Discipline

“No, that’s good!” Adriana insisted. “You better hope she stays there for a few more days too, or you’ll have no place for it to go down with Daniel tomorrow.”

I hadn’t even thought about that.

“They could always rent a hotel room,” Linh pointed out, though she immediately wrinkled her nose as the idea left her lips.

“Mm, no.” Em shook her head as she began dicing the peaches that Adriana had neatly pitted. “Considering all the blue balls and walls between ‘em, I doubt they’d make it through a check in process.”

I laughed and then gasped. “Oh no, you’re picking up on Ade’s lingo.”

“I know. I can’t help it.”

“You love it.” Adriana tossed a wrinkly peach pit at Em. “Anyway, Nina, where is tomorrow’s date so we know what five block radius to avoid if we don’t want to see you two getting it on in public?” she asked. “Not that I wouldn’t be kind of curious.”

I made a face but laughed. “He chose some crab shack all the way out in Red Hook. I’ve never heard of it, but it’s apparently been around for a long time.”

“Crab shack?” Linh made a face. “That sounds… dirty and… kind of unromantic? Maybe he’s trying really hard not to be turned on by you tomorrow.”

Adriana squinted. “I don’t know. Nina covered in crab guts sounds pretty sexy to me.”

“Honestly, I figured he was bringing me out to the edge of Brooklyn so we wouldn’t have the comfort of my apartment close by. So no option to… you know.”

“Hump like bunnies.”

“Yes, Ade. That.”

Em shook her head tragically. “Those poor walls of yours, Nina.”

“Guess you can take the guy out of Woodhill, but you can’t take the Woodhill out of the guy!” Adriana clucked. “Speaking of wood though, he must’ve had one epic shower wank after getting home last night. I’m so sorry, Nina, but I’m imagining it right now and it’s glorious. Those forearms.”

“Ade!” Linh, Em and I scolded though we couldn’t help bursting out in laughter. “And I see you’ve picked up Harry’s lingo.” I nodded.

“Sure have, mate.”

Linh shook her head with mock disapproval. “Tsk. I think Ade needs to pay a visit to Woodhill so she can learn to be a little more proper.”

We all went quiet, staring at each other and pretending to consider it before going, “Nahhh.”

“Fuck Woodhill,” Adriana declared. She held the bowl of diced peaches over the food processor and overturned it dramatically. “Fuck being ever so proper.” She dumped the sugar and lemon juice in as well before hitting blend. As the noisy blade whirred, she added one last thing that was no doubt vulgar and Daniel-related, but none of us could hear. We laughed anyway, pretty much able to guess the gist of it.

~

Before leaving for Red Hook, I confirmed with Kelsey for a second time that she wouldn’t be back at the apartment till Thursday.

No. Go ahead and throw some huge party for your friends, was her response.

Under normal circumstances, I would’ve figured out a reply to gauge her mood and see if her text were some sort of invitation to ask if she was angry with me and if we needed to have one of our talks. In the past, Kelsey never liked admitting to being upset when I asked. The routine was bearing with her moodiness and clipped answers for about a week until being given a sign that she was ready to hash things out. They usually came in the form of particularly annoyed-sounding text messages.

But I didn’t respond today because I was already running late to meet Daniel. Having imagined him picking me up just as Kelsey came home, I’d told him to meet me at the crab shack. I hadn’t considered that a subway ride there would take an hour as opposed to twenty minutes in a car.

I’m so sorry! I’m going to grab a cab right now, I texted Daniel. He hadn’t been kidding about leaving his all-day conference immediately. It was barely past 8PM and he was already there while I was still on me knees locating my other sandal. As tempted as I was to look like a vixen, flats were my pick for the night. I’d never been out to Red Hook and my imagination was giving me lots of sand and cobblestone for some reason, so flat sandals seemed to be the proper choice. But they looked beyond silly with my coral peplum dress so a minute before leaving the apartment, I ditched the outfit and pulled on a tie-front tank top and shorts, praying that I wasn’t for some reason misinformed and this wasn’t somehow the world’s fanciest crab shack.

It wasn’t.

I arrived to find my cab pulling up to what looked like an old wooden house on stilts. But I was instantly charmed. The view of the moonlit ocean didn’t hurt and neither did the strings of lights hanging from the shack ceilings that I could see from outside.

“Nina.” I felt Daniel’s hand on my hip just as I heard his voice. I spun around, instantly flushing for some reason. Maybe it was the way his smile widened the second I turned to face him. It didn’t hurt that his slate T-shirt was deliciously stretched across his muscles, creasing horizontally over his broad chest.

“Hi.” I tucked my hair behind my ear as the breeze blew it forward. My eyes dipped briefly down to his hand on my waist. “I see you’re letting yourself touch me tonight.”