Some Place Better Than Here

Chapter 13: Chelsea Hotel

After Mary reupholstered her underwear around her waist, we treaded water and floated on the surface and just talked. Though I couldn't focus on anything other than her naked legs and butt exposed in the water we shared.

"Are you thinking?" she asked from out of nowhere.

"Uh, no."

I scrambled the image of her naked body out of my mind.

Mary's eyelashes, wet and fanned out like the peaks of a crown, fluttered as she looked up at me, the pool-lights brightening her eyes. A half smile crossed her face as the water lapped back and forth, breaking infinitesimal waves against our bodies. Aqua blue triangles like a valley of mountains, rising and falling around us. All that could be heard was the buzzing of the forest and the soft splashes of the waves as they dispersed against the walls of the pool and then sunk back beneath the surface.

Mary's GPS instructions had led us to Winston Woods, a park in the West End of Gilmore Park. The public pool's hours were 8am-6pm, according to the sign screwed onto the post. But anyone with entry-level gymnastic capabilities could easily surmount the fence that surrounded it.

While treading the water, Mary and I entered another staring contest. Something we regularly did when the conversation stopped. When my eyes broke away from hers, I looked down through the water and noticed that under her wet bra (of course I noticed her wet bra), there were a few thin black scribbles on her ribcage. "Is that a tattoo?" I asked.

"Yeah. Wanna see?" Without waiting for my answer, she lobbed her body and raised her arms above her head so I could make out the thin handwriting scrawled along her skin.

"I can't read it. What does it say?" I asked, studying the narrow words on her body dripping with pearls of water.

"The heart will break, but broken live on," she answered.

I must admit that I'm not crazy about tattoos, but I liked Mary's.

"Did you make that up?"

"Are you kidding me? Gosh no, I'm not that poetic. It was something I read on Tumblr and loved it so much I knew I had to have it inked by my tits."

"Hmm," I mumbled. "Why'd you like it so much?"

"Cuz it looks sexy," she answered, and then dove under the water. A short while later, Mary swam to the edge of the pool. "Don't look!"

Respecting her privacy (this time) I turned away, and heard Mary propel herself onto the deck. Afterward, I heard her rummage through her bag, followed by the snap of a towel. She then shuddered, "Eek! I'm cold! Oh, you can look now!" Her feet left behind blotchy wet footprints on the cement.

After following her lead and climbing out of the pool, Mary told me to bust out the Tillard's Estate. Then grabbing two plastic cups out of her purse, which Mary presented as "Courtesy of Wright Bros groceries," I filled both of our cups and we made cheers to the advent of aviation.

"The plastic really brings the fullness out of this one-hundred-dollar Merlot," Mary remarked as she downed her second cup. I was an impatient drinker and had already gone through round two, so Mary filled us both back up to the top. A piece of cork plopped into my cup.

The bottle was a cork-top. I'd seen Mom uncork wines enough times to know what to do, but I'd never practiced the art myself, so I ended up breaking the cork and had to scrape the rest out with my car key. Mary said that we now had no choice but to finish the entire bottle. At this point, I assumed we'd just crash for the night in my car.

"Okay," she burped. "Now you gotta bust out your gee-tar."

I swung back my fourth cup and winced. "Yeah. I was wondering what purpose my gee-tar had this evening."