Falling For Mr. Perfect (Daily Updates)

11 The Words So Sweet

"THE WORDS SO SWEET"

"That's a lot to take in," Cherry said, floating passed me on her flamingo floaty.

The next day, I decided to debrief Cherry on what's been going on. She was a swimmer and spent most early mornings at the public pool before the rowdy families showed up.

This early in the morning it was just us and a senior's water aerobics group exercising.

I floated next to Cherry in my unicorn floaty. "My dad looked so sad this morning. He was completely checked out."

"Has your mom reached out?"

I gave her a look that said, Yeah, right. "My grandma called last night to check in on me, but that's about it."

Cherry nodded, dipping her fingers in the water. "Have you talked to Peter?"

"No." I didn't even know what to say to him. Not about my mom leaving or about what happened on the trampoline.

"Well, it's good that you finally messaged Bea Lopez," she said, jostling my floaty and nearly knocking me over. "You need something really amazing in your life."

"What do you mean? I already have you. My Cherry on top."

She giggled, splashing me. We had a small water fight before the life guard blew his whistle at us.

We collected our floaties and exited the pool when the first family and their wild kids showed up half an hour later. On the way to the locker rooms, a shirtless dark-skinned black boy in red swim trunks greeted Cherry.

"Hi, Tristan," she said politely as we passed him. His eyes were glued to her  before he turned, heading through the doors to the pool.

"Uh, who the heck is Tristan?" I asked when we walked into the ladies locker room.

"Oh, he's the back up life guard," she said all nonchalant.

"And?"

"And what?" She asked, stopping at the locker where we stashed our clothes.

"He's cute and clearly into you."

She handed me my clothes. "I guess. He's asked me out a couple times."

"You're way too chill about this." I gripped her shoulders and shook her. "Did you see those abs and those dimples. Both sets," I said, referring to the ones on his face and his lower back.

That finally got a smile to break on her face. "Okay, he's gorgeous," she admitted, fully blushing. "But I have rules."

"Rules are meant to be broken," I told her as we changed into dry clothes. "Especially self imposed rules based off of one bad interaction in the seventh grade. All seventh grade boys are perverts. It's in their DNA."

She hid her face in her hands. "I don't know. I just...I cannot deal with guys who only want sex."

"He doesn't seem like the type," I said truthfully. Something about the way he looked at her didn't make me think he thought like that. He kept his eyes above the boobs. "Give him a shot."