We spent the next day by Ron and Carol’s pool.
I wore one of her bikinis and tried to act comfortable in it, lounging and sunning myself like I'd been doing it for years.
Ron grilled burgers, turning them with the same focused eagerness he had for everything else. He kept stealing glances at me and smiling like he couldn’t believe his luck.
Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe I couldn’t either.
The water was cool and bright beneath the relentless July sun. It was almost easy to lose myself in it all, seeing the world as Carol would see it, feeling the way she would feel, being touched by Ron the way she would be.
I let him pull me into the pool later, and we splashed around like teenagers, his hands on my waist making me giggle and squirm.
Wasn’t that insane? That I’d basically become Carol for seven solid days, living in her life like this? Wearing her clothes? Swimming in her pool? That I’d gotten to sleep with her husband and liked it?
And there was Ron, convinced I was her, loving every second of it. The whole thing was nuts. Completely fucking nuts! But here we were, and here I was. I splashed water at him, letting go of myself again.
“Isn’t it nuts?” I said, feeling the words echo across the pool, “That I’ve basically stolen Carol’s body for a week! And we’ve even had sex!”
I laughed, but this time it wasn’t just from disbelief, “Me, Tyler! And you …Ron.”
He grabbed my waist and pulled me close, laughing too as he kissed me, like a child laughing along to an adult conversation he didn’t understand.
I almost felt bad for shadow-Ron. By the end of next week, I’d use the pendant make him disappear. But until then? Until then, I was going to enjoy every last crazy minute of this.
I wrapped myself in a towel and watched him play with the radio, flipping through stations until he found some classic rock that sounded old and breezy. He stretched out on a lounge chair next to me, squinting into the sun like a lizard luxuriating in the heat.
“Want another drink?” he asked, lazily gesturing toward the house.
I nodded, enjoying the slippery feel of pool water evaporating on my skin.
He set a glass down beside me, and I smiled at him through my sunglasses, surprised by how natural it felt. Like I’d really made myself at home in here.
“What are you grinning about?” he asked.
“Just happy,” I said, settling back and letting the day absorb me.
He raised his glass like it was a toast, “To a good week, huh?”
I clinked my drink against his, feeling the sun soak into me, “To a great week.”
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