Three generations silently climbed into the hot tub. a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. the grandmother set her arm up on the edge of the tub and turned her keen eyes to mine with a hawkish smile. my eyes met hers, they were wise, clear, and the color of the sky. she pulled her hand slowly up from the water and began to caress her neck. The water reflected from her deeply tanned skin. She did not take her eyes off me.

The daughter sat directly across from me. She arched her hips forward and planted her feet apart so that her legs were spread. She ran her hand over her youthful stomach and craned her neck upward, straightening herself elegantly. She stared at me with her entire face. Her cheeks had a slight blush, and her lips were a dark red. When my eyes met hers she smiled warmly in a way which would melt anyone before her very eyes. I curled up one corner of my mouth in a kind of a smile, but this was not the reaction she was looking for. She flexed her stomach muscles and slowly pulled her hand out of the water and dragged it over her stomach leaving beads of water behind. Her eyes were locked on my face. My eyes were locked on hers. She smiled a little more brightly, and pushed her hips forward again letting out a little moan.

The mother sat demurely between them, her legs crossed, and arms neatly folded in her lap. She was by far the more beautiful of the three. She sat perfectly straight, only with an ease which expressed her elegance. Her skin was kissed by the sun, not pale, and not tan. She stared off into the distance in silence while her mother blazed holes into me, and her daughter was having a grils gone wild moment in her head at the edge of the stone tub. They were all less than an arm’s length away from me.

My eyes darted between them, locking the grandmother’s glare, meeting the daughter’s experiment, and quickly glancing into the distant face of the mother. I thought it was odd that I found it most difficult to keep my eyes on the mother’s face. Clearly, regardless of whatever else was going on for them, they were expecting me to make a move.

I very nearly smiled at the grandmother and asked where they were from, but before I could the mother gave a long and exhausted sigh. Everyone turned to look at the mother, she snapped back into the moment, almost embarrassed about her audible expression of emotion. She met the eyes of her daughter and mother, uncrossed her arms and leaned back slightly.

“It’s very warm.” She said to her family, and they both agreed. Everyone looked down at their feet. I realized in that moment that they were all wearing the exact same bathing suit.

I pulled myself up onto the ledge of the tub, set my feet onto the stairs and climbed out, walked the 20 feet to the main swimming pool, tossed my towel on a chair and dove into the cold, blue, wonderful water.