We Are Both In The Dirt Ch. 10

They are standing beside a pool in the middle of a desert motel when Mira finally snaps. She paces around before Mint as he tries to keep his gaze from her breasts which nearly spill from her metallic red bikini top as she moves. Her thick hair is wet from a short swim and she flings it around as she yells, awash in the blue of the illuminated pool with tears running down her face.

"A pity, she looked so beautiful a moment ago," Mandrake says.

"Man, you know her hearing is like-" Mint begins.

"What was that Mandrake? Liar number two?" She thrusts her wine glass out at them and a bit sloshes out and hits the tile. A staff person appears, wringing his hands as he tries to get Mira's attention.

"Ma'am, there's, um, no glassware near the pool," the young man says.

"No glassware near the pool? Then why is the poolside bar stocked with thousands of drinks that are then served in glasses?" Mira asks.

"Well you see here ma'am there's a yellow line that runs the perimeter of the pool that shows at what point glassware-"

"Here, go pretend you never see her," Mandrake says as he peels a bill and hands it to the man.

When they are alone again, Mira narrows her gaze and continues. "I want you both to tell me everything, starting with why this is in the paper!" Mira picks up a newspaper and slaps Mint in the face with it. He tamps down any urge he feels to grab her and shake her as he is the one in the wrong. He is shaking so badly that he can barely even hold the paper.

"What does that say, Mint, on the front page?"

"Mira, look, I can explain."

"Yes, you can and you will, and while you're at it, maybe you can finally tell me why the fuck Mya is still alive, when you so plainly and in so much detail recounted to me the story of her passing!"

"Mira, you need to keep your voice down," Mandrake says.

"Fuck you Mandrake," Mira flings her cigarette into the pool. "Tell me why Mya is still alive when you said she was dead, and tell me why in the world this fucking newspaper says you're a damned escaped convict. Tell me why that wasn't the first thing you told me when you laid eyes on me?"

Mint ponders the questions. Why wasn't it the first thing? "It wasn't the first thing because I hadn't had sex in three years and I was hoping the next place I could bury myself was between your legs. I was off kilter. Had I not found you looking kept and cozy and traitorous, I would have made love to you and then told you everything exactly as it happened."

A look crosses Mira's face, fleeting, but meaningful. She turns away from them. "You know, when I think about how mad all of this makes me, I can barely think straight," she says. She walks close to them, between them, sips from her wine and drags her eyes from Mint's head to his toes, then from Mandrake's toes to his face.

Mint and Mandrake exchange a look. It is at times like these that Mint wonders how years apart hadn't dulled their ability to exchange telling glances. "Mya found the letter, I didn't lie about that," Mint continues. Mandrake sheds his pants and shirt and jumps into the pool, a pale flash in the permeating incandescence. The splash sends droplets of water across Mira's breasts, and Mint loses his train of thought.

"Eyes up here," Mira says, snapping her fingers with a blank expression. "Tell me, quick, before the fucking cops come drag you out of here, you escaped convict," Mira says in a low, even voice.

"She found the letter and she told me that she was going to kill you. I was in prison, I couldn't do shit to help you from there, so when I got a chance, I escaped."

"You cuffed an armed guard to a library entranceway. It could have been months before anyone found him. They're probably going to charge you with attempted murder," Mira says. She even manages to keep a straight face as Mint laughs.

"I did hear that America's illiteracy rate is on the rise. She might have a point," Mandrake says as he appears at their side. With little interlude he takes Mira's chin and pulls her into a kiss and Mint watches, lets the vision settle over him. "Come have a swim?" Mandrake says. He turns and dives in again, this time a clean dive that nets nary a splash. Mira faces Mint, unties the back of her swim top but doesn't let it fall away. "So long story short, you broke out to save my life?" Mira asks.

"And because I love you."

"I love you both, come here, swim with me!" Mandrake calls out. Mira kisses Mint, she lets her top fall away and presses her bare breasts to his chest. Mint cannot remember having ever felt anything like this, and he does not waste a moment. He tunnels his hands into the back of her bikini bottoms, cups her ass and presses himself against her. He has not had a spare moment to remember who they all are, who Mira is. She is his every breath. His every moment. He loves her so much, wants her so much, thinks of her so often that it is no surprise that somehow it spilled over into his brother, a man that is every bit the man that he is.

Mira breaks away and hops into the pool, drifts to the bottom. As Mint disrobes he considers every angle; every possible way the coming scene might unfold. His brother does a languid backstroke, his long arms reaching and propelling him through the water quickly and expertly. Had he been given the life Mint was gifted, maybe he would have achieved things with his impressive swimming skills. Instead he'd relayed stories of jumping into rivers to avoid gunfire and swimming miles to shore, robbing a drug dealer who owned a beach front property and swimming off and stowing away on an unsuspecting someone's yacht. To Mint some of his stories had seemed fantastical-but even Mint cannot deny that they are they are things a man like Mandrake would do, experience. He figures that with enough of the right circumstances he might do them, too.

Mint slides into the water, waits on the side for Mira to swim a few laps. She does a backstroke and then glides beneath the water, surfaces before Mandrake who takes her holds her and kisses her, presses her against the wall of the pool. Mint swims toward them as they make for more shallow waters, and as soon as the water reaches Mandrake's neck and he gains a bit of his footing he is upon Mira again. Mint watches her as Mandrake kisses her mouth, her neck, her breasts, he tries to figure out if she's felt any of this before. He decides that it is new to her right before she opens her eyes and tells him to come closer. Mandrake moves away and Mint slides her bottoms down her thigh. He hasn't any more time to waste, he decides, and once he is inside of her with Mandrake kissing her breasts and probing his tongue into her mouth, he realizes that now is the perfect time to seize the day.