Free Three's a Crowd by Sophie McKenzie

for my shorts. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier?”
    “Who am I – your mother?” Ryan grinned at me. “You make up with Eve, then?”
    Last night flooded back. After Eve had left I’d stayed on the beach a long time, falling asleep and waking up cold much later.
    “I think so.”
    Ryan sniffed at a T-shirt, then pulled it on over his head. “You missed a great night at the Garito. Catalina asked where you were. And Alejandro was there too.”
    “Who’s Alejandro?” I said, trying to copy the way Ryan pronounced the “j” as an exaggerated “h”.
    “The drummer from the band – remember? He’s cool – loads of money, but doesn’t flash it around. His dad’s one of Eve’s dad’s business partners. That’s why he’s here, playing in the band. But he’s really into rock music. He’s going on tour with some Spanish group when he’s finished here.”
    “Sounds like he really opened up to you,” I stuck my head under the cold tap in the bathroom. “D’you think you’ll kiss on the second date?”
    “Piss off.” Ryan appeared in the bathroom doorway, grinning. “Chloe did most of the talking. I just stood there, chatting up all the hot girls who were hanging around hoping Alejandro’d speak to them.”
    A minute later and we were out the door and racing round to the pool. Jonno was already out there, cigar clamped between his lips.
    He pointed to his watch as we ran up. “You’re late.”
    “Sorry, sir,” Ryan panted. “Won’t happen again.”
    “Make sure it doesn’t,” Jonno growled.
    We set out the loungers and sun umbrellas. Soon the pool area was full of small kids with their parents, splashing and yelling in the water.
    Catalina turned up half an hour into the shift. She went straight over to Jonno, who was leaning against the pool bar, drinking a cup of coffee.
    I looked up, expecting to see him shouting at her for being late, but to my surprise they were laughing together.
    “How come she doesn’t get told off?” I said to Ryan as we sorted through the dirty pool towels. “She’s way later than we were.”
    Ryan gave me a withering look. “Why d’you think?”
    Catalina skipped towards us with a smile.
    “Where are you last night?” she pouted up at me. “You said you come to El Garito.”
    I smiled uneasily. “Fell asleep on the beach,” I said.
    Catalina brushed past me, reaching for the pile of clean towels. She put her hand on my arm to steady herself. “Mmmn,” she said, squeezing above my elbow. “Nice muskells.”
    Ryan snorted as Catalina wiggled off down the side of the pool, towels in her arms. “One day, that girl is gonna get sooo busted,” he said.
    I watched her lean over and take a drinks order from one of the sunbathers.
    “You’re just jealous ’cause it’s my muskells she likes,” I grinned.
    But inside my head, in a part of my brain completely separate from how I felt about Eve, I couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to kiss her.
    Eve didn’t appear all morning and she didn’t reply to my texts. After pool duty finished, I wandered around for about thirty minutes, looking for her. Eventually I gave up and went to do my homework in the unairconditioned broom cupboard. It was even hotter and noisier than yesterday.
    I struggled with some maths questions on probability, then – deciding I deserved a break – checked out my emails. There was another message from Mum.
    Dear Luke. Not sure if you got my last email. Here’s the early scan of the baby. All healthy as far as they can tell. It’s too soon to know, but I’m sure it’s a boy! Lots and lots of love to everyone, Mum.
    I clicked on the attachment. A fuzzy, black and white photograph flashed onto the screen. I stared at it for a few minutes but couldn’t, for the life of me, work out any part of it that remotely resembled human life. Remembering how annoyed Chloe had been at me yesterday, though, I printed it out and shoved it in my pocket.
    Pushing away thoughts of