The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

June Chapter 1

Earth and Body Spa and Retreat was the jewel of Lake Rusky. It used to be this quaint little retreat in our little slice of heaven off of Muskoka. It's not really what it used to be anymore. It used to be a place for adults only, where they'd come for subpar spa treatments at outrageous prices. We've always had two pools and at least four lifeguards on site to handle those two pools. I—and I'm Candy by the way—my long term boyfriend Shawn and his friend Jay have been working here as lifeguards since those simpler days.

When Polished Elite Spa set up shop across the lake from us things changed drastically. Firstly, our prices needed to rise and we needed a good reason. We built cabins on site so people could stay overnight and we opened the place up for families. That meant children, a daycare section, and the need for a lifeguard with experience with children.

That's how we got Rory. It's also how we got our rivalry.

Obviously Polished Elite Spa caters to a whole different kind of clientele. The snobby and extremely rich kind. So they like to think they're better than us in their matching outfits and their yachting lessons. It didn't help that they had won every single End of Summer Guard Competition since their guard team had arrived. It was our trophy up until that point.

The Rivalry started with that competition, and spiraled out of control with what we call the M Incident. And while all of that sounds interesting, we don't talk about it because it makes certain people very grumpy.

As I mentioned before Polished Elite is why we got Rory, and that kind of evened us out. Let me explain why this is.

When we added Families, we added family-tailored lessons. That means needing people who had experience with this. While Polished Elite could afford fancy instructors, we could only afford a Jack of All Trades.

Rory McJames.

She's a lifeguard, a specialized instructor, in everything from baby and mom yoga to waterskiing with a walker, and a trained child care provider. You'd think she'd like kids, turns out they like her but the feeling isn't mutual.

Of course we were all very wary of the new girl. This was the year we went full time, Shawn, Jay and me that is and when they added her to our roster we all worried she'd take all our hours. We were moved into the housing villas for staff that year too, which were just little cottage type things that house two people if you're lucky. Jay and Shawn got one, and I got the one next door, with Rory. I learned quite quickly that she talks too much—even in her sleep—likes to bake, read, write, she gets really nervous around new people, she has to sleep with a night light and she had fallen head over heels with Jay from the very first grumpy what? that came out of his mouth.

I liked Rory once I got to know her. Shawn took my word for it and after a year came to think of her as a kind of sibling one forgets they have until they've fucked up royally. Jay hadn't quite warmed up to her though, probably because she made him super uncomfortable but mostly because Jay was just a miserable person and she was a happy hyper disaster.