Our Way

by Swan, T L

  “That’s debateable.” He mutters as he watches the oncoming traffic. He finally sees a break and drags me across the road.

  “What do you think I do when you aren’t with me?” I ask as I half run to keep up with him.

  “I hate to think.”

  We get to the other side of the street. He lets me go, and I link my arm through his. Truth be told, I like the way Nathan makes me hold his hand on the roads. He’s done it since our very first dinner date, all those years ago.

  “When do we go?” I ask as we walk along.

  “Four weeks from tomorrow.”

  “Maria didn’t mention it.”

  “Because it’s a surprise.” He widens his eyes, as if I’m stupid.

  “Oh right.” I beam. “I’m going to need new vacation clothes, and oh…” I clap in excitement. “I’m going to get one of those hats I wanted. You know, the ones that match your bikini?”

  He smiles, clearly delighted by my excitement. “Okay.”

  “You’re going to need new swim shorts, too.”

  “I’m good.” He smirks.

  “Nathan…” I smile up at him. “Thank you, I really needed this vacation. You’re too good to me.” I kiss his shoulder as we walk.

  He leans his head down to rest on mine. “Only the best for my girl. Happy Birthday, baby.”

  * * *

  It’s 10:35 p.m., and after going out for dinner, I watched Netflix, and called my sister April before I googled Majorca all night. I’m now ready for bed. I brush my teeth and tie my long, dark hair in a braid, and then I walk into my bedroom. Nathan is lying on his side, reading his book. The room is dark, the only light from his bedside lamp.

  “Is the book good?” I ask.

  He turns the page, distracted. “Very.”

  I turn my blankets down and smile as I watch him. “I can’t believe I got the job.” The email came in a few hours ago, and I’m still processing it.

  “I told you that you would.”

  “It’s so exciting, you know? Something new to learn, and they approved our vacation, so it’s all good.”

  “It is.” He replies distracted.

  I climb into bed. “Can we go shopping tomorrow for bikinis?” I could ask for anything when he’s reading and he will gladly agree, just to shut me up.

  “If you want.” He turns another page.

  I get into bed and turn my back to him. “Let’s get up early and go out for breakfast. Then it’s shopping all day.”

  “Hmm,” he mutters, distracted. He grabs my hipbone and pulls me back so I’m snug up against his body. This is how I fall asleep the fastest.

  “Did I say thank you?”

  “A hundred times, now go to sleep.” He taps my hip in a silent shut up now signal.

  I smile into the darkness. “Are you going to read all night?”

  “Probably.”

  “Night, Nathe.”

  He taps my behind. “Night, babe.”

  Nathan

  “Then I want to go into that new place that opened in the mall,” Eliza says as she drags me down the street.

  Why the hell did I agree to come shopping all day? What was I thinking? “Yeah, okay.” I sigh. “I need more coffee.”

  “You’ve had two already.”

  I look at her, deadpan. “I need more.”

  She rolls her eyes, unimpressed, and drags me into a lingerie store. “Sit there.” She directs me to sit in a large velvet chair outside the changing rooms.

  Thank fuck… a chair.

  I slump into the seat and wait as she looks around. I take out my phone and scroll aimlessly through it. Eliza eventually picks up a few things before she walks into the changing room. “Won’t be a minute.”

  I exhale heavily. This is the last place I want to be on a Saturday.

  I stuff my phone back into my pocket, link my fingers together, and put my hands behind my head.

  After a few minutes, she says, “I like this one.”

  “Show me.”

  She opens the curtain. I stare at her for a moment and then frown. She’s wearing a gold, skimpy bikini. Her hips are curved and her skin has a beautiful honey tone to it. Her breasts are full and voluptuous.

  She holds her long, dark hair up on top of her head in a ponytail. “Is this all right?”

  My brow furrows as I stare at her. The blood begins to rush around my body, and my throbbing heartbeat echoes in my ears.

  “Erm…” I pause as I think of the right thing to say. She looks more than all right. Fucking hell!

  Eliza flicks her bikini bottom and wiggles her hips. “I think I’ll get it.”

  My cock instantly hardens.

  What the actual fuck is going on here?

  She puts her hands up and rearranges her breasts in the bikini top, and my dick clenches in appreciation.

  Jesus Christ.

  I’ve never reacted to Eliza this way before, and I’ve seen her in every possible way.

  I break into a cold sweat. The room begins to spin, and I stand up in a rush. “I’ll meet you outside.”

  2

  Eliza

  I frown as I watch Nathan practically running from the shop. What in the hell’s wrong with him?

  I turn back to my reflection in the mirror and smile as I look at myself. I actually look good in this. All those mornings in the gym are finally paying off. I turn to look at my behind and readjust the top over my breasts. Yep, I’m getting it. I try on the second one but it doesn’t look anywhere near as good. Gold it is.

  I get dressed and take the bikini to the cashier. “I’ll take this one, please.”

  “It’s lovey, isn’t it?” She folds it and wraps it in white tissue. “It just came in on Thursday. It comes in red, too. Did you see that one?”

  “Yes, I did. “My eyes roam over to the others on the rack. “Thanks, but I prefer this color.” I glance out through the window to see Nathan pacing back and forth on the sidewalk. His hands are raking through his hair, and he looks like he’s just seen a ghost. What is he doing?

  “Have a nice day.” The cashier hands over the bag, and I bounce outside.

  Nathan’s eyes meet mine, and he swallows a lump in his throat.

  “What happened?” I ask. “Did the hospital call?”

  His face falls. “Yes.” He looks around nervously. “That’s it, the hospital called.”

  I link my arm through his. “Everything okay?”

  “Yes.” He glances down at my hand on his bicep.

  “Do you need to go straight away or are we grabbing you more coffee?”

  “Umm.” His eyes hold mine.

  “It’s fine.” I sigh. “You’re off the hook. Come have a quick breakfast with me and then you can go to work. I don’t mind shopping alone.”

  He raises a brow. “If you don’t mind shopping alone, why do you always make me come?”

  “To torture you, of course.” I smile.

  “Hmm.” He grunts. “It’s working.”

  “Don’t forget we’re going out tonight.”

  “Yes, I know.” He frowns as he stares out at the people around us, totally distracted. “What time are we leaving?”

  “I’ve got Monica’s baby shower this afternoon, and you’re meeting us at the bar, remember?”

  He rolls his eyes.

  I frown up at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing.” He grabs my hand as we cross the road.

  “If you don’t want to come out tonight then don’t come.”

  “I’m fucking coming, all right.” He glances down at me. “Did you get the gold one?”

  I smile broadly. “Uh-huh. I’m going to be loving myself sick in that bikini.”

  “Hmm.” He replies flatly. “It was a bit skimpy, wasn’t it?”

  “Nope, I might even go topless over there. Maybe even nude.” I widen my eyes. “The possibilities are endless really.”

  “That won’t be happening.”

  “Why not?”
>
  “Because…” He frowns. “I’m not protecting you from the sleezy gazes of men. Women get abducted from Majorca all the time, you know.”

  “They do not.” I giggle and kiss his shoulder. “Doesn’t bother you here. Being my bouncer is your favorite pastime.”

  I glance down to realize that we’re still holding hands. Nathan seems to notice at the same time. He drops my hand like a hot potato and takes a huge step back. “Listen… I’m going to take a raincheck on breakfast.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  “I’m very busy and I can’t be loitering around the shops with you all day. Goodbye, Eliza,” he announces formally.

  Jeez, this patient must be really sick if he’s acting crabby. “See you tonight, then?”

  He nods and turns.

  “Hey!” I call, he turns back toward me. “Where’s my goodbye kiss?”

  He narrows his eyes before he leans down and kisses my cheek. “Stop fucking nagging me.”

  I smile up at my handsome friend and fix his hair from hanging over his eyes.

  He turns, storms off, and I watch him disappear into the distance.

  Hmm, weird. I take out my phone and call my mom. She answers on the first ring. “Hey, Mom.” I smile.

  “Hello, darling, how’s my girl today?”

  “Oh my God, I didn’t call you last night because it was too late. Guess what Nathan bought me for my birthday?”

  “I can’t imagine. That man spoils you rotten.”

  “I know.” I laugh. “A trip to Majorca.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Spain.”

  “Oh my God. Tom!” she calls out to my father. “Nathan bought Eliza a trip to Spain for her birthday.”

  “Oh, hell, that’s great. Can we come?” I hear my dad reply back.

  “Can you believe it?” I gasp.

  “I can, honey. He takes you everywhere.”

  “I just bought the most beautiful bikini, and I love it.”

  “This is great. You have that baby shower this afternoon, don’t you?”

  I roll my eyes. “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

  “Listen, honey, I’ve got to go. Doris is picking me up for tennis in five minutes and I’m not ready. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Okay, love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  * * *

  The waiter pours our glasses of wine. “Are you ready to order?” he asks.

  I peruse the menu. “Can we have five more minutes, please?”

  “Of course.” He gives Brooke, Jolie, and me a broad smile and with a nod of his head he rushes off to serve someone else.

  “A toast.” Brooke smiles as she holds up her glass. “To surviving an afternoon in the snake pit.” She smirks.

  “To surviving.” We giggle together. God, this afternoon’s baby shower was horrendous. “I’m not having a baby shower, and neither are you two,” I say before I take a sip of my wine. “Nathan’s right, they’re a complete waste of time.”

  “That’s if we even have kids,” Brooke says casually.

  “You don’t want kids?” I frown, this is the first I hear of this.

  Brooke shrugs. “I don’t know. I’m thirty-three and single. Who knows what the future holds. It may not be in my destiny.”

  “I’m having kids,” I tell her. “If I can, of course. Or I want to adopt or foster, but being a mom is something I definitely want to do.”

  “Well, you’d better get Nathan out of your bed then,” Jolie says before she takes a big gulp of her wine.

  “What does that mean?” I frown.

  “It means just that. No guy is going to want to date a woman who sleeps with another man every night.”

  “We’re friends. And when was the last time you had sex?” I retort.

  “A while ago.” Jolie sighs.

  I look between my two beautiful friends, and something blindingly obvious stands out. “What’s going on with us?”

  “What?”

  “Look at us,” I say. “In our thirties, successful, financially independent and happy, yet nobody out there interests us romantically. There’s no shortage of men, just none are appealing to us three.”

  We all stare into space as we each go over that notion in our mind.

  “I don’t know about you girls, but casual sex has most definitely lost its shine.” Brooke sighs.

  “For me, too.” Jolie nods. “I go to the gym, then work, and I hang with you guys on the weekend. I really don’t do much else. I may be the most boring person on the planet.”

  “Me, too,” Brooke agrees.

  “You know what the problem is?” I say. “We’re too comfortable.”

  “To be honest, I’d rather eat a cupcake than spend an hour getting ready for a date with a loser. Men just aren’t worth the fucking hassle anymore.” Jolie shrugs. “Well, let’s face it, nobody satisfies us in bed like BOB does, anyway.”

  We all clink our glasses together. “Amen.”

  I slump and lean on my hand. “I’ve had way too many dates with my vibrator. I think I’ve forgotten what real sex is even like.”

  Brooke narrows her eyes. “Girls, I think it’s official. We’re in a midlife rut.”

  We sip our wine in silence, suddenly depressed by the thought.

  “But, how? How did it go from dating all the time and having the time of our lives, to waking up one day and realising that we haven’t gone on a date in six months?”

  “Continual disappointment in men, I suspect.”

  “We should shake things up a bit,” Jolie chips in.

  “Like how?” I ask.

  “I don’t know.” She thinks for a moment, and then narrows her eyes as a plan presents itself. “Step out of our comfort zones. We each have to go on a date and we need to talk to different people—do things we don’t normally do. Yes! We could do it. The six of us should go on a date, and then we can reward ourselves with a weekend away… somewhere exotic.”

  “Oh, please. Nathan won’t go on a date with anybody.” I roll my eyes.

  “Bullshit!” Jolie snaps. “He’s fucking people all the time. A man who looks like he does has to be having sex on tap.”

  “Like when?” I scoff. “He spends every spare minute of his day with me.

  “He still has his apartment, doesn’t he?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Why exactly do you think he has that bachelor pad, Eliza?” I stare at her. “Nathan’s apartment is his booty-call place. He works late some nights, he fucks whoever he wants, kicks them out, and then he goes to your house to sleep.”

  Brooke widens her eyes as if I’m totally clueless.

  I cringe. “You think?”

  “I know.”

  “I never thought of it that way. Maybe...” I shrug. “Good for him, I guess.” I toast the air with my wine. “At least one of us is getting some action.”

  “You know,” Jolie says. “This little arrangement you and Nathan have going on, is really not good for you.”

  “Why? I don’t care who Nathan fucks.”

  “Because it’s not equal. You can’t fuck who you want, or invite men over because Nathan is always at your house. He’s got his cake and he’s eating it, too.”

  “We’re friends, you idiot. I’m not his fucking cake.”

  “How many texts have you sent each other today?” Jolie asks.

  “We’re friends. Friends text each other.”

  Brooke and Jolie exchange looks. “All right… then put it this way: would you invite a guy over with Nathan there… in his boxer shorts, sleeping in your bed?”

  “Absolutely not.” I wince. I imagine Nathan strangling some poor man for interrupting his time with me.

  “But when Nathan wants to have sex with someone, he has his apartment to go to,” Jolie continues. “He has an out, Eliza. You don’t. Why can’t you see it? One day, he’s going to meet someone special and stay at his apartment with him, and he’ll never come back. Where will that leave y
ou?”

  I imagine what a horrible day that would be.

  Maybe the girls are onto something here. This isn’t a normal set up between him and me. The boundaries between us are blurred. As much as I adore Nathan, perhaps by spending so much time with him, I’m holding myself back from meeting someone in my future.

  Shit.

  If I do want to meet someone and eventually have kids, I need to do something different to what I’m doing now.

  I am in a rut.

  Happy, but stagnant just the same.

  Brooke and Jolie raise their eyebrows. “So, you do agree that what we’re doing isn’t working?”

  “I do,” I concede. “You’re right, something has to change or we’re going to end up single forever.”

  “So, are we in?” Jolie asks.

  “One date?” I ask. “That’s it? No strings?”

  “A proper date. Sit down meal and all the trimmings. At least four hours. A kiss at the end of it,” Jolie replies.

  “Can we leave the boys out of it and make it an exotic girls weekend away instead?” I ask. “I don’t want them to know about this.” Nathan will never let me live it down if he finds out.

  “Of course.” Brooke smiles. “This is just the motivation I needed to wear my cute red dress tonight.”

  “We start tonight?” I gasp.

  “No time like the present.” Brooke clinks her wine glass against ours. “To operation rut-breaker.”

  “Whoever gets the first date gets to pick where we go for our weekend away,” Jolie says.

  “That’s going to be me.” I smile, and for the first time in a long time, excitement sweeps through me.

  What can I wear tonight? I want to pick where we’re going away so I need to win this bet. I want to look sexy as fuck.

  “You know what?” Jolie says. “I’m going to the bar right now and I’m going to talk to someone.”

  “You are?” I frown in surprise.

  “Yep, fuck this. I’m going to make conversation and everything.”

  We all giggle, and she looks around as she searches for her unsuspecting target. “See that guy over there?”

  We look over to see a cute guy sitting at the bar alone. “Yeah.”