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“Come on,” Cole dragged me taking my hand and walking up to the open window filled with large bowls of taco salad. He passed me one and grabbed two for himself. Then, joining the staff, we placed them in the middle of each table, separated into groups of ten. We did this a few times which was fun, and the kids continued to make music and sing along. It sounded like a Disney song, maybe, but Cole was beaming at the kids and telling them to prepare for war. The place was so fun and full of energy, far from those expensive restaurants with no children and expensive wine.
After I grabbed the last bowl, Cole led me to a bench table sitting next to a small boy with large glasses. He addressed me, “Sophie, this is Conner, Mike, Winston, and this little guy is Spike.”
The boys all looked at me but filled their mouths with the salad I just placed on the table. “Hey, let’s have some manners,” he chided them for not using the proper utensils when digging out the salad. Then, grabbing my plate, he unsurprisingly dished out a large helping. Looking around for Paul to see if he was still alive, I noticed him standing beside the table in the corner trying to get reception on his phone. Picking up the plastic fork, I stabbed into the salad, mixed with ground beef, tomatoes, and Dorito chips. It looked horrible, and I was shocked at how the boys dug in like it was their last meal. My eye met Cole’s, who was waiting for me to eat.
“It’s a camp favorite,” he smirked as he lifted a spoonful to my mouth. The way his eyes looked at my lips, I couldn’t help but notice him bite his lower lip. I closed my eyes and took in the food. Chewing a few times, I looked towards Cole, who was waiting for my approval. The salad tasted old and it was overly seasoned with taco flavor and sour cream. Not wanting to ruin the camp favorite and trying to fit in I finally swallowed. “It’s amazing,” I lied.
He burst out laughing, “No, it’s not, but it feeds our soul and soon this place… ” Cole replied calling out my lie.
“What does that mean?” Spike injected into the conversation sounding like he would go to battle for the camps taco salad.
Cole reached over, placed his hand on Spikes head and said, “you better get ready.”
They both gave a glance at me and I felt like I was missing something in the unspoken conversation taking place between the two of them. I ate a few more bites as Cole talked to the boys about what they had done at camp so far. They talked about rope courses, swimming and sand volleyball. After about twenty minutes, Maverick shoved Paul and made him sit next to him. He didn’t try the food, but I would have paid money to watch if he did.
After everyone was done, the bowls still had almost half of the taco salad left. Cole started gazing towards me with a massive grin on his face. Within seconds my heart started racing as one kid howled, “Food fight!”
Everyone grabbed handfuls of salad and started throwing it in every direction. My face was mortified until a large fist full of salad landed on it dead center. “Oh my gosh!” I cried out in utter disgust.
Hearing Cole’s fresh guffaw of laughter from across the room, I felt both humiliated and vengeful. I didn’t know what came over me, but the next moment when I regained touch with reality, I sensed that I’d already picked up a fist full of salad, and thrown it across the room aiming straight to his face. He stood there wiping his face of the last chunks of tomatoes still grinning at my sudden retaliation. No one might have ever imagined this, the CEO of Forever Fitness gone rogue throwing handfuls of salad at people. The paparazzi would kill each other to get one picture of that!
It was honestly fun and felt good inside. Next thing we knew, we picked up piles of food and threw them at small children, laughing and making a horrible mess. Mike and Spike were brothers and man, could they chuck some salad. Cole came to my rescue as it landed right on my chest.
Both of us inches apart, he brushed my hair back with his soft hands looking in my eyes. My belly started to jump with butterflies, and I instantly felt alive in that moment with him. I needed him to kiss me, hold me, and lick every drop of taco salad off my body. He dropped his hand from my face and moved it around my neck. I closed my eyes before he quickly lifted me over his shoulder and ran outside. The air around echoed with our playful laughter, and he was swinging me as if I weighed next to nothing. When he was running into the water, I screamed out, “no, it’s so cold.”
He chucked me in and dunked me a few times to wash the taco off both of us. Standing onto my feet, I sucked in the cold water and we could hear the taco food fight still happening inside.
The water reflected off his face, which was breathtaking. He lifted his hands and grabbed my thigh. My nipples hardened to his touch, and my body shuddered. This man was everything I never imagined. Towering over me, he grazed up his thumb over my bottom lip. He was an excellent kisser, and I couldn’t wait for him to do it again. My eyes were closed as I absorbed that feeling. His warmth, his touch, his presence. His hand brushed my face, and his touch was no longer on my body.
Opening my eyes, I found him making his way towards the boys who came out to wash the taco off. What the hell? Did he not feel what I felt? I gave him every chance to kiss me. He walked past Paul, whose eyes were fixated on me, clearly reading that feeling of rejection I had. Cole was toying with me. Playing stupid childish games, and here I was letting my guard down for him to reject me. Getting out of the water, Paul went to say something seeing the sadness in my eyes when his phone started to ring. “Babe, where are you?”
I didn’t realized that Paul had called Tibby to come pick us up when we first arrived as he was genuinely petrified that Cole might take us into the woods and kill us.
“Is she on her way?” My voice was dead serious. He nodded with confirmation and I didn’t want to face Paul anymore. I didn’t want to face anyone anymore. Standing on the beach next to Paul I looked out at the water which was now filled with boys caked in taco salad. Who was this guy to reject me?Toy with my feelings.Was it true he got off on making powerful women fall for him and then reject them.
