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“You don’t scare me,” I tell him through gasps.
He takes one step and then, like I’m a sack of flour, throws me in the water. I make a sort of laugh-scream as a fall, just before the water envelops me.
When I resurface, my legs kicking to keep me up, I don’t see Grayson until he comes up out of the water next to me.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” I tell him before retaliating. I kick my legs and then, placing both hands on his shoulders, I jump up and use my weight to push him down under the water.
But he’s too fast. He grabs me around the waist and drags me with him, and under the water we both go. We resurface for only a second before I try the same maneuver again, and we both go under once more.
“Okay, okay,” I say when we reemerge a third time. My stomach hurts from all the laughing. And my lungs burn from trying to catch my breath as I kick my legs to keep afloat.
“You okay?” he asks, his eyes searching me, concern in his voice.
“I’m fine,” I say. “I just need to catch my breath.”
“Here,” he says, turning around in the water. “Get on my back. Put your arms around my neck.”
I do as he says, feeling his hard body underneath me.
Oh, Nadia is going to love this story. Me with my arms around the BILK as he swims us over to the shore like some sort of superhero. I’ll be adding this to my list of fantasies. Bonus, I’ll get to base it on real life experience.
“I’ve got you,” he says as he swims us over to shallow waters where I can touch the bottom.
“Thank you,” I say, as he grabs hold of my hand and helps me navigate out of the pool and back to our clothes.
Once we get there, Grayson opens his backpack and hands me a towel and I wrap it around me as I take a seat on the rocks, feeling the sun that’s peeked through the trees on my back. He takes a seat next to me, and hands me a bottle of water which I open and take a few sips.
I can’t believe I have to leave this actual paradise we are in, with a man that’s becoming more attractive by the minute, for one of the things I hate most in this world … a wedding.
Grayson nudges me with his shoulder, before running a hand through his wet hair. “We’ve got a little more time before we have to head back. Do you want to explore some more?”
It’s like the man can read my mind. More time with him and less time heading toward jinxville sounds like the perfect idea.
“Let’s explore,” I tell him.
Grayson
THE PATH TO THE FALLS was too easy to follow. This was my reasoning for wanting to go farther, to see how the app worked when we went off the beaten path.
This is what I told myself. But the real reasoning is that I want to be with Mila, for this time not to end. I don’t know what’s happened to me. I’ve transformed into this lovesick idiot overnight who does things spur of the moment. Or maybe that’s who I’ve always been, but it just lay dormant under the surface until Mila brought it out in me. Either way, I hardly recognize myself.
All I know is that tonight we have to move to the rooms Shane’s reserved for us at the Four Seasons and attend the rehearsal dinner, and tomorrow is the wedding. Then all the time I’ve had with Mila, as short as it’s been, will be over. And yes, I know we’re technically working. But it’s never felt like work. Not once. I also know she’s got Dave, something I have to keep reminding myself about, which makes all of this pointless.
It’s not pointless, though. Any moment I get with Mila feels like a good use of my time, platonic as it’s been.
This is what I mean by not recognizing myself. This pathetic, cheesy person I sound like right now.Any moment I get with Mila feels like a good use of my time.Who even am I?
The more time I spend with her, the more I just want to forget she’s got stupid Dave back home, throw caution to the wind, and kiss her. Lay all my cards out and see what comes of it. I have almost kissed her. I’ve had to stop myself a handful of times now.
I pull the phone out of my pocket to look at the map on the app again. It feels like we’ve been wandering in circles for the last hour, trying to find this other area I saw on the map last night. There’s a tree to my left I swear I’ve seen before, but it’s all starting to look the same. Maybe we’re going the wrong way. We haven’t crossed paths with anyone in a while—not since we waded through that stream about forty-five minutes ago and ended up on a path that looked mostly overgrown.
The first thing I notice when I pull out my phone is I’ve got no service. Not a big worry since the maps can be used offline. The second thing I notice is that the map I’ve been using is gone.
Then the app glitches and shuts down on me.
I curse under my breath.
“What’s wrong?” Mila asks.
