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The sun had already been up for an hour when Nate pulled into the leisure centre carpark. It was one of the things he enjoyed in the summer, arriving for the morning shift with the sun already up. He spotted Mike waiting for him by his truck so he grabbed his duffle from the backseat and fell into step with him.
“Mornin’ Nate.”
“Morning Mike.”
They nodded to Doc and Baptista as they passed reception and went through the staff door to the left of the desk. The staff room was empty, so Nate signed in and headed straight for where their schedule was written on the whiteboard; their shift – seven to one – was empty, but there was a kid’s party written in for three.
“Do I need to buy Kocher a beer?” Mike asked, looking at the board over Nate’s shoulder.
“I think he’ll need a few more than that.” Nate replied with amusement.
The staff changing rooms were smaller than the main ones, with only two changing cubicles, one toilet and a small set of lockers. Luckily, in the summer he could get away with wearing his broad shorts to the pool, so he didn’t have to bother with going into the cubicles, just pulling off his t-shirt and sneakers in the main walkway. He packed his clothes into his duffle and shoved it into a free locker. Pool policy stated that they had to rinse off before entering the main pool area, even though it just made them damp for the whole of their shift, but Sixta could be around the corner, so Nate dutifully pressed the shower button.
Nothing happened.
He sighed through his nose and called back to Mike, who was stowing his shoes in his own locker, “The showers still aren’t fixed.”
“Not surprising.” Mike replied, stepping up to the other one which didn’t even splutter like it did last time.
“I’ll ask Schwetje personally.” Nate said, staring at the shower head.
Mike chuckled, “When has that ever worked, Nate?” Nate snorted, rubbing his forehead. Mike made a valid point. Nate didn’t want to think about how Schwetje and Griego maintained their positions as Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor respectively. “We’ll just use the ones outside the swimmer’s changing room.”
Nate nodded, grabbing his uniform polo shirt and following Mike to the other showers. Thankfully, those ones worked so they rinsed off and started the checklist. They had just finished checking the men’s changing rooms when the first swimmers started to arrive.
From then, there was a steady stream of people throughout their shift: the early risers, mostly older ladies coming to swim their laps, were always friendly bunch and good for a laugh; the few young parents that came teach their own young kids to float or just hold them in the water kept to themselves mostly, focusing their full attention on their kids. A couple of teenagers around fifteen or so turned up towards the end of their shift to have fun, jumping off the side and having water fights. Nate watched them carefully, especially when they were a bit rough, but they all seemed like strong swimmers, so he wasn’t too concerned.
When the large clock hit two fifty-five, Nate met Mike eyes across the pool and came down from the watch chair just as Kocher appeared by the side.
“Hey, Eric.” Nate greeted before nodding to the kids, “Strong swimmers, they’ll probably be going for lunch soon.”
“You see the party?” Mike asked when he joined them, standing to Kocher right so they all had a clear view of the pool.
Kocher sighed, “Yeah, and I’ve got bad news, Dan called in sick.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. One of you will has to stay cause Bryan and Rich are at that presentation-course thing, and I need another fully training lifeguard for the party so that rules out Stafford or Christeson.”
“I’ll stay.” Nate offered.
“Hey now, I can stay. I thought you had a paper to finish.”
Nate shook his head, “I handed it in early, besides, I could use the money.”
Mike hummed, giving him a considering look, “If you’re sure, I know you’re not the most comfortable around kids.”
“I’m good with the quiet ones.” Nate protested.
Kocher snorted, “When are kids ever quiet?” As if to make his point, there was a shriek. The three of them whipped around to see one girl spluttering in the pool and the rest laughing on the pool side. One of them looked up and realised they were being stared at.
“Sorry! She’s alright, honest!” He called sheepishly.
Mike hummed, sounding unconvinced, and gave the teenagers his fatherly look; it was very effective, Nate would know because it always made him feel like he was seven years old again. The teenagers laughed awkwardly and entered the pool properly instead of jumping in. When they were sure nothing else was going to happen, Mike patted him on the shoulder and wished him luck. Nate and Kocher gave him a short half wave before turning back to the main pool.
“How many kids are in the party?” Nate asked cautiously.
“About twenty and most of them are nine-years-old.” Kocher said with an amused grin. Nate bit back a sigh: it wasn’t that he didn’t like kids – he did – but a lot of the time they didn’t come with an off switch and needed all of Nate’s energy to handle, with those between six and twelve being the worst offenders. This was going to be a long afternoon.
The teenagers disappeared with talk of lunch like he’d predicted, and the following two hours were quiet. Kocher waved him off to have some lunch just before two and then they started setting up for the party. They blew up the inflatable assault course in the big pool, tying the ends to the bars attached to the sides of the pool to keep it stable, and pulled out some of the other smaller floats and inflatable toys. Parties were always more stressful since they were responsible for more children that weren’t required to listen to them, often with less adults to help them. There was a safety talk, but Mike had told him once to not put much stake in the kids listening to it: ‘I zone out listening to Schwetje and I’m an adult.’
Sure enough, the kids streamed out of the changing room, talking loudly, and rushing towards the pool. There were a couple of parents chaperoning, mostly women though there was one man. Nate tried not to stare: he was tall with short blond hair, wearing only blue board shorts that displayed the trim lines of his chest and abs. He looked away from the kids jumping into the pool to grin towards Nate; Nate swallowed thickly.
“Brad!” Kocher called and the man – Brad – walked towards them.
“Eric.”
Nate looked away to avoid staring as Brad came to stand with them, focusing on the kids starting to work their way along the assault course. One particularly adventurous kid – with brown hair, a black rash guard and bright red trucks – had gotten halfway down the course already.
“Whose party is it?” Nate glanced across and it was even worse because Brad had crossed his arms over his chest, drawing Nate's eyes to his defined biceps.
“I have no idea, but Josh was invited so here I am.”
Kocher laughed and suddenly turned to him, “This is Nate. He’s about as good with kids as you are.” Nate wasn’t sure how to take the comment, so he just waved mutely with an awkward smile. Brad eyed him up and down and Nate wished faintly that he wasn’t wearing his uniform, the glaring bright yellow polo shirt and the comical red shorts.
There was a squeal and the moment was broken, all of them whipping their heads to the side, but it was just a girl getting splashed in the shallow end, who retaliated with little hesitation. They all relaxed and Kocher laughed, smacking Brad on the shoulder, “You better watch Josh, cause I’m not trying to control that kid.”
Brad rolled his eyes, “He knows better than to make trouble where I can see him.”
Nate assumed Josh was one of the many children in the pool. He shook his head and focused back on his job, scanning the pool attentively. A woman in a flowery swimming dress with long sleeves and plain swimming legging seemed to be overseeing the less confident kids as they practiced in the shallow end; another women in a yellow two piece was floating beside the assault course, obviously watching the ones playing on it; the last woman in a competitive one piece was leading some sort of activity where kids dived for rings and balls around the centre of the pool where it was a little deeper than in the shallow end. The boy he’d spotted earlier had reached the end of the assault course; he dived confidently off the side and swam his way down to the pool floor, grab one of the rings before kicking his way to the surface. Nate had to admit, he was impressed.
“That’s my son, Josh.” Nate blinked and turned to his right. Kocher had disappeared but Brad was still there, smiling proudly, and the statement clicked. The boy – Josh – who was now treading water and talking to a girl with a bright blue swimming cap, was Brad’s son.
“He’s a very good swimmer.”
Brad nodded, his smile broadening. It was a really nice smile. “I had him swimming before he could walk. He took to it well, though he prefers swimming in the ocean.”
“Most kids find the ocean scary: I know I did.”
Brad rose an amused eyebrow, “Really, you don’t seem the type.”
Nate chuckled, “I grew out of it mostly.”
Brad opened his mouth to reply, but there was a loud shout of, “Dad!” He sighed and turned to the pool, “Yes, my dear progeny.”
Nate snorted and Brad shot him a smirk. Josh laughed from where he was holding onto the side bar, straining his head back to see them properly. “Can we play Marco Polo?”
“Sure.” Brad said with a small quirk in his lips; Nate knew he was looking a little too intensely to be appropriate.
Josh huffed, leaning back off the bar and pulling a face. The pair seemed to be having a staring contest which ended with Josh blurting out, “Come and play!” Brad rose an eyebrow and Josh sighed theatrically, before adding, “Please.”
“Sure.” Brad said, crouching down and sitting on the poolside. He swung his legs into the water next to Josh and twisted, slipping into the water smoothly. He looked up at Nate with a grin before Josh was wrapping his arms around his neck and he was forced to swim away. Nate watched with amusement as Josh assembled a group of kids and got Brad to close his eyes and call Marco, several different kids responding simultaneously with Polo. The game went on as Brad darted around the pool easily, dragging kids into his arms when he found them, only depositing them by the poolside after splashing them in the face. Two of the women joined in and when Brad had caught everyone, the one in the one piece took over. Josh pulled out of the game soon after, swimming over to the kids hanging around the shallow end.
He started to teach some of them to do handstands, and with one girl who was dressed in a replicate of her mom’s swimming dress – at least that was what he assumed – he held her hands so that she could practise her kicking. It was an adorable sight, watching Josh help her to swim a little more confidently through the shallow water.
The two hours allotted for the party went much quicker than he’d expected: he was roped into officiating a few races, and it was amusing to watch the kids slip off the assault course, after he was sure they were okay. He also found himself staring at Brad’s dipping chest and the way his board shorts clung to him more than once; Brad seemed to notice which was both good and bad because he seemed to be look back just as often, but it was embarrassing to be caught gawking like a teenager.
Nate was almost glad when the party started to wrap, if only because it would break the weird tension in the air. The adults had told the kids to push the floats and other toys to the edges of the pool, which was very considerate, but a couple of rings resting at the bottom of the deep end had escaped their notice.
“Fetch those, will you?” Kocher said, pointing to the rings.
Nate rose an eyebrow but did as he was asked, pulling off his polo shirt and diving from the poolside in one smooth movement. It was a good dive, not too shallow that he rose to the surface and not too steep that his hips didn’t line up. He was at the bottom in seconds, the first ring appearing right in front of him. He grabbed it and kicked out, bring his arms around to reach the other two rings sitting next to each other. As soon as they were in his hands, he brought his knees to his chest and pushed off the floor. He breached the surface just as his lungs were starting to protest and quickly swept the few pieces of his hair off his face. It was nice to get some swimming in after several hours just staring at the water.
He lifted himself out of the pool and walked around to put the rings in the box. He glanced towards the showers and almost tripped: Brad was standing by the showers with his arms crossed, giving him an approving look. Nate could have sworn he felt the way Brad’s eyes trailed up and down his chest. He pressed his lips together, willing his ears to not turn the same shade of red as his trunks, and gave Brad a nod. He received one back, accompanied by what he thought was a satisfied smirk.
He walked around back to where he thrown his polo shirt, highly aware of the eyes following his bare back. Kocher wasn’t looking their way, too busy collecting the inflatable toys from the edge of the pool, but Nate was sure he could see a smirk on his lips. He pulled his polo shirt on and helped Kocher pack everything else away.
The next time he turned around, Brad was gone.
The rest of the afternoon shift was quiet: all afterschool swimming lesson were finished for the summer and most people were out enjoying the cool afternoon weather, so the only people arriving were the night regulars, mostly older men and women. He’d got to know most of them in the year that he’d been at Oceanside Leisure Centre: during semester time, he often did the evening shifts as his mornings were taken up with lectures.
By six forty-five the pool was empty, so they started cleaning up and getting ready to close. Officially, they weren’t supposed to close the pool until exactly seven o’clock, but since Schwetje, Griego or Sixta weren't around, Kocher gave him the go ahead to mop down the pool sides while he checked the showers and changing rooms. At exactly seven, they locked the doors to the changing rooms and switched off all the lights, which weren’t many as there was still a lot of light coming through the skylights.
“You go ahead, I’ll check everything else.” Kocher said as they stepped back into the main pool area.
“You sure?” Nate asked, mostly out of habit. His parents had always stressed the importance of manners.
“Yeah, you’ve had a long day.” Kocher replied, waving him off. Nate nodded gratefully, making his way back to the changing rooms. He only remembered that the showers didn’t work there when he was already standing underneath them. He sighed through his nose and decided that it wasn’t worth walking back to the other showers when he was going home anyway. He swapped his polo shirt for his t-shirt and pulled his shorts off to put on the pair of sweats from his duffle. He left the light on for Kocher and signed out.
Baptista and Bryan had swapped out for T and Stiney, who were engrossed in a card game behind the main desk. Nate tapped on the desk just in case they hadn’t seen what time it was. Stiney jerked and almost dropped his cards while T just smirked at him and gave Nate a nod. Nate nodded back and started to head out when T called out,
“Hey, Nate, there’s a not here for you.” Nate froze and knew his eyes were wide as he stared back at the desk. “It’s from a Brad Colbert.” He swallowed and made his way back to the desk, picking the piece of paper off the desk. He turned on his heels and tried his best to walk normally out of the front doors, even though he was sure his ears were burning.
He only glanced down at the piece of paper when he was sitting in his car. Written in crisp neat handwriting was an Oceanside number and a short note, 'How about we work on that fear of the ocean?'.
Nate snorted and pulled out his phone, sending off a text before he could second guess himself.
When are you free?