She Was In the Pool with Someone Else

When I came back from getting the take-away she was in the pool with the boy, hiked up onto the edge of it and with her legs dangling around his ears. I knew what he would be tasting, caramel, burnt with a vaguely earthy aftertaste that was not altogether pleasant.

Her head lolled to one side when I came in with the takeaway containers and set them down on the cane table. I sat down with them and watched and a chemical taste settled in my throat. His finger in the place my own finger had been. His tongue replacing mine feathering the little nub of her clitorus. No difference for her at all, and what I tasted was a reflux of jealousy.

"Come on," she said then, "Join us." But there was nothing I wanted less than his tongue anywhere near me. I didn't like him. Never had. He was a skulking canker in the house and I did everything I could to avoid him.

I watched him working on her and ate palak paneer straight out of the container and the heat of it obliterated the taste of her cunt.

"Join us" and she held out her pale flat breasts as if they were naan. I had forgotten to get naan. I wondered whether I should go back to the shop and get some. It was just a short walk down the road. When I returned he might just have finished eating her out in the pool. Or maybe not. She took forever to come, but that was just with me. Maybe she would be quicker with him. Maybe he'd stop before his jaw started to burn with the effort of it all.

"Just going to get naan." I told her. Not him. But he nodded anyway.

"Stay," she said, plaintively, "I thought you'd want to join us."

It was unkind to change the rules like this. 'You can sleep with anyone you like except that creepy flatmate' is not a particularly open minded kind of relationship. I wondered whether I should tell her that I wanted her exclusively, but when I watched her sprawled across the cold concrete, the little towers of her nipples rising from the flat pancakes, her pubic hair a thin red haze rising up to tickle his nose, I knew I didn't like her enough for that. I didn't like her enough to even sleep with her again.

"I'll be back in a minute."

But I lingered just outside the gate, enjoying the sweet haze of mock orange staining the warm night, feeling the rush of air in the wake of every car. My mouth tasted of cumin and chilli and I could just smell her juices on my fingertips, but when I had the naan in my hands there would just be garlic there and nothing more.