He stood at the edge, holding a bag of chips, as eight other guests in linen shirts and sundresses sipped rosé on lounge chairs, fully dry. His toes curled over the concrete. Awkward was a gentle word for this.
Then, the sky broke.
The invitation said “pool party,” so Marcus showed up in neon swim trunks and flip-flops. The backyard, however, held a kiddie pool—the hard plastic kind with a fading cartoon fish on the bottom. Three inches of tepid water. A single floating Band-Aid. awkward. torrent