It was an early fall day in Austin, the heat of summer had cooled to something livable and the skies were scattered with poofy clouds that begged for a person's imagination to run wild. It was the kind of day that made you want to laze around outside in the sun and the shade and that was exactly what had happened for our two friends, Ashley and Josh.
At a respectable 10 am, they climbed out of a rideshare just southwest of downtown, at Zilker park. It was fantastically green after a mild, wet summer and only lightly populated on this Wednesday morning. A few people were flying kites, joggers ran past on the trails, and pet owners and their dogs played in the sun.
Josh carried Ashley's big polka-dot picnic 'basket', a collapsible fabric box that her aunt had given her years ago. It had been emptied of its quilting supplies and now held their provisions for a grand day of doing nothing at all. Ashley, for her part, was carrying the two picnic blankets- her king sized woven green bedspread for ground cover and the plush maroon throw blanket for padding- and was playing navigator despite never actually being in the park before.
They set up under the canopy of a huge old oak overlooking Zilker's main open field, a perfect spot for people watching or for just staring up at the sun filtering through the leaves. Blankets spread, the pair took off their shoes and settled in for the day. Josh played host, unzipping the top of the fabric basket and pulling out their breakfast; an uncut loaf of challah, tart red grapes, and a thick slab of asiago cheese. And of course, the first of many beverages; a cold plastic orange juice jug of mimosas. It had been emptied that morning and refilled with an entire bottle of champagne and just enough juice to fool passersby. Today was going to be a day of stealth drinking, openly flouting the open container laws of the land.
Sipping at her third mimosa, Ashley brushed the crumbs off the skirt of her pink and green strapless dress and looked over at Josh. He was sprawled out in his shorts and t-shirt, propped up on his hands just watching the kites across the way. The wind had ruffled his hair and it was in adorable disarray. "Come here," Ashley said with a grin, "I wanna play with your hair." He answered with a smile of his own and shifted down to lay his head in her lap. He knew that she knew what playing with his hair did for him.
As she carded her fingers through his dirty blonde locks, he couldn't help but sigh contentedly. "Purr, purr," he said jokingly, nuzzling into her hand as if he were a cat.
Ashley's unabashed laughter rang out but the pair didn't attract any undue attention with their antics. She scritched behind his ear and said, "Good kitty!"
"Mmm hmm," Josh agreed, "Very good kitty."
"And very handsome," she said booping his nose.
"Daww, thanks cutie pie," he said blushing and reached up to return the boop. Ashley went back to stroking his hair and it turned, as it invariably did with her, into a scalp massage. Josh closed his eyes in bliss as she gently circled his temples then moved more firmly along his hairline. Strong fingers coaxed the tension from him, roving from the nape of his neck, behind and around his ears, back to the front again- even relaxing his jaw as she ran through his dense sideburns. "You're so good at this," he murmured as Ashley finished the massage by scratching lightly all over his scalp.
"Thanks, handsome, I get a lot of practice. Now scooch over, it's time for more mimosas"
By noon they were pleasantly tipsy, cuddling in the scattered sunlight. Ashley ran her hand over his fuzzy belly as he stroked her arm. "You're so soft," he said as his fingers crested her bare shoulder. Ashley blushed, her breath catching. Josh paused, "you okay?"
Ashley nodded, "Totes okay, just a thought."
"Oooh?" Josh teased. "What sort of thought?" His hand dropped from her shoulder to her hip, pulling her closer.
Ashley laughed, "Oh, I think you know!"
"Nope- no idea," he said, eyes twinkling.
She gave him an incredulous look, "Okay Josh, you asked for it....." Ashley leaned in until their lips almost touched, her whispered words hot against his skin, "You drag that hand of yours from my shoulder to the swell of my breast, hearing my breath catch again as I melt against you. I want you to touch me, to pull down my dress and kiss down my tits. I want to moan for you, Josh, my hands back in you hair as you devour me, wrecking me until my hips are grinding against you, helpless in the face of how wet you've made me."
Ashley pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. Josh's pupils had blown wide, breathing quickened. "Oh," he said quietly.
"Lunchtime?" Ashley said with a smirk.
***
Lunch was french bread, smoked gouda, hard sausage, and honeycrisp apples. The mimosas had long since been finished, replaced by a gallon jug of starburst flavored frozen daiquiri. Ashley took a long sip of her drink before settling into stillness, modeling for Josh and his sketchbook. "Draw me like one of your French girls," she said, giggling. He sketched her face, dappled by sunlight filtering through the oak leaves, as she looked at the clouds stretched across the wide expanse of sky just beyond the boughs.
"Josh?" she asked, as he bit his lip in concentration, trying to get her curves just right.
"Hmm?"
"I've been meaning to tell you that I got tested recently," Ashley said as nonchalantly as she could, "I'm positive for HSV."
