Seven Letter Words #Wattys2016

Part 17

Liam

I practically leapt into that hot tub. She had looked so good in that tiny little suit I thought I might be brought to me knees if she even looked over her shoulder at me one more time as we walked there. My eyes had roamed all over her skin in a frenzy to take it all in when she couldn't see me doing it. The heat from the water scorched my skin, but I didn't care. It was better than the alternative.

She slipped off her sandals and twisted her hair up on top of her head again and secured it with a small band she had around her wrist. "I like pepperoni," she announced as she sunk into the hot water. "Ouch." She hissed a little and my heart seemed to pull against the inside of my chest. I closed my eyes and rubbed the water over my face and head.

"I'll order it." I pulled myself up on the side of the small hot tub and dried my hand. I found the number for a local place and had the pizza on its way in just a few minutes. I slinked back down into the water and dipped my shoulders beneath its surface. Juliet was across the tub on the other side. Her cheeks a beautiful rosy pink from the heat and her big blue eyes looking at me from just above the water.

"You tired from driving?" she asked as she sat up a little, exposing her shoulders above the water. I gripped the seat beneath me so I wouldn't reach out.

"A little bit." I rolled my neck mostly so I'd have a reason to close my eyes. The sight of her wet in a bikini was too much.

"I can help." She stood up and the water fell from her body in a small wave. It almost knocked me off the seat, not the wave of water, but the sight of her before me. She moved over to me and slid behind my back. I moved forward so she could fit. I know my back must have stiffened because she whispered, "Relax." Her little hands wrapped around my shoulders and it felt so incredible I let out a groan. "See," she said right by my ear, "we do this for the football players sometimes when the trainer is busy. It keeps their muscles warm and loose."

"I doubt it," I said sarcastically. Maybe warm, but loose was just flat out misinformation. She hit the back of my head lightly laughing and making me chuckle as well. Her fingers went back to the massage and I closed my eyes. It was heaven to have her hands on me. Her soft little legs were brushing up against the outsides of mine. The jets were causing her to be pulled away a little, so she clinched up her thighs around my body to stay put and I felt my breath get locked in my chest. God, she was perfect.

I finally felt myself relaxing as her fingers kneaded my muscles. Then the pizza guy showed up. She moved to get out of the hot tub, but to hell if I was going to let him get a glimpse of her in that bikini. "I've got it." I jumped out and got the money from my wallet. I paid the guy and took the pizza, bringing the box directly to the edge of the hot tub. We were totally going to eat it there. That old lady wouldn't deny us anything on our honeymoon. Not to mention, we were about as far away from the lobby as possible.

"So," I asked after swallowing the first bite of my pizza, "what are you going to do about that dip-shit cheating boyfriend." I took another bite and watched as she pulled her piece from her lips, the cheese stretching a bit before it broke.

"Haven't really decided yet. It's not as easy as it sounds."

"Yes it is."

"No. We've been together for a while. There's a lot wrapped up in it."

"You mean, there's a lot he's wrapped up in." I gave her the big brother face and she narrowed her eyes.

"Maybe it was the only time." She shrugged a shoulder and took another bite. I wanted to groan and shake some sense into her.

"Once is enough. He's showed you his character. He'll do it again. Especially if you show him you'll take him back."

"So my only option is out?" she asked seriously.

"The only good one. Think of the work that went into that booty call. He didn't just happen to find a chick in his truck that was naked. Even if she threw herself at him, he had to give her some sort of signal he was into her—or maybe he just didn't give her the signal that he wasn't. Either way he's an asshole and you should dump him."

"You sound like Ken."

"I sound like an honest guy. I know how the lying one's think. Just because I don't make those choices, doesn't mean I don't know what they're thinking." We sat for a moment in the silence.

"What if I don't want to deal with it?" She asked softly. "What if I'm just too tired to give a fuck? I don't want to hear him try to explain it, but I also don't want to deal with the fallout of us breaking up. I guess I worry that the girl will think she won or that my friends will all be talking about me when I get back."

"Both are already happening, Juliet." I was being brutally honest. She needed to hear the truth, not some sugar coated bullshit. She'd been through enough. She nodded her head. "You are already surviving it. Just push through and get on the other side. Loser truck chick will find out that after he loses you, she's just going to be part of a rotation. Your friends that weren't really your friends will have talked shit and you will have heard about it. You can leave high school knowing who you can really trust."

She set down the crust of her pizza and folded her arms on the side of the hot tub. She then rested her head on her arms and looked at me. "If I let him go, then every man who I ever loved will have left me." Her words cut my heart right open. I felt my stomach knot tightly. Fucking hell.

"The one that will matter never will." 

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