Sam was due to start on the pool sometime around three, and I figured he wouldn’t get done until five or so. Maybe halfway through that time frame I could casually suggest he join me for dinner. It sounded plausible to me. I hoped it worked, otherwise I had a lot of potatoes and green beans to eat.
I stayed in the clothes I had put on that morning. Honestly, since it wasn’t a date, I figured he probably wouldn’t notice my clothes anyway. I hoped my dick stayed down this time. I didn’t want him thinking I was a perv, even though I really was. I giggled to myself.
I heard his truck pull in around shortly after three. Actually, I saw it from the laundry room window where I had been camped out since two-thirty, hoping he would show and not send someone else in his place. Maybe he was scared of me, if he really did catch me staring at him out the same window the other day.
He was dressed much the same as Monday. Fantastic ass in form fitting cargo shorts, a tight Paradise Pools t-shirt, and brown leather flip flops today. He had on a pair of dark sunglasses that I swear looked just like the pair I bought. He grabbed his tool bucket from the back of the pickup truck and headed around the garage. I ducked down lest he see me spying on him again.
I hurried back to the lanai and arranged myself on a lounge chair as if I had been there all afternoon and had no expectation of his arrival. I saw his head come around the side of the house and gradually rise up to pool level as he came up the steps to the deck.
“Hey, Jack! You’re here! Good to see you, man.” He practically shouted at me. So far so good. He seemed genuinely glad to see me. Cool.
“Yep, I’m here. And now you are, too.” Real smooth, Jack. Moron.
“How’s your head today? Get over that headache from the sun okay?” He remembered?
“Yes. I followed your advice, bought some sunscreen, and I keep it on whenever I go out, especially driving with the top down. I also purchased some shades. Mine are similar to yours, I think.”
“Really? Let’s see ‘em.” Interesting. A version of “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine?” I pulled my sunglasses from on top my head.
“Wow! They’re exactly the same. Cool. Sunglass Hut?” he asked.
“Yeah. And you were right. They cost a bundle.”
“I know, right. But your eyes are probably already feeling better in the sun. I know mine did, and I’m around water all day, so the sun reflecting off of it is murder on the eyes. I decided it was worth not eating for a week.” He laughed. I hoped he was joking. That would be sad if it were true. But then again, how much can a pool boy make?
“Well, between the sunscreen, the sunglasses, and the case of water I drank, I’m feeling fine now.”
“Glad to hear it. I hated the idea you were laying here on the lanai in pain when you should be out enjoying your vacation.” Wait. Is this guy for real?
“Thanks, Sam. I appreciate your concern. And your advice. But I’m all good now.”
“So I better get started on the pool. It’ll take about two hours, more or less. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay out of the hot tub and pool ‘til I’m done.”
“No problem. Could you use a hand with anything?” I could ask. He didn’t have to say yes.
He grinned ear to ear. “Sure, if you want to. We might get it done faster that way.” I cursed myself for speeding things up. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“You’ll have to show me what to do. I’ve never cleaned a pool before.”
“It’s easy. There’s a couple of things you can do right away. Let me get the equipment out and we’ll get started.” He turned and headed back down to the control room. He came back carrying a long pole with a flat oval-shaped net on the end. He laid it down on the deck, then went back and returned with a long plastic blue-and-white vacuum cleaner type hose and a canister contraption on blue plastic wheels.
“Okay, here’s what we’ll do. I call this thing Robbie the Robot,” said Sam, pointing to the scrubbing unit. “I’ll put him here in the water and start him going scrubbing the bottom. He’ll wander around and take about an hour to get it all. In the meantime, if you wouldn’t mind skimming the top surface with the long net, I can work on cleaning out the mechanicals down below.”
Crap! I wanted to work with him, not for him. Oh, well, it was helping, that’s what friends do, right? Be cool, Jack. Sam hooked Robbie the robot scrubber up to the vacuum hose and then plugged the other end of the hose into a hidden receptacle in the flower bed at the end of the pool. Immediately Robbie started making sucking noises. Sam dropped him gently over the side and positioned him in one corner. Robbie took off at a snail’s pace, hopefully doing a good job of scrubbing the bottom.
Next, Sam motioned for me to join him at the side of the pool. He put the long skimmer pole in my hands, then stood close behind me and grabbed the pole on either side of my hands from around back. It was like a reverse hug, and suddenly my dick was getting in the act. I closed my eyes and thought about Madge until it went back down a bit. Close call.
“Now, Jack. This isn’t hard, but if you don’t hold the pole in a balanced way, your back is gonna hurt in a little while, okay?” Again with the thoughtful concern. I knew I liked this guy.
Together we maneuvered the cleaning screen across the surface of the pool, catching a surprising amount of gunk in the process. Sam showed me how to turn the screen over and put the mess in a single place on the deck for easy disposal later.
“Robbie down there cleans the bottom, but some of what he stirs up floats to the surface. That’s why we do both at the same time. It does a better job of getting everything out of the pool before it can clog up the filters. Which is what I need to go clean out now. You alright with this pole, Jack?”
“Yeah, I think so. Does it look like I’m doing it right?”
“Sure does. Just try to remember where you pull out and put it back in and you’ll do great.” He turned and walked away and I smiled at his unintended double entendre. My dick was hardening again. This time I let it have some fun, too.
He was gone for about twenty minutes, during which time Robbie the robot completed almost a third of the pool floor. He stirred up a lot of crap at the deeper end, and I tried to keep up with it. Thankfully Sam came up behind me and reached around and grabbed the pole by my hands and we moved it around together. I wasn’t sure that was necessary, but I wasn’t going to complain. He felt good back there. There was nothing sexual about it, but proximity can breed its own excitement.
Once we had caught up to the crap storm floating to the surface, Sam let me have the pole back and I kept pace with the robot until the job was done. Sam busied himself opening up trap doors and filters around the edge of the pool. He pulled out loads of gunk. Yuck! I could now see why it needed to be done every week.
By the time Sam called the job done my arms and back were tired. But I felt good for helping him out. To be honest, other than tipping the valet the other day, that might have been the best part of my vacation so far. It was clear I was craving human interaction, and I would take it however it came my way.
I helped Sam pull Robbie out of the water and together we got him, the hoses, and the cleaning pole back down to the pool control room. I didn’t go in there, as it was a tight squeeze for Sam alone.
“Can I get you something to drink, Sam? I don’t have any beer or anything, but I can get you water, milk, or lemonade, maybe?”
“I never drink alcohol, so no worries there. But I’d love some water.” Interesting. No alcohol, like me. Cool.
“Right this way,” I said, heading back up the steps to the pool.
“You did great today, Jack. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve done pool work before.”
“Nope. I just had a good teacher. Come on, let’s get a drink.”
Now how do I convince him to stay for dinner?
We stepped up onto the lanai and I pulled two cold water bottles out of the fridge. Sam saw the fruit and cheese platters inside and asked, “Wow, you planning a party tonight? Looks like you have a lot of nice food in there.”
“If you only knew, Sam.” He raised his eyebrows as if to say, go ahead, tell me. We sat on stools at the island counter.
I sighed. “The thing is, I’m here by myself. I don’t know anybody in Hawaii, and the longest conversation I’ve had in nearly a week is your teaching me how to clean the pool. And…I can’t really cook…so I grabbed some prepared foods that I can reheat easily. That way I won’t starve.”
“You’re here by yourself? Must get awfully lonely. Hawaii is a place to explore and have adventures, not sit alone somewhere. No offense.”
“None taken, I promise. I agree with you. I tried going on a Pearl Harbor tour yesterday, and it was okay, but I came away feeling even lonelier because I was the only single person on the tour.”
“Yeah, that would suck. Nobody to talk with about what you’re seeing and doing. I’d go with you if you want to do another tour or something. I love that stuff. I’ve done Pearl three times I think. I learn something new every time.”
I swear I nearly fell off my stool. Here I was dreading him declining my dinner invitation, which we hadn’t even gotten to yet, and he was offering to be my tour buddy. I was going to have to find a way to take him up on that.
“I appreciate the offer, Sam. That’s huge. But you have work to do. I can’t drag you away from your job.”
“Sure you can. I’ve worked six days a week for nearly eleven months straight. My boss makes me take Sundays off. I usually hit the beach with some friends and we hang out all day. Then it’s back to work on Monday. Tommy, that’s my boss, and my best friend, he’s always on my case about taking a day off. Says I’m gonna burn out. How ya gonna burn out cleaning pools? It’s like the most mindless thing you can do outside. Probably why I like it so much. But hey, if you want to take off and see the sights someday, I’d love you show you around. It’d be fun.” He was thinking about it and the thought was making him happy. It was making me happy, too.
“Well, I’ll look into it. I’m sure there are some things left to do around this island besides shop.”
“Ewwww. You can keep the shopping. Only way I go into a mall is if I know what I need and where it is. I’m in and out as fast as possible. ‘Sides, I don’t exactly have a ton of money to blow anyway. But I’m cool with that.” There’s a story there, but it will have to wait. I’m hungry, and I’m hoping he is too.
“Sam, can I ask you something? I was planning on grilling a steak for dinner. I have two. Care to join me? I haven’t had a meal with another human being in I don’t know how long.”
“Did you say steak?”
“Yeah, and I have some potatoes, salad, green beans, and some other appetizers if you want.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll stay, Jack. You had me at steak. Hell, you’d have had me with just a hamburger.”
“Awesome. It’ll take just a few minutes to put it all together. You wanna do the grilling part?” I thought I should give him something to do. Guys like to be useful.
“Do I get to use the monster grill over there?” He was looking like a kid in a toy store.
“Go get it, Sam. It’s all yours. Let me know if you need a hand, but I doubt you will.” He jumped up and started figuring out how to light the grill, and I turned the oven on. I had practiced earlier so I was prepared. I also turned on one of the other ovens to 450 degrees for the green beans. I was secretly referring to an index card in my pocket where I had written everything down.
I had two things to cook, along with the steak, which was now Sam’s responsibility. I put the dry marinade on the steaks just before Sam arrived, so they should be perfectly ready to go. I pulled them from the fridge to come to room temperature. Next, I pulled a flat cookie sheet from the cabinet by the stove for the green beans which I had washed and trimmed earlier. I drizzled some olive oil on them, getting them good and coated, added salt and pepper, and they were ready for the oven. I grabbed a chef’s knife and smashed two cloves of garlic like I had seen my mother do on occasion and minced that up. I sliced up the shallots as thin as I could without cutting my fingers. That’s all I needed—a trip to the hospital instead of dinner with Sam. Be careful, Jack. Don’t screw this up.
I pulled two of the potatoes out of the fridge, unwrapped them from the plastic wrap keeping them fresh, and put them on another cookie sheet. That went into the oven right away. All was ready. It was now all about timing.
“Grill’s ready to go, Jack, whenever you are.”
“The steaks are right there on the counter. The butcher suggested six minutes the first side, four on the other to get them to medium rare, but I like mine medium so we should add a couple minutes on each side. Does that sound right to you?”
“Sounds perfect to me. I like mine medium, too. Let’s do this.” I heard the sizzle as the steaks hit the grill. I put the green beans in the bottom oven and checked the potatoes. The steaks would come off the grill and rest for a few minutes so I think we had this right. I quickly pulled together the salad into a big bowl I’d found and set a couple of places at the table. I even found some linen napkins in the dining room hutch. I hoped it was okay I was using them.
When Sam turned the steaks, I put the garlic and shallots on the green beans and stirred them up. They were just starting to soften and char a bit. They smelled surprisingly delicious. I put the potatoes under the broiler, set the timer for five minutes and mentally crossed my fingers they didn’t burn.
When the timer dinged, I pulled the potatoes—perfection. Sam pulled the steaks onto the platter I had given him and covered them with foil wrap. I pulled the green beans and scraped them into a serving bowl and we were almost ready to eat.
Of course I had forgotten the olives and cheese and crackers. Crap! But really, did it matter? We had a serious amount of food to eat already. I let it go. Now that the food was on the table, I relaxed a little. If you don’t screw this up, Jack, maybe he’ll stay for leftovers on Monday.