Secret Rulebook of Cheating

Epilogue

I was resting my limbs, leaning against the pool side after a very exhausting swimming lesson. I had been taking those for almost a year now and I had really improved. I could swim a few lengths without pausing to catch my breath. Ever since I signed up, I had learned how to breathe properly, coordinate my limbs better and all the other little techniques. Who would have thought? But the truth was I had an awesome coach. My very own personal coach.

I watched Jason as his body rippled through the water, his muscles straining at every stroke. The view did things to my body I wouldn't say out loud in a room full of children, not that there were any around. I was his only 'student' for the day since it was Saturday. He liked to arrange our practices like that – either late in the evenings or on weekends – so we had the whole pool to ourselves. I didn't mind. Not at all.

He pushed himself off the opposite wall of the pool and cut across lanes to swim in my direction.

'You know, you never told me why you quit the swimming team in high school,' I told him when he stopped in front of me, placing his hands on the edge of the pool on either side of me to keep himself above water without having to kick with his legs.

'Oh, that.' Jason removed the hair that had stuck on his face and returned his hand on my side. 'Yeah, I didn't exactly quit,' he explained and I raised my eyebrows. 'I was kicked out.'

'Why?' I ignored the fact that he had twisted the truth a little. Knowing him, he had only done it to keep his ego intact.

He sighed. 'You want the truth or the story I tell the boys?'

'What do you tell the boys?' This got me curious.

'That the principle caught me hooking up with the coach in the pool. She was his wife.'

'Ew!' The image of a forty-something blonde bimbo with no doubt killer body all over what I imagined Jason looked like when he was sixteen-seventeen sprung to my mind. I pushed him back a little disgusted and he lost hold of the pool edge, sinking in the water for a second. He re-emerged quickly and returned to his old position, grinning. 'And what's the truth?' I asked.

He wiped the water from his face. 'I got caught cheating on my calculus exam.'

I couldn't hold my laugh. 'You sure know how to twist your stories.'

Jason shrugged in an 'I'm good like that' manner. Yeah, he was still the overconfident egomaniac I fell for almost two years ago. How had that even happened? My eyes glanced down his body. Oh yeah, now I remembered.

'So...' I wrapped my arms around his neck and with the most innocent look asked 'What if I hook up with my coach? Will I be in trouble?'

I saw his eyes light with excitement and a second later darken with desire. Yeah, he was that easy. 'I don't think my high school principle would have anything against it.'

'No?'

Jason shook his hand and leaned closer to me. 'No,' he whispered against my lips before he knocked my socks off with a kiss.

His kisses still did that to me. We practically lived together now. Not that it was official or anything but he did spend most of his time in my one-bedroom apartment. Ever since that time we bumped into each other at the university, and I walked out on him at that coffee shop, he seemed like he didn't want to take the chance I disappeared on him again. Not that I intended to. I enjoyed him too much. We were keeping it light and fun, one day at a time, no big questions asked. I knew him too well to try and change him. But he did get home to me every night so far so that had to mean something.

--

I was sitting on a bench, playing with the wristband I had made for Jason as one of my assignments. It was plain leather with two snap buttons and I still couldn't believe he actually wore it. We were in the locker room and believe it or not, I was ready before him. But that was only because I had left him clear up and lock down the pool while I went to take a shower. He was now in his boxers, pulling the rest of his clothes out of his locker and I didn't mind at all if he took his time with them. He finished dressing and came to bend above me, reaching to take the wristband from my hands. He slapped a kiss on my lips as he wrapped the thing around his wrist.