Chapter 7

"Sandra called to hear how Sis was doing. She sounds like such a nice and caring girl. Why did they break up?"

Sandra had been calling Martin regularly since Sis became ill. After he moved in with Anna, Sandra had called him at the office, but lately she had begun calling him at home again, mainly because the conversations at work often were cut short.

"Sandra is all right, but she has one major problem: the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Sis is very monogamous and the first time Sandra cheated on her she was devastated. Sandra promised it would never happen again, but it did. Sis was caught between a rock and a hard place. She loved Sandra but she couldn't live with her adventures. The third time, Sis threw her out. Sis was already ill at the time and I think the real reason why she didn't want to see Sandra was more than just because she was still in love with her; she felt betrayed because Sandra cheated on her while she should have supported her."

"I just don't understand. It sounds like Sandra cares about Sis a lot and if they still love each other? I mean, it's just too stupid."

"Sandra is bisexual and she tried to talk Sis into a threesome with a man. From what I know, it was with men every time she cheated, but there might have been some I've never heard about."

Anna nodded. Martin was kind of pleased. The last couple of times Sandra had been very flirtatious, and even though he had no intentions of doing anything but talking, Anna didn't need to know. The reason he felt that way was unclear to him, he just preferred to keep it to himself.

His new job was as easy as he had expected it to be, at least on weekdays. On a typical weekday, the morning was occupied by pensioners until sometime after lunch, where the school kids began to take over after school. Martin never saw the pensioners and the kids began to leave around half past five and few was left when Martin started at five. They were replaced by the working people. It was a mixed crowd, which generally could be divided into two groups: group one, younger people eighteen to twenty-five, and group two, late thirties up to fifty. They were quiet, concentrated on swimming and not much else.

Sundays were the real challenge. Loads of kids, on their own or with their parents. Martin was unsure of what he preferred. Some of the parents seemed to have given up on correcting their own kids and wanted Martin to do it.

"We're here to have a good time with our kids and we don't want to spend all our time yelling at them. We have so little time together," as a father of a particularly badly behaving boy around ten years old had told Martin one Sunday afternoon. Martin had asked the father to control his son as he was terrorising a couple of smaller kids. No wonder the boy did as he pleased if his parents never stopped him.

Weekdays were quiet, sometimes too quiet, but he had to stay alert in case something happened. He was expected to oversee the pool and surrounding area constantly. It could be difficult, sometimes because it was so boring he was about to fall asleep and sometimes he was distracted when an attractive female swimmer, consciously or subconsciously, showed off her features in front of him. He liked looking at beautiful women and many of the swimsuit left little to his imagination. It was hard not to steal a glance and even harder because, although he was supposed to look at the people around the pool, he had to stay focused on what was going on.

Despite the kids and distractions Martin liked the job. He talked to a lot of people every day, mostly the regulars and after two weeks he found himself wondering if it would be possible to stay on a little longer, not just to earn the extra money. The atmosphere was so pleasant, much better than his daytime job.

A week after Anna had told Sandra about his new job she showed up at the pool. Martin spotted her as soon as she came out from the changing room. Sandra looked good in a swimming suit, more than good in the one she had chosen. She headed straight for him.

"Hi Martin. Your girlfriend told me you had a little extra job here. It has been so long since I've been here and I suddenly missed swimming. I used to swim here a lot. So, how are you doing?"

"Not too bad, thank you. It's a nice job, everything considered. And you?"

"Sure. Are you allowed to take a swim after hours? I've always wanted to swim naked with candles all around the pool. Can you fix that?"

Martin was sure Sandra said it to tease him and the idea did appealed to him, but the last one to leave was the inspector. He had been told how to close up and set the alarm in case the inspector called in sick, but he had a strong health. Martin tried to joke about it.