“There are two slides,” the worker at the top says. We’re the only two up here. “You can go at the same time, like a race. Whenever you’re ready.” He nods to the two slides, and if I know Archer Bradley, I know he’s not going to lose to a girl.
“Race you down!” I say, and I grab the bar at the top of the slide, cross my legs, and take the leap.
It’s like jumping off a cliff, and it’s sort of like we’re doing it together.
It’s freaking exhilarating. I keep my legs crossed despite the pressure of the water decidedly trying touncrossthem, and my heart leaps up into my throat as adrenaline pumps through me.
The slide shoots me through a tunnel with fish on either side of me, and then I’m dumped out into a pool at the end. I come up from the water laughing at the exact same time that Archer does—also laughing.
“Who won?” he yells to the lifeguard at the end of the pool.
He thumbs in my direction, and I can’t help a little jump for joy.
“Ha! Beat ya, sucker!” I gloat.
He laughs, and I laugh, and God, this feels good.
So good that we ride again, and I win again.
We spend the rest of the afternoon trying out all of the slides in the waterpark within the resort. The weather is perfect with not a cloud in the sky, and we take turns reapplying sunscreen on each other. We laugh, we kiss, we grow closer.
Too close, I think. We’re not supposed to be bonding over these things. It’s just supposed to be a fling.
But the more time I spend with him, the more I don’twantit to just be a fling.
I can’t pretend like fate isn’t at play here. We’re at the same resort for the exact same span of time? What are the chances?
It can’t all be random. I have to believe some higher power is at work. And if there is, who am I, a petty mortal, to ignore it?
I can’t.
I don’t want to.
But getting in any deeper with him is dangerous territory. Getting any deeper will allow my heart to get involved, and it’ll only be broken when the inevitable end comes.
My only real option here is to bury those thoughts nice and deep and to enjoy the time I have here while I have it.
The sun starts to sink down into the ocean, and Archer slips a hand around my waist as we wait in line for another slide. “Let’s make this the last one.”
“And then what?” I ask.
He raises a brow, and he leans in closer so his words are just for me. “And then I take you up to my room and I slide those bikini bottoms down your legs so I can taste what’s been hiding beneath them.”
My eyeswiden.
“And, you know,” he adds. “You can rub my balls or whatever.”
I burst into giggles.
We ride the last slide, and we dry off before we head up to his suite.
There’s something different in the air between us as we head up. A bond between us that wasn’t there before, maybe. We had fun today. It felt less like fling territory and more like I spent the day with my boyfriend.
We didn’t run into his brother and his ex at all today, either. Maybe that’s why it felt less like we’re faking our way through this and more like it’s the two of us united together.
I took plenty of photos today, and I have a ton of content to talk about in the upcoming days. I can review the slides and the waterpark overall, and I’m already thinking of ways to caption all of it and how to work in some long-form content as well.
But all of that is at the back of my mind for now.
