Ted paced restlessly around his living room. Awful heat waves tormented him, sweat beaded on his forehead, and his stomach churned. He shot an irritated glance toward the pool, where Dajana, Pauline, and Viktoria were lounging as if they didn’t have a care in the world. As far as Ted knew, Dajana should’ve been cleaning a nearby apartment at this time, Viktoria should’ve been doing the weekend shopping, and Pauline should’ve been in an online yoga class. And yet, here they all were, idly hanging around, getting in his way and preventing him from practicing his swimming routine.
The man with the thick, Coke bottle glasses grew increasingly agitated as his craving for the cool water intensified. After a while, he felt like nothing outside that pool could possibly ease his suffering. His frustration quickly morphed into rage, and he struggled to contain himself. It took all his willpower to stop himself from storming over and shouting at the three good-for-nothing women. In his mind, harsh commands and curses raced by at lightning speed—words he would have loved to hurl at those so-called mothers. He hated them, every last one of them. For their laziness, their weakness, their motherhood. Especially one of them. The one whose scent lingered even when she wasn’t around. The one whose laughter, whose voice, whose silhouette—no matter how far away—stirred something in him he never knew he was capable of feeling. The one about whom he kept detailed notes on premium, glossy paper. The one whose fragrant hair tie he kept like a treasure. The one he privately called Catwoman.
What else could he possibly call the tall, slender, graceful woman with her shining, flowing hair and feline eyes? The bold, pale-skinned, fearless woman who wasn’t even fazed by threats. She had tossed that handful of warning notes into the air like it was nothing but a game. Everyone else who had been standing around the pool that morning had been trembling. Except her. Only Viktoria had laughed with her head thrown back as the falling notes drifted down, notes that were meant for her. What a sensual, intoxicating witch!
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. He flung open the door that led from his living room to the courtyard and stormed toward the pool almost without thinking. After a few determined steps, however, he collided with something—or rather, someone.
“What the hell’s gotten into you, Ted?” Carlos snapped. “Seriously? You didn’t see I was walking straight toward you? Are you having some kind of meltdown or what?”
Ted clutched his forehead in panic. The shock of the situation and the sudden reappearance of the elderly man—who had previously vanished under mysterious circumstances—completely short-circuited his already scrambled brain. Words failed him. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water, desperately trying to process what he was seeing.
Carlos snapped his fingers a few times right in front of the man’s thick glasses.
“What are you lurking around my terrace for?” Ted barked.
“Alright, alright,” Carlos smiled gently. “I thought you’d completely lost it.”
“This heat is killing me, and I just want to use the pool, finally,” Ted growled.
“Oh, I see,” the old man mocked. “But for you to use the pool, everyone else would first have to vanish within a fifty-meter radius, so they wouldn’t disturb you just by existing. Is that about right?”
“I don’t care what you think. I just want to use the pool in peace, the same pool I pay for just as much as those people who spend all day lying on the sun loungers. Actually, I pay more, because families pay the same fee for three or four people that I pay just for myself.”
“Alright, easy there, man, calm down,” Carlos said, trying to soothe him. “Take it easy, my friend, don’t go anywhere,” he added softly as he pulled out a chair next to Ted’s garden table. “Sit down here, and I’ll bring you a cold beer,” he offered. “Relax, I know you’ve got a few bottles in your fridge.”
Ted collapsed into the chair, completely drained. He didn’t have the energy to argue. He kept his head down, making sure not to look in the direction of the three women, who of course hadn’t taken their eyes off him for a second. They watched eagerly, hanging on to every move made on the terrace of the most obnoxious man in the complex.