Coffee by the pool

The sun carried the highnoon heat, as a soft breeze passed her, the auspicious amenities of her home a plain sight. Murcia couldn’t bear her thoughts these last few days.

Maybe it was idle of her, lazing about on a summer afternoon, placating her least wary appetites outside before her husband's return. Murcia had done the barest of chores that day, knowing well by now how to avoid her husband's ire. 

The lightest wipe of bleach on the counters, the main path of the carpet’s fiber turned up by suction. He might’ve known the difference if he’d bothered, but he was not so curious of her and her compliance to his whims to tell.

This was how she satisfied Raphael, and his pleasureless wants. 

The image was what mattered to him.

She was listening to the breeze on the patio, when she heard yelling from her neighbors yard, “oy, Murcia! Don’t you want to swim!” It was Glika Jelinik, a boisterous woman she was forced to know through her husband’s boastful parties.

“Not really.”

“Oh, come on, it was so hot earlier today, it's finally cool enough to think!”, she said like she usually thought at all.

“I even missed out on lunch,” a lie if Murcia had ever heard one. “It's not like the doors locked.”

“It seems a long walk for something a cold shower could remedy.”

“What a lazy woman. It’s not even a long walk away if you cross the fence, I’ll unlock it if you’d like?”, Glika asked in relentless care.

“I don’t have my swimsuit.”

“Then strip, your butts gonna be in the water either way!”

Murcia didn’t like thinking that, but the logic was sound, “Alright.” Glika unlocked what was probably the only secured lock on her property for Murcia, her side of the door on their shared fence.

She would have to warn her to lock it when she went back home. Murcia stripped herself to wit Glika responded, “so that's not a swimsuit?” she looked her over.

The suit was plain, and of unencumbered design, thickly strapped and seemingly comfortable. It wasn’t dissimilar in that way to Glika’s more utilitarian bikini.

“It hasn’t been a swimsuit for three years,” Murcia said, “Besides, it saves on laundry.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” went Glika before she hopped back into her pool. It was an honest monstrosity in their backyard, but it might’ve been the only good thing Livius had added to their home in years. Murcia followed after taking to the water faster than she’d have liked, the slightly warm water sinking into her skin.

Glika knew how to enjoy things, and while Murcia was often angry over that, it was hard to refuse what worked.

“So, Did you hear about the break-in?” Glika asks, as if Murcia was ever a gossip.

“what?”

“At the Gregory’s down the way. Prudence was livid! I suppose that window was important.” Glika managed with a laugh, while she floated on the water.

“Oh really? Didn’t think she bothered with feelings like that.” Prudence always seemed too mercenary for that, at least to Murcia.

“Well, she is a bit emotional like that. Especially when she doesn’t get what she wants.” Glika stated.

“I don’t know, she seems like that either way.”

“Oh?” 

“Yeah, she doesn’t seem all that invested in anyone else.”

“I don’t know if that's all that specific, at least on our street.”

That was as close to a true statement as either could say about it, there was something selfish about the people there. An ironclad attitude of unknown origin really, maybe there was something in the air.

They burned an hour in the water before the return of Livius, always a little early when compared to Raphael, Murcia knew she’d have a little more than an hour left before her own partners return.

“Honey! The doors unlocked!” Livius belatedly informed, having walked through the house into the backyard.

“Of course it was.” Glika said, sprawled luxuriously in their pool.

“Oh. you're just in the back. Good.”

“What were you worrying on Livius?” asked Glika, alerted to his posture.

Livius almost seemed shy, “Not sure. Do you mind fetching some coffee?”

Glika moseyed out from the water, “Alright, It’s been a long day hasn’t it?” she walked to him with her towel, and a whisper that Murcia couldn’t hear.

“Yeah,” Livius said a bit louder than his wife, before looking over at Murcia. Livius gazed at her body with the same hunger her husband had forgotten for his work, though he still seemed much less willing to impose on her about her weight or her figure. 

Her husband's hungry eyes never stopped his comments, but Livius was of a different nature in that way.

He went back inside to fetch whatever for himself, about when Glika called for drinks, Murcia got out of the pool after that, a bit itchy from the chlorine. She dried her hair, not quite managing her thoughts properly, that dull overcast to her mind troubling her.

She’d thought of requests she’d fulfilled disinterestedly, over the course of her life. Of strange solicitations at functions all across it. Murcia could almost remember a time when such interest in the eyes of anyone could make her bend. But she knew full well that it wasn’t loyalty keeping her.

She didn’t know if she’d ever been loyal to anyone. She supposed to match her nature; it was apathy.

Murcia went to fulfill Glika’s expectation.

“Why are you never jealous?”, she thought out loud finally, Glika almost laughing in her face for it.

“Well, he’s like you Murcia. He doesn’t enjoy things.” she drank hers calmly, “he couldn’t get you anyway, without losing in the end.”

She knew it was a dig, but it was comforting just the same. They weren’t friends, they were acquaintances at best, but being the least bit known.

It made things easier, as everything else seemed to escape her awareness.

“Besides other people can be as pleasurable as anything,” Glika said before she noticed “you weren’t listening were you?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“How do you manage anything like that?”

“It’s not like a housewife has to listen all that often.” Glika cackled over top of her coffee, almost in agreement as far as Murcia could tell.

“So, I suppose you’ve forgotten about the party later today?”

 “Yes.” Murcia didn’t much want to admit to it, knowing how it looked, but it was better than not giving herself the time to prepare.

She’d really had no clue, to spite everything, and living edge to edge by her neighbors wasn’t enough forewarning. 

Glika as kind as could be cackled like a scared hyena over her antics, easily heard from her patio, as Murcia ran to get changed.