“Care to tell me why you’re kidnapping me at office hours for no apparent reason?” I asked once I was seated in the passenger seat. I looked up at the bright sun scorching down at us, right above our heads.
He shut my door for me while looking around sneakily.
“I’m taking you on a date.” He whispered into my open window.
“Right now? Aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“Is what your parents think but I already told my manager to clear my schedule from this afternoon.”
He rounded to the driver’s seat and slid in.
“Wow. You chose something else over work? That’s new. That’s good. You should do that every now and then.”
“Yeah, it was you who has made me want to not be in my office lately. I’m yet to decide if it’s a good thing.” He said, pulling away from the house.
“It is. There was going to be a breaking point soon anyway. You have been working hard for many years, making us feel as if we are good for nothing.” It was true. I felt utterly useless and a gold digger to be here when I could see how hard Ethan was constantly working although I was sure there was no need for that. It only made me more determined to study well and get a good job. In some level, us being kidnapped had turned out to be a good thing. I was able to give more time to my academics and self growth. I had grown more mature and I couldn’t wait to get out of here and prove myself to the world. For some reason I wanted to prove myself to Heather so that she could really believe me when I said that I wasn’t a gold digger or had any other intention and was stuck here purely by some twisted fate.
He chuckled. “I didn’t mean to. Anyway this date isn’t really planned and I really just wanted to spend time with you so I don’t know what you’ll think of it.”
“Ethan, anything’s fine really.”
We were driving into hilly areas and had gotten quite far away from the city. The cars on the road started lessening and I started to wondered where exactly he was taking me and to do what.
My questions were answered when he drove into the parking lot of a water park. Our first date since we got together was at a water park.
“This was unexpected. I didn’t bring a change of clothes.” I said.
“I’ve got it covered.” He said as he opened the trunk of the car, pulling out two small bags. He bought us two tickets and we gave the bags at the counter to put it in a locker and then he led me into the park.
It wasn’t crowded at all owing to the fact that it was the middle of the week. Everyone was busy, stuck in their offices hoping Friday would come sooner.
It felt weird to be just the two of us here along with a few people.
We changed into clothes that he had brought along so it wouldn’t matter if it got wet.
“Where do you want to go on first?” He asked as we met up in front of the changing rooms.
I looked ahead. All the rides seemed deadly. I wasn’t scared. It was just that I hadn’t been to a water park in ages.
But I knew this was going to be fun, especially because I was here with Ethan.
“That one.” I pointed at a simple cylindrical slide which ended in the large pool at the base.
“Okay, let’s go!” He held my hand and led me to the slide. As there weren’t a lot of people around we didn’t have to wait for our turn. I went first, sliding down the tube effortlessly only to splash into the water. When I resurfaced, Ethan had already followed me and we laughed together, shaking water off from our hair. Whatever awkwardness I felt since I got here quickly dissipated and I became more comfortable.
We jumped onto the next ride which was similar to the previous one but was longer and had turns and dips. We played in the pool for some time, splashing water at each other’s faces.
My favorite ride was the one where we were sitting on an inflatable raft and slid down the steep platform.
We went on every ride in the water park. It was fun. It was hours after that we finally completed all of the rides.
Just when we completed our last one and we were back at the humongous pool, laughing and chatting about how exhilarating the day was, I pulled him close and planted my lips on his. It was a soft and playful kiss.
We pulled away only when we were interrupted by a whistle.
“No PDA! This is a family friendly water park!” Shouted a woman from across the pool who apparently looked like she was a part of the maintenance crew. We immediately broke apart, getting out of the pool hastily to escape the embarrassment.
We changed back into our clothes and just as I thought that this was the end of our date, Ethan led me up a small hill. The sign on the trail indicated that it was the way to the ziplining spot.
I looked up at him in surprise. “Are we going to zipline?”
“Yes!” He said. “I’m a little afraid of heights but it’s okay I know you aren’t and so you’re going to enjoy this.”
Well, this was not good because I was a little terrified of heights myself. Why was Juliet such a brave girl? She was a risk taker and sometimes I didn’t understand that girl. The girl I’d never met.
I smiled uneasily at him, looking away to not let him show that I was panicking on the inside. “It’s getting late. Maybe we should come back later some day.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that late. We can definitely do this and go back. It won’t take much time.”
I didn’t have any other excuse to stop him so I went along. I told myself that I’d just close my eyes and pretend I was not ziplining. Then it wouldn’t be so bad.
We reached the spot and there were a few men assisting the other people who had come for ziplining. There were two more people before us after which it would be our turn.
We were at least a hundred feet above ground level. Ziplining from this height looked like a nightmare. The worst part of it was that I couldn’t even see further than a few feet away because of the fog which gave me no idea about what was going to come at me so that I would be prepared.
I heard that it passed through a gorge with a beautiful stream of water flowing beneath.
I tried not to show that I was a little worried but Ethan was chattering on about how it was the first time he was going to zipline and I couldn’t help but smile at his excitement, my own nerves put to ease.
Soon afterwards it was our turn. There were two zip wires running parallelly and Ethan and I were going to go at the same time. It was a good thing that when I was extremely frightened, no sound comes out of my mouth which meant I won’t be screaming in terror when this began and Ethan wouldn’t think that I was afraid.
Once we were strapped into the trolleys, my overthinking brain with overactive imagination started creating various scenarios which ended with fatal conclusions.
I shook my head. It was going to be fine.
I looked to my side and Ethan looked giddy with fear, anticipation and excitement. He looked back at me and we gave each other a smile, well his was more of a wide grin.
And then it began. I quickly shut my eyes. There were two seconds at the start where it felt like we were going slow and then immediately the wind whipped at my face and through my hair. I felt my stomach clench when the steep slope prevailed and made me tighten my hold on the cables suspended from the pulley.
A little behind me, Ethan was having the time of his life. His cheers reached my ears and I heard him yell “whoa” and “wow” a couple of times.
I hesitantly opened my eyes, intending to just peek but the wind was so fierce that it had me looking at the view beneath me with wide eyes.
It was pure beauty. We were going through a pretty gorge. The fresh water was running about sixty feet beneath our feet and was lined with greenery and shrubs, seemingly untouched by human activity. The soft sound of water running around rocks and soil and hitting each other reached up to us, the only sound that was audible to us.
The sides of the gorge had random patterns running all over and although the height freaked me out, it dimmed in comparison to the sight in front of my eyes. This was fun. Scary but fun nevertheless.
We landed safely on a platform soon after the thrilling experience. Ethan stepped down on the grass. “This was perfect.” He sighed, staring up at the sky. “But I feel a little dizzy.”
I chuckled. “I loved it.”
“Well of course. You’re an adventure freak. You jump off a cliff, you zipline, you run away from home and so much more that I don’t know yet. You do all sorts of scary things.”
Well he was right about the first two. But he had done those with me too.
I chuckled. “Its fun. So… is there anything else we’re going to do? Are we going to sky dive next?”
He pulled himself from the ground and shook off the grass in his hair and clothes. “No. That was it. Unless you have something in mind.”
“Right now, all I can think about it how hungry I am.”
“Me too. Should we go home for dinner or eat out? Driving home will take about two hours.”
I shook my head vigorously. “I need food. Urgently. Like right now.”
“Me too.” He said again. “What should we eat?”
“I’m craving McDonald’s.”
A smile instantly lit up his face. “You read my mind. I can’t remember the last time I had some McDonald’s.”
We left the water park where I had so much fun. We took a lot of pictures that day to keep as memories.
We started towards home and on the way we spotted a McDonald’s and Ethan was going to pull up at the parking when I told him to just go through the driveway. He did as I told him and soon we had a lot of food.