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“You hungry?” he asks me as I am leaning over, looking down into the area filled with alligators. We have been at the aquarium for almost two hours. The time seems to escape me when we’re together.
As if it wanted to respond for me, my stomach grumbles. Camden laughs. “I’m going to take that sound as a yes. You want to head to the café? We could grab a bite and something to drink.”
“That sounds good,” I tell him.
When we arrive at the café, it is set up more like a cafeteria. The smell of fried food and coffee hits me as we walk in. To the left, there is a station to pick up hot meals and across from it is a row of refrigerators with sandwiches and bottles of drinks.
“What are you in the mood for?” Camden asks me.
I’m tempted to do the typical girl thing and get a boring salad, but I spotted chicken fingers and those are a weakness of mine. “Chicken fingers sound really good,” I tell him. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. “What about you?”
He guides me over to the hot food section before saying, “Their cheeseburgers are surprisingly good here.” Camden hadn’t told me he comes here often, but by the way he navigates through the aquarium and knows about all the exhibits, I take it this is a special place to him.
After we grab our food, we head over to the drink section, and I pick a Sprite Zero while Camden gets a Gatorade. He pays, much to my argument that I can pay for our food since he paid for the tickets here.
Once we are seated, I pop off the top of the ranch I got and dunk one of my chicken tenders in it, then take a bite. I moan, closing my eyes and taking in the delicious taste. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, but I did skip breakfast this morning. The mixture of a crispy tender and the savory flavor of ranch hits the spot.
When I open my eyes, Camden has a handful of fries halted in the air close to his mouth. He brings his arm down and sets the fries in the basket. “Listen, I think you’re extremely hot, Blaire, and I can sense what you need is slow, and I can do that because I really like you, but if you make noises like that, slow is going to be the last thing on my mind.”
My eyes widen at his statement. There is an intensity in how he says it, but it doesn’t scare me. “Noises like what?” I ask.
“Sex noises.”
My jaw drops open.
“Yes, baby. Now pick that jaw back up and let’s enjoy a moan-free lunch,” he jokes with a knowing smile on his face.
As I eat my food, we take in the kids running around in the water park area and I become self-conscious of any noises I make while eating. Camden is laughing and pointing out a kid who is going around with a cup and pelting other kids in the face with water.
“That was basically me when I was younger. Always being a little shit.” He laughs.
The kid is about seven or eight and having the time of his life, of course at the expense of a few other kids, but they seem to move on soon after the face full of water and continue playing.
“Did you spend a lot of time here when you were a kid?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Camden tells me. “My dad left when I was younger, and my mom worked so many jobs. It was just me and my sister alone a lot of the time. We got discounted yearly tickets here and my mom thought it was cheaper than paying for any kind of camp.” Camden takes the last bit of his burger, wiping his face with a napkin. “Trazia and I would come here most weekends and multiple times during the week over the summer,” he says after finishing his bite.
My chicken tenders have long since been finished and I have been nursing my soda, playing with the green lid. “You speak fondly of your sister. Have you both always been close?”
A bright smile lights up his face when I ask about Trazia. “She’s the greatest. Traz is a spitfire, always saying whatever’s on her mind. When my dad left, she was so young, and I knew losing him would be hard on her and my mom.” There is sadness in his eyes when he talks about his dad leaving their family. “Walking out on your family is fucked-up and my mom was crushed and Traz was so young and innocent. I couldn’t help but become protective of them.”
Reaching across the table, I cover his hand with my own. “That’s amazing, Camden. You have a big heart,” I tell him honestly. He threads our fingers together and squeezes my hand. “I hate that your dad left, because I can’t imagine ever walking out on someone as great as you, but I am glad your mom and sister have a son and brother like you with them.”
Camden startles me by lifting our joined hands and placing a hard kiss on the back of my palm, his eyes never leaving my own. His lips are warm and soft against my skin, and I can’t help but wonder what they would feel like against my own.
“As much as I wish I could kiss you right now, I feel like it’s too soon for you, but I couldn’t not have my lips on you for another second,” he tells me as he drops our hands back to the table. “Thank you for saying that. I hate that he left, but we were better off without him if he could leave his family so easily.”
I can’t help but think of myself and my own family. Leaving my parents was easier than one would have thought, especially when you grow up in a cold household and have parents who do not support you in the worst time of your life.
“Enough with the depressing family shit.” Camden breaks the window of silence. “Let’s talk about our first date. How did I do? Good enough to get me a second one?” The hopeful gleam in his eyes makes me smile.
“It was okay, I suppose.” Trying to hide my laugh is harder than I thought, and I almost break when his jaw drops.
“You’re joking with me. This is top ten date material. You can’t seriously sit there and tell me you didn’t have a damn good time.”
I break. The small laugh comes out. “Camden, I couldn’t have imagined today being better than it was. You really blew me away with our first date,” I tell him honestly.
A smirk appears on his face. “First date, huh? So, what you’re saying is there’s going to be a second one.” He says it more as a statement.
