Solar Umbrella (Book 1)

Chapter 17: Fins

IT WAS THE second last day at LunaOne, and Parker was cruising the lobby looking for something to do. Kate bounced around the corner with her swimsuit on.

"Yo! Varia, hit up the pool with me!" she told him.

"Uh, okay I guess," he replied, trying not to make his gaze too obvious. "No Ibrahim?"

"Not this time," she answered. "He wanted to check out the drilling machine they have here that makes the tunnels. He's obsessed with the way it sends the material out the other end to keep working quickly. We've already seen it four times."

"Oh, that sounds kind of boring," Parker lied as he added, check out drill to his calendar on his tablet. "Yeah, let's hit up the pool. DJ and I figured out how to do a dolphin kick out of the bottom. You can go like two metres in the air. It's wild! I'll grab my suit and meet you there?"

"Sure thing, see you in a bit," she answered, smiling.

Parker took off back to his room to grab his suit. He was excited to spend some time with Kate without Ibrahim for once. He had worked hard at being a good person about accepting their relationship, and felt like he achieved it, but he wasn't pretending there wasn't something there with Kate for him. In any case, it would be cool just to spend some time with her like they used to.

When Parker arrived at the pool, Kate was at the far end looking out the side windows at the surface of the moon. The pool structure was designed similarly to the garden. There was a glass dome surrounding the whole area. Due to the physics of having a body of water in lunar gravity, they needed to have a much taller dome than any other area. The light flowed in from the sun adding an iridescent glow to the whole area. There was some additional lighting, but the designer had known what they were doing with the natural light. The usual greenery surrounded the area, vines climbing in between the windows and plants all around. In lunar gravity, water behaved very differently. Parker had imagined it floating in blobs like he'd seen in space, but that didn't make any sense. Instead, the water was just more...splashy. It went higher in the air, took longer to fall and the amount of droplets was insane. Because of this, the entire structure was built in a shallow bowl with the pool in the middle. Splashes, waves and droplets would spread around, fall down and eventually roll back into the pool. As an added bonus, if wet enough, the bowl made for an insane slip and slide. The pool itself was about the size of a normal backyard pool and the water came from melted ice—the same place all the water for LunaOne came from.

Parker took an extra second to look at Kate. She was obviously thinking about something and enjoying the water. As he looked at her, he almost felt like a weight was taken off his shoulders. With everyone else, even DJ, he felt like he had to moderate his words and even his thoughts. With Kate, he could just let it flow. They had developed a chemistry over the years that allowed him to be himself. They say there's no such thing as a dumb question, but everyone knows that's bullshit. Usually. With Kate, he truly did feel like he could say or ask anything. Understanding was the goal. The journey didn't matter. If dumb ideas led to good ones, it was a trip worth taking.

"You know, I wasn't exaggerating," Parker said to announce his presence, "you really can jump several metres out of the water with enough force, it's wild."

Kate turned around as he spoke. "Oh, I know. Alex was in here with us yesterday. I don't know where he found fins, but the guy was clearing three metres, easy. We were worried he was going to blast out the roof!" She laughed as she remembered.

He stole another glance as he took off his shirt and slid into the pool. Kate was still...Kate, but she had changed in this past year. She would be gone, off to college and then who knows where. She could write her own ticket already. She was as smart as anyone he knew. DJ was probably a quicker coder, but Kate had a way of explaining it and writing code for people that DJ would never be able to master. Finding someone with the technical ability and people skills made her a gem in more ways than one. Also, she was, you know, fucking gorgeous. She was gorgeous in a hoodie and ponytail working over a computer. She was gorgeous laughing along to a stupid movie. She was gorgeous eating a hot dog with mustard at the side of her face. In a swimsuit, under the sunlight coming through windows at a moon pool, light refracted from water droplets floating in the low gravity? Good god. He swallowed whatever dumb thing he was going to say.