I know she’s challenging me, as if somehow she knows exactly how to push my buttons. I want to walk into the pool and drag her out kicking and screaming as I bellow. No one has ever spoken to me like this before, not even Lucy, and I am suddenly overcome by the urge to spank this girl. To bend her over the side of the couch and tug down her wet panties and take my hand to her and teach her a goddamn lesson, and for a brief moment I damn near lose my balance as I imagine doing so.
But before I can say anything else she’s sliding up out of the pool, water dripping down her curves and running from her smooth skin in rivulets that seem to sparkle in the moonlight. She turns toward me and takes hold of her dark red mane, ringing it out into the grass as she smiles, and my eyes are drawn to her chest as her t-shirt clings to her two perfect little bumps.
As she walks toward me I find my breath again and I bring myself up to my full height, over a foot taller than her, but as I open my mouth she interrupts me.
‘Goodnight, Mr Ledger,’ she says as she wraps herself in her towel. ‘Sweet dreams.’
And I turn to watch as she walks away, her hips drawing a figure of eight as my eyes follow, and I realise that I am in deep, deep trouble.
*
I blink and groan as my alarm clock goes off. I’ve barely slept. My mind has raced for hours as I’ve played, replayed and reimagined last night over and over again in my mind, but no matter which way I let it play out, I come to the same conclusion.
Mr Ledger is going to fire me.
At this point, I’m surprised he hasn’t already.
I am fucked.
I thought I had my attitude under control, but I clearly don’t. At the first sign of confrontation, I turn into a fucking brat.
So you do want to watch me swimming? I hear inside my head, my words coming back to haunt me for the thousandth time. Then I lick my lips as I picture him, dragging me from his pool soaking wet and dripping, and pulling me inside as I struggle and whimper before he bends me over his couch, tears down my drenched panties and spanks me until I’m whimpering and begging for his cock.
‘Fuuuuck.’
I wrap my pillow around my head and kick my legs, sending the covers flying.
This is all Flick’s fault.
I am blameless.
I scramble for my phone and unlock it, hammering her name in my contacts list and a moment later it starts to ring. It’s six in the morning, but I don’t care. I intend to give her an earful. It rings off and goes to the answerphone and I try again, and again, and then, at last, she answers.
‘What the fuck, Mackenzie?’ she drawls, her voice slow and full of slumber.
‘I fucked up and it’s your fault,’ I hiss.
‘What?’
‘I’ve got a fucking crush on the dad,’ I say. ‘And it’s all because you planted your twisted fucking seed in my head.’
For a long moment, Flick is silent, and then she starts to laugh.
‘It’s not funny,’ I hiss as she keeps laughing. ‘I took a photo of him without his top on, and then I got in his pool in just my panties and a t-shirt and he caught me and now I can’t stop thinking about him spanking me and-‘
Flick roars with laughter down the phone, her giggles so infectious that even I begin to grin. ‘It’s not funny you psycho,’ I say, covering my mouth as I snicker.
‘Oh my goodness,’ she breathes with desperation. ‘This is too much.’
‘I hate you,’ I say as tears of laughter stream down my face.
‘So you’re over Kyle already then?’ she says, still giggling.
‘No,’ I hiss. ‘I mean, I yes, but… he hasn’t even asked me out on a date yet.’
‘He hasn’t?’ she says. ‘What the fuck is he doing?’
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘We’re just texting.’