Free Listen by Kate Veitch Page B

be like,’ the young woman said quietly, ‘to be that good-looking.’
    ‘I don’t know, but I think I’d hate it,’ said Robert honestly. ‘People always looking at you! But James seems to cope with it okay.’
    ‘I guess he’s used to it. But I’d hate it, too.’
    ‘Your name’s…Vesna?’ Robert asked, turning to her. ‘Is that right?’
    She nodded. ‘It means “spring”. It’s a Yugoslav name.’
    ‘It’s beautiful,’ he said, and she smiled at him again, a pleased, radiant smile. Robert felt a little light-headed, as though he’d been drinking, and something else, too, like goldfish were swimming around in his chest. But it was not unpleasant. Not at all.
    Over the next couple of hours he and Vesna parted several times to mingle with other people at the steadily swelling party, neither wanting to make the other feel they had to stay together. But their eyes kept meeting, from doorways and across rooms, and they were drawn back to each other again and again, to talk more, to laugh quietly and just to stand together, observing. I feel so relaxed , Robert marvelled. She’s just so easy to be with. Sometime after midnight they found themselves back in the same doorway where they had first met. The party was in full swing now, the dance floor seething. It was hard to hear each other over the racket of music and voices and loud laughter.
    ‘Let’s go outside for a while,’ Robert suggested, having almost to shout. Vesna nodded. They found a bench at the far end of the stone-paved terrace; the light from the house and the sounds of the party spilled out in a way that was attractive but not obtrusive.
    There were enormous pots full of shrubs and flowers placed here and there. The delicious perfume of gardenias drifted on the warm air. From their shadowed nook they could see the dark outlines of trees with the moon glimmering through branches, and a suggestion of other terraces below.
    Suddenly they heard a loud splash, and lights came on somewhere below them. Standing now and leaning on the balustrade, they saw a swimming pool on a lower terrace. Someone had dived in and was swimming steadily, covering the length of the pool in half a dozen long strokes and turning. James, of course, stripped to his underpants, his T-shirt and jeans tossed over a bench.
    ‘My brother the water baby,’ said Robert. ‘He can’t stay away from it.’
    The same three girls who had been pursuing him all evening appeared by the pool. One slipped her party dress over her head, laughing, and dived in wearing her bra and panties. A second, the blonde, took her dress off, too: she wasn’t wearing a bra. Not hesitating for a moment, she pulled her panties down and stepped out of them. Her pale pubic hair caught the light for a moment, like a tiny silvery cloud, and with a shriek she jumped into the water.
    ‘Oh!’ gasped Vesna. ‘Gosh!’
    James kept swimming up and down, apparently oblivious. The third girl was darting to and fro beside the pool like a dog who wants to join its master but is nervous of the water. ‘That’s not fair!’ she cried. She had an English accent. ‘You know I can’t swim!’ Her friends ignored her and after a few moments more she said ‘Oh, rats! I’m going to get another drink then!’ She disappeared.
    Robert and Vesna watched as the two girls in the water began to swim on either side of James. They had no hope of keeping pace with him. Every few laps they stopped at one end to catch their breath and then pushed off level with him as he turned. Each time they swam closer to him, like playful porpoises. Suddenly one of the girls ducked beneath him. The pool was lit below the surface, andRobert and Vesna saw her twist her body to face his and take hold of his shoulders from below. The other girl, the naked one, swam above him and pressed herself against James’s back. The three of them sank beneath the water and then surfaced a moment later, laughing and spluttering. The girls towed