Heat

Merry Kissmas

Merry Kissmas

It's Christmas morning and it's hot –damned hot and so steamy that you can see the air that you are breathing and it's not quite 6am yet. I wonder if Di and Derek are up and figure they're probably knee-deep in wrapping paper already.

They wouldn't have had much sleep – mind you neither have I. Yesterday took it's toll I suppose and despite resisting the urge to sit and talk to Tom over a cold beer and actually going to my room (on my own before you ask), I couldn't settle.

The heat didn't help God I need airconditioning in my bedroom. I ended up having a shower at about 2am and sleeping pretty much naked with the ceiling fan on full blast for the rest of the night. Well I say sleeping, it was too hot and my brain was too full. Too full of yesterday and of my family. The family that I love and that frustrates me in equal measures.

I know I need to get rid of this extra energy before I face them again but I can't run – not this morning – even walking is making me sweat. So instead I grab my swimmers and sneak down the stairs. It's early enough not to need a rashy and I've just realised I have left my one piece in the car so I don my bikini. I'm trying not to wake Tom, I'm hoping, thanks to the portable airconditioner, his room was less kiln and more coolroom. I heard him move around at one stage during the night but he seemed to settle again and after his long trip,  then the dramas of yesterday he deserves a sleep in – particularly on Christmas morning. I grab a towel and head to the front door and through the beautiful stone work of my garage. It gives the front of my house an elegant look and usually makes the front feel a lot cooler but this morning the stone work seems to already be absorbing the heat. However  I can't go in my regular direction through the down stairs "rumpus room" because it is currently boy infested and I really really don't want brother germs (or to interrupt anything), so instead I take the long way round, out the door and down the side-steps.

The water isn't freezing but it's cool enough and it feels welcoming to slip below the surface and completely immerse myself. It almost feels soft against my skin and I instantly feel better. Rather than getting straight into swimming laps, I roll onto my back and just enjoy the peace. I'm sure it will be the last I get to experience today once all the family gets together. I watch the sky - it's the bluest of blues – no sign of clouds which kind of disappoints me. This weather has to break soon before we all melt away and today, when we're all inside eating ourselves towards a food coma, is a good day for it. But there is no sign.

I drift a little more until I hear a noise and I look up to see Tom sitting on the balcony outside his room, I wonder how long he's been there. He is watching me intently and I blush despite the cool water. We indulge in a waving game and he starts a sign-language conversation which basically has him asking if he can come and join me. I try not to laugh at his antics and I nod my head. I'd usually hate an intrusion like this on my "me" time but there is something comforting about his presence. Plus he is wearing nothing (and I mean nothing) but some satin boxers and they are wide legged – if I keep looking up at this angle I might see something I really don't need to see. It's already like being diabetic in a sweet shop when he's around.

A few minutes later he makes his way down the side of the house and slips in through the gate. In the meantime I've swum to the other end and I'm sitting in the sunken seat and I'm more than half immersed in the water. Apparently, according to the previous owners, the manufacturers call it this area the "love seat", they obviously took this name pretty seriously planting a bit of a screen of trees and ferns around this end of the kidney shaped pool so unless you're upstairs on the veranda you can't see this part of the pool  from the house. I try not to think about if any of their kids were conceived here.

Tom swims languidly towards me, his long limbs moving gracefully through the water, I watch his back muscles move and ripple, his powerful leg muscles kicking quietly. And then he's perched next to me and I'm glad I'm already in water.