I walk into the studio the next day, yawning. I spot Maya by the entrance and she runs up to me.
"I've been waiting for you! What happened yesterday!?" She practically screams into my ear.
"Shhhh... coffee," I mumble in reply.
It's an early shoot day and I am barely functioning.
"Here, I'll take you to coffee," Maya says, hooking her arm into mine and guiding me to the break area.
As we walk up to the coffee station, the smell of coffee enters my nostrils and I hum. I can feel the effects already. Once that brown liquid hits my throat, I'll be able to handle the day.
As I start to put my coffee together, Maya is practically bouncing on her toes impatiently, waiting to hear how yesterday went.
I take a sip of my coffee and turn around to lean on the table, ready to give Maya the run down. When I look up to talk to her, I notice that Joe is sitting on the couches with Natalia, Sadie and Gaten. I talk quietly so they don't hear.
"We kissed," I say softly.
"Obviously. I want to know what happened after!" Maya replies, not quite getting what I meant.
"No, I mean Joe kissed me... out of character," I explain, still speaking quietly.
Mayas eyes light up as the realisation hits her.
"Yes!" She shouts loudly.
"Shhh," I tell her, "Joe is right over there,"
Too late. We both look over to him and see he is staring at us, wondering what Maya is shouting about. He smiles and waved at me, and I wonder if he's guessed what we were talking about. I wave back and Maya nudges me.
"Come on, let's go talk to him," She says.
It would be rude if I didn't go over and say hi, I guess. It's not that I don't want to see him, I'm itching to really. But I'm nervous, we still haven't done much talking which means I'm still a bit lost on where I stand.
Maya is already pulling me over, not giving me a chance to respond. Once we're at the couches, Joe smirks as he gives me a little wave.
"Hi," He says, as though he knows something no one else does.
"Hi," I say back in the same way.
"You two should come sit down," Joe says, patting the spot next to him.
I oblige and sit down next to him, Maya sitting next to me. As I take my seat, Joe moves his hand around my waist and pulls me in closer to him, resting his hand on my hip.
My breath catches in my throat and I look at him. His eyes look at mine with such intensity that I could almost forget anyone else is here and start kissing him right here, but I remember the others and look away.
When I look back to the others, everyone is smiling at us. I know that a lot of people on set had been waiting for us to get together, but this is kind of creepy.
"Stop smiling like that, it's creeping me out!" I complain.
"We're just happy for you two!" Gaten exclaims with a grin.
"It has been a long time coming," Natalia says with a shrug.
My face grows hot as I blush from all the attention and Joe pulls me in and kisses me on the head.
"Ignore them," Joe whispers to me.
I rest my head on his shoulder, and try to relax and not let it all get to me. They're friends, it shouldn't be so embarrassing. Maybe if I had more answers about our relationship, it wouldn't feel so daunting being together in front of others.
"So," Natalia says, changing the subject, "I am throwing a party next week, do you guys want to come?"
She looks around at everyone, waiting for a response.
"I think I'd actually be allowed to go!" Sadie exclaims excitedly.
"I don't think my parents will let me," Gaten says with a sigh and a pout.
"You know I wouldn't miss it," Maya tells Natalia.
Joe looks at me.
"Want to go together?" He asks me.
I nod. He's asking me to go to parties with him and cuddling me in front of other people. This has to be good right?
"Sure," I tell him.
Joes face brightens as his smile grows into a grin. He turns his head to Natalia.
"We'll be there," He tells her.
Natalia clasps her hands together excitedly.
"Excellent! And don't worry Gaten, I'll talk to your parents myself, maybe I can convince them," She tells Gaten reassuringly, patting him on the shoulder.
As the others start to make conversation, Joe nudges me to get my attention. I look up at him with a smile.
"Do you want to go somewhere later?" He asks me.
"Like as a date?" I ask him, making sure.
"Yeah, our first date," Joe says with a small smile.
Maya snorts next to us. I turn my head to her.
"Maya!" I exclaim.
"What!" She exclaims, matching my tone, "I happen to know about many of your "hang outs"," Maya uses her fingers to air quote as she says hang outs, "and this is definitely not your first date. Every time you two have done anything just you two, it's very much been a date,"
My face turns beetroot as I blush. She just said that in front of everyone. Not just everyone, but Joe. Surely he'd have expected I talk to her about him, but for her to say this in front of him is beyond embarrassing. I bury my face in my hands.
"Well, this time I'll kiss her," Joe shrugs, not seeming to mind the relationship commentary at all.
I take my hands away from my face and look at him in surprise. Gatens hysterically laughs in the background, punctuating the absurdity I'm feeling.
"Hey Charlee, don't be mad," Gaten says to me, "She had to say it. Friends don't lie,"
* * * *
Joes car rumbled to a stop and I cocked my head to the side and raised my eyebrows at him. Really?
"Should I have picked somewhere new? I just thought since we did say we'd come back, it was a good time," He explains to me.
He'd taken me back to the beach with the skate park and play ground.
"It's not that, I'm just hoping you don't expect me to go in there," I tell him, pointing to the skate park.
"Oh yeah," Joe says as he nods, "But don't worry, I brought skateboards this time,"
My eyes grow wide and my heart races. I cannot get on a skateboard. My coordination levels will land this date right into a hospital.
Joe gets out of the car, then comes to my side when he notices I'm not following.
"It's not so bad Charlee, come have a look," He says as he opens my door.
I follow him around to the trunk of the car and when he opens it, I see a picnic blanket, a picnic basket and a couple of bags. No skateboards in sight.
When I look up at Joe, he is smirking. Proud of his little trick.
"So we're not going skateboarding?" I ask.
"No," He says, shaking his head and laughing, "You should have seen your face,"
"Stop! I thought you were going to witness me die on our first date!" I shove him playfully.
"So it's a picnic?" I ask him.
"And swimming," Joe tells me.
Drat.
"I didn't bring my swimsuit," I say glumly.
"Neither did I. It's a nudist beach," Joe replies.
Again, shock washes over my face.
"Oh. Uh.. I... I don't think I want to do that," I tell him nervously. Will he think I'm boring?
Joe starts laughing again, and lifts up one of the bags.
"I'm kidding! I got Maya to pick up a swimsuit for you," He tells me as he hands me the bag.
Relief washes over me, then is quickly replaced with annoyance.
"Joe! You have got to stop doing that to me!" I exclaim.
Joe wraps his hands around my waist and pulls me closer to him.
"I'm sorry. I won't do it anymore," He whispers as he gently kisses my forehead, then my temple, and down the side of my face until he reaches my lips, pausing in front of them.
"Forgive me?" He asks softly.
I nod. How could I not? The feeling of his hands touching my waist, his soft kisses and his hot breath on my lips. I wasn't in a position to deny him anything.
He brings his lips to mine and kisses me softly, before pulling away and pulling out the picnic stuff from the car. He nods at the bag in my hands.
"You get changed while I set up. I'll meet you at the showers," Joe tells me.
I nod and walk over to the shower blocks. Once I'm inside I pull out my yellow bikini. Maya must have snuck into my trailer to get it. How she managed to keep the details of my date with Joe a secret, I'll never know. She is not one for quiet excitement.
Once I am changed, I pop my clothes into the bag that had my bikini in it and walk outside. Joe is already standing there waiting for me in his board shorts. When he sees me, he makes no attempt at hiding his eyes as they take in my whole body.
"Maybe we should try a nudist beach after all," He says with a smirk.
"Shut up," I say, shaking my head.
"Let's go," Joe says, holding his hand out in front of me.
I reach out and take his hand, and smile to myself. Our little tradition of taking each other's hands and dragging one another to where we want to go seems to be back. Only this time, our fingers are comfortably intertwined.
On the beach, the blanket is set up with the picnic basket out. I sit down next to it, ready to rummage through what he brought.
"Let's swim first," He suggests, holding his hand out again.
I look longingly at the food in the basket, but when I see the sparkle in his eyes I can't seem to say no. Is this what we're going to be like now? Me unable to ever deny him?
I dip my foot in the water and squeal. It's much colder than I had expected. Joe is walking in, when he realises I'm still at the edge and turns around to face me.
"What's wrong?" He asks me.
"It's too cold! I'm not used to it yet," I explain.
Joe takes both my hands in his and looks me in the eyes.
"Sometimes the best way to enjoy something, is to jump right in and feel it, instead of waiting for it to feel right," He tells me.
Are we still talking about swimming here? I open my mouth to respond, but Joe turns around and pulls me further into the water. I follow after him.
Once we get in up to our waists, Joe let's go of my hand and dives into the water. I watch him come up through the surface, he runs his hand through his wet hair to prevent it sticking to his forehead and I watch the the water droplets run down his chest.
"Coming in?" He asks, breaking me from my trance.
I bite my lip. I normally like to take things slowly until I'm used to it, but I know after the initial shock of jumping in, I will reach the same result, but much quicker.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes, then dive into the water. The cold water bites at my bones, and as I come up out of the water I am immediately cursing Joe and the cold.
"It's freezing!" I exclaim, shaking and being acutely aware that my ascent out of the water was far less glamorous than Joes was.
Joe chuckles lowly and walks over to me, taking me into his arms. I'm instantly warmer as he holds me and I'm thankful for the affect his touch has on me, like his skin is made of fire.
"Better?" Joe asks me.
I look at him and nod. I search his face for a clue, is he aware how hot his touch feels to me? Do I have the same affect on him?
Joe leans down and kisses me and I begin to feel the heat in my veins. The cool air around me contrasts with the heat of his body and the heat of the electricity between us. I can taste the salt water on his lips and can feel him smile as he kisses me.
When I finally pull away, I splash him playfully before swimming away quickly in anticipation for him to splash me back. We swim and play in the water for awhile, before we both decide to go back to the shore.
I sit down on the picnic rug and wrap a towel around me, shivering from the cold air hitting my wet body. Joe sits down next to me and pulls me into him to warm me up again, and we just stay like that for a few moments.
This is nice. Finally being together without any worries. Without having to push away our feelings or worry that what we are doing is wrong. I take a deep breath and remind myself to remember this moment.
"Do you still have that shell? From the last time we were here?" Joe asks me.
I smile, remembering the first time he took me here when we were just friends and Maya insisted it was a date. I wonder if Maya mentioned that to him and that's why he took me here.
"I do actually. It's sitting on my coffee table. It's a beautiful shell," I tell him, snuggling into him further.
"I should find you another one, to remember this time," He says.
An involuntary shiver runs through me and Joe looks down at me.
"Are you still cold?" He asks.
"Yeah a bit," I tell him.
"Here, take my hoodie," He says to me.
Joe leans over and reaches for a bag that had his clothes in it and pulls out a grey hoodie. I pull it over my head and then watch him as he puts on a shirt.
"Hungry?" He asks me.
My face gets hot as I blush.
"What?" I squeak.
"For the picnic," He tells me with a smirk.