The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, spreading its golden light through the trees and across the neighbourhood as I pulled up to Mila and Jack's house with two kayaks strapped to the roof of my car.
I thought about honking to get their attention but considering it was just past 6am I decided the polite thing to do would be to knock on the front door, as I was getting out of the car I saw the front door swing open and Mila stepped out, the gorgeous brunette was wearing her pink Among Us hoodie that she was wearing when we first met and a pair of very short exercise shorts, a small backpack and a very big smile across her face.
"Morning Rob, you ready for some adventure?" she called as she strode down the stairs towards the car.
"Absolutely," I replied, smiling back at her and checking out her legs as she opened the door to climb into the car, her eyes met mine as I looked up from her legs, had she caught me checking her out, it was hard to tell but I swear her smile turned slightly mischievous, "Where's Jack?" I asked, looking past her towards the stairs.
"Oh, he's not coming," she said matter-of-factly, "He was up late last night with his girlfriend," she wiggled almost imperfectively in her seat before adding "They finally got to sleep about two hours ago."
I was fairly sure I knew the reason for their late night, but I was curious if I could tease Mila about it, "They weren't fighting, were they?"
"I think it started that way." she said looking at me out the corner of her eye, "But they got past their disagreement fairly quickly and they spent the rest of the night noisily making up," the mischief clear on her face as she looked into the back seat "Where's Shawn?"
"Oh, he couldn't make it, he got called into work last night and has to travel to London with Sarah," I said trying not to sound too disappointed that my friends were missing my annual kayaking trip.
"But the kayaks?" Mila asked pointing to the roof of the car
I smiled at the small amount of good luck, "We had already mounted them up when Shawn got the call, so he said I could borrow them."
"Oh, well at least we got the kayaks," she smiled at me looking a little concerned and then asked, "do you want to cancel? the kayak trip is how you celebrate your birthday and now none of your friends will be here, I'd completely understand."
I smile back, looking her in the eyes, "No way! Why would I cancel when I get to spend the day with my favourite adventure buddy."
Mila blushed a little "Your favourite huh?"
"Besides" I said "I've spent all this time getting the kayak's hitched up, we may as well put that time to use," I added with a little mischief in my voice.
Mila's smile got bigger as she looked at me "Oh, I just realized I forgot something in the house, I'll be right back!" Mila opened the car door and rushed up the stairs back into the house.
I admired her as she ran up the stairs, I had always had a crush on her, but I was dating someone when we'd met and so we had become good friends, by the time I had broken up with the girl I was seeing she was dating someone else. I'm glad the timing was never right because I would have certainly messed up this great friendship by confessing my crush. I sat in the car for a few minutes wondering what she could possibly have forgotten, I was just thinking of getting out of the car to see if I could help her when she came out the door looking exactly the same as she did before.
"All set!" she said as she got back into the car
I gave her a once over, not hiding the fact that I was checking her out "And what exactly was that about?" I asked acting very seriously.
"You'll see," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "Now if you don't hurry up, we're going to be late."
"We can't be late," I replied "We're the only ones on the river today and we already have the kayaks."
Mila was suddenly impatient to get going, "I want to get as much time on the river as possible, I've got to some sun before the summer starts,"
The image of here in one of her bikinis flashed through my mind, her hoodie was hiding a great body and she had such great taste in bikinis that showed off her body, I had to remind myself that it's impolite to ogle your friends, I shook my head, started the car and exclaimed excitedly, "Let's get this show on the road!"
We spend the next three hours talking about everything from politics to the latest TV shows we were watching, I always enjoyed Mila's company, we got on so well and I always felt at ease with her, if she disagreed with me, she always said so and was willing to hear me out, she would also call me out if she thought my reasoning was BS if she thought I had a blind spot, the reason our friendship worked was because she was willing to let me do the same, some of our mutual friends didn't get our friendship, some thought it was too confrontational, we'd had our share of blow ups in the past, but they seemed to have gotten fewer and fewer as the years passed.
The drive to the river was relaxing, Mila had taken her hoodie off an hour into the drive, she was wearing loose fitting white crop and I could see the straps of a red bikini underneath, I felt myself getting a little aroused by that thought, I recalled she wore a red bikini on our summer vacation last year, it left very little the imagination and I was hard most of the day, her boyfriend at the time didn't like how revealing it was and so she hadn't worn it again the whole vacation, the idea that she was wearing it now had my brain spinning.
"This is us!" I announced as I pulled off the road and down a gravel path leading towards the river.
"Oh, this is beautiful Rob!" Mila exclaimed as we got closer to the river.
"You should see it from the water," I replied getting out of the car and unfastening the kayaks.
"I think we should just take the one," Mia announced as her head popped up on the other side of the car, "they're two seaters and I'd like to get some sun on this trip."
"Oh, so I'm relegated to being a slave rower while the queen lays out in the sun?" I quipped and smiled at her.
"It seems you're finally understanding the purpose of this relationship," she smiled back at me before helping me get the kayak off the roof.
We spent the next 15 minutes getting the contents of our backpacks into the kayak, we made sure to pack lots of sunscreen, drinks, and snacks, it was going to be a long afternoons I'd been on enough of these to know we should come prepared.
We pulled my shift off and was putting it in one of the plastic containers to keep it dry when out of the corner of my eye I saw Mila watching me, she was definitely checking me out, I don't have an amazing body, but I try to keep fit, I'd never seen her look at me like that before and it made something in my shorts stir, to the point that I was worried it might show if I stood up straight so I got in the back of the kayak and said, "Is the queen ready to board the royal barge."
"Almost," she said reaching for her top to pull it off, her arms moved up over her body pulling the top with them, my heart skipped a beat as the red bikini beneath was revealed, it complimented her body perfectly, cupping her breasts and covering just enough that my imagination could fill in the rest, this was the same bikini she had worn last year and my mind was racing with the thought that she might be wearing the matching bottoms from last summer.
Before I realized I was staring she was throwing her top at me saying, "Close your mouth, unless you want me to put something in it," then with an evil grin on her face she bent forward and pulled her shorts down.
My mind froze for a second as the red bottoms came into view, the curves of her glorious body revealed by the very small piece of cloth, I could almost make out her lower lips as she bent over, my mind was screaming at me that I shouldn't be looking at my friend like this, but my eyes wouldn't look away, I wanted to run my hand up those perfect legs and over her glorious ass, I so badly wanted to feel her skin under my fingertips.
Mila straightened up and threw her shorts at me "Can you put those in your drybag?" she asked as if it was no big deal that she was wearing the sexiest bikini in the world.