18| How Did My Oranges Become Lemons?
I was most obviously a hopeless romantic, and I also cared so much about just everyone in my life. Meaning, I knew Tyler's practice last night had really effected him, and I tried my best to cheer him up with my mug cake. There was no more kissing after the first two surprises, but that was kind of what we'd expected when we decided we would be doing this.
But I mean, I wasn't as dumb as a rock; if he was going to kiss me, I wasn't just going to be like "No, don't do that!"
That would have made me a moron.
I wasn't a moron. Just a guy who was bringing oranges and waffle mix over to Tyler's apartment the next morning to cheer him up more, or so I hoped.
I mean, he totally wasn't ready to see me. He opened the door all groggy, his hair was in a mess with random strands sticking up out of his head, and he wasn't wearing a shirt. I think my jaw might have actually dropped because I hadn't really seen him shirtless in a year and he was very, very good looking.
It made me drop my oranges on the floor.
Tyler bent down and picked the 2 oranges up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He held them up, eyebrows furrowed.
"Why did you bring lemons?"
I stepped inside and he kicked the door shut. "They're not lemons, they're oranges."
Tyler stared at the oranges. He blinked. He blinked very slowly multiple times.
"Clay..." He stopped looking at the oranges and looked at me. "I swear, I know I just woke up and all, and I'm not very sentient in the morning, but these are not oranges. These are lemons."
"No, they can't be!"
Tyler walked into the kitchen and turned on the lights, holding up the oranges directly under them, and I came over to stand beside him and make sure that—
"Oh."
They were lemons.
"They're yellow," Tyler said. "And very small."
"Dammit," I muttered. "They looked a lot more like oranges in the store and my car. And in the lobby. The elevator, too. Also the hallway. How did my oranges become lemons?"
Tyler touched my shoulder after setti my the lemons on the counter. "I think they've always been lemons, Clay."
"Well, that just sucks."
"Why did you need oranges?"
"I just wanted some Vitamin O."
"Vitamin C."
"What?" I asked. "No, Vitamin O. Right? It stands for Vitamin Orange. Like how when you eat bananas, it's Vitamin B. B for banana."
"Oranges are rich in Vitamin C. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's in lemons, too," Tyler told me. "Vitamin O is a thing, but it's not oranges. And bananas actually have a lot of Vitamin B6, so you're kind of on the right track there."
"How do you know all of that?" I asked, unpacking my grocery bag of waffle mix and other various items including toppings and orange juice (I guess it was close enough to oranges).
Tyler shrugged and sat down on top of his counter. "I guess I just stored that random information somewhere."
He grabbed for the whipped cream I bought, and I took it away before he could spray some into his mouth, which caught him off guard.
"Whaaat?"
"You can't spoil your appetite before breakfast. I learned that from Logan. She doesn't let Hunter do that, either," I said.
"But I'm a whole ass adult!"
"And I'm an even whol-er ass adult, so let me do my waffle thing," I said.
Tyler held his hands up. "Damn, you're a lot feistier in the morning. Can I at least have an orange?"
I smiled and tossed him a lemon, which he caught and tossed around between his hands while I started making the waffle mix. Tyler pointed me in the direction of his waffle iron, which he was surprised to own.
"So, I'm happy you're here, but what brought this on?" he asked.
"You were bothered by practice last night, and I just wanted to do more than a mug cake," I said. "There's nothing better than a home cooked breakfast."
"That's, uh... That's really nice. You didn't have to come," Tyler said.
"I wanted to," I said, turning to his cabinets. "Do you have vanilla extract?"
"Uh—"
I opened one cabinet and it was completely empty. The next cabinet over was filled with basketball shoes. I spun around, eyebrows raised.
"Why is one of these completely empty and the other filled with shoes? In the kitchen!"
"Hey," Tyler pointed at me, "I didn't judge you for the lemon incident, so don't judge me for where I store my beautiful Nikes."
"But it's a kitchen!"
"And this," Tyler held up the fruit in question, "is a lemon! Case closed, Clay... What's your last name?"
"Greenwood."
He smirked. "Does that mean your wood is green?"
I blushed and turned around to hide my face while I poured waffle batter into the newly hot iron.
"You must really like waffles. We've had waffles, like, twice together now in the span of a few weeks," Tyler said. "Waffles might be our thing."
My heart jumped. "We have a thing already?" I turned around.
Tyler shrugged. "Why not? And waffles are a great thing to have. They're fluffy, they've got these little square indentations that perfectly hold just a shit ton of syrup, and they're never not a good idea."
Never not a good idea.
My romantic mind liked that little detail. Waffles were never not a good idea. Waffles might be our thing. Were Tyler and I going to be as good of an idea as waffles?
I breathed in, so I could stop thinking too far ahead of myself. It was a bad habit of mine. I didn't jump into things quickly, I liked to take my time, but the problem was with my heart. My heart jumped into everything so fast and with so much force. It was hard to guard my heart from potential disaster or heartbreak when it dove in head-first and got attached so fast.
I got the first waffle out of the iron and put it on one of Tyler's few plates, then turned around to hand it to him.
"You're a blessing," Tyler said, and he drenched his waffle in a shit ton of syrup. "Hey, I'm sorry for falling asleep on your couch last night for a few hours. I know we were like talking, and watching a movie and stuff."
"No, you were tired. There's nothing to apologize for. You could have stayed asleep, if you had wanted to," I said, realizing that I'd just admitted that I wouldn't have minded if Tyler stayed over.
Oh my. Why did I say that?
Tyler smiled. "I appreciate that. You're cute," he said, taking a big bite of his waffles. "You know, I don't usually wake up this early."
"But it's 10."
"Yeah, unless I have to wake up early for basketball, I tend to sleep until or later than 10. But its impossible to ignore the buzzing sound it makes when someone gets here," he told me.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have just shown up–"
"Clay. Jesus, no. You're a blessing. You make a mean waffle. Don't get panicky. I'm glad you're here."
I smiled and turned around to keep making waffles. At least, it was nice knowing that my showing up hadn't been completely unwelcome. And I was very confident in my waffle-making skills.
"Are you busy today?" Tyler asked.
"I'm not," I said, putting another waffle onto a plate for myself. I turned around to pour syrup on my own and dig in.
Tyler smiled. "Let's do something."
"What? Really? Like what?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Anything. Something fun. What do you like to do? That's something we're doing, right? You show me the things you like and I show you the things I like."
"I like a lot of things," I admitted. But being put on the spot wasn't something I was great at. I liked plans and thinking of things ahead of time. I liked mapping things out. Besides, there were a bunch of things I liked to do, but how would I know that Tyler wouldn't look at me weird for liking them?
"Tell me then," Tyler said. "What does Clay Greenwood consider a pretty perfect day in summer?"
I knew without having to even really think about it; I had probably a hundred different variations of what I would have considered to be the perfect summer day, but there was one at the forefront of my mind.
"How do you feel about lakes?"
✿✿✿
Lake Lanier was almost an hour away from my apartment, where Tyler and I headed to once we'd finished breakfast, and he got dressed; I needed to get my picnic basket and pile in the food I had in my fridge.
"You're not allowed to see what I'm packing because it's a surprise," I told Tyler when we'd walked into my apartment. "But it'll be the best picnic you've ever had!"
So I packed a bunch of things, giddy the entire time. A picnic by the lake was one of my favorite ways to spend a summer day whenever I got the chance. Especially when Logan and Noah had similar days off, and the 3 of us plus Hunter could go up to Lake Lanier and spend the day there.
Crossing over the bridge, the lake was right on the other side waiting for us. I'd planned a wedding here for a client once, and it was a gorgeous destination. Between the tall, vibrant green trees, the white sandy beach, and the crystal blue waters, it already made me smile wider because of how much I loved it here.
"I didn't know that Georgia had beaches," Tyler said.
I was pulling into the parking lot, which was fairly empty for the season. That just meant more beach space to ourselves, and it made me pretty excited knowing that.
"Well, they're not nearly as big as what you're used to in California. And the water isn't salty," I told him. "Don't ask me why, though. I can't explain why water is salty or not."
"You and me both," Tyler uttered.
I parked and we both got out of the car. Tyler grabbed the blanket I brought for the picnic while I grabbed the basket, and I led him down the pathway towards the beach. It was almost 4 o'clock because it had taken a while to get everything together; cleaning up after breakfast, then Tyler had to get dressed and shower, then we had to go to my apartment and gather everything, and then we'd driven through an early rush of Atlanta traffic. So it had taken just over an hour to actually get to Lake Lanier, but it was well worth it.
There were some groups of people on the beach, so I took Tyler further from the very beginning of the beach and more towards the right side, which was practically empty. While we walked, Tyler reached down and took his shoes off, sighing. I looked over at him and he was smiling.
"I miss the beach," he said. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his shorts while he walked, and his head turned to examine the water. "I'm the definition of a California cliché because of how much I love the fucking beach."
"Are you the stereotypical Calfornia cliché surfer?" I asked.
Tyler scoffed. "God, no. I'm not that crazy. I don't get my feet anywhere near sharks."
"So you don't go into the ocean? You just like the beach?"
"I like the beach for what the beach is. It's a great place to hang out or escape. And the sand is soft, which makes a great pillow for a nap," Tyler said. "But the ocean is like ... a black hole of a bunch of shit that we don't even know half of. There could be some weird shit at the bottom of the ocean, and nobody knows because it's impossible to get down there. It doesn't make it better that what we do know exists in the ocean is already creepy enough."
"You're right. I hate sharks," I said, shivering thinking about them.
"And jellyfish. And eels! Holy shit, if I ever saw an eel..." Tyler shook his head. "Fuck that shit."
"The good news about the lake is that there's only the occasional fish. No sharks or jellyfish. Definitely not any eels," I said.
"I've never actually been to a lake before." Tyler touched my arm, and I looked over at him. "Do you know what that means?"
I shook my head.
"You're taking my lake virginity." He smirked and let go of my arm, but he already made goosebumps appear, and my face was getting hot. And not just because of the warm weather.
Tyler spread out the blanket, and I set the picnic basket on top of it before sitting down, myself. Tyler sat down so he was facing me, but he was still close enough that our legs were touching when he spread them out in front of him. I was incredibly excited to open up the picnic basket and share with him the tremendous spread.
"Are you ready to see what's inside?" I asked, grinning widely.
"I've been dying this entire time. Please, open the basket!" he exclaimed, and I laughed before opening up the basket and taking out each item one by one.
The key to the best picnic of all time:
1 DELICIOUS BAGUETTE LOAF
2 YUMMY TYPES OF CHEESE THAT I FOUND IN MY FRIDGE, WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE? LOGAN PROBABLY PICKED THEM OUT
4 APPLE JUICE BOXES (ELMO SPECIFICALLY)
1 BOTTLE OF SPARKLING WINE THAT BASICALLY TASTES LIKE FRUITY SODA THAT WAS ALSO CONVENIENTLY LEFT IN MY FRIDGE, PROBABLY BECAUSE OF LOGAN AGAIN
1 PACKAGE OF CROISSANTS FROM SOME HUGE DEPARTMENT STORE THAT ONLY SELLS BULK ITEMS
2 JARS OF JAM THAT I MADE WHEN I WAS IN MY JAM-MAKING PHASE
1 FRUIT PLATTER (I KEEP THOSE IN MY FRIDGE BECAUSE I LIKE TO TREAT MYSELF AND FEEL SPECIAL)
AND 1 PACKAGE OF THOSE SMALL, SQUARE, FOREVER BROWNIES.
Once you gather those ingredients and pile them all into a picnic basket (mostly for the ambiance and aesthetic, but if you want to use a normal bag, that works, too), then you have the absolute best picnic spread ever. It has everything from bread to cheese to more bread to fruit to juiced fruit to juiced carbonated fruit to chocolate.
I was a master of the picnic basket.
"Holy shit. Is that a magical picnic basket or something? How'd you fit all that in there?" Tyler asked, looking at me in disbelief.
"It's my secret Mary Poppins picnic basket. Things just appear," I said. "But this is by far the best picnic spread, I'm telling you. I've had so many years to master this. I did a picnic themed birthday party for this woman once, and she said my spread was absolutely magnificent. Except I didn't have the Elmo juice boxes with her. These are only for special occasions."
"Ah, you consider me a special occasion?"
"Well, I have to make this the best picnic you've ever been on, so absolutely," I said, opening the baguette package and grabbing the knife I packed for the cheeses.
"You didn't have to pop off so hard. I've never been on a picnic in the first place," Tyler said.
Suffice to say, my head absolutely snapped in his direction. I'm sure there was a shock in my eyes, as if a ghost had suddenly appeared behind Tyler or something. But no, it was just the incredibly shock that–
"You've never been on a picnic?" I asked. I think I could use the word flabberghasted to describe how I felt.
"Never."
My jaw might have dropped. I also might have dropped whatever cheese I was holding back onto the little wooden tray I brought (you know, to be safe when I cut it).
"Tyler."
"Clay."
"Never?"
"Never," he repeated. "Are you really that shocked?"
"I thought ... Tyler," I paused to gather myself, relaxing the muscles in my face so that my jaw was no longer dropped and my eyebrows weren't raised to the moon. "A picnic is like ... a base-level life experience. It's the very beginning phases of anything romantical."
"Romantical?"
"It's a word, don't come for me!" I exclaimed. "I'm saying that yes, I really am that shocked. Because I feel like everyone needs to experience a picnic."
"I've just never been on one. I've never really had a relationship that, uh, called for a picnic, I guess?" Tyler said.
"Well, welcome to your very first and most fantastic picnic," I said, gesturing to all of the food we had in front of us.
Tyler smiled and picked up one of the jars of jam, which I had labeled myself with a cute little chalkboard sticker. "Did you make these yourself?"
"Yep!"
Tyler looked at me, probably as shocked as I'd looked at him when he told me he'd never been on a picnic before.
"Who in the hell are you, Clay Greenwood?" he asked. "And where has your jam been all my life?"
✿✿✿
The sun was close to going down, and what was left of our picnic had been packed back into the basket. Except for the brownies. The tub was sitting in between Tyler and me while we lay back on the blanket, looking up at the sky. The sound of kids playing on the beach was fading as it got later, and families were packing up to head home for the evening. When I turned my head to one side to get a look at the rest of the beach, it was nearly empty. Something about that small fact made my heart a little more aware that Tyler and I were really just together. And alone. And very very close in proximity.
Brownies, warm weather, a sky that was coming to a close, and the lake. Oh, and a really attractive guy. That was a pretty great sounding night to me.
"You know what I'm thinking?" Tyler said.
We hadn't been talking for what was probably the past 20 minutes. It had been quiet, but not because it was awkward, just because it seemed like a moment for silence. We'd already talked a bunch throughout the picnic about random things. Actually, we talked about jam a lot. He'd never had apricot jam before trying mine, but he really liked it. He ate like 5 croissants.
"What?" I asked, and I turned my head to look at him. His head fell down to the side and was already smirking.
"We need to get in that water."
I raised my eyebrows. "As in ... that water?" I pointed to the lake.
"I don't see any other water. Do you?"
"Well, I brought a water bottle."
Tyler rolled his eyes and sat up, so I followed. He got up and looked out towards the lake, which was completely empty.
"We can't swim in a water bottle. But we can swim in that," he said, looking down at me. "Come on, are you in the mood to indulge?"
"Well, are you going to swim in the lake either way?" I asked.
"Clay," Tyler said, holding out his hand, "if I'm going to get wet, I'm taking you with me."
My face flushed and I took in a deep breath, then reached out to take hold of Tyler's hand. He helped me up and surprisingly, he didn't let go of my hand when I was standing. Our fingers were laced together, and it made my heart flutter. There was a glint of the moon reflecting in his eyes, and he started walking towards the lake, pulling me along with him.
As much as I loved Lake Lanier, I'd never really swum in it before. I'd dipped my toes in, but I don't think I had ever gone more than a foot into the water. It was kind of extremely cold. And I actually really didn't like the feeling of fish.
"Are you sure you want to swim in this?" I asked.
"It's just a lake, right? You said it yourself: no sharks, no eels, no jellyfish. Not even salt!" Tyler exclaimed, and he stepped his feet into the water. "But Jesus, apparently it's cold!"
"Very cold, actually," I said. "Which is why maybe we should just, uh, eat more bread?"
"If I eat one more piece of bread, my stomach might burst." Tyler let go of my hand and went to take off his shirt, which put me into a state of instant shock for a second. Because wow. He had a very nice looking torso. And even though I'd seen it multiple times, it was still very nice to lay my eyes on.
He tossed his shirt behind us, randomly on the beach, and then he reached down to grab my hand again. He looked into my eyes. "If you don't come with me, you're still coming with me."
"What? How? That doesn't make sense!"
"Because, I'll pull you with me anyway," Tyler said, then he pulled my hand and I stepped into the cold water. "This might not be in your cliché romantical starter-pack, but it's a part of my slightly-chaotic but hot starter-pack."
"There's nothing hot about freezing water. It's literally the opposite of hot," I said.
"I think I can change your mind," Tyler said, and he pulled me further into the water, grabbing ahold of me and jumping.
And then we were both underwater.
It lasted a few seconds before we both sprung up from the water. Tyler was about waist-deep and I was a little less than that, considering our height difference. He shook his hair out while I caught my breath, and then we were looking at each other.
We both laughed at the same time. I think we were also shivering.
"Holy fuck, it's cold," Tyler uttered, walking over to stand closer to me.
"I did warn you," I said. "The opposite of hot."
"And would it be the opposite of hot," Tyler began, taking my hands in his and getting very very close, "if I kissed you?"
You best believe I gulped.
"Like. Right here? In the water?" I said, teeth chattering.
"Right here," he stepped forward, then brought one of his hands to the side of my face, "in the water."
I barely nodded before he leaned up and pressed his lips against mine. His lips were warm compared to the rest of my body, which was freezing. Except for the hand he was still holding and the side of my face which he cupped with his other hand.
His hand moved to the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him, and I couldn't believe we were kissing in the freezing Lake Lanier. Every time we pulled away slightly just to get some air, I could feel the coldness returning to my body, but as soon as Tyler pressed back into me, it was all warm. Nothing but warm.
It was very much like brownies. Fresh out of the oven.
Tyler pulled away this time, both of our eyes opening and looking into each other.
"Less cold, right?" he said.
"You're right. But I have to admit that, I–I've never swum in this lake before. I'm afraid of fish touching me," I admitted.
"Don't worry about that. No fish are gonna be touching you. We'll leave that up to me." Tyler winked and kissed me again.
I knew we weren't together per se, but there was no part of me that wanted to pull away from this moment. The warmth was too good to let go of. And I didn't want to let go of Tyler. I already liked him so much. He hadn't opened up an incredible amount, and I could sense there were still walls he was keeping up purposely. But I'd learned so much about him, our text conversations hadn't been simple or strictly small-talk, and tonight ... Tonight was on a whole other level.
My heart was falling, as it always did.
I suddenly jolted and pulled away, holding onto Tyler's arm. "Okay, I definitely felt a fish!"
✿✿✿
Ooh girl. How y'all doin.
SO FOR REFERENCE: I'm gonna start uploading on Wed/Fri from now on, bc it works best with my work schedule. Just so y'all know!!!
BUT ANYWAY. IVE GOT MY COFFEE (Mrs. Dark Roast with some coconut milk) AND ITS TIME TO DISCUSS THE CHAPTER.
Hehe. You know I had to do it to em.
Number one: We have to love and appreciate Clay for his knowledge on fruits. We'll give him the benefit of the doubt that those lemons looked more like oranges in the store.
And of course I had to include the cliché picnic, which we love. Y'all can imitate PC's exact picnic now since he laid it all out for you. It is a pretty basic but AMAZING picnic.
But anyway. Tyler and Clay are getting a lottttttttttt closerrrrrr...
Obviously we know Clay is aware that Tyler's keeping walls up and whatnot. He's pretty self aware, but we can't blame him for wanting to have a good time. Can we?
We must debate the unpopular opinion in the comments on the last chapter: IS CLAY TOO GOOD FOR TYLER?
See y'all I love Tyler so much. But I love precious baby Clay, too. So let me know where you stand with both of them.
LOVE YOUUUU. DRINK YO COFFEE, EAT YO POTATOES (idk it's what's on my mind)