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Marya felt a shiver of expectation course through her body as she caught sight of his car turning off the tree-lined road that passed her apartment block. Bart was right on time and she was relieved that he had kept to his word to be with her. The arrangement they had made at a boisterous family reunion three weeks ago, was to be played out a great deal more, she hoped. Bart's recent appointment to work as a water engineer covering this part of North Holland was the perfect excuse to call in and stay over for a couple of nights. It might even become a settled arrangement, but she was rushing the fences and would let their times together play out some more.
She remained standing at the balcony railing and gripped her iPhone a little tighter. On it, she had kept some of the pictures that had been taken of them at the beach party. They included images of them with their arms about each other's waists, she wearing a wafty and colourful beach dress that was so thin that it revealed her bikini, the cut of her briefs flattering long legs and a nearly flat tummy, her firm rounded breasts held in floral patterned cups that she had been dismayed to discover drew his attention upon her.
The drinks had flowed, the music had provoked all at the party to dance and whoop in merriment, and the evening had passed in a whirl of flirtatious, but unrequited, pleasure. Bart's youthful obsession with her had seemingly been reignited and she had been carried along by the excitement of the evening's events, and no one had thought anything of it, two cousins having fun with those all around them, but she and Bart always ended up in each other's company.
Now, their ways with each other might just be taken to a new level of intimacy, their differences in age and family ties of no real concern. That was how she had felt then, and it was the same now.
"Hey!" she laughed on answering her phone. "I can see you!"
"And I can hardly miss you!" he acknowledged in that deep voice of his.
Bart stood by his car's open door, his phone held in one hand as he waved to her; an even-toothed smile so stark against his tanned skin. The images on her phone had not been erased and she had been thankful for deciding not to keep only a few. An undoubtedly horny young guy, confident in his own skin would soon be with her. She felt the gnaw of uncommon anticipation take hold in her belly as her fingers pressed into it. She wanted him there, no mistake.
"And I can tell you, I've missed being with you."
"Not anymore!" he laughed in reply and pointed her way. "That orange blouse sure looks good! It goes with your wonderfully blonde hair, Marya! What else are you wearing?"
She heard his teasing laugh as she brushed one hand over her tummy and smoothed her cream-colored cotton skirt over her thighs. The balcony's waist-high wall hid her legs from view.
"You'd better come up here and you'll see, Bart!"
"I'll grab my things."
"And I'll come down to meet you! The kermis is in town, do you realize that?" she told him as she walked through her living room and down the hall to the front door, making sure that she had her keys.
"I wondered about all the traffic!" he replied. "We could go and have some fun on all the rides, make a real night of it. What do you say?"
Adventurous as she knew him to be, Marya felt caught up in his enthusiasm and was buoyed by his easy ways with her once more. She wanted to be taken out of herself completely, and now she had the chance and the man to do it with. She'd had it with selfish men and would make sure that family ties would not complicate whatever played out between them during his stay. That he had suggested it, and she had soon agreed, confirmed what had been on their minds at that reunion fest.
"I can't just let you fall out of my life again," he had disclosed.
"And I won't let that happen," she had answered him, looking round to see if they were being overheard. "We've got some lost time to catch up on."
"But you were with someone the last time..." he had answered, gently, fearing what the effect on her might be.
"I'm over the worst. You can help me with the rest."
The evenings and nights would be for them; the other hours in the day to be filled with their work, her job only too prosaic compared to his.
"Marya, are you there?"
"Yes, I am...and yes, let's go to the funfair!" She rushed down the stairs as she did not want to wait for the lift. An image of his smiling face remained on her iPhone's screen. Looking at it earlier in the day had buoyed her spirits. Now, as she saw it through the glass of the entrance lobby screen wall, she knew it for real.
The two of them could get together and no one would need to know. That weekend, the family reunion, had provoked them into making arrangements and had set them on a very different path from all that had gone before and between them.
"How I want you," she smiled through the glass and knowing that he could not hear what she said. His look upon her saved any more words.
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