Thesunbeamedmercilessly,evaporating all moisture from the typically cool morning air. The sound of laughter and the thud of the volleyball hitting the sand provided a welcome distraction. I had been carrying so much restlessness and uncertainty since seeing Autumn last night, and I needed physical exertion after facing all those memories.
“Ready to do this?” I looked at Lamar. He wore a fitted long-sleeve top, long brightly flowered board shorts, and a bright smile.
“You two, up here.” Lamar waved Ren and me over to the opposing side.
Emerson was already on Lamar’s side of the court. She wore a bright blue one-piece bathing suit with polka dots and sunglasses that covered half of her face. Her bright purple hair was pinned up in fifties glam, as Emerson as ever.
“Hey, Em, did you bring any of those Gushers?” I asked, spying the floppy beach tote she’d set down by the table.
“Just because we’re in the same pod, doesn’t make us friends right now, James.” Her tone was completely serious, but the gleam in those mischievous eyes told me she didn’t mean it.
“Bonding over Grant’s snack stash does,” I argued, and she cracked, her face lighting up.
“I still don’t get that man,” Ren declared, an almost-smile over his lips. Ren was still processing his recent decision to divorce, and I had to admit I also wanted to chat up Grant about this whole friends-with-exes thing. What if Autumn and I could become friends again? What would that even look like?
“Leave Grant’s snacks out of this.” Emerson playfully narrowed her eyes. “This is war.”
Lamar and Emerson began stretching in tandem as if they were preparing for some kind of battle. This was supposed to be a casual game of volleyball. Neither the years of sitting in bed poring over legal briefs nor the occasional weekend game of golf with the partners had prepared me for the spectacle they were gearing up for.
I looked over at the woman on our side. She was maybe a few years younger than us, tall, and confident if her deep red lips and power stance had anything to say about it.
She introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Cheryl.”
“Hi, Cheryl. I’m James. This is Ren.” I reached my hand out to shake, and she took it.
“Hey, nice to meet you. So, did you get stuck with this one as your counselor?” Cheryl tilted her head playfully toward Lamar.
“Yup, he’s ours,” Ren said. “Who do you have?”
“I’m in Andromeda—Nat’s pod.”
I’d yet to meet her in person, but from last night’s game, I’d learned that her social media status was celebrity-level intimidating, she’d danced with Dolly Parton, and her favorite movie wasn’tThe Goonies, because she’d never seen it thanks to the sad fact that she grew up on the East Coast and it wasn’t a rite of passage like it was for a kid in the Pacific Northwest.
“There she is, goddess of sustenance, and our third, Azalea.” Lamar introduced the gray-eyed chef, spinning her in a hug, both of them laughing before he put her down. Her tightly curled hair whipped around wildly in the lake breeze.
We lavished her with compliments, and she basked in the attention. The cherubic-faced woman was all of five feet tall and squeezed the ball tight enough that I wondered if it would explode. It was no wonder that Lamar referred to Azalea as a goddess, considering her amazing food. I was still infatuated with this morning’s spread. From bacon-wrapped dates to chicken cordon bleu, everything we’d eaten so far had been nothing short of decadent.
Quickly, I learned my volleyball skills weren’t nearly as impressive as I’d hoped they would be. Emerson, Azalea, and Lamar worked together like a well-oiled machine. Ready for anything. Which, unfortunately, included demolishing us.
Strangely, Lamar suggested conversations between Cheryl and me. First about school, then about her fur baby, a husky named Poppy. After the third icebreaker about whether we both liked walks on the beach, I started to get suspicious. Ren cocked his head at Lamar. Was he some sort of matchmaker or was hetrying to distract us? The scoreboard proved that subterfuge was unnecessary. I wondered what that was all about.
Soon, we accumulated an audience. A woman I recognized as one of the campers in Autumn’s pod introduced herself as Kell-i to Terry, who was cheering on both teams with so much enthusiasm, I wondered if he was a sports coach or maybe even a life coach. Either way, I felt coached. Ren, Cheryl, and I tried to recover enough to make him proud. Cheryl blushed when he complimented a particularly graceful return serve.
“Mine,” Azalea called out, and Emerson was there, lined up for the pass with precision under the volleyball Azalea had popped up high.
“Got it.” She set the ball with a flourish, this time to Lamar, who meant to decimate us with another calculated strike. Cohesion like that made it look like the three of them had been working as a team for years.
Diving into the sand for what must have been the fourth time, I laughed as I finally scrambled fast enough to pop the ball up toward anyone on our side. Ren seemed surprised we’d finally made a play on one of their brutal bump, set, spike combos.
“Gloves are off now.” Ren whooped as he chased, desperate to get under the ball. With his back to the net, he let out a loud grunt as he bumped the ball with no finesse.
Luckily, Cheryl was there to give it the redirection we needed, landing a perfect tip over the net and sealing our first and only point of the game. We may have lost nearly every point, but we’d started to return volleyballs with fervor, so I counted it as a win.
Kell-i and Terry stormed the court, clapping us on the backs. Lamar, Emerson, and Azalea all came to our side to hug and high-five us as well. Goofy reenactments ofTop Gun, complete with frozen high fives, had me laughing harder than I’d had in years. The next twenty minutes were an ensemble of more dives and taunts stitched together with wild laughter.
We wiped the sweat off our brows and put our hands on our knees to catch our breaths with matching goofy grins.
“You weren’t kidding when you said give it one hundred and ten percent.” I loved teasing Ren about his overuse of workplace mottos.
