When my mom gets the photo albums out after lunch, I almost die of embarrassment. The rest of my family go on a walk to the beach, but Rosé and I said we'd stay to help clear up and we finished a lot faster than we thought so here we are.
My mom's sitting beside Rosé on the sofa, flicking through the pages and holding up the book when an incredibly embarrassing one comes up to bring more attention to it and as I'm sitting beside Rosé, I just bury my face into her shoulder and groan because I'm so embarrassed. I can't even ask my mom to stop because I know this isn't the most humiliating photo album and if I mention putting it away, I'm running the risk of my mom getting the others out.
"And here she is in the bath..." My mom points to a small picture of me in the top corner of the album.
A two-year old version of me is sitting with the water up to my waist, bubbles all over my body and a small little curl flicked up at the front of my head as I shoot a toothless grin toward the camera. I let out a loud groan again, and Rosé just giggles as she traces the pad of her finger over the photo, taking in it.
"Lisa, you look so cute," she comments and I press my forehead against her shoulder, shaking my head.
"No, I don't," I muffle into her skin. "It's embarrassing."
Rosé just giggles and I feel the blood rush to my cheeks, making me blush as my mom flicks through more photos revealing my first day of elementary school and my first day of high school.
I'm wearing the most atrocious outfit in the second one, with high socks, a big green baggy jumper and yellow shorts finishing above the knee, and I really want to ask my mom why the hell she'd let me wear that to my first day at high school; but then I suppose when that douchebag, Trent, mocked my outfit ten minutes into my first day, I punched him straight in the nose and earned my fearsome reputation, it wasn't too bad. I earned my fearsome reputation that day.
Plus, I never wore an outfit like that again.
"And here she is at seven years old," My mom continues and holds the album up to Rosé to reveal an entire page full of me in various superhero outfits. I begin laughing, because I'd totally forgotten about that time of my life, but when I see the bottom right hand corner picture, the laughter quickly disappears because I know my mom isn't going to pass up this opportunity to embarrass me further.
"And this is when we got Marco to make a hole in the pipe outside the house," my mom starts, her finger tapping the picture of me standing by a leaking pipe outside my old house in Seattle, pointing at it with a grin. "Because Lisa was so upset that she didn't have superpowers that we thought we could pretend like she did."
Rosé begins giggling and for what feels like the millionth time, I blush and duck my chin to my head. "You could've at least set a fire or something," I mumble. "Creating holes in water pipes isn't exactly a superpower."
"It was a superpower none-the-less," my mother defends and waves her hand. "And clearly you were happy with it so I see no problem."
Rosé bumps my shoulders together lightly, and I pick my head up to look her in the eye, the bright brown making something in my chest flutter. "Don't worry," she whispers and scrunches up her nose at me adorably. "I think it's cute."
I'm so embarrassed, but instead of hiding it this time I just let her see the blush that covers my cheeks. I'm not even sure if she can really see it as ethnic people don't blush, but damn, I don't even care. In fact, now she's said that, I've got this warm tingling feeling thrumming through my body and there's a tug in the center of my chest that makes me want to do something; so I do. Beneath the photo album now resting on Rosé's lap, I slide my hand between mine and hers thighs and grip at her hand, my fingers fumbling around until I can finally slide my fingers through hers.
She beams at me at the gesture, her eyes sparkling and teeth pearly and white as they're shown through a grin, and I just grin idiotically back, feeling like we two are alone in this moment. I kind of wish we were, actually. I haven't kissed her since before we left for the airport yesterday morning and I know I almost did yesterday when we were saying goodnight, and she totally kissed me on the cheek this morning, but it's not satisfying my needs. I just want to feel her lips pressed against mine, maybe taste the faint tinge of her strawberry lip gloss and I want to giggle against her mouth as she pushes harder into me because I know she wants to kiss me, too.
But, I can't. There are a million reasons why I can't and so instead, I just settle for shifting a little closer and squeezing her hand as we both go back to looking over the humiliating photos of my youth.
I don't realize that my mom was watching us the entire time.
***
A little later on, all my family comes home and I greet them all again. Bella and Nathan climb on to Rosé's lap and I sit beside her, my fingers still tangled and hidden in the space between my thighs and my family tell me about the walk. Apparently they headed down to the beach, watched a few people on jet-skis and (the adults) had cocktails on the sand, and as they explain, I watch Rosé's face light up with excitement. I know she wants to go, she was excited when I first asked her to come and now all I can think is how I'm depriving her from exploring Miami because I offered to stay back and help my mom clear up.
God, I'm stupid. I want to go and explore with her.
So when my aunt, Marcella, asks me what Rosé and I are going to do for the rest of the evening, I look over to her and smile and say, "We were thinking about heading down to the beach."
Theo's face crinkles where he's sitting on the floor opposite Rosé. "Why didn't you just come with us then?" He asks in a demeaning tone.
Though my aunt's right there, slapping him around the back of the head and making him hiss and rub at the sore spot furiously. "Maybe they want some alone time," Marcella interjects and shares an understanding smile with me and Rosé. "We get that."
I want to say that that's not the reason, but then Rosé's squeezing my hand and nodding, and well, I can't argue with that. I kind of do want some alone time with Rosé because we haven't had any since we got here, and really, I'm kind of craving it. It's slightly worrying, actually. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't have alone time with her for a long period of time; I think I'd explode.
"You two should head out then if you wanna go," my uncle chimes in with a wink. "I hear that sunset is pretty damn beautiful."
I let out a small laugh and meet Rosé's eye, silently offering if she wants to. She gets that, and I ignore the warmth I get in my chest because she can tell what I'm thinking with a single glance, and she nods, dropping my hand as I stand. I want to reach out and grab it again, to help Nathan and Bella off her lap and then help her up, but I have a feeling that my aunt knows we two were holding hands if the pinched lips to hide a smile thing on her face is anything to go by; so instead I beat down that urge and shove my hands in my pockets. Best friends, remember?
"Okay, well we're gonna go then," I say and Rosé climbs to her feet, smoothing out the front of her skirt.
All of my family say goodbye, Theo throwing Rosé a wink instead of saying goodbye and I snarl at him fiercely as I press my hand to her lower back, guiding her out the living room and toward the front door. I open it for her, and she bashfully ducks her head as I gesture for her to go through first and mutters a small, "thank you" and I might kind of sort of watch her ass as she walks in front of me. What? I'm only human and that is a wonderfully short skirt.
Anyway, when I close the front door behind me, I forget to put my hands back in my pockets and Rosé takes the opportunity to grab one of them, only clutching my hand and not bothering to tangling our fingers together. I'm not sure why that bothers me, but I just prefer laced fingers instead of just hand holding but whatever, I like the feel of this so I'm not going to complain. It's better than nothing.
"Where are you two going?"
Rosé and I stop halfway down the pathway, peering over our shoulders to find my dad out on the drive, washing his car. It's a sports car of some type, with a soft top, but I'm not entirely sure of the make. All I know is that he's had it since before I was born and he's in love with that damn car. He used to tell me all about it all the time as a kid, and I think it's a racing car judging by the stripe running down the middle of the bonnet, but I don't really know; still though, it was nice to be able to talk about something with him.
"We're going to the beach," I explain and gently tug Rosé with me as I walk over to my dad. "It'll be nicer without those other idiots."
Rosé bumps my arm with her own, as if to scald me but she's giggling and so I can't take that seriously.
"You got a point there," my dad says, finishing the last of the wax on the bonnet then wiping his hands on his grease covered jeans. "But it's a bit of a walk."
I spare a glance at Rosé. "We don't mind."
"Why don't you take this baby?" He knocks his knuckles gently against the side of the car. "She needs drying off."
My eyes widen and I freeze because no-one, and that's literally no-one, apart from my dad has ever even touched that damn car. I remember when I was nine and I accidentally kicked a rock on to the side of it, making the smallest of scratches, my dad was so pissed he took away my toy bear, Humphrey, for a whole week. That might not seem like a major punishment, but me and that bear were attached at the hip and I cried for hours on end when he took that away.
That was a sad time.
My eyes slide to the left and I silently ask Rosé if she wants to take the car, and she just grins and nods frantically, grabbing the hand she's holding with her other one and bouncing a little in excitement. I take that as a yes.
"Really?" I ask, my voice pitching because I'm sure he's fucking with me.
"Of course," he confirms with a bob of his head and dries his hands on his jeans before heading over to me, grabbing the keys out his pocket. "But only on one condition." Rosé and I nod. "You treat this car as if it were a woman." Both of me and Rosé burst into laughter, and my dad slowly joins in, clapping my on the shoulder as he pushes the keys into my hand. "I'm serious, though," he continues, calming down a little but keeping a grin on his face. "Treat her good."
"I will, dad," I reply and lean in to kiss him on the cheek before I pull Rosé to the passenger side.
We both jump into the car, buckling ourselves up and I grin, tapping my foot excitedly as I switch on the engine because fuck, I may not be interested in cars but this is one fine ass car. I've always dreamed of having a convertible sports car and man, does it feel good to be able to drive one. Especially with a really fucking gorgeous blonde sitting beside me, beaming with excitement and bouncing in her seat.
"Remember! Be careful!"
I flash my dad a grin and pull out the drive, cutting through Miami with the top down, the wind blowing through my hair and a pair of bright brown eyes locked on to my profile.
Life's pretty fucking good.
***
I park the car a few streets away from the beach, deciding it's too nice not to walk.
When we get to the beach, there are still quite a lot of people as it's only mid-afternoon and so we just choose to walk along the promenade, taking in our surroundings. We stop when we get to an ice cream van and buy both of us one as apparently Rosé loves those swiftly soft ones with chocolate flakes and I'm just too weak to resist her batting lashes and pout. Damn it. She really is the most adorable thing I've ever known. And that fucking includes micro pigs.
With our ice-creams in hands, we continue walking along the promenade and a few minutes later, I catch the devilish glint in Rosé's eye when I spare at a glance at her. I'm instantly curious, my feet stopping and eyebrows knitting together and I almost ask her, almost being the key word because one second I'm staring at her with confusion and the next, she's smearing ice-cream on my face and running away, giggling loudly to herself.
The sting of the temperature sets in first and I tense, my hand releasing my own ice cream on to the ground, but then I kick myself into gear and begin sprinting after her. She's fast, she's got the legs to run, but I used to sprint back in high school for the running team. So I catch up with her easily, wrapping my arm around her waist and tackling her on to the sand to my right, Rosé screeching through her laughter. The air's sucked from my lungs as I land on top of her, but we're both still giggling and I roll off to the space beside her, closing my eyes at the bright sunlight piercing my eyes.
"How am I the one," I start, breathing in deeply. "That gets winded when I tackled you?" I finish with a grunt, clutching at my stomach with one hand but wiping at the corners of my eyes with the other.
Rosé giggles some more, crunching up a little and I turn my head, my cheek pressing into the warm sand. I'm sure there are people looking at us strangely because not only we are lying down on the sand in full clothes, but we're also right next to the promenade. It's not like we give a crap though. Not when Rosé's turning to stare at me with twinkling brown eyes and the softest of expressions.
"Because I'm just awesome," she retorts with a cheeky grin and my shoulders start bobbing as I chuckle. "And Lisa?" She interjects and reaches over to my face, letting the tip of her finger hovering over my nose. "You've got a little somethin' there."
I shoot her a playful glare. "Well get it off then," I dare and she lifts an eyebrow.
"I don't have anything to wipe it off with."
I haven't been able to flirt with her openly for a while so I just go for it. "You usually lick ice cream so get to it."
Rosé giggles, rolls her eyes and rolls on to her back and my heart sinks with disappointment for a split second because I think she isn't going to respond to my flirting. Except barely seconds later, she's rolling on top of me, her knees bracketing my hips and she's lowering her head, flicking her tongue over my chin, over my lips and over the tip of my nose. I shudder, my hands shooting to her hips and I'm so caught up with whether to focus on the shot of arousal that surges through me or the ticklish feeling of Rosé's warm tongue after the cold ice cream, that I just end up giggling to myself and thrashing my head from the side to side.
"Okay, okay," I chant, breathlessly, but Rosé begins licking over my cheek and giggling against my skin. "Okay! Stop! I give up!" She sits back, wiping the back of her mouth over her wrist and I do the same, scrunching up my nose. "Rosie, that was gross."
Rosé offers a wink and pushes up from her knees to her feet, offering a hand. "You challenged me," she retorts and well, yeah, I did.
So I just grin and grab her hand, letting her tug me up until my hands are trapped between my stomachs and I'm so close to her I can see the freckles dusted across her nose and the tiny silver flecks in her eyes. And at this distance, in this moment, I can't for the life of me figure out how I never realized just how beautiful she is before we ever slept together. I really don't know because now I can barely even think about finding other people attractive because she takes the cake every time. Fuck, she takes every cake, the whole fucking cake shop, and I honest to God think she's the most attractive woman I've ever seen.
"Shall we walk?" She asks, breaking me from my thoughts.
I cough, pretending like I wasn't staring even though both of us know we were and I don't even drop her hand, just switch it to my other and both of us begin walking along the promenade again.