[Taking a break from my second novel and churned this out. Maybe someone will enjoy.]
“Uggh,” she said, setting the watermelon rind on the paper plate next to the half-eaten hot dog. “No mas.”
I chuckled, sipping my beer. “Can’t do it, huh?”
“Not another bite.” She pushed the plate away, to the center of the patio dining table. She tilted her head back and sighed. “Thank you, though. I always like a little summer grilling by the pool.”
“Sure. Rest a bit, then we can take a little swim.”
“Not before I clean all this food out of my braces,” she said as she stood. Her pool shirt fell past her hips, covering the bikini she wore underneath.
I chuckled. “Okay, go brush. I’ll clean this up.”
“Oh, no. This is definitely a job for the Waterpik,” she said, gesturing to her plate. “That hot dog bun got in there.” She came around the table and put her hand lightly on my shoulder. “Thank you for lunch, though. I appreciate it.”
I put my hand over hers, feeling her soft skin and the smooth contour of her manicured nails. “Hey, I was thinking. Maybe you should wear your headgear this afternoon.”
She looked around. “Out here? At the pool?”
“Well, yeah. I mean, we’re alone on a Sunday, so no one’s going to see you. And if you get in some extra time today, we’ll have some more flexibility this week. Remember, we have that engagement party Thursday night.”
She sighed again. “I guess it would be nice not to turn into a pumpkin at eight o’clock so I can run home to strap on my headgear.”
“Exactly,” I said. “We might even do something crazy, like, I don’t know, stay out until ten!”
She gently squeezed my shoulder. “You’re right. I’ll put it on. But no laughing at me. Wearing headgear with a bikini will be weird enough.”
“I promise. Kiss?” I said.
She laughed. “No way. Not until I clean my braces. It’s a little gross in there right now.”
I cleared the table while I waited for her. She was meticulous with cleaning her braces, and it always took her a few minutes to put on her headgear, so I had a little time. I grabbed us a couple more light beers from the patio fridge and cracked them open, then went into the kitchen for a straw, which I slid into her can.
I stripped off my t-shirt and kicked my sliders into the shade. The pool water was getting to be lukewarm this deep into the summer, but it was still pretty refreshing, especially after the minutes I’d spent at the hot grill and chopping the watermelon. I dunked my head under the water for a few seconds.
When I resurfaced, she was walking toward the shallow end of the pool. She’d taken off her swim cover and wore only her bikini, which showcased her slender dancer’s body. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a ponytail, which fit neatly between the high-pull straps of her headgear. The silver facebow glinted in the sun, which had just made it to the afternoon side of the blue sky. She came down the pool stairs and joined me in the water. I sure did like having a private pool enclosed by a block wall.
She was wearing her metal-framed Ray-Ban shades, but the temples were jammed awkwardly underneath the tight high-pull straps of her combination headgear. The temples pressed into the sides of her head.
She put her hands on the sunglasses. “I’ve never worn my headgear outside, so I’ve never worn it with glasses.”
I grimaced. “Does it hurt?”
“A little. The headgear straps are tight enough. I don’t need these shades crushing my skull, too. I’ll just take them off.”
“Wait, let me see them,” I said. I gently pulled the sunglasses off her face, carefully sliding the temples out from under the headgear straps that passed in front of her ears. The shades off, I could see the dusting of freckles that covered her nose and cheeks.
Leaning on the edge of the pool, I carefully curved the metal temples of her Ray-Bans until they described a mild arc. I was glad she didn’t have plastic-framed shades. She watched my delicate work, honed by a stint as an optician shortly after I’d left the Army a decade before.
I handed the sunglasses back to her. “Here. See if that works.”
She slid the sunglasses back onto her face. This time the newly-curved temples went around the headgear straps and hooked onto her small ears. She grinned, her silver braces showing just past the facebow protruding from her mouth.
“It’s perfect! Thank you! I’d kiss you right now, but…” She pointed at her facebow.
I scoffed. “Pucker up, braceface.”
I leaned in and pressed my lips around the cool metal of her facebow. She puckered up, as directed, and our lips met lightly around the facebow. It would have to do.
After our lips parted, she shook her head. “You’re crazy, you know that?”
“Yup, guilty,” I said. “Crazy for girls with massive amounts of orthodontia.”
“Jerk!” She said, grinning and lightly punching my arm.
“Here, I got you another beer.” I held out the can, the strap poking out the top.
“A straw. How thoughtful.”
“Better than the beer dribbling down your chin and polluting my nice, clean pool,” I said with a chuckle.
I couldn’t see her eyes behind the shades, but the exaggerated motion of her head told me she was rolling them. “Yep,” she said, “just two more years of drinking through a straw at night. And apparently in the pool now, too.”
“It’ll be worth it,” I said.
“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one who has to go around with a mouth of metal and rubber bands, or strap on this contraption every single night.”
I moved beside her, our backs against the wall of the pool, and put my arm around her shoulders. They bore a sprinkling of freckles that matched those on her nose and cheek bones. “It’s all going to be okay, love. Your braces will work out just fine.”
“I know, I know. And I’m glad they don’t seem to bother you at all. It’s just still weird, you know? Being twenty-nine and in full braces like this. I mean, I’d love to just dunk my head like you did. But no, not with these headgear straps! And it’s like that for half the things I want to do, it seems like. Don’t eat this, can’t eat that, have to drink through a straw at night, can’t kiss with headgear on. It’s like having these braces controls my life. Uggh.”
I nodded. “I get it. But you have to do the braces, you know that.”
“I know, I really, really needed to get braces. It’s just frustrating sometimes.”
“Well, I can’t do anything about most of your orthodontic limitations. But let’s get that head dunked.”
She scoffed. “I just said I can’t. The headgear straps aren’t supposed to get wet, and it’s a royal pain to take off the facebow off and put it back in, especially without a mirror.”
“Who says you need to take off the facebow?” I reached around her head and took her highpull straps with the fingers of both hands. I gently unhooked the straps from her facebow and pulled the headstrap off. I did the same for the cervical strap that went behind her neck.
“Oh,” she said, turning to look at me. Only the silver facebow was attached to her braces. “I’m not going to lie, that was kind of hot.”
I smiled. “Dunk away, braceface.”
“Stop calling me that,” she said, but grinned and submerged herself. She surfaced after a few long seconds and grinned again, braces gleaming in the bright sunlight. She pulled the tie from her hair, her wet hair falling out of the ponytail and onto her shoulders. She slid back under the water.
Finally, she resurfaced and swam to the edge of the pool. She grabbed a towel and rubbed it over her hair, drying it some. The dry Arizona air would handle the rest in short order. She tied her hair back up in a ponytail.
“That felt good,” she said. She glanced at the headgear straps I’d set at the edge of the pool. “Would you put those back on me? I really liked when you took them off me.”
“Sure,” I said, picking up the cervical strap. “Come here.”
She drifted to me. “Seriously, that was hot.”
I smiled. “Glad you liked it. I did, too.” I wrapped the cervical strap around her neck. “Second hole, right?”
“For now, anyway,” she said. “I’m sure my ortho will tighten it next time.”
“Just more progress, love.” I placed the straps over the crown of her head, threading her damp ponytail between them. “Just more progress. Third hole on this one?”
“Right. Just a little tighter than the neck strap.”
I fastened the highpull straps onto her facebow, which flexed just a bit under the tension. “There you go. All set.”
She exhaled deeply. “Like I said, that was kind of hot. You know, while I was underwater, I had a thought.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, since we have this private pool that no one can see, and I can wear my headgear out here…”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t see any reason I need to wear this bikini. How about I just wear my headgear,” she said, “and nothing else?”
I cracked an ear-to-ear grin. “I think that’s a great idea.”
She untied her bikini top and flung it on the deck. She bent and quickly slipped out of her tiny bottom. “You too, mister. We’re in this together.”
I slid out of my swimsuit and threw it onto the deck. She swam toward me and pressed her body against mine.
“Now, about that kissing in headgear thing,” she said. “If I’m going to start wearing my headgear during the day, we need to get that part down.”
“I guess we’d better start practicing,” I said.
