Mark looked on in horror, without time to react as Erika tried to stand up in the two-person kayak. The craft quickly flipped and they both met the cold water with their faces. Mark immediately leaped out of the water to pull the far side of the kayak and right it again. He swam with it to the shore and Erika floundered behind. Luckily, they'd tipped in front of a cabin. After pulling Erika to her feet, Mark led her to the cabin under one of his arms, leaving the kayak on the shore. They knocked on the door, but quickly realized there was nobody home. Mark tried the handle, and luckily enough the owners hadn't bother to lock it. Perhaps they figured it was so secluded in the woods that it wasn't needed. Despite the inconvenience of wet clothes, they were rather blessed to stumble upon this. Mark flung the outer metal door open and motioned for Erika to follow him inside. The place looked recently used, so it wasn't as dusty or dirty as it could've been. Hopefully the owners wouldn't mind them just taking time to dry off, rather than catch a cold in the outdoors. Mark began arranging their stuff in one corner of the single-room cabin, taking off and hanging up his own wet clothes before he got sick. His shirt came off first, and he suddenly realized Erika was still dripping all over the wooden floor.
"Erika, we've gotta get you out of those clothes before you end up catching a cold!" he insisted.
"I'm so sorry, Mark! I didn't mean to capsize the kayak." She continued to shiver even with her arms wrapped tight around herself. She look at him with what he now recognized as tears, not river water, welling in the corners of her eyes.
Maybe she didn't ruin the entire weekend getaway, but she felt terrible that Mark and her had gotten separated from their partners because she stood up on the kayak. They were supposed to meet up later anyways, but this was not part of the original plan. Everything she did was with her partner. Until now.
"It's alright. Rookie mistake. Do you mind if I help you change into some dry clothes?"
She sniffled and nodded.
He started to pull at the shirt that clung to her body, the soaked fabric slapping back against her skin and dripping streams of water along her body. He managed to get the shirt off eventually when she raised her hands above her head, and she stood there in her bikini top.
She kept shivering and her teeth chattered as she brought her arms back down and hugged her dripping body tight for warmth.
"Let me just help you with this, too," he explained as he reached into her waistband and pulled her leggings down below her bottom, then bent over and took them all the to her ankles. "I'll grab you a towel and some dry clothes. Help me with the rest of this, please."
He walked over to go through his waterproof bag and she stumbled to kick off the leggings, then reached back and untied the bikini top. When he returned to her, she was standing there shivering a little less violently, with an arm held over her breasts.
He went to hand her the towel, but she didn't move, so he wrapped it around her shoulders himself, patting her dry. The towel against her skin seemed to put life into her, because she began patting herself dry as well, then hugged the towel tightly.
"Mark, you're such a great guy. Rita's luck to have you to herself."
He blushed a little. "I mean, this is what any outdoorsman worth his salt would do. I'm sure Steven would do the same."
"She really loves you Mark. You know that?"
He acknowledged the question with a simple nod, but at the moment he seemed preoccupied with Erika. "Do you want to change into these now?" He held up a pair of dry sweats. "Or do you want to finish drying off first?"
"Oh, I'm so stupid! I took your only towel. Here, take it. I'm gonna make YOU catch a cold being so selfish!" She tossed the towel at him.
He caught it with his off hand, then handed her the dry sweats. "Sucks there's nowhere to change in here. Everything is in the open."
"That's okay. I know you're not trying to look at these tiny little things," she gestured toward her breasts still under one arm. "Especially with Rita being so stacked."
He was drying his hair with the towel now, but his own garments were still soaked.
"Oh, are you worried about me seeing you instead?" Her eyes flashed toward his crotch, but her gaze refused to linger. "If you want I can look the other way," she mumbled sheepishly in his direction. As her eyes drifted around awkwardly, something caught her eye on a shelf behind the room's lone sofa. "What's this?" she asked as she made her way over to the sofa to examine the contents of the shelf.
He looked at the rack she was headed toward.
"Maybe some games or movies? I saw a Playstation over there under the TV." As he stood behind her and began to undress, his muscles bulged under an immaculately manscaped chest.
Erika was now kneeling on the couch, facing away from Mark. "You're right. Not just any games! These are classics, man! It's a goldmine!" She turned around to look at him smiling, and her heart skipped a beat. Standing there in just pants with the hair trimmed short on his chest he looked strong, virile. Most definitely a manly man. Her eyes tried to drift toward his crotch again, but he was lowering the towel there at the same time. She turned around and rifled through the stack of games as if she had a purpose other than biding time.
"Do you wanna try to hook it up and see if we can play something? I doubt the owners will be back in the middle of the week. Looks like a summer home."
"Yeah, let's do it!" she adjusted her knees on the couch to stabilize herself as she propped herself on her elbows, examining a case.
"Okay, just let me change out of these wet pants and I'll grab some snacks to keep up our energy."
She couldn't resist turning around after a brief moment, catching him stripping down to his underwear. If you could even call it that. Mark had on the tiniest little speedo, looking like a real-life banana hammock.
He looked up and caught her gaze, which quickly made him explain, "Put it on just in case we tipped over and I had to go swimming. Guess I made the right choice," he chuckled.
"Yes you did," she replied.
He cleared his throat. "Mind if I take the sweat bottoms from you, since you haven't even changed yet? Then I'll grab the snacks and try to hook that thing up."
"Yeah Mark, why don't you come get it? Let me see if there's a title we can both play."
As he walked over, she picked up the pants from where she had set them down on the arm of the couch and held them away from Mark and toward the wall, which would force him to rub against her rear end.
"Why are you moving them out of reach?" he asked.
"What's the matter? You afraid of accidentally rubbing against me in your underwear?"
"No, Erika. But you're making things weird. I'm gonna grab snacks now." He made his way back to the waterproof bag.
-----------------------------------------------
Steven and Rita were still alone on the shore a ways down the river. They'd disembarked after Mark and Erika separated from them. Steven had initially gone off to gather kindling and picked some edible leaves as well. When he'd returned, he'd made a fire to keep away the evening chill, just as it started to get dark.
He figured they'd be best getting some sleep tonight and trying to meet up with Mark and Erika downriver tomorrow as they had originally proposed. He'd said this much to Rita. They'd obviously split up unintentionally, and he was sure that it wasn't too serious. Mark was quite the competent woodsman. Definitely safe to assume that they'd be meeting up tomorrow. Nothing at all to really to worry about.
Once Steven put his mind to ease, he joined Rita on a log by the campfire. He'd decided to pull out his travel guitar, even though Mark warned against him bringing it. But for now, it was just him and Rita seated on the log trying to stay warm before they finally turned in for the evening.
"Steven, don't you think they shoulda gotten a hold of us by now?"
He swung his guitar around and checked his phone. "Yeah, but I've got no service so I can't text or call them. Can I just play a couple more songs and head in? I'm sure Mark can handle the outdoors. He's been doing this stuff since he was a kid."
Rita looked at him and pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that I don't like your songs. They're very beautiful. I hadn't thought about that, but you're right. There's no reason to worry about Mark. Will you play me another one?" She asked as she cocked her head and smiled at him.
He began to strum, a rhythmic tune that could've been popular during any of the past decades.
Baby, Baby, Baby
Why you gotta do me like that
Can't you just take it all back
