Bikini queen

Wednesday 15 October 2008

It has been unseasonably hot these last few days-- Monday was over 80... and you know what that means. We got home from school and while Daddy was still out getting Lisa I got out of everything, stepped into my plain 2-inch-heeled sandals and went down stairs for a drink before I'd go out to the pool. Mother was in the kitchen and J.J. was in his booster seat having a snack. 'You don't have clothes on again!' our little Prince Of The Obvious stated.

I only shrugged and smiled at him. 'I suppose it is warm enough for a swim,' Mother said over the counter to me.

I nodded and took the glass of iced tea she offered. 'Do you know if it's cold?'

"I can't imagine it would be with all these warm days. It gets cold at night, of course, but in all this sun today....' She handed me the glass. 'Have fun.'

While I was waiting for Princess Jessy it went 3.20 and the minivan pulled up in front of the house. Lisa rushed in, waving the watercolour on which she had got high marks from her art teacher. She received my hug and as I was standing up Daddy came in. 'Oh, hello,' he said, smiling slyly at me. 'Are we back to this, then?'

I blushed. I don't know why-- he's only my dad and he's seen me lots of times. 'I haven't done my twenty in weeks,' I said.

He nodded. 'I get the hot-weather comfort thing, I really do,' he said to me as he went round the counter to plant a kiss on Mother's forehead. Then he turned to me again. 'What I don't get is the shoes. I mean, just the shoes. Inside the house.'

I blushed again and looked down. The truth is I always feel more confident in heels, even two inches' worth, and the confidence helps when you stroll into the kitchen amidst your family when you haven't got anything else on. Jessy came in, naked but for her shoes too, and said, 'It's just the thing, Daddy,' she said, and stopped beside me where I stood at the counter. 'Are we sunning or swimming?'

I shrugged, recollecting myself, and said, 'Mother says it won't be too cool for a swim... and I haven't done my daily twenty in ages.'

Jessy nodded. 'All right.' So we excused ourselves from tea and went out to the pool terrace, where we the water was not too cool for a good healthy swim. And I did my formerly usual twenty laps nonstop, a total of about a seventh of a mile.

By the time I was done Mother and Daddy had had their tea and had gone off. Daddy was down in the basement with J.J. and Lisa came up to me and said she didn't know where Mother was. 'Is she in her room?' I wondered.

'I don't know. She better not be having a bath again.'

I nodded. 'I don't think so,' I said, because I knew Daddy to be down stairs. As I was going up anyway I went up the front stairs and paused beside the half-open door to my parents' room. Quietly I ducked inside, following a light from Mother's dressing room. There she was at her mirror, standing up arranging her hair, wearing only her plain blue pumps and her sleek navy-blue bikini with the white outlines of stars all over it.

Of course I have seen my pretty, young stepmother many times in a swimsuit... but never like this, primping herself like a fashion model about to strut down a runway. She had on makeup and everything.

'Um....' I didn't want to appear impolite to be observing her secretly.

She noticed me in the mirror only then and gave a little start. 'Oh,' she said-- and was that a blush? 'I was just....'

I smiled and leaned against the door frame with a sigh. 'You look... fabulous.'

She made a coy smile. 'Well, I just wanted to see....'

She couldn't articulate it, and that's a lot for my stepmother who is always articulately loquacious. I knew what the experiment was she wanted to try. Of course there have been days when we're all in swimsuits-- some of us in less- and it's not an issue, not the issue it is when one of us dresses in a pretty appealing bikini for supper. Suddenly I saw Mother's point. She is hardly coquettish and is never inappropriate, but she does live in a house with two gorgeous teenaged girls-- Jessy and me-- who indulge a penchant for being mostly naked more often than most people would ever expect to tolerate. And yet SHE is the only female here whose role it is to make a man happy, to be worthy of his attention, to keep him company in every way. She only wants to be as alluring and irresistible to him in her own way as we are innocent and uninhibited round everyone else in ours. If that means a dry bikini and high heels for supper then I'm impressed she's thinking so romantically.

I smiled at her in the mirror. 'I think he's down in the basement,' I said softly. 'I'll collect Lisa up here, if you want....'

She smiled that coy smile again and abruptly spun on her toes, left me with a kiss on the forehead, and, then carefully practising her walk, descended to impress the man she loves.

For tonight's casual supper Lisa, Jessy and I all agreed that we would get dressed enough, even if only in sleep shorts and tanktops, so that Mother could remain the elegantly-bikinied piece-de-resistance. Without any ado Jessy and I made sure we would give J.J. and Lisa their baths... and we have not seen Daddy nor Mother since dessert.

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