Page 54 of Fate Fiction

“You couldn’t take my word for it?” I shouted, laughing at his teeth chattering dramatically.

“My trainer’s made me do cold plunges before, I assumed this would be no different.” He shook and exhaled quickly, his hands feverishly ran up and down his arms.

“And?”

“I’d say this is slightly better. Not by much though.”

He swam over to me, the great divide was closing in. My solitude and sanity floated away with the current as he came into focus.

He stood directly before me, and given our height difference, the water that was up to my shoulders was up to the top of his stomach, right above his navel. The lake lapped at his abdominal muscles in the same way I wanted to.

I was envious of water.

“You get used to it,” I spoke slowly.

Evan migrated towards me, like we were both magnets and couldn’t avoid the supernatural pull happening.

He was standing dangerously close now. So close I could see his chest gently rise and fall. So close I could decipher his tattoo, a small McLeod family crest—a bull’s head flanked by two flags surrounded by a circular belt with “Hold Fast” written within. Underneath was the family name in a gothic font. On anyone else I’d find it a little self-righteous, on him, it was a marker of a history I wanted to understand.

He was standing so close that if he wanted to kiss me right now all he’d have to do is duck down his head.

What was happening? There was no plan, there was no agenda. There were only two bodies standing in the water, figuring out the next step.

I focused on the thin line of water between us. Looking at him would make this into something tangible and terrifying.

The hand holding attempt. The night in my bed. The glances. It was all converging.

“Can you please just look at me, Dani?”

Willing against my nerves, our eyes met in the midst of the silence. He was still a little blurry without my glasses, a distorted version of himself. It was for the best that he was out of focus. He was so real when he was in front of me like this that the fuzzy edges helped soften the harsh reality of what was happening. Evan gently bit at his lip. Warmth spread up my chest, across my collarbone, and crawled up my neck to my cheeks.

Warmth had also spread elsewhere, but I was actively trying to ignore that panging heat in my core.

“Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

My heart might have stopped. Somehow Evan’s hand managed to have wrapped itself around my waist; such a natural feeling I hadn’t noticed it there. Like his fingers were always meant to rest against my hip bone, and the curve of my stomach was designed for his grasp. Through the cold of the water I felt his small calluses against my skin, their roughness nearly intoxicating.

“Do you mind this?” he whispered.

My entire body tingled with fervent energy. He’d solidified this moment. I felt an overwhelming need to dunk myself back under the water. Running away would be so incredibly easy, I could pretend this wasn’t happening and build the fortress even higher. But I wanted this. I craved this feeling.

It had been so long since I felt such a spark with someone, and yet my heart was at battle with my head again. It was best to not think, to shut up that stupid cartoon brain I’d conjured as a devil on my shoulder and let it happen.

Logic was the killer of all things lovely.

Whatever the hell this was, I had to see it through. Evan pulled me in closer, until my body was up against his under the water. The way the sun rays reflected on the surface of the water made it look like we were in a pool made of stars.

“I don’t mind it at all,” I managed to choke out.

Finally, acting without thinking for the first time in days, maybe my life, I grabbed onto Evan’s shoulders. My fingers latticed around the back of his neck. I was relying on the muscle memory of a person I wanted to be, not the Dani who would run from this.

Maybe I was being dumb and irrational, but in five days I’d never need to see him again, why run now? Panic alarms were going off in my head as my brain was trying to override the actions my heart was doing.

This was a DEFCON 1 moment that I was incredibly ill-prepared for, yet craved with each neuron in my body. Anxiety, desire, joy, and a million other feelings thrummed away in my stomach. Our faces grew closer to one another’s, until there were millimeters between us. A divide that had spanned miles, worlds practically, had been reduced to nearly nothing.

Some of my head’s fears bubbled to the surface. “Ev-Evan—what are we doing?” I whisper, barely loud enough for him to hear me.

“What I’ve wanted to do from the minute I saw you in that kayak,” he placed a hand on my neck and gazed. The way this man gazed earned him an Emmy nomination and he was now gazing at me. He was talking to me like a romantic lead, he stared at me like he wanted to kiss me.