A Little Big Crush

Pool

After that magical evening, Dario messaged her constantly. They would text well into the night and during the day. Dario opened up to Dinah about his job search and how his father got him a temporary job working at the airport alongside him. Many other girls in town would write him off as not worthy enough to date due to his low- status job, but she didn't care. At least he was still applying and interviewing for jobs like the one before, but it made her secretly happy that he was working so close to her. He worked only ten minutes away from her.

Dinah woke up in the weekends longing for Dario to come and see her. It didn't take long for him to follow up after the first wonderful night they spent watching t.v together. He'd always come over and they would watch movies, comedies, and a whole plethora of series during the day before they'd hop into her community pool.

The first time they ventured out of her apartment, Dinah fumbled with putting on her bathing suit in the bathroom. Dario had never seen her in her bathing suit before and what if he didn't like what he saw? What if he didn't like the extra places that her regular clothes hid so well? She shook her head and fixed the top of her white and black striped one piece, tying the string on top on the back of her neck.

I'm not that fat, She told herself as she stared at her reflection. He basically felt you up already, so he knows your body. Be confident, Dinah. Own it. Once you show him confidence, he won't focus on the negative, physical parts. Your confidence and belief in yourself is what's sexy.

That was the gist of the message she'd read in all her self-help books on confidence issues. If she and Dario were going to be serious, she had to show all of herself- physically, mentally, emotionally. That's what a serious relationship was like. She also knew he had to show more of himself. It was a give and take. This was the moment she needed to take the plunge.

After taking a deep breath and slipping on her flowered beach slip cover, she headed out of the apartment with Dario to the pool area of her condo.

Once they took up two beach chairs for themselves and their belongings, Dario stared at her while she removed the beach slip. "Wow," he breathed. That was all the encouragement she needed. From that moment on, she didn't feel insecure or give a second thought to feeling any kind of discomfort in wearing a bathing suit in front of him.

Now she was able to stare at him as well, and the usual butterflies in her stomach and the aching between her legs began once she stared at his bare chest. He had hairs on his chest, of course. When she was younger, she always liked to see a man with a bare chest, chiseled abs, and six-pack. Basically a movie star. That was the man she dreamed about, the kinds of guys you'd see on the cover of alpha romance novels. But none of that was real. And honestly, all she wanted was a down-to-Earth, easygoing guy that cared for her, wanted her. Dinah realized the older she got, the more she started coming around to liking men with facial hair and hairy chests. Most guys didn't bother or weren't into the whole waxing thing. The more a man acted like a regular, every day guy, the more she was turned on by it.

Like Dario. Everything about him was sexy and he was exactly what she wanted. A regular joe who wasn't very romantic but was appreciative of you when he needed to be. She didn't need a big, dashing hero who said all the right words and made every heroine swoon. It wasn't real. Dario was real and he was all she needed.

"You like what you see?" he teased as he dipped his bare feet into the pool.

Be brave, Dinah. Don't answer nervously or act insecure. You want him. Let him know.

"Yeah, I do," she answered, her voice ringing out lower than she expected it to.

Dario quickly turned to look at her, all cheerfulness and teasing gone from his face. In his eyes, she saw that his desire mirrored her own. The teasing was a mask because they were out in public, but deep down inside, Dinah now knew that he was thinking about her and wanted her the same way that she wanted him.

Since that first night were she said no, she'd been thinking about sex with him more than once- all the time, really. There were times at work where she couldn't concentrate on grading, lesson planning, or meetings with other teachers without having her mind wander to Dario and feeling an ache in her deepest core. No man had ever made her react this way like Dario did. She knew, deep down, that it meant something.

"I definitely like what I see," he responded with a timbre so deep that it created tingles all through Dinah's body.

The sound of a small child laughing as he dived into the pool broke their trance. Dinah looked around and suddenly realized where they were. She could've, right then and there, told Dario that she wanted to go back to her apartment and finish what they started that night. But another part of her wanted to hang out with Dario in a new place- by a pool. In the end, her desire to spend as much time with him on dates and experiencing new things outside of her apartment won out.

Dinah stepped down into the pool and swam in, reaching her arms forward and back while kicking her legs to swim all the way to the center of the pool. Dario followed her and Dinah watched as he proved himself to be an able swimmer.

"The water's warm," she said.

He nodded, drips of water falling down his face. "Yeah, I thought it would be colder. My mom's is."

"I think they have a heater here. Mostly all pools in January are frickin' cold."

There was one thing Dario said that stuck out in her mind, and the same feeling of annoyance surged up within her. " Do you have a pool at your place?" For weeks now, Dinah wondered why he still hadn't invited her to his place.

"No," he said. "I'm trying to save up money to build one but with the job I have now, that idea's gone down the gutter."

Dinah smiled and sighed. "So, when can I see your house?" she asked as nonchalantly as possible. "You always come to mine, but I've never gone to yours."

"My house is a mess right now. It still is after my ex destroyed it. I'll let you come over when everything's okay. I also have a roommate now so he just adds to the mess," Dario said as he swam over to the pool's edge, placing his hands above the cement.

Dinah followed him. "What happened with your court date with your ex? Did everything get resolved?"

"Oh, yeah," he said, his face breaking out into a huge grin. "The judge grants the house to me. I never doubted that. The house is in my name so she had to leave. I evicted her last month and she had to get moving people and everything to pack up."

He suddenly turned and kissed Dinah. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss. Once she heard people talking loudly, she broke away, looking at Dario inquisitively.

"I said I would kiss you if I'm happy she's gone and that day has finally come." He kissed her again.

"How did she feel about that?" Dinah asked. She couldn't help but feel that no one was that insane, doing all the things she did. There were always two sides to every story- even though she knew that Dario was a good guy.

He shrugged. " Bad. She didn't want to leave in the first place because she said she had nowhere to go with her son. But she decided to act nuts and destroy my home. Our relationship is ruined because of her. I was so stupid to have her move in with me." He ran his hands through his face.

"Do you know what she did? Before she left, she removed all the lightbulbs from my house. I had no frickin' lights."

Dinah burst out laughing and covered her mouth. "That's crazy," she said.

"I know. What a psycho. She also took my Alexa."

"She's angry, Dario. She probably still loves you and isn't thinking when she's lashing out like that. I feel sorry for her."

He took Dinah's hands in his and shook his head slowly. "Stop feeling sorry for her. She made her bed and now she's lying in it.  She knows what she's doing. She's trying to ruin me because she's evil, but I'm not letting her. I'm moving on with my life."

He kissed her again, smiled at her, and swam off. Dinah grinned and swam off after him, making it into a racing competition.