My Better Half

Chapter 11- The Pool Episode Part 2

Jack Third Person POV

Christ, where were the girls? It was quite busy around the pool, so it was hard to tell. He and Josh started to walk to find them. As they walked, they chatted.

Josh, staring at his well-toned body, a bit jealous: "Dude, where do you hide those muscles? Jesus."

Jack, absentmindedly joking: "Gay."

Josh, rolling his eyes: "Haha. Very funny. But seriously, you look like those statues of Greek gods. Let's just hope you don't have a package like them though..."

Jack: "Should've held off the "gay" until now. Worrying about my package?"

They laughed a little.

Jack, nudging Josh with his elbow: "but you're not in bad shape yourself. Tell me your secret, how do you manage to eat so much crap and still look decent? Rachel must enjoy that∼"

Josh: "And what about Maria? Surely she wouldn't be opposed to those abs?"

Jack: "One day at a time, Josh, were barely even friends."

Josh: "You really can be so oblivious sometimes. (Jack chose to ignore this comment) Okay look, once we meet up, Rachel and I already know exactly which rides we're going on and in which order, so you guys do your own thing. Knowing how allergic to fun you are, you'll probably just swim laps or somethin- hey, I think that's them! Over here, guys!"

The two pairs advanced toward each other and stopped. Josh and Rachel hugged and gave each other a quick peck on the lips, smiling. Jack could've hurled, they were so disgustingly into each other. Then he laid eyes on Maria.

If he really looked like a Greek god as Josh had said, she'd be a Greek goddess. She had curves in all the right places, and where had she been hiding those things on her chest? Jack worked hard to keep his face neutral and his eyes on her face, which was adorable as well. Josh and Rachel had already gone into the pool, leaving just them two. While Jack was decent at keeping his face straight, Maria looked a little taken aback. Jack knew he shouldn't, she'd probably hate it, but he just couldn't help himself.

Jack, teasingly: "Like what you see, Maria? My eyes are up here."

Maria Third Person POV

As soon as Maria's eyes had landed on Jack, she couldn't help but gaze at his body. His biceps, his subtle six-pack... damn, it was like her eyes were glued to his perfect figure. Maria never felt her heart race this much or had butterflies in her stomach just by looking at a guy's half-naked body (well, the only shirtless guys she ever saw were at the pool)!

She could feel her cheeks getting painted crimson red as she couldn't stop drooling (not literally) at Jack.

In her mind: God, I would've never guessed Jack would be so... muscular......Wait, what? What am I thinking!? I shouldn't objectify people... But his abs... and those tattoos...

Maria was snapped back to reality by Jack's sudden tease (which was kind of expected) but it still embarrassed her (a lot) to know how obviously she was goggling at Jack for a while now.

"Huh... Wha-Oh... WAIT! NO- I-I MEAN I WASN'T LOOKING AT YOUR PERFECT BODY!!! I-I MEAN I... Ugh... I hate you!!!"

Maria couldn't even form her words correctly, that embarrassed her more. Even though she didn't mean the last bit of what she said, she still was pretty mad at Jack... she stomped away, blurting out "I am going to buy something to drink" as she left in a hurry.

Jack Third Person POV

Jack wasn't stupid, he knew perfectly well the Maria's "I hate you" wasn't genuine. Honestly, he felt pretty chuffed. He was only teasing, he didn't expect for her to outright admit she was admiring him, even if it were by accident. Maybe he had a chance after all...

He felt bad watching her run away though, even if she was being silly. Hell, he did have a nice body, what was the harm in looking? She seemed a little embarrassed about this stuff, Jack figured she didn't have much experience in the dating field, which was crazy considering how cute she was. He ran up to her again.

Jack: "Wait, wait, Maria!"

She stopped and turned around to face him. She was still red and looked uncomfortable, but clearly, she didn't want to be impolite. Maybe he should buy her a drink so they could chat? They were already up by the bar, after all...

Jack: "Hey, come on now, let's get a drink, my treat."

Maria looked a little reluctant, but after a few moments, she nodded. Jack ordered a pina colada for them both, a drink suiting the warm, sunny day. They sat down at the bar, swivelling around in their stools so they were facing the pool, both quite aggressively slurping their drinks through their straws. Clearly, they both needed a just a little alcohol after that whole debacle.

Jack glimpsed Rachel and Josh about to go down a slide in the distance, so he smiled to himself. They hadn't even hesitated before running off together. He truly was happy for Josh, while the guy had had some slightly serious girlfriends before, he hadn't ever seemed to click with any of them like he did with Rachel. After a moment though, Jack turned his attention back to Maria.

Jack: "Look, you don't have to be embarrassed. I do work out and I have some interesting tats people like to look at. Hell, I've even caught Josh staring a couple times."

Jack laughed a little, and Maria seemed to still be listening, so he continued.

Jack: "So like I said, it's not a big deal. Besides, you have nothing to worry about, you caught me off guard a little too, you look really lovely today, you know? I love your swimming costume."

Maria turned quite red, so Jack thought it best to change the topic before she found it too awkward and got scared off. Although he did like her, he often complimented his friends like that, but judging by Maria's face, he could tell she thought he meant it seriously. Well, he did mean it seriously but not that- ugh it was so complicated! Anyways, he had to change the subject.

Jack: "Hey, we've both nearly finished our drinks, so after we do, why don't we go ride one or two of the slides and go for a swim? Who knows, we might even manage to meet up with Rachel and Josh again sometime this year."