37 ⏤POOL BOY! (pool boy james au)
“Are you able to do it today?” the man at the door asks as he reaches into his back pocket for something. James was just about to agree when the man pulled out a wad of cash from his wallet, “I’ll pay you upfront, is £100 enough?”
Puffing out his chest and grinning widely, James nods, “That’s perfect sir, thank you, I’ll start right away,”
“Great, come with me,” the man leads him through the spacious house and out to the back garden which had a relatively impressive looking pool taking up the space, “the wind lately has swept a lot of the leaves into the pool and it’s a mess; my daughter has been itching for a swim as well so I’m sure she’ll be happy with this. Thanks uhh…” James grasps the man’s outstretched hand for a shake, still beaming.
“It’s James, sir,”
“I’m Richard, you can find all the pool cleaning equipment you need in that shed over there,” he points to a shed at the far corner of the back garden, “don’t worry about the lock, it’s not fastened. Thanks again, James,” as soon as Richard leaves to re-enter the house, James gets to work on the pool. There’s a distant shout from within the home and thudding footfalls but James pays it no mind, happy with the easy work and the new addition to his university allowance for the following academic year.
Half an hour passes and the pool is pristine again; James smiles to himself, proud of his hard work, while wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of hand.
“Hey!” James snaps his head around to see the most gorgeous girl he has ever seen walking up to him in a flowy summer dress. Doesn’t she know how crazy guys get over girls in cute summer dresses? He was about to make a fool of himself but quite composes his exterior, it's not how he was raised nor how he wants to be seen since he can make the safe assumption that you’re Richard’s daughter, “Thanks for cleaning up our pool,” you grin up at James and reach out to shake his hand, “you’re James, right?”
“Uhh, yeah, nice to meet you…” he shakes your hand after wiping the sweat off his palms on his cargo shorts.
“I’m (Y/N), a pleasure,” you then turn to the clean pool, your smile beaming, “I can’t wait to take a swim! You did a great job,”
“Please,” James bows whilst gesturing to the pool, “it’s ready for all your swimming pleasure,” James’s smile grows wider at your twinkling laugh.
“Thank you very much once again, sir James,” you do a cute little curtsy with the skirt of your short dress and James is smiling fondly at you, a rosy blush flourishing over his cheeks from how cute you were.
“Well, I should really leave you to it,” James starts, not really wanting to leave since you’re so captivating but knows that he shouldn’t overstay his welcome.
“Oh, before you go,” you pipe up, “would you mind giving us your phone number for when we need our pool cleaned again?” James hesitates for a moment, not expecting your offer but he didn’t want to reject such a cute girl either - even if you only wanted his number to clean your pool.
“I think that’s a great idea, princess,” a familiar voice adds and James turns to see Richard stepping out of the house with a grin.
“Right, dad?” you agree giddily before finding James a pen and a sticky note to write his number on before he leaves with his cash payment.
Once he’s gone your dad turns to you with araised brow and amused eyes, “any and all extra pool cleaning jobs are coming right out of your monthly allowance,”
“Dad!” you whine and playfully stomp your feet.
“There’s a price on love that, even you, are not exempt from, princess,”
Your dad wasn’t kidding when he said extra calls for James to clean the pool came from your allowance but that was a small price to pay for getting to know the new pool boy. It didn’t take too long for your mom to rationalise your antics and, thankfully, she finds it just as amusing as your dad. After a couple meetings with James, she playfully gave you a thumbs up in secret when you were making a quick snack for James in the kitchen. Clearly, she approves of him.
“He’s polite, hard working and very handsome,” she commented as you nodded along. The both of you shared a quick squeal of excitement together before you moved to give James a love-filled snack during his break cleaning. It felt nice to have your parents' support when it came to James, especially when it meant that you could get away with keeping James at the house long after he finished cleaning the pool.
Over the summer, you really got to know him and found him to be more and more beguiling after every encounter, long or short. The more you got to know him, the more you got to witness the allure in his boyish grin, his charmingly tousled hair and mesmerising hazel eyes peering behind round glasses. It was becoming hard to just have him as your pool boy.
“You know…” James muses as you set down a tray of lemonade and pretzels on the table beside him. He was currently taking a quick break in the lounge area beside the pool and it was the perfect time for you to join him as usual, with snacks, “I’m starting to think that I’m not here so much just to clean your guys’s pool,” he lets out a short, nervous laugh, as if insecure about his own speculation. James has never earned so much in one summer thanks to you and your family needing your pool cleaned at least three times a week but no family needs their pool cleaned this often - it was odd. Two days ago, he only needed to take out a floating leaf from the centre of the pool and he felt too guilty to accept full payment for such a modest job. He wasn’t complaining but he doesn’t think he can stand being your pool boy much longer if he wants to keep things professional.
His pool cleaning jobs at your house were so quick and easy that you often invited him to stay longer and keep you company while you went for a swim in the same pool that he so graciously cleaned for you. Sometimes, you would just sit outside with James and talk for hours about anything and everything under the sun. Any time spent with you wasn’t taxing either, unlike some girls in the past, who complicated things for no reason.
James would be blind to say that you weren’t beautiful, in fact, you weren’t just beautiful but enchanting as well. He feels at ease speaking to you like it’s the easiest thing to do in the world, you listen to him earnestly, value his opinions, laugh often at his jokes, share the same humour and he just feels so refreshed every time you make snacks or drinks for him. Needless to say, you have James wrapped around your little finger. He wants more with you than just being your pool boy but from his unfortunate history with girls in the past, you’re just too good to be true that James made himself believe you’re only like this because he works for you.
“More than just to clean our pool?...” you muse to yourself as James takes a sip of the lemonade, “Maybe you’re right,” James almost spits out the lemonade he was drinking as you sit down in the chair beside him and giggle at his surprised expression.
“Wh-what?”
“Maybe I call you over here often because I like your company, James,” you explain and the way you said his name was so hypnotic, James had to take a moment before he could properly respond.
“You mean it?” His resemblance to an expectant puppy is so uncanny that if he had a tail it would be wagging furiously.
“I tell no lies,” you say with a wink as James smiles widely at you.
“Then…” he bites his lip, nervous despite being quite confident in what your answer may be to his following proposal, “are you free this Saturday?”