“You’re doing really good. There is one thing I’m going to ask though, and I’m not sure you’re going to like it.”
“Hit me with it.”
“I should have asked you last week, but I forgot, and to be honest I didn’t think you’d stick with it.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“I need to take a picture of you, for my paper.”
“Why?”
“It’s a before, and then I’ll take an after shot.”
“You want a before picture of me?”
“Yes. It will help with my paper. It’s no big deal, and it doesn’t even have to be with your head on.”
She laughed. “Yeah, it kind of does, but I know what you mean. A picture from the neck down. I’ve seen a lot of them. Erm, sure, where do you want to do it?”
“Maybe back at my place again. We can drive over now, after lunch, I can take some pics, and that’ll be it.”
“Oh, wait, what about tomorrow?” she asked.
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’m walking to your place to get measured, why don’t we just do the pictures then? It could be fun.” She finished her bagel, licking her lips.
“Sure, we’ll do it then.” He was happy to have an excuse to spend some time with her tomorrow, but he was also gutted that he’d not been able to think of something reasonable to keep them together longer today.
Fuck!
“What are you doing today?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Probably do some more weights when I get home.”
“Seriously? You don’t think you work out enough?”
“What else is there to do?”
“I don’t know. Watch a movie, go and see some beautiful sights.”
“We live in a neighborhood where everything is pristine, and beautiful, and there’s nothing out of place. It’s clinical.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve just not been looking hard enough. Come on.” She stood up, throwing him some notes.
“What?”
“Go pay, and I’ll grab my car. Come on.” He found her giggle intoxicating.
Paying for their food, he met her outside. Climbing into her car, he did his seatbelt, and waited. “Okay, where is this fun?”
“Relaxation, my friend.” She pulled away from the deli, and went up onto the highway.
“Where are we going?”
“Just relax. I know what I’m doing. So, about two years ago, Dad was super stressed about a murder case he was working on. It was a big deal. Mom and Dad were fighting, and everything was going to shit, if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“It’s just us here.”
“I know. I know. Anyway, Mom threatened him with a divorce unless he slowed down. To be honest, I think he was going to die from all the stress anyway, but, one weekend he took us on a camping vacation. I don’t mean hotels either, I mean actual camping, tents, beds, a gas stove, you name it. It completely rocked. Probably the best weekend of my life with my parents.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“All you do is work out, and I know it’s for fun, but I want you to have a chance to relax, and just to see the world a little differently. I’m not saying stop, and turn into a slob. You still need all of those girls to lose themselves over you.”
“Wow, Elsa, are you paying me a compliment?”
“Yeah, come on, you know you’re hot. Everyone knows you’re hot. You hang out with the hot brigade.”
He laughed. “I didn’t know you were an admirer.”
“So, what I’m thinking is I show you the world through a new perspective.”
“How did you get on with camping?” he asked.
“At first I didn’t like it. In a tent around lots of people with bugs, and the risk of getting murdered in my sleep, but being around my parents with nothing to distract them, it was awesome. No phone, no laptop, no other world but the one we made.”
“It sounds great.”
“It was.”
They drove for over an hour, and Noah relaxed, enjoying the ride. She didn’t pull up into a camping zone, however. She pulled up in a parking lot that had several cars already there. Some people were packing away equipment.
“Come on.”
“This is where you camped?”
“Oh, no. That weekend, we explored the beauty surrounding the camp, which is probably an hour’s walk that way.” She pointed somewhere west. Leaving the car, she grabbed his hand. “Let’s go.”
There was a walkway with trees on either side, and within seconds they were surrounded by woodland.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Noah followed her up a steep incline, using the excuse of steadying her to hold onto her hips to help her up.
They had been walking and climbing for a good twenty minutes, and then there was a clearing at the top. Everything opened up, and he saw a railing in place. Moving toward it, he looked down and gasped. It was really high up.
“Some people use this to parachute, but look,” she said, pointing across.