How long am I supposed to wait before calling her? Two days? Three? And who the fuck created this rule anyways? Desperation of the male party should be inversely correlated to the length of time, because let's be honest here, I'm pretty desperate.
The next Sunday finds us in a canoe out on one of the secluded lakes in the park. With all the leaves about to drop it's beautiful from our viewpoint. I even brought wine to help loosen us up a bit. Girls like wine, or at least that's what most shows on Netflix lead the male population to believe. I row us out to the middle so unless somebody has a telescopic lens they won't be able to tell who we are.
"Some wine?" I ask peeling off the wrapping with my teeth.
"Sure, where are the glasses?" she asks. I nod to the basket and she pulls out two glasses.
"You won't believe what I had to do to get that basket here."
"Oh?"
Oh shit. Backtrack. "I mean carrying it - was hard."
"I see," she says pressing her lips together, her other hand clasped between her knees. We clink glasses and take a sip. "You're very strange you know."
"Am I?" Well besides the obvious.
"I just-," she begins then stops and slides her watch around her wrist again and again, "get the feeling there's a lot more."
I take a large mouthful of the wine that makes me cough. "We don't need to worry about it right now do we?"
"Can I ask you something?" she asks leaning forward her arms wrapped over her knees. I nod studying all the freckles on her face. I never really thought about them before, how they're like brown paint flicked on her face. Makes me wonder if her whole body looks like that. "Why did you reveal yourself to me -us, you could have just stayed hidden that day. Why come out?"
I'm going to need some more alcohol. "I -uh-," No answers pop up dancing out of the water saying here, yes, I'm what she wants to hear, "I just - wanted to see you." More like needed.
"But why endanger yourself? I could have told anybody, newspapers, tv."
"But no one believed you did they?"
"I didn't-"
"I know you didn't, but people - humans they have to rationalize everything. There's no myth, no magic to the world. Just science and anything that's not proven - just doesn't exist," I say.
"And you're the only one out here? I mean where are your parents, do they know about you?"
"It's just me, my parents are - dead," I say after too long a pause. She gives me a flat look with her eyebrows raised.
"Alright Oliver Twist, you keep your secrets and I'll keep mine."
I scoff, "You don't have any secrets."
"Well, you'll never know will you?" she says smirking and downing the last of her drink. Like hell I won't.
We eat the food I brought but before too long she turns her face toward the sun starting to get low in the sky. The light of it sets her hair afire picking out red and gold strands. "You should probably start rowing us back."
"If that's what you want," I say leaning forward my eyes on her lips. We're not moving an inch until I kiss those.
"Well I'm certainly not going to stay out here all night with you am I?," she says leaning forward to match and wiping the grit from the bottom of the canoe off her hands.
"You know - sometimes you get the northern lights from here. And the stars, way more than you could ever see in the city."
"Really?" she asks leaning in closer.
"Stay." Before she can say anything else I kiss her. My hands slide up her arms and hold her face. Coming to my knees I push her back and guide her under the wooden brace.
"Jax," she says in a warning tone but I snake under to be beside her. We laugh as the canoe rocks as we adjust. I grab her hip and tilt her onto her side so I can look at her. She lets me do it for about four seconds then blushes and ducks her head.
"What?" I ask. "I like to look at you." I lean in to kiss her again and run my fingers through her hair. How do girls get it so soft? I start kissing down her neck and she says my name again. I ignore it since she isn't pushing me off and move the collar of her jacket open more.
"Jax," she says again putting her hands on my shoulders. "Stop for a second." I kiss back up to her face and whisper, "What?" into her ear. I run my hand down her side and along her hip coming around to rest on her thighs.
"I just want to be clear about where this is leading," she says ending this statement by lifting her hips towards me.
"And where's that?"
"It's just that I - I don't want things to get too far."
"You mean like sex," I say leaning on an elbow now.
"Yeah like sex."
"Alright we won't have sex then." Right now. How about now? I swallow before asking the uncomfortable question. "Have you -had sex before?"
She screws up her face, "Yeah, I mean it's just usually with my boyfriend -"
