Christos rolled his eyes and smiled wide while giving Romeo a good natured fist bump.

“Ew!” Kamiko grimaced. “TMI, Romeo!”

“Admit it, Kamiko,” Romeo goaded, “the second you have a moment alone and your fingers are free to roam, the first thing on your mind will be a slow motion replay of Christos and Jake walking up with their abs flexing. I know that’s what I’ll be thinking about.”

“Dude,” Jake joked, “if you keep talking like that, I’m going to put my shirt back on. I totally hate being treated like a sex object.”

“Yeah, right!” Madison said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wearing a shirt except at my parents’ Thanksgiving!”

“True,” Jake smiled thoughtfully.

“And you had to borrow that one!” Madison continued. “Do you even own any shirts?”

“Nope,” Jake grinned. “I never need ‘em when all I do is surf.”

“You give surf bums a bad name,” Madison smiled at him.

Jake wrapped his arm around Madison, “And you love it.”

Madison rolled her eyes at me and said, “Men. What would they do without their precious egos?”

“Hey, Madison,” Romeo said, “if you get tired of Jake, let me know.”

“Back off, buddy,” Madison grinned. “He’s all mine.”

“Women,” Jake quipped to Christos, “what would they do without our precious egos?”

“I’ll drink to that,” Christos said as he clinked beers with Jake.

“Romeos,” Romeo said, “what would you all do without me?”

Everyone chuckled as we toasted again.

“Spring break!” Madison squealed.

“Spring break!!!!” everyone else shouted.

Shish kebabs sizzled on the grill as Spiridon turned everything over. “Meat’s ready,” he said, “come and grab a plate.”

We all lined up and Spiridon served everyone.

Christos was busy putting out more pita bread to go with the fresh hummus he’d made. I noticed he had yet another fresh beer in his hand and was already buzzed. Oh well. It was Saturday. He could enjoy himself for the weekend. His paintings for Brandon could wait until Monday.

Once we all had plates full of food, we sat down at a table under a big sun umbrella and Spiridon joined us.

“Wow,” Kamiko smiled, licking her fingers which were sticky from eating the juicy shish-kebab, “This is so yummy!”

“Thanks,” Spiridon said. “There’s more if you want it.”

Romeo leaned into me and whispered, “Is Spiridon single? Because I’ve always had a thing for hot older men. If Christos looks that good in forty years, you’ll never leave the bedroom. I know I wouldn’t.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “Geez, Romeo. You have a one track mind.”

“What?” Romeo said defensively. “He’s hot!”

“He’s not gay. Even if he was, I wouldn’t want you dating my boyfriend’s grandfather.”

“Oh, pish posh. We could totally double date.”

I shook my head, “Eat your lunch, Romeo.”

After lunch, we all jumped in the pool. Except for Romeo and Kamiko. There was a small diving board at the deep end, so I dove off and swam to the other end of the pool in one breath. Blue green glimmers danced across the bottom of the pool as I breast stroked my way to the far wall. I still kept up my running regularly, and the pool wasn’t olympic sized, so it wasn’t too hard to swim it in one breath. But I was totally ready for air when my head popped out of the water at the end.

“Look at you, Aqua Girl,” Kamiko smiled.

“You should put your suit on, Kamiko,” I encouraged.

“I don’t want to leave Romeo alone,” she smiled. In a low voice, she said, “he keeps staring at Christos’ grandfather like he’s going to eat him.”

“I think Spiridon can protect himself. You should get in the pool.”

“Maybe later,” she smiled.

Christos and Jake took turns doing flips off the diving board. I think their goal was to splash as much water on me and Madison as possible. We moved to the far end of the pool and cheered them on.

Romeo and Kamiko were also egging them on.

Christos climbed out of the pool after his last jump, water dripping down his tattooed muscled body, and strolled to the diving board, where Jake stood ready to dive.

“Show us what you’ve got,” Christos said to him.

Jake took a few quick steps on the short spring board and launched himself forward as far as he could and landed in a cannonball. He made huge splash and water rained everywhere. When he rose out of the water he did that wet hair flip thing that made him look like he was filming a TV commercial for men’s cologne.

Madison and I were leaning against the wall in the shallow end.

I nudged her and whispered, “Do you think Jake could be any hotter?”

“No,” she smiled proudly.

I laughed. “You know, he’s totally spoiled all other men for you.”

“I know!” she grinned. “He better marry me or I’ll end up a lonely spinster. No other man can hold a candle.”

I winked at Madison, “Well, I can think of one man.”

“Dude!” Christos shouted at Jake, “that was nothing! Check this shit out!” Christos hollered as he backed up a few steps on the deck behind the spring board. He sounded a little slurry from drinking.

“What’s he doing?” I asked Madison, suddenly concerned.

She narrowed her eyes and turned to look at Christos. “I don’t know.”

“Christos?” I said. “Maybe you shouldn’t—”

Before I could do anything, Christos ran toward the board and leapt onto it, continuing to accelerate. He hopped and landed on the front edge of the board. For a second, I feared he would slip right off and hurt himself. But he didn’t. The board bowed under his weight and he was flung high into the air at an angle. Instead of heading toward the middle of the pool, he was sailing diagonally toward the cement side. Everything that happened next happened in slow motion. His body turned languorously in a forward flip. But he was going too slow to get his feet back under him. His head was aiming right at the side of the pool. Oh my god, he looked like he was going to hit it head first.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod—

My heart jumped into my throat and my eyes popped out of my head.

CRACK!!

At the last second, Christos’ back flopped onto the surface of the water, making that sickening slapping sound you hear when someone does the most painful belly flop of all time, except on his back. He had missed the cement side by inches, yet he still sank slowly into the water.

Kamiko gasped, “Oh no…”

Was Christos okay? I didn’t know. I swam toward him as fast as I could to check.

The backyard had gone suddenly silent.

Romeo stood up from his chair where he sat in the shade like he wanted to help somehow.

Jake had swum over to check on Christos too.

I was about to dive under the water to pull Christos out when he slowly rose to the surface head first, bubbling water out of his mouth. “Man,” he laughed, “that fucking hurt.”

“Are you okay?” I asked nervously.

“I’m fine,” he smiled.

“What the fuck was that?” Jake asked.

“Did you miss it?” Christos quipped. “I can do it again if you did.”

“No!” I shouted. “We don’t need to see it again. Maybe we should be done with the diving board?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Madison said, now floating beside us.

We all climbed out of the pool and everyone stood around Christos. I think we were all still shaken.

“Are you okay, C-Man?” Romeo asked.

Christos nodded, “I’m good.”

Spiridon had been inside and came walking out onto the deck. “Does anybody need anything?” He’d missed the whole thing.

“Maybe some towels?” I suggested.

Spiridon nodded and went inside. He returned with a stack of towels.

After toweling off, everyone laid out on the loungers in our damp swimsuits. Romeo and Kamiko sat under a sun umbrella around a circular glass table.

Ten minutes later, I think my heart was still doing a drum roll in my chest because of Christos’ brush with disaster.