The Other Way Around by Sashi Kaufman

Author:Sashi Kaufman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group

HOT WATER

The marble steps and columns in front of the Buckstaff Bathhouse make it look more like a courthouse or an art museum than a spa. Through the tall front windows I see elegantly dressed people mingling, drinks in their hands. “It’s some kind of private party,” Emily says. “But they’re only upstairs. The baths and locker rooms and everything are in the basement.” I follow her around back, where there’s a less formal entrance guarded by a tall, skinny guy in his early twenties wearing a baggy and unimpressive security uniform. In place of a gun he has a dinky-looking pair of plastic handcuffs and a wooden baton. He looks extremely excited to see Emily and significantly less so to see me.

“Hey, girl,” he says with a pronounced Southern drawl. “I thought I told you not to bring anyone with you.”

“I know,” Emily says in a cutesy voice I hardly recognize. “But he’s my younger brother, and he caught me sneaking out and threatened to tell our daddy if I didn’t bring him with me.” She throws her arm around my shoulders and I shake it off, acting the part to perfection. Younger brother? What the hell? My face is red with embarrassment as Emily walks over to Curtis—his name is stitched on the front of his starched, blue-collared shirt—and taps his chest with her forefinger. “You’re still going to let me go for a swim like you promised, right?”

Curtis hesitates, but even I can tell it’s for show. “All right, but don’t take too long. I could get in big trouble for this, you know?” Emily stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek.

“You’re the best!” she says and grabs my hand before I can act on my impulse to get the heck out of there. I can’t believe she just passed me off as her younger brother. It’s not so much that I care about Curtis. It’s just that what I’ve seen hits a little too close to home. Is this what I look like to G and Jesse and those guys? I pull my hand away from Emily as soon as we’re inside the bathhouse.

The bathhouse is a long room with a low ceiling covered in decorative tile. The baths are long, shallow swimming pools made of white stucco. The overhead lights are off, and the only light in the room comes from the glowing blue-green lights in the bathwater, which cast ripples of aquamarine light all over the walls and ceiling. I follow Emily wordlessly down the narrow passing space between the bath and the wall, trying to hold on to my resentment over the Curtis issue. There’s a red button in the wall that she presses, and immediately the rushing sounds of Jacuzzi jets fill the air and the enormous pools start frothing. “You’re coming in, right?” Emily asks. I give a little shrug. “Are you mad about something?” She cocks her head to the side.

“I just don’t like the way you handled that guy out there,” I say without too much conviction.

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