Nora set down the pizza slice, stood, and walked to the edge of the pool. She slipped off her robe—just let it puddle at her feet. Underneath was a black one-piece that hugged every curve like a second skin. She dove in without a splash, surfaced at the shallow end, and pushed wet hair from her face.
The air between them crackled. A moth fluttered around a fairy light. Somewhere, a sprinkler whispered across a lawn. Leo’s pulse hammered so loud he was sure she could hear it.
“Should you?” Nora reached over and plucked a stray basil leaf from the pizza box—he’d accidentally grabbed the Margherita instead of her usual pepperoni. She didn’t complain. She just bit into the slice, slow, deliberate, and licked a drop of oil from her thumb. “Tell me, Leo. Do you always follow instructions so literally? ‘Leave on the bench. Do not ring bell.’ And yet, here you are.”
“The water’s perfect,” she said, voice low and teasing. “And your other deliveries? They can wait, can’t they? It’s only pepperoni.”
“I have three more deliveries,” he managed.
But tonight? Tonight, he wasn’t thinking about money at all.
She sighed, stood up, and glided inside. Leo stood there, confused, until she returned with a tall glass of cucumber water and a fifty-dollar bill.
“Finally,” she said, not looking up from her tablet. “I ordered that an hour ago. You took the scenic route?”
Leo shrugged. Weirder requests happened. He slipped through the side gate, the latch clicking softly behind him.
“Leo.” He set the box on the glass table. “That’ll be forty-two fifty.”
Leo looked at his phone. Three texts from his boss: WHERE R U . He silenced it, shoved it in his pocket, and toed off his sneakers.
“Uh… lunch?”
“Keep the change,” she said, handing him the glass. Their fingers brushed. Her skin was cool, expensive-lotion soft.
And as Leo sat on the edge of the pool, dangling his legs into the cool water, watching this woman glide toward him with the hunger of someone who hadn’t been touched in months, he realized he’d never make that recording studio money delivering pizzas the usual way.
“That’s… a lot,” Leo said. “The tip, I mean.”
