Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 18 - We're Here, So Now What?

I know Jet and Lurch cannot wait to leave Egret's Rest, and there's nothing I can do to stop them from going...

"Ethe, my boy, you are one lucky dog," Barn chuckles, interrupting my train of thought that started out as fun and was quickly becoming depressing. I turn to look at him, and he grins happily, holding up one of Kira's fat, gourmet sandwiches. "Thanks, Kiki, you always take good care of us. I'm glad that's not changing just because you're dating this bastard now."

"You're welcome," Kira smiles, a little shy under all the appreciative attention, thanks and compliments she is now receiving from my friends. Seeing their reaction to the lunch she packed warms my heart. She's always saying that we're a bunch of Neanderthals, and she doesn't want to be around us for longer than five-minute sessions and preferably in shifts of two at a time and other nonsensical things, but she always packs a bag that contains everybody's favourites. No one asks her to; she just loves doing it.

She can say what she wants to, but the containers we always pull from the cooler bag tell the story of a girl who actually cares about us.

Today is no different. She made plenty of Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches for Jet, Tuna Mayo ones for Lurch, Ham, Cheese and Tomato for Burlap and chicken mayo and cheese for me, some with gherkins and some without (Jet cannot stand them). I don't really mind either way, I usually let her steal my gherkins if there are not enough to go around, but today there are plenty. There's also a stack of chocolate spread sandwiches because we all like them.

The sheer quantity of food she packed is meant to cater for Barn's dietary needs. His favourite is food and lots of it; he has no other preferences.

I'm not surprised to see a container with fruit and flasks of her signature homemade lemonade in the bag as well. I grin at Kira, wondering if she can see that the guys are more excited about the contents of her cooler bag than the pretzels, beer and chips they brought.

I'm on my third sandwich when she suddenly rises, stretches like a lazy cat and turns towards the inviting water of the pool and the gentle stream flowing out of it and down the hill to the bridge where we played earlier. We're all reaching a point where the sun is making us overly hot, and we'll need to jump in that pool soon. When we arrived here, the guys, Tonia and I, stripped down to our swimsuits, and we all had a quick dip; since we were already wet, it helped us get used to the cold water quickly. Now that we're almost dry, jumping in is going to be super cold again.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I ask, shielding my eyes against the sun filtering through the leaves above our favourite hang-out spot to see what Kira is planning. I think she wants to go for a swim. She's the only one still dressed, and her clothes are not all that wet anymore, but they might've kept her body temperature low enough to make it easy for her to re-enter the pool.

"I'm done, thanks."

I'm glad to hear that because the guys (and I) are really digging in, hungry after the rugby match and the quick swim we had. If Kicks is still hungry, she might be disappointed when she returns from her swim to find only empty containers. Tonia never eats much, and today is no exception; she's had some fruit, but she is oblivious to how good Kira's sandwiches are. There are enough of each kind for everybody to taste all of them.

My eyes widen, and I almost stop Kira when she starts to pull her T-shirt off, and then I see the black fabric of the prescribed school swimsuit appear from under it. I thought she said she wasn't wearing her bathers. Okay, technically, that was true because this is not that cute two-piece I love so much. This is the prototype for the dreaded Iron Maiden.

Deli and Kicks hate this swimsuit; why would she be wearing it? Surely, she doesn't think that now that we're dating, I'd get all hot and bothered if she wore her regular swimsuit. She's wrong... I've always been hot and bothered when she wore it; it would be nothing new. Besides, this suit might be unflattering and highly uncomfortable-looking, changing her lovely figure into a surfboard, but she is still taking my breath away.