You breathe a sigh of relief.
"That would've been in embarrassing."
"Yeah. Not a good place to make out."
She giggles and looks towards you. "So...did you like it?"
You don't say anything, you just look at her and smile.
She laughs in response. "That good?"
You nod. She scoots back and bumps against you again.
"Maybe we should hold off for now." she says.
"Yeah, maybe."
She leans her head on your shoulder and sighs. She's so comfortable around you. Oh well, can't be a bad thing.
"I haven't felt this way in a long time."
"No?"
"No. I've had the worst luck with guys."
"Whys that?"
"After the divorce with Night Light, it just got complicated."
"What do you mean complicated?"
She sighs. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about it."
"Well, you can talk to me about anything. At least I'm good enough for that."
"Good enough?"
"Yeah."
She gives you a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"I can't pay for anything. I can't drive you anywhere. I feel useless compared to the guys that you're probably used to."
She smiles and giggles. "If I were in it for that kind of stuff I would have never even considered something like this."
That makes you feel a little bit better.
"You weren't actually worried about that, were you?"
You look at her, then down to the floor...then nod.
"Anon...Don't worry about it."
You look up at her. "If we get really serious and this turns into something long term, I don't want some other guy providing for my woman."
"Yeah. I know what you mean."
You stand up. "Lets not worry about that now, though."
You walk up towards her shoes....Still damp. Not like much time has passed.
"Well, looks like they're dry enough." she says, walking up to you.
"You kidding?"
"Nah. Its fine."
"They're still damp."
"They're not sopping wet."
"Unlike me."
It takes you a second to make the connection. Your body stiffens up when you do so.
She snickers at you. "I'm kidding."
"Uhh, yeah. I know!"
She scoffs. She starts putting her socks on and then slips on her shoes. Her shoes make squishing sounds from the dampness.
"Told you."
She shrugs. "I'll live with it."
"Suit yourself."
She grabs your hand. "Shall we?"
Holding your hand you leave the deck and get back on the trail.

Shlick shlack shlick shlack.
You can't help but snicker.
"Shutup."
"What?!"
"You're laughing at my shoes."
"Well, its funny. I told you they were too damp."
Shlick shlack shlick shlack.
You laugh this time. She sighs.
"What? Okay, I'm sorry."
"I just feel stupid for falling in the water."
You sigh. "Okay then." You let go of her hand and start to walk off the trail, towards the river.
"Anon?" She notices you're walking towards the river. She starts laughing.
"ANON! DON'T!"
Its too late. You soak your shoes in the river.
She's laughing up at the top of trail, you down at the riverside.
Water...cold... Giving them a couple of seconds to soak, you pull your feet out of the water and head back up to the trail.
Shlick shlack shlick shlack.
She's still laughing.
"There we go."
"WHY did you do that?"
"Well, now we can feel stupid together." you say, smiling at her.
"Yeah, but you did it on purpose!"
"Yup. That makes me more stupid. You're the smarter one."
"Aww, anon...I already knew that."
You snicker at that and take her hand.
She pecks her lips on your cheek. "That was still sweet though."
Whatever. You still made her laugh. That's all that matters. You shlick shlack down the trail with her, hand in hand.
The trail goes on for about another hour before you reach a bridge that reaches across the river. Velvet climbs the steps up to the bridge with you.
The sun is at the horizon now. You don't have much time before its going to get dark. You enjoy the scenery anyway as you reach the top of the steps. The bridge's wooden structure stretches all the way across the river, leading to a trail that will take you back the way you came. Effectively making a big circle. Velvet walks ahead of you and rests her arms on the side railing, looking down at the river. You walk up next to her and lean on the railing as well. The sun on the horizon casts an orange glow all over the landscape. An evening breeze brushes past the both of you.
You inhale the fresh air. There are very few better feelings than this.
Velvet leans against you. "This was fun." she says, sighing.
"Better than a movie?"
"Way better."
The river makes a distinct white noise in the background as the water rushes beneath the both of you.
Its pretty relaxing.
There is no one else around. Just you and her.
"Think we have an hour of daylight left?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well its just that its going to be dark soon."
"Yeah, we left pretty late."
You want to savor the moment with her on the bridge. "We can give it a couple minutes though." You sit down on the bridge and let your legs hang off the side
Velvet sits down with you and puts her hand on yours.
She really likes to hold hands. You lace your fingers between hers and stare out at the water. Velvet rests her head on your shoulder.
"Hey, Anon?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Are you actually serious about this?"
You raise your eyebrow and look over at her, her blue eyes making contact with yours. "What do you mean?"
She looks back down at the river and makes a bittersweet smile. "I know how guys your age are. Pent up with hormones and such...so I can kind of understand if your main motive isn't the same as mine."
"Well, whats your motive?"
"A....long term relationship, I guess."
"Well then you have nothing to worry about. That's the same as mine."
She looks back up at you. "Why would you think that I didn't have the same motive?"
She tries to defuse the tension. "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you were staring at me during dinner the other day!"
You blush and say, "Well you looked really good. I couldn't help it."
She grins and eyes you suspiciously. "I thought you said it was the dress!"
"Pardon?"
"You told me earlier that you were staring because you really liked my dress!"
"No, I was lying."
She snickers. "Obviously."
There's an awkward silence as you both stare at the river in front of you.
"So how do I look now?"
You glance over at her and size her up.
"Beautiful."
She blushes and says, "Do you want to kiss again?"
"Not particularly."
"Oh, shut up!"
She grabs you and force kisses you. Oh damn, that's kind of hot. You waste no time picking up where you left off before.
No one will come, right?

Its getting late.
You probably won't get caught if.. Ah, who the hell cares.
You grab her hips once again. You push your tongue into her mouth before she even gets the chance to do the same.
She squeaks a little bit, surprised by your sudden advance, but she immediately adapts and returns the favor. You're starting to get horny.
Slowly your hands start to creep under her shirt. She jolts and breaks the kiss.
"Anon!" she says, surprised, but still giggling.
"What?"
"We can't do that here...there might be people here."
"Its almost night, who cares. No one will be here."
"Anon. Listen to yourself. Its almost night time and its not like we have a flash light to walk the trail with."
Why do women only seem to be logical in situations like this? "We'll be fine." you say, leaning in and kissing her neck.
She shudders quickly in surprise. "Anon..." she moans.
You're too horny to care about having to walk the trail in the dark, or if people might see...or the fact that you might end up fucking on a bridge. Your hands return to their original position on her hips, your fingers hooking around the bottom of her shirt.
"I can't believe we're doing this..." she says, breathing heavily.
You remain silent as you pull off her shirt. You pull it off of her and throw it onto the middle of the bridge. Her hips and bust now in full view only drives your hormones to even more potent levels.
"Anon, we shouldn-"
You push her onto her back and get on top of her.
"Anon!' she shouts, giggling.
Too horny. You lean down towards her and start sucking on her neck. You concentrate one hand on grabbing her breast while the other wanders it's way down towards her nether regions.
"Oh my god, Anon.." she moans.
All logic is clouded from your brain at this moment. You've been denied this for too long. You begin rubbing her lower area with the bottom of your fingers, making a circular motion with them. Her body is trembling. She must be really excited. You're about to reach for her short's button when you suddenly hear something...
Murmuring... Voices.
You pull away from Velvet's neck and you both look into each others eyes...both widened with surprise.
God. DAMMIT.
You roll off of her and scramble to your feet, picking up her shirt and throwing it to her. She catches it and promptly slides back into it.
You can't help but snicker. "Hey, Velvet."
She sighs.
"What, Anon?"
"Your shirts inside out."
She looks down to see the stitching lines of the shirt, clearly indicating it is indeed inside out. Its too late.
The people climb up the stair way.
You're lucky as fuck the trees blocked the view of the bridge in that direction. "Act natural." you whisper.
"Lets just keep walking!" she whispers back in an irritated tone.
You hold back a laugh, "That will just make it more suspicious!"
"Evening!" you hear a voice from the other side of the bridge.
Aww shit. It IS too late.
"Hi! How are you guys?"
You notice its a younger couple as they approach. The couple stands and looks out towards the water. You take that as you cue to leave.
"Come on, Velvet."
"I can't believe this."
"What? Its not a big deal. I don't think they saw."
The couple isn't anyone you know, so you leave them be. You walk across the bridge, Velvet following behind you. As you go down the steps and onto the other side, Velvet speaks up. "Anon."
"Yeah?"
"We almost fucked on a bridge."
"Yeah well, I figured it was romantic."
"Romantic?" she picks up to your pace, walking beside you.
"Sure. Over the water, the sun setting..."
"On a cold, splintery bridge?"
You laugh.
"Sounds about right."
"So umm..."
"Do you want to go back home and finish what we star-"
She stops herself. "We're going to go home and finish what we started."
She grabs your hand and pulls you in.
"Not giving me a choice?"
"You'll just pretend to say no, so I made the decision for you."
"Sounds good to me."
You continue walking back on the trail, hand in hand... But the path splits in two in front of the both of you.
There's a sign.
"Easy Path."
"Hard Path."
"Hey."
"Hmm?"
"Look at the signs."
She reads them. She sees you smiling, look at the hard path, it being much more steeply inclined than the other.
"No, Anon! We need to get back as soon as possible."
"What's wrong? Don't think you can do it?"
She looks up at you and gives you a death stare. "You calling me old, Anon?"
"What?! No! I never said that!"
"Fine. We'll do the hard path."
You start trudging up the path, it being much like climbing up stairs. Except there aren't solid, flat platforms to ground your feet on, just slanted soil is all.
After about several minutes of climbing up this path, you can hear Velvet getting a bit winded behind you. You slow down so that she can catch up.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
"You know, the easy trail is to our left if you want to go down the hill and take that instead.'
She shakes her head. "Nope."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
She's panting heavily, as are you.
The sun is just over the horizon now...not much daylight left at all, and you still got a good 45 minutes of trail left ahead of you. Maybe taking this path was a stupid idea.
It was a stupid idea, now that you think about it.
"Why? Do YOU want to take the easy trail?"
You laugh. "No! I was just asking for your sake!"
"Well I'm fine."
"Alright."
You eventually reach the top of the slope, which comes up to a more level terrain.
Velvet sits down at the top of the slope, catching her breath. You sit down next to her. The both of you look over at the sun, its final rays disappearing over the horizon.
"Well...looks like we're walking in the dark."
She glares at you. "If we took the easy trail-"
"I offered to! And its too steep to go down the hill now!"
She shakes her head. "Anon, if we get lost..."
"We won't get lost. Its a trail, it'll lead us right back home..."
"That is..."
"If something doesn't get us on the way back..."
An Owl fittingly hoots off in the distance.
"Anon, shutup!"
"You know, sometimes I hear that serial killers like to stalk these kinds of trails at night..."
"ANON!"
"Yeah, you're right. Stay here, I'll scout ahead to make sure everything's clea-"
"No!"
She wraps both of her arms around your right arm. "Don't leave!"
You laugh at her. "I'm not going to leave, I'm just joking."
She doesn't move.
"You wanna let go now?"
"....No."
"I can't walk with you clinging to me like that!"
"WELL YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE SCARED ME! YOU'RE THE MAN! PROTECT YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"
You laugh even harder.
"There's nothing to protect you fro-"
Suddenly,
You hear the sound of branches crack in the distance. The both of you look over in the direction of the sound.
"A-A-Anon?"
You wave your hand. "Its probably just a Raccoon or something."
"I'm scared!"
"Well lets not just sit here. We still have a little bit of daylight to burn."
That's true, though its Twilight right now...so there might as well be no light at all. You can't see much in front of you.
Velvet lets up on holding your arm, but she keeps both her hands on your wrist as you proceed forward. Its getting dark and creepy, but the trail is still visible for you to follow.
Velvet is silent as she clings to you.
You hear an owl again off in the distance.
"Hoo."
"Who?"
"Seriously, Anon?"
"What?" you snicker.
"Stop mocking the owl!"
"Okay, Okay!"

You continue to proceed down the trail, light growing dimmer.
"How long do you think we have left on the trail?"
"Dunno. Maybe about Twenty more minutes."
"Anon...I'm scared."
You're not really scared, you're almost back and there really isn't anything out here.
You know that, but maybe she doesn't... "Me too."
"You're scared?"
You try to act it out the best you can. "Yeah, there might be bears out here."
"Anon! Shut up!"
"What?! I'm just telling you what I'm afraid of!"
"Yeah, but you're scaring me!"
"Hey, Velvet?"
"Hmm?"
"What would you do if I just ran ahead and left you behind?"
She's silent for a moment. "Don't you DARE, Anon!"
You try tugging your arm from her grasp.
"Anon! No!"
You start laughing.
"Anon!"
You pull harder. She wraps both arms around your right arm again and presses her bust against your bicep.
That makes you stop dead in your tracks, your face starting to burn with excitement.
She laughs at loud. "I had a feeling that would work! You're too easy, Anon!" she giggles.
"Oh now I'm REALLY going to do it!"
"NO, ANON!" she cries desperately.
You laugh. "I'd never do that. I'm just joking."
"You better." she says weakly.
The crickets chirp off in the distance, the last grow from the sun waning off, It's pretty much pitch black now.
You stop.
"Anon? Whats wrong?"
You pull out your phone and cast it's light out in front of you.
"Can't see shit. This should help a little."
It's dim glow doesn't help much, but its something. You can at least tell whats directly ahead.
You squint your eyes as you try to proceed forward, Velvet still clinging to you like a leech.
"Could you give me some space?" you ask.
"Oh...yeah." she lets go off you, but stays closely behind.
You have to tap your phone's screen periodically to keep it from dimming. Checking your batteries, you only have about 20% left.
Fucking hell.
"Maybe we should have gone to the movies."
"Nah. I'm having fun."
"Really?"
"Well it IS creepy out here, but I know we'll get back fine."
"Yeah, this trail has been pretty easy, I don't know why they call it the hard trail."
You shouldn't have said anything. You come up to some water, the trail coming to an end.
What the fuck?
The trail continues on the other side, but there's just a narrow path against the rock formation on the right to get around the water.
Well shit.
"I hope you're ready to get wet."
"Oh god."
"Here..."
You point toward the narrow path.
"I don't know if I can make it in the dark, Anon."
"You'll be fine. Just keep your footing."
You go first, attempting to show her how its done. Pressing your back against the wall, you Inch to your right slowly.
Slowly.
Slo-
OH SHIT!
You tumble into the water, PHONE IN HAND.
You can hear Velvet yelling from above the water. The water is pretty shallow, you find your footing...but your phone.
You push yourself up and emerge.
"Anon? Are you alright?!"
"Yeah, Yeah. I'm fine."
You stand there soaking in the pitch black.
"Anon! You're...completely soaked."
"Thanks for the reminder."
She gasps suddenly. "What about your phone?!"
"Its probably fucked."
You look at the screen and tap at it...
Nothing.
Shit.
With a sigh, you hold out your hands.
"What?" She asks.
"I don't know if you'll be able to make it. I've probably gotten that path wet from splashing in it...so I'll just carry you across."
The water is only about waist deep.
"But you're all wet, Anon!"
"Well its either get completely drenched like me or just damp from my arms."
She reluctantly sits down at the edge of the water. You very, VERY carefully pick her up in her arms.
"See? Not so bad."
"Your arms are cold..."
"Yeah, I'm kind of chilly."
With her secure in your arms, you begin to slowly move across the water.
She shudders. "Are you sure you're okay? Its cold..."
"Yeah. I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
"Well I'm just concer-"
Suddenly, you feel a slip.
NOT a good slip.
The slip caused by a lack of traction at the soles of your feet. You fall forward, Velvet toppling into the creek water.
OH FUCK.
You fall into the dark waters once again.
Quickly pushing yourself up, you glance around and search for Velvet while wiping the water from your eyes.
"Velvet?!"
"You've GOT to be KIDDING me!"
Oh shit. You can hear her heavy breathing in front of you.
"Are you alright?!"
"Yes. I'm. Fine." She says in a frustrated tone.
"I'm so sorry! I slipped on something..."
"Let's just get OUT."
"Alright."
You shift through the water towards the trail.
Its pitch fucking black and you can't see shit. Coming up to the edge of the water, you pull yourself out.
You're cold, but not freezing. Your clothes are heavy from the water. Turning around you reach out your hand to pull Velvet out.
"What a mess." she mutters.
You feel her sopping wet hand grab onto yours. The water shifts as you rises from it, finding her footing on the damp ground.
You can barely make her out in the dark. She's shivering. You sigh, frustrated at the situation.
Taking her hand, you do the only thing that you can do: Keep moving forward.
This isn't going well. Your phones fucked, Velvet is pissed, and you're both wet...in the pitch black dark.
Not ideal date material. Suddenly you see something off in the distance after walking a couple of minutes:
Street lights.
Oh thank fuck.
"Velvet, we're here."
She's silent. Damn. She must REALLY not be having a good time right now.
You hear a sigh in the dark, the light not close enough to cast into the darkness from where you're at.
"The water wasn't so bad."
"Oh?"
"Yeah...but my phone is probably ruined now too."
"I'll pay for it."
"Its okay, Anon. Don't worry about it."
"Well I am worried about it."
"Its not your fault, hun."
She squeezes your hand.
"I still feel younger than when I was with anyone else...if anything, I kind of enjoyed this."
You don't know if she's just trying to make you feel better. You don't really care right now, as you're freezing and so is Velvet.
You keep a brisk pace, reaching the streetlights that hover above a road going through the woods.
"Looks like the road we took to the parking lot."
"Good. I'm cold."
"I know...I'm sorry for dropping you."
She giggles. "I still had fun, Anon. A lot more fun than any recent dates I've been on."
"Recent?" you say, heading in the direction you think the car is parked.
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"You're SEEING someone right now?!" you jokingly prod.
"No! I swear!" she jests back.
Slamming your fist into your open palm you say, "Good, because I'd have to give him a beat down!"
She scoffs. "Hopefully you'd do a better job beating him down than keeping me dry."
Ouch
"How many times do I have to apologize?"
She laughs. "What? I thought getting me wet was a good thing."
You glance over at her. She's giving you this look...a look that just screams that she wants it.
Your face is already on fire again, good thing she can't see it. Before you can say anything, something grabs her attention and she looks forward.
"Hey, look!"
"What?"
You look over. The fucking parking lot.
Oh thank fucking Celestial alignments.

Author's Note

Trolololololololololol, inching closer to the next great experience, just one more chapter, I promise!
Much faster update huh?