The Summer I Learned to Float

My palms were sweating so bad I could barely grip the **cable** I was supposed to be coiling. Great first impression, right? I'd been working at the neighborhood pool for exactly three hours, and I already wanted to teleport into another dimension.

"You're doing it wrong, Spinach."

I flinched. That's what Marcus called me now, ever since he caught me aggressively eating a spinach wrap during orientation. "It's Maya," I'd corrected him, but the nickname stuck like chlorine on skin.

Marcus was seventeen, worked every summer at the pool, and had this effortless cool that made my entire existence feel awkward. Meanwhile, I was terrified of deep water but had taken the job because my parents said I needed "real world experience" and the mall wasn't hiring.

"The cable needs to loop, not tangle," Marcus said, standing way too close. I could smell his sunscreen-coconut scent. My heart did something genuinely concerning. "Like this."

His hands covered mine as he guided them. I forgot how to breathe.

That afternoon, I had to retrieve someone's lost goggles from the bottom of the eight-foot section. I stood at the edge, chest tight, while Marcus and the other lifeguards watched. The pool looked innocent, blue and glittering, but my brain supplied images of unseen depths, lurking shadows, things that grab.

"Just **swimming**," Marcus called out. "You got this."

I jumped.

The shock of cold water. Silence. Then kicking, arms moving, and I was doing it—I was actually swimming. I reached the goggles, grabbed them, and pushed back to the surface, gasping.

When I broke the surface, everyone was cheering. Marcus was grinning. "Not bad, Spinach."

Later, sitting on the pool deck eating another spinach wrap (reclaiming the narrative, honestly), Marcus sat beside me. "Hey, you wanna hang out after close? We could grab food."

I nearly choked. "Like... a date?"

"Maybe." He smirked. "If you can handle more spinach jokes."

"I think I'll survive." I smiled, and for the first time that summer, my palms were dry.