“I remember putting on dress pants and a dress shirt some Sundays before church and feeling so awkward,” he mused. “My mother would go with me; sometimes my aunt and uncle would join us. They’re not very religious either, but it was a structure thing, I guess, just something that their friends did and they thought I should be exposed to,” he said in thought. “There were good things about it. We’d come home and change clothes and Dad’d have cooked lunch,” he smiled. “I went to church most Sundays for about two or three years of my childhood,” he shrugged. “Could always call me,” he let her know, smiling at her and running a hand along her knee. “My dad was an auto-mechanic, so naturally I’ve learned a thing or two.” Feeling her arms wrap around his waist, he smiled at her, one hand placed on her back softly as the other ran through her hair. “I’ll stay the night with you,” he promised, a gentle smile appearing. “We can grab a hotel room or we can go back to one of our places.”
He watched her move a bit more into the water and swam closer to meet up with her, but still staying back a little, chuckling when she said he’d get her wet. “I like you wet,” he responded suggestively, smirking devilishly. He resisted the urge to splash her, but playfully pretended he was going to. “The water feels good,” he said after he rested back into the deeper water as the sun had finally began to go down. Families began climbing out of the water or heading away from their spot in the sand and leaving.
He pulled himself out of the water and dried himself off with his towel, sitting down on the towel that was laid down on the sand once he was dry and looking up at the moon. “Nice night out,” he said in thought. “You hungry?” he asked, grabbing the picnic food from the cooler, and opening it up. “I made us some pasta salad. I tried it before to make sure it didn’t suck but I had to get creative and think of things that wouldn’t spoil in the warm weather,” he commented with a grin, passing her a paper plate and spooning some food onto both of their plates. Holden was good at cooking, and at throwing food together, something he’d gotten from his father, whereas his mother couldn’t boil water. “There’s still a few snacks left in the bag,” he noted, in case she needed something more. Giving her a soft smile as he took a bite of his food, he grabbed another beer from the cooler and took a drink.
It felt good to be here with her, and they’d seem to fall back into their natural ways and he didn’t feel any weirdness, and hoped she didn’t either. Taking a deep breath, he looked into her eyes and smiled, feeling warm and comfortable when he looked at her. “Athena, I like you so much,” he said. “More than I’d planned. When I’m with you, I feel…complete?” he chuckled a bit at the possible cliche, but pushed on. “I just need you to know that,” he said. “I—I just—I’m here,” he continued, stumbling a bit, trying to find the right words, but also not wanting to scare her, but momentarily feeling scared himself. “All the way,” he finished. Abandoning his food for a moment, he closed his eyes briefly then opened them, digging into his bag for something. It’d been in the glove box, and he’d grabbed it sneakily just before they left the car.
“Greek Orthodox is so strict. I broke away as soon as I could. I wanted to do what I wanted, wear what I want, and so on. My mom didn’t go. She wasn’t religious. Just dad,” she shrugged. Granted, she did mainly go to church just to get time with him. That was really the only time he cared to actually be a family. “Luke’s side isn’t that religious either so when we got together, I just didn’t see a point. Brie isn’t even baptized. I figured if she wants to do that, then she can. I’m not going to force it on her.” Granted that made her grandmother gasp, but She wanted Brie to make her own decisions on things and to do something that Brie couldn’t control at her age just didn’t seem right. “I would have if you weren’t on call. And it was your week with Julia,” she spoke softly, giving a nod. Things with that was still on the line. Athena wasn’t about to cross it. It was safer to ask a random person for help than get him in trouble again. “We’ll see what happens.”
“I should have known that was going to happen. I really need to watch what I say. I will end up getting myself in trouble, again,” she pointed at him, a smile forming on her face. “It feels like water. I’m creature free, so I’m content. I think I need to stop all those documentaries telling me about the animals in the ocean. I grew way too paranoid after a while. But the air feels amazing tonight.” The free breeze made her feel relaxed. It was one thing she missed when she lived in Florida. The California breeze.
“Starving,” she smiled as she folded a leg under her, sitting down on the blanket. “You really thought everything through, didn’t you? Every little thing was planned to the right moment,” she looked over at him. It wasn’t that she was shocked, but she wasn’t expecting it. Usually they hung out or did something spur of the moment. It wasn’t a full out planned thing and tonight, it seemed like he made sure that every moment was special in some way. She couldn’t help the smile that stayed on her face in thought, eyes lowering for a small moment. “Oh, I’m saving those snacks for a must needed moment. They are here sitting just in case that pasta salad isn’t the bomb,” she teased, the smile tugging at her lips. Opening the wine, again, Athena took a drink, giving a small nod as he handed her the plate.
At the mention of her name, the Latina moved her eyes back to him. As he spoke, she couldn’t help the small tilt of her head, watching him fall over words. Watching him get nervous almost made her nervous, not really knowing what to expect. “Um, Are you okay?” She bit her bottom lip as he kept talking, wondering where it was leading. She couldn’t help but pause for a moment as he grabbed a small box, eyes widening. “Don’t you think we should be dating before you,” she pointed to the box, giving a slight confused look. “Are you proposing to me?”
