C4 antho - Chamber Four

Pool ~263~
really. She walked back out to the patio, pulling a small puff
of air-conditioned air behind her. It took a minute for her
eyes to adjust again to the brightness.
Jon touched her arm. “You OK?” he said. She could almost
see behind his mirrored sunglasses. His purple boardshorts
just grazed his knee.
She nodded. Their condom had split the night before, so
they’d spent the morning going to two different Rite Aids to
get the morning-after pill. The pharmacist didn’t say anything
but had the same gray hair as Darla’s dad and looked
just as disapproving. For lunch Jon had taken Darla to a Belgian
restaurant on Ventura much too expensive for him, and
she let him eat his mussels while she swallowed the first pill
at the bathroom sink. When she came back, they both pretended
everything was normal, and turned up the radio loud
once they hit the freeway.
On the patio, Trevor was wound up in conversation. He
was short, built for the military, compact frame, trimmed
hair, muscley back. He was a cop, patrolled mostly shopping
centers and the community college campus. “The guys with
the best job,” he told Jon, shielding his eyes from the sun.
“Those helicopter cops. They fly over the big houses in the
hills where chicks sunbathe topless.”
Darla looked over to Trevor’s wife. Mandy was an exhostess
of chain restaurants and now wore Keds and was still
round with baby fat. She was out of earshot, fitting the baby
into a swimsuit with a mermaid on it.
Trevor nudged Jon. “Can you imagine? The MILFs.”
Jon turned to Darla. “I’ve explained to you what a MILF
is, right, honey?”
The first time Darla had met Trevor, he had just tackled
a guy at the mall who had stolen a plastic toy camera. The
first words he had ever said to her when Jon introduced