I drove to the pool today. I got out of the car. I showed Renata my pool pass and went into the locker room. If I just get there I will get in, I thought. So I went. I got undressed. I took out my fins, goggles, swim cap and earplugs. I showered and tucked my hair into my cap.

I got into the hot tub. I stretched. I took lane two, put on my fins, goggles and earplugs. I swam for 25 minutes straight, and spent five other minutes fixing my goggles.

I checked out the dude in the lane to the south of me. Medium height, muscular and thick like a gorilla. He had a gut, but the rest of him told of a past fitness. Kind of hairy, too. He had a very small butt, the kind you get from years of external rotation necessary to accommodate large thighs. His face was exceedingly Protestant, that is to say, of indeterminate ethnicity.

He looked normal. Then this man, about my age, swam the butterfly. That huge, perhaps even lumbering body did the butterfly. I've got buoyancy to spare, and I've never learned to do that.

Pasty, hairy White Guy got my attention. I kept swimming. I checked him out under the water. He checked me out under the water. None of this was overt, and it was all probably making the lifeguard giggle. Neither of us broke our pace.

I smiled that small badge of appeasement, the half smile that women use to say I've seen you, I am no threat and commenced stretching. Then I got out.

Showered. Put curl product in my hair. Dried my hair. Got dressed. Lotioned my face. Went to school. Ate crackers and brie and studied Anatomy.

Maybe I'll say hi next time I swim.