When The Rich Son Falls

Fourteen

One thing that the bay crowd and Topher's crowd had in common, apparently, was the presence of slightly inappropriate middle-aged ladies that like to get involved in people's lives. It seemed that those people existed no matter which part of the world you land. Thankfully, Topher a people-pleaser to some degree had gotten him used to such things.

James, on the other hand, seemed to be flushed with all the teasing, especially with Topher—an annoying guest he barely knew—was there as witness.

“Whoa, Nelly,” Topher said with a wide smile on his face when they were finally out of earshot. James took the plate from him and placed it on the table. “That’s some juicy s**t right there,” Topher teased, gently nudging the man’s arm with his elbow.

“I don’t want to hear about it,” James grumbled, obviously avoiding his gaze by refilling the plate with cut-up triangular sandwiches, and going as far as to arrange them in straight lines. “I just came over because they’re the ones who like to gossip around here so they might make a big deal about you. I didn’t think you’d actually stop by to chat with them.”

“Oh, so you were going to swoop in and save me. How gallant, indeed,” Topher placed a hand on his chest and acted as if he was deeply touched. When the man didn’t say anything and simply kept his expression flat, Topher continued to explain, “I was just chatting with them to be nice. They totally bought the Steve thing. Anyway, what’s this about you being hopelessly single? I mean, those weren’t the right words, but I think that’s the point they were getting at. You know, if you need any help being set up, I’m actually a great wingman. What’s your type? Curvy brunettes? Thin blondes? Or are you a sapiosexual or anything pretentious like that?”

James didn’t respond to that either and quietly opened the cooler to check the temperature inside. Ignoring how he was being purposefully ignored, Topher continued, “Okay, change of topic. Hey, do you think I look thinner in person?” as he flexed his arm muscles to show it to an uninterested James. “You know, I do think I’ve gotten thinner ever since my coach changed my diet and made me eat less—Hey, hey, hey, where are you going?” he complained when James began to walk away without saying anything.

“Back to coach the kids,” he replied as though it should have been obvious. “Go make yourself useful and hand some food to the other side over there.” He did a shooing motion with his hand then got back into the pool without waiting for a response.

“Aye aye, cap’n,” Topher muttered to himself, even when he knew James couldn’t overhear. Trying to develop a connection with that man was like trying to woo a wall with vines and thorns and poisonous flowers. However, Topher was never one to be easily disheartened. So, knowing that James would look his way at some point or another, he picked up the plate and decided he would be the best damn volunteer to ever distribute sandwiches to the guests—and he would look cool doing so.

He began on the other end of the pool, where James had pointed at earlier—sweet-talking and charming the people with his polite “Good afternoon’s” and million-dollar smile, even though it was covered by the face mask he was wearing. It was no secret to Topher that he was a conventionally attractive male, and despite having the disadvantage of his anonymity, feeling icky with the sweat running down his back, and half of his gorgeous face being covered, his tall stature, broad shoulders, dreamy eyes, and bewitching personality still appealed to the people. They were all smiles, and they even responded well to his little jokes here and there.

“Steve,” as they knew him, seemed to be climbing the popularity ladder rather quickly, and Topher wanted to know if James was witnessing him in all his glory. While walking towards the next clump of guests, Topher looked over by the water. James was there, alright, but his attention was fully devoted to the little boy he was helping paddle across the width of the pool. In his lack of awareness to other things except for James, Topher didn’t notice that a kid, who had just gotten out of the water to get to the restroom in a rush, was haphazardly running in his direction. If it weren’t for one of the volunteers shouting, “Max, no running!” Topher wouldn’t have looked ahead of him and seen that he and Max were on a collision course; but by that time, it was already too late.

Topher acted by instinct and did the first thing his body told him to do in order to avoid the kid. With that followed a cascading of events that led to disaster. When Topher took a quick step to the side to get out of the way, the tip of his shoe got caught on an elevated tile that was bordering the pool. He tried to keep his balance, and he almost managed to do so when he put his otherfoot forward to stabilize himself; but when he saw the sandwiches threatening to fall into the water because of the angle he was holding the plate, he slightly shifted his weight to prevent it from happening. However, he risked his balance in doing so, and before he could do anything about it, he was falling forward.

Topher’s defense mechanism worked and he was beginning to stretch out his hand, but the handrail of the pool got to his head first. He suffered a blow to his forehead, then he fell onto the ground with the plate unbroken but the sandwiches spilled around. He could hear the gasps and reactions from the people who witnessed him, and despite being disoriented from the shock and now the beginning of a throbbing pain, he pushed himself up from the floor.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he said aloud as he touched his forehead to check for blood. “I’m oka—” just as he had finally stood up and was about to take a wobbly step, he tripped on the elevated tile once more and this time, he fell into the water.