“I give them free rein to fuck each other senseless if that’s what the result is.” Rowan pointed down at the container, acknowledging internally that maybe she just wanted a reason to talk about fucking.
Juniper raised an eyebrow and laughed. “I can show you where to forage these some time. If you’re interested.”
“Tonight?” That was…eager.
“Yeah, actually, that would work. Wanna meet where Mr. Barlow sells his stuffed clams on the side of the road? The spot I forage from is not too far from there.”
Rowan raised a hand and patted her heart. “Ugh, Mr. Barlow. Sweet, sweet Mr. Barlow.”
“You’re not gonna get away without paying as a grown ass adult, Rowan,” Juniper laughed. “You might still be cute, but Idon’t think the charm will work like it used to.”
Rowan laughed with her. “Maybe it’s time for me to settle my tab.”
Still cute, huh? We’ll see about that charm.
An invitation and a challenge. She smirked as Juniper took her last bite and stood up from the table.
Later that afternoon, after standing around the back of Mr. Barlow’s truck to eat their fill of stuffed clams, and after Rowan secretly slipped two extra $20 bills into the driver’s side visor clip, they consolidated to Rowan’s truck and made their way to a clearing near a large wooded area close to the middle point of the river on the reservation.
For the next half hour, they talked and enjoyed each other’s company while foraging, making sure they were harvesting correctly in the way Juniper was taught, as she was now teaching Rowan. They only pulled from fern crowns that had all their fronds, kept track of which ferns they pulled from and those that already didn’t have full crowns, and made sure to not over-harvest the area. They’d also found a couple big hen-of-the-woods mushroom clusters that Juniper promised to roast up for lunch the next day.
Juniper dropped the full basket into the open passenger window after they finished the journey back to the truck. Rowan wondered if the cause of Juniper’s fidgeting was also the cause of her own – the flood of memories from the last time they’d been in this truck together.
Rowan lifted up the back of her baseball cap to scratch her neck and then checked her smartwatch to find the timing of that day’s sunset. “Would you want to find a spot to sit in the field? The sun should be setting here soon. It might be nice to watch since the skies are so clear.”
Juniper eyed her for a few hesitant seconds. “Sure. It is a nice evening.”
Rowan grabbed a woven blanket from a storage box under the back window of the truck bed. After finding an open patch of grass that didn’t look too bumpy, she unfurled the blanketand sat down. She crossed her ankles, leaned back onto her hands, and smiled up at Juniper. Juniper looked frozen in place.
“Are you going to sit?” Rowan patted the blanket beside her.
“Yes, sorry,” she sighed as she took a half step forward then stopped again, accidentally kicking up the edge of the blanket. “Sorry, so much on my mind today.” She plopped down finally.
“I can tell,” Rowan said.Me too. She thought. She looked down at their feet, now side by side. “Same taste in work boots I see.”
Juniper smiled and nudged Rowan’s foot clad in the same brand of slip-on field boot. “I alternate between these and gardening boots most days.”
“You seem to also have a large collection of heels.”
“Those are just for the office,” Juniper shrugged.
Rowan tried not to think of how they might also look in other scenarios, ones perhaps with less clothes. The thought of Juniper, in her power standing over her, was doing things to her. She was starting to regret, possibly now more than ever, that she’d never let Juniper truly have the chance to boss her around a little bit.
She groaned internally. This was not the way she was supposed to be thinking about Juniper. The whole day, actually, she had willfully ignored the internal voice yelling at her to stop while she was ahead. After all, preventing herself from feeling anything further for Juniper was the whole reason she even took that job interview. That seemed like months ago at this point, even though it had only been a couple weeks. She was coming to realize how much of a fool’s errand she was really on.
Sitting together but apart, they watched silently as the horizon blushed, then goldened as dusk took over the late spring sky. She tried to be discreet in the moments she also watched Juniper with the same awe.
“Do you ever want to lay back on the ground and become one with the grass?” Juniper asked.
Caught off guard at the sudden question, Rowan chuckled. “All the time.”
Juniper had always had the most random thoughts and rarely hesitated at expressing them. It was one of the things she loved most about her, how forward and unabashed she was in revealing parts of herself. So different than Rowan had been, and something that had drawn her to Juniper over a lifetime. Rowan cleared her throat before trying to share more about herself.
“That really started to wear on me while living in the city — not having direct access to nature. It’s part of what made me want to come home. Real nature, not something artificially re-planted in a walled off city block after all the original organic life was ripped out. City life, for as dirty as it can be, can also feel so sanitized.”
Juniper didn’t respond to that. After a long pause, she asked, “If you were going to pick me up at a bar in the city, what kind of a pick-up line would you use?”
Rowan now suspected that nervousness might be contributing to the way her thoughts were fluttering around.
