The Arrangement

I slid my not-so-midnight snack from the burner, lamenting the potential loss of my cookware more than my grilled cheese. After turning it over I decided I could probably salvage it. The pan, not the sandwich.

“Are you sure you didn’t want—”

I turned back again and he was gone, just as quickly as he’d come. Or came. Or whatever. His laptop was gone too.

I was left there dripping in the empty kitchen, legs trembling. Pulling Nathan’s shirt down around my thighs once more.

“Damn he’s fast,” I muttered, reaching for the bread again.

Twenty-Four

NATHAN

“Kneel… kneel… now one foot… good…”

The wave crested just behind us. It rolled slowly beneath her, as she wobbled uneasily on her board.

“Now POP IT!”

Kayleen pushed off with her arms and leapt upward, just as I’d showed her a hundred times before. This time however, she landed with both feet hitting the surfboard at the same time.

Holy shit.

She was standing up! Her arms whipped out instinctively, to find her balance. And then… suddenly she was surfing.

“That’s it! THAT’S IT!”

Kayleen’s legs were shaking violently. She risked a glance back at me, and her expression made me laugh. She was more surprised than excited.

“KEEP YOUR KNEES BENT!”

I was shouting into my hands now. Watching as my student made her first actual run, rocking back and forth uncertainly as the surfboard picked up speed.

Damn, she’s kicking ass.

It was a little scary, how easily Kayleen was picking up on things. When she’d asked me to teach her I’d almost balked. So far though, she’d taken to surfing like a fish to water.

“YOU’RE LEANING FORWARD!” I warned.

I’d had other friends who wanted to surf, and I’d tried to teach them. None of them had been able to get up. I’d always figured it was my fault — that maybe I was just a shitty teacher. But judging by how Kayleen was doing right now? Maybe my friends were the shitty ones.

“DON’T LEAN FORWARD!” I shouted, though she was probably beyond hearing by now. “DON’T LEAN FORWA—”

She dumped headfirst, her blue-and-yellow bikini slipping quickly beneath the churning foam. I was paddling that way in an instant. Watching for any sign of her little blonde head, bobbing back up in the rolling waves.

I saw her surface and breathed a sigh of relief.

She really is something, the little voice in my head told me. Definitely more than you thought she’d be.

It was a strange thing to be floating in the ocean, conversing silently with myself. Yet I’d done it all morning long. Half the afternoon, too.

She means even more to you than you want to admit.

That part was true, whether I liked it or not. There was something about Kayleen that made her more than just girlfriend material. She’d really grown on me. And not just me…

She’d grown on us.

It was like that for Chase for sure. And Burke too, whether he admitted it or not. We were growing attached, in more ways than one. Physically. Socially. Emotionally.