

“
Not at all, hon. You have
to understand that guys you meet and immediately know there's no
future potential, those are guys you ‘sport fuck;’ you've no
pretenses; it’s just plain old fun. And you enjoy it as long as you
care to. Bottom line though is that you don't quit looking for the
guy you want to land as a keeper.”

Stuart appeared with two
large plastic cups brimming with the draft beer. “Thanks, baby,”
she crooned, accepting one and taking a deep swallow of the foamy
beer.

I contemplated her words
for a moment, looking over at her as she turned to Stuart and
licked his ear. I noticed that Jenna was wearing a dark green tank
top that evidently had a built-in push-up bra and light khaki
shorts. Her eyes were made up as if she were going on stage.
Something about Jenna appealed to men who had a penchant for taking
a walk on the wild side. She likely rocked their world. I was
envious of her in a way.

Clint returned with my
third wine cooler. “Hey,” he said, “they’re grilling some hot dogs
over there. Are you hungry?” He was worried that I'd get plastered
and perhaps show myself.

“
I could eat," I
smiled.

I saw him visibly relax as
we walked over to where Luke was rolling hot dogs around on the
grill, making sure that all sides were equally charred. I grabbed a
bun out of the bag and a paper plate.

“
Hey Tylar,” Luke grinned,
“having fun, girl?”

“
Luke—” I started, and
then hiccupped yet again. I giggled, “This is the best damned party
I’ve been to in a very, very, very long time!”

“
Glad to hear it little
lady,” he responded. “Hold your bun out so I can put the weenie in
it.”

This brought a fresh fit
of giggles from me, and I doubled over laughing. Clint was right
there, grabbing my paper plate and the bun out of my
fingers.

“
I got it, I got it,
sweetie, go sit down.” He filled my plate with potato chips, baked
beans, and mustard relish on my hot dog and brought it over to
me.

“
Thank you, Clint. Would
you mind getting me another wine cooler?”

“
Not until you eat,” he
said firmly. The tone of his voice convinced me not to argue, so I
took a big bite out of the hot dog, and groaned at how good it
tasted. Once I'd finished, Clint finally relented, and brought
another wine cooler for me.

Later, we all told stories
and drank by the fire pit. It was going on midnight when Jenna got
the idea of going swimming in the Sinclair’s pool.

“
Whoa, wait a second,”
Clint said, “I enjoy a night-time swim as much as the next person,
but hey, it's getting late and we might wake up the Sinclairs. I
for one appreciate my job here.”

“
Chill out, Clint,” Jenna
chirped, “Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair are over in Europe. They have their
prodigal son, the lawyer, checking up on things while they are
gone. I saw him leave in his hot little sports car late this
afternoon. He's probably hooking up so no worries!”

I looked at Clint. He
shrugged his shoulders and winked.

"Okay, everyone grab your
suits and see you in the pool!” Jenna hollered.

The pool was a pretty far
trek, but Clint said he'd wait on me to change and walk me down. I
changed into my red two-piece suit, found a towel and shrugged a
tee shirt on over it. I still had my unopened wine cooler from the
party, so I twisted the top off, drinking about half of it before I
heard Clint’s knock.

“
You ready?” he
asked.

“
Lead the way,” I
said.

The guys and Jenna were
already there when we arrived. Luke, Rodney, and Stuart were
passing Jenna around in the water, throwing her from one to another
as she giggled and shrieked with delight. Ray and Denise had left
to go back to Denise’s apartment in town for the night.

“
Shhh, you guys, keep it
down,” Clint warned, eyeing the darkened mansion. “I meant what I
said earlier. I’m not looking to get fired.” He took off his tee
shirt and slipped into the water at the shallow end of the pool.
“You coming in, Tylar?” he called.

I finished off my wine
cooler, kicked my flip-flops aside, and pulled my tee shirt over my
head. I waded down to Clint, a bit anxious. I wasn't a swimmer and
I had no clue as to the maximum depth of the pool at the other end.
There was a diving board, so I figured it had to be eight to ten
feet deep there.

Jenna was on Stuart’s
shoulders and wanted to play a game in the water to see who could
knock who off someone’s shoulders. “C’mon, Clint, get Tylar up
there on your shoulders and let’s see which chick is the strongest.
’Course, it’s up to the guys to hold on tight to their legs, which
shouldn’t be a problem for you, I guess,” she snickered.

Clint turned and looked at
me questioningly, “Do you want to play?”

“
I’m game,” I answered,
feeling a resurgence of nerve since the last wine cooler. I
scrambled up onto Clint’s broad shoulders. He waded to the middle
of the pool. Rodney was appointed line judge so we waited for him
to give us the signal to start. I noticed Jenna leaning down and
whispering something to Stuart. Clint and I approached Jenna and
Stuart in the middle of the pool. The depth here was about five and
a half feet by my estimate.

“
Ready, set, go!” Rodney
yelled, backing out of the way.

Immediately Jenna and
Stuart made their way quickly over to Clint and me, splashing us to
the point that I was blinded by the water in my eyes; I squeezed
them shut. The chlorine stung like hell. I was flailing my arms
about wildly hoping to make contact with Jenna to knock her off. I
knew that we were in deeper water now. I could feel the water
touching my behind, which meant Clint’s face had to be partially
submerged.

Oh shit!

I was hoping Clint could
still hear; I was screaming at him to get me out. My hands
desperately located his head and I realized that he'd to bob up and
down in order to breathe. Just then Jenna launched a pre-emptive
strike. Stuart had maneuvered into a position where they were in
the more shallow water. Clint and I were on the down slope to the
diving area. Suddenly, Jenna went underwater and grabbed my right
foot while Stuart grabbed my left foot. In unison, they pushed up
with all their force and launched me off of Clint’s
back.

I flew airborne out of the
water. I briefly saw Jenna jump on Clint, laughing and dunking him
so that he could offer no assistance to me. It was if I was
watching the whole scene in slow motion. I felt myself sailing
through the air backward. I saw the look of horror on the faces of
Luke and Rodney as the back of my head slammed into something hard.
I felt a blinding pain, and then I hit the water face down. I felt
myself sinking and sinking. Everything was a blur.

I can’t swim! I can’t
swim
!

Tiny bubbles escaped from
my mouth as I sank. I futilely waved my hands in the water. It was
eerily quiet under the surface. I drifted slowly toward the bottom
of the pool.

Is somebody coming to get
me?
Is anyone out there?

Why wouldn’t my feet
move?

Kick your damned
feet!

I kicked fervently, trying
to remember what it looked like when I saw others doing it,
thinking I was probably doing it all wrong. The best I could do was
to keep my mouth shut and try not to inhale water. It was then that
I finally saw something. It was a bright light. It was shining for
me. This must be it for me. I knew about the bright light people
saw as they crossed over into death. Somehow, I thought it would be
more brilliant, more beckoning. Someone was in the water next to
me. He was all in black.

The grim
reaper?

He grabbed me around the
waist with strong arms, propelling me upward along his side. I
tried to hold my breath longer, but I couldn’t. Everything went
blessedly black.

The first thing I felt was
something pressing heavily on my chest. There was pressure again
and again. A mouth was on mine. Then more pressure.

Fuck it
hurts
!

I was hacking up water
then sputtering as I was rolled over onto my side where I proceeded
to vomit up wine coolers, chewed-up hot dog and what tasted like
baked bean gravy. I heard a voice, a semi-familiar
voice.

“
That’s it, Tylar, good
girl, let it out, let it all out."

I groaned. My chest ached,
my throat burned, and my head throbbed. I heard someone else
talking now.

“
I think she’s coming
around.”

That's Clint's voice; I'm
sure of it.

“
No thanks to any of you
idiots!” the semi-familiar voice snarled. Silence followed. “I want
to know who the hell is responsible for this!”

Wait a minute. I know that
snarl!

I tried to say something,
but all that came out was a squeaky croak. Strong arms turned over
onto my back. I was being cradled against a hard chest. I could
feel a heartbeat pounding; mine fluttered. Some other voice was
talking, a woman’s voice I didn’t recognize, asking if I should be
taken to the hospital. Then it was Clint’s voice again.

“
Here’s a blanket, sir,”
Clint sounded scared.

I immediately felt warmer
as the blanket was wrapped closely around me and tucked under my
chin. I willed myself to open my eyes. They were so heavy, but I
needed to see and know for sure. Slowly my eyes fluttered open and
my vision was clear enough that I could see those beautiful
sapphire eyes staring into mine.

Something was different in
those blue eyes. There was no anger in them. I now saw fear and
concern in the depths of those blue orbs. I lifted my hand out from
under the warm blanket and cautiously touched his chin stubble with
my fingers. I needed to know if this was real or imaginary. It felt
real enough.