SPLASH!!!
With a loud splash I fell into the river. As soon as I resurfaced, I started to cough hard. I was sure an ass-load of water went into my breathing system. Thank god, we were close to the bank so the water level only reached just below my chin.
"Ron, you dumb idiot!" I shouted furiously and blew my nose as I tried to withdraw some water from my respiratory system. I felt like my lungs were filled with water.
"You had it coming." Ron shrugged and smirked. He pushed his soaked hair back, out of his face and wiped his face off.
"It wasn't my fault that you were clumsy!" I glared at him as I splashed some water at him while fuming with anger. I didn't like to get wet.
"But, you were laughing at me." He laughed gleefully.
"Shut up!" I said bitterly as I struggled desperately with my t-shirt because the water went under it and made it hard to keep it down. "This water is freezing," I huffed as I tried to kill him with my harsh glare. "I am going to get you back for this."
"I look forward to it." he cocked his brow, letting out a deep laugh and smilingly shook his wet head.
"We need to get out of here." I said as I tried to swim towards the bank. "And this time I won't help you out. Do it yourself." I said grimly while moving my arms in the water.
"Fine, then I won't let you out." He said wittily and suddenly lunged at me under the water.
"No, no, no wait!!" My eyes widened when he hooked his arms around my waist and pulled me under that shallow water.
"Gahh!!" I gasped. "Let me ....," I didn't have the chance to finish my sentence, and I was already under the water.
I struggled hard and succeeded to escape with difficulty from his mighty grip. When I popped out of the water, I was coughing badly.
"I will kill you," I said angrily and moved impatiently towards him. I vainly tried to force his head underwater, but he was too strong to push down.
"Time out." He took me by surprise when he grasped my waist and hoisted me up to throw again into the water. When I finally emerged from the water, he started to laugh hard.
"You are going to pay for that, Ron!" I yelled angrily and desperately tried to catch him. He quickly started to splash at me incessantly. I closed my eyes quickly to avoid the splash and moved slightly beside him. When I found an opening I lunged towards him and hastily wrapped my hands around his well built toned body tightly to seize his actions.
Ron turned his face to me quickly and faced me. A little shocked expression took over both of us as the smile slowly died on my face. Our faces were inches away from each other. I could typically hear his heart beats which were very loud and clear. Our eyes were locking onto each other for a breathless moment. Suddenly the world felt so silent. I could only hear some birds chirping and the wind blowing between those tree leaves.
Suddenly the whole situation became very awkward. I slowly and fiddly unwrapped my hands from him. I averted my eyes and wrapped myself with my hands.
"It's chilly."
"Yes, it is." Ron carefully cleared his throat as he slowly started to swim towards the bank. "We should get out of the water." He started to climb out from the water.
"Yeah." I murmured gently and climbed back right after him. He reached out his hand for me. I stared at his slender fingers for a mere second then took them for help. Neither of us said a word as we cautiously started to walk to our campsite.
I was feeling slightly embarrassed.
"That place was really beautiful." I said cutting into the silence that had filled the air. "Thanks for showing it to me."
Ron ran his fingers through his soaked hair and gripped them tightly, nodding in agreement.
"You are welcome. I am glad you like it."
When we finally reached our campsite, Rose and Oli both gasped after noticing our odd situation. James and Ryder both got up from their sitting position with the typically composed expression.
"Everything is alright sir?" Ryder asked with a full concern tone.
"Yeah," Ron answered as he put down that reusable bag.
"What the hell just happened with you two?" Oli inquired as she took a good look at both of us from head to toe.
I slowly opened my mouth to explain to her, but Ron was fast to cut me. "We fell into the river." I swiftly looked at him.
"Both?" Rose asked.
"Yeah." I choked. Why the hell I didn't tell them the whole incident.
"We should change before we catch a cold." Ron looked thoughtfully at me and smiled gently.
"Yeah." I nodded as I murmured quietly.
"I will be right back." I said and quickly headed towards my truck to grab myself the extra dry clothes. I entered a tent and hastily changed my wet clothes into my extra dry clothes. A grey hoodie and a pair of black jeans. Thank god, I brought them. When I joined with others, Ron already changed into some dark maroon jumper and dark blue pair of jeans.
"Let's bake the marshmallows!" Oli suddenly yelled happily as she sat beside me. I smiled thinly at her and took the packet from her to open it. We arranged enough marshmallows for everyone on the grill and started to bake them.
I shook off all my weird feelings and joined them to grill the food.
"Do you have enough free time to join us?" I asked Ron wonderingly, who was carefully arranging the marinated meat and organic vegetables on the grill, he looked up at me. "I mean you are going to take over a responsibility, which is what I heard is very big after all. I thought you were going to be busy like hell." I looked at him as I shoved a baked marshmallow to him. He looked at the marshmallow hesitantly with arched brows.
"Don't worry, it's clean and delicious." I laughed gaily at his funny reaction. He looked up at me. Instead of taking the stick he started to eat from my hand. He licked his lips and smiled slyly at me.
"Yeah it's delicious."
Rose cuts in, "I am so happy that you could take out some time from your busy schedule and come with us." She smiled radiantly at him. Ron smiled back at her. "The whole taking over the position thing is still progressing. And I have to hold meetings with every one of our clients starting next month, so I'll get stuck with meetings and other things maybe next month."
"Ok, no more talking about this business shit today." Oli suddenly said to us."Don't ruin the mood now." She pleaded earnestly. We all started to laugh merrily and got ourselves busy with grilling and eating. Rose leg pain has already healed. She Looked cheerful.
After eating, we took a stroll around that area. There was a small but very scenic waterfall a few meters away from our camp. We hiked at that local mountain to get a more proper view of that cascading waterfall. After watching an aesthetic sunset we put our tents on the top of that mountain. We were all tired so we decided that we would spend the night there. We slowly started to prepare the remaining food for dinner.
Just after 2 a.m, we tidied up and walked tiredly to the tent. We girls were sharing my tent, while Ron was sharing the other with those two bodyguards.
"We only have two hours to sleep." Ron stopped just before entering their tent. "Get some rest. We will see the most beautiful view tomorrow."
"What is it?" Rose excitedly popped up from behind me.
"Glorious sunrise, behind the trees," Ron said, "The view of the sunrise from here is awesome." He looked at Rose. "Or your smile will do." He teasingly smirked.
Rose giggled shyly and Oli rolled her eyes. Ron looked at me and I smiled thinly.
"Good night everyone." He smiled gently and entered the tent.
We were so tired that we instantly started to drift in sleep, just after lying down. Few moments later Oli fell sound asleep. I also slowly started to drift to the dreamland.
"How did you guys fall into the water?" The sudden question from Rose made me wide awake.
I sucked a deep breath and laughed awkwardly. "Ron was so clumsy. When he started to fall, I was just beside him. So he grabbed onto me by reflex, and... I fell down with him." I finally finished and let go a small breath, which I was holding.
Thank god that it was dark there, so Rose couldn't see my face. I tried to make the story funny.
"Funny, right?" I asked hopefully.
"Yeah," Rose laughed. "Actually I was unnecessarily thinking something very silly."
"Yeah?" I laughed nervously. "Like what?"
"Never mind," Rose said as she started to yawn. "I am so tired. I....feel...sleepy."
"Yeah." I also faked a yawn.
"Let's sleep now. We have to watch the sunrise in the morning." I carefully looked at Rose's direction in the dark. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Liza." Rose fell asleep. I could hear his steady breaths.
I didn't know why but a little guilt washed away all my sleep.
************
The next morning after watching the sunrise, we headed home. That time Rose was sitting with me, as Ron and Oli were heading to the same place. When we entered the city, Ron's car voluntarily stopped where we had to part. Ron got out of his car with Ryder and came towards my car. Rose and I also got out of the car to bid our goodbye to him.
"Thank you guys for allowing me to join you." Ron smiled gratefully. "I really had a great time with you guys."
"Yeah, me too." I smiled at him amiably. "Thanks for joining us even though you are so busy."
"Yeah, me too." Rose spoke up between us. "It was the best camping in my whole life."
"I am glad, you guys enjoyed my company." Ron chuckled delightedly.
"So," I swayed rhythmically on my ankle. "See you later."
"There's one more thing." I paused when he suddenly spoke up. "I am holding a little party this Saturday." He told us smilingly while tucking both his hands in his pocket.
"And you guys are invited, Please come."
"Wow, really." Rose beamed up.
"Sure, I will come," Rose told him happily.
"Yeah, sure." I also nodded my head with a pleasant smile.
"Well, then, see you guys later." Ron nodded his head and headed back to his car.
We drove away in different directions. The whole drive Rose happily told me what she would wear and what she would do with her hair. When we reached Rose's house, she hugged me happily.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She giggled like a little kid. "I am so happy we arranged this camping trip. I could get a chance to spend a full day with Ron. Just because of you." She wiggled happily. "See you on Monday." She kissed my cheek and got out of the car.
I gripped the steering wheel tightly as I looked at the way Rose was going. "Rose....." I hesitated a little but called her out anyway.
She stopped at the midway of her porch and turned around to me smilingly. "Yeah? What?"
I hesitantly opened my mouth, but instead, what I wanted to tell her, I smiled at her.
"Nothing. See you on Monday."
"Goodbye Liza." She grinned and waved her hand before entering her house.
I waited a little while staring blankly at my reflection on the mirror. I started my engine slowly and drove away from her yard with a puzzled mind.
Did I do anything wrong?
Or was I just being paranoid?
I didn't lie or anything. I just didn't tell her the full story. And again there was nothing to tell her.
Right???
***********
Author's Note:-
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