he throws in the towel at the same time, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. one of bo's bites is like four of hers and by the time it took her to work through her first and into her second slice, he'd polished off four.

he could probably have beaten the record easily, especially hungover as he probably is right now.

"yeah, i'm sure it is," she days with a roll of her eyes and a bit more nervously, somewhat under her breath: what does that say about me though?"

he asks and almost as if on queue, louise is there with a humongous milkshake, two big straws poking out of the creamy froth. strawberry and chocolate - her favorite - and the check too. will ignores the latter for now and scoots at the edge of her seat to suck on the straw.

"can we go to the arboretum? i know it's a little late, but...maybe we can sneak in like we did before?" she jests.

boruta maher

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libidinous behavior. what did it say about her? at least he could assure, ”nothing that’ll drive me off.”[break][break]

louise returned with a massive milkshake and he gawked, mouth in an o-shape. the slice had always been a magical experience for him.[break][break]

”wow…”[break][break]

hearing her request, the memories came rushing back and he smiled. he wasn’t meant to be getting into that kind of trouble at his age, in his position, with his past; but he would do the dumbest shit for her without question. some things simply did not change.[break][break]

”yeah, of course we can go to the arboretum. lots of pizza weighin’ us down if we have to run from the cops...” he leaned forward and sucked on a straw too, peering at her mischievously. ”but i’m not scared if you aren’t.”[break][break]

he catches her question and a blush brightens her tanned skin. her nose crinkles in an effort to make it go away. and her eyes brighten when he nears too, noses almost touching, saying yes, of course, as though she could ask him anything and he'd say the very same. 

"remember the bar last night? i'm preeeeetty fast." of course, she'd cheated then - walked right out the fire exit where the car was waiting for her, but bo probably doesn't know that. he'd been dumbfounded enough over it last night. 

"'course i'm not scared. i bet i can still walk around there with my eyes closed. coppers won't stand a chance against us."

boruta maher

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did he remember the bar last night? some of it. best not to answer that question, maybe. it didn’t matter. the memory, however, did come back to him, blurry as it was, of her shocking victory in the race to the car.[break][break]

”yeah, how did you even do that? i don’t remember you being a track star in high school.”[break][break]

he swiped the bill and placed down enough cash to cover it and a generous tip. then, sucking down on the straw one more time, he got out of his seat, eager to move one step closer to kissing her again, even if the route there was surely foolish.[break][break]

”hell no they won’t.”[break][break]

turning to her again, he then remembered. ”so… are we taking your horse, or... how should we do this?”[break][break]

"i won't reveal my secrets so easily," she says with a waggle of her brows. she reaches for the bill out of reflex, but he's already snatched it away from her. no arguments there. she'd bought his drinks last night too so she doesn't feel too bad about it.

"i drove here, remember? but we can walk, right?" it's not that cold out yet. and besides, with the bit of chill nipping at them, she's inclined to step closer to bo and slip her arm under his. she does so now, shouldering the flowers in one hand.

"oh! but let me put these in the car first."

when she rejoins him, she has a jean jacket donned too. a little something that had wound up in the backseat of the car.

"we should take the horses out together though. i've been trying to convince roman to come out with me. to no avail, of course." she blames the playstation.

boruta maher

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”oh, okay.”[break][break]

it would never occur to him that she’d used the back door, and a faded memory would remain of the time he found out he couldn’t run for shit at thirty. he’d always been the slow-footed one in his family, which had put him at about normal, considering caden maher and CIAN MAHER were superhuman in that regard. however, one bo stride was equivalent to at least two willow strides by his measure. he probably ought to take up running, he figured, lest he forget how to do it altogether.[break][break]

speaking of confusing transportation, there was no horse outside. he blinked and briefly looked out the window at the low sun in the sky. fuck. am i still drunk?[break][break]

”shit. i watched you park, didn’t i?” he remembered. maybe she’d have been better off parking the horse. ”yeah, walk sounds nice.”[break][break]

he walked out with her, smiling twice as big when her arm slipped under his and pulling her a little closer, though (hopefully) not enough to knock her off-balance. she parted to grab her jacket, and then they started down the street, and he realized pleasantly again how familiar it all felt.[break][break]

”roman doesn’t really seem like a horse guy.” he wasn’t really either. dodrio was more his style. ”i’ll be your cowboy, though.”[break][break]

"don't tell me you're still drunk from last night," she says with a chuckle. it couldn't possibly be...maybe before the pizza, sure, but now?

either way, the flowers get tossed in the car and she's more able to slip her arm around bo's. he has to slow down to match her stride, but she knows he doesn't mind and anyway, she walks fast! fast enough that they get to the arboretum quickly  before the cold can set in. 

she takes them around the sides. of course they're not going to waltz right through the visitor center. they have their own way in, if she can remember where it is...

"ha! still here." in retrospect, it's kind of sad that the loose flats of part of the outer fence are still loose. or maybe it's not. maybe they weren't the first or the last unruly teens to sneak into this place after dark, alone among the flowers.

"come on," she whispers. and then simpers, "cowboy."

boruta maher

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he wasn’t really still drunk, of course–but if she’d believe it, it was a valid enough excuse. better than stupid, he figured. ”maybe.”[break][break]

they walked, and he was all sunshine when she slipped her arm in his.[break][break]

”you still know where you’re going…” it was almost a question, but still somehow close enough to an affirmation that it felt like it could slide by as support if she was feeling confident enough in herself.[break][break]

lo and behold, they were soon there, standing in a garden of memories and old roots he’d tripped over long ago. he grinned at cowboy, but it wavered in the sense of wonder that took over his face.[break][break]

it did not only remind him only of times with her, but of being a teenager in general. sneaking in places for fun, back when getting into a little bit of trouble was harmless, and his mother had been there to scold him.[break][break]

”wow. i haven’t been out here since we were here last time...” it had been over a decade. it suddenly did not feel that way anymore at all. ”the trees look any taller to you?”[break][break]

the last time they'd been here, she had felt much the same way she does now. warm after a nice meal, clumsy with anticipation and the squirrely anxiety that comes along with doing something you know you're not supposed to do, but doing it anyway because it feels right with the person you love, where nothing about the after matters, only the present. 

when she looked back on it, as she often had these last few years, it had been easy to chalk up her behavior to teenage hormones and lust, but now, close to him as she is, laughing while the years fall away, now she thinks it's just him. 

she looks up at the trees and they don't look taller at all. in fact, it all feels so much smaller. but she doesn't mind. all of those paths gone, cut away in lieu of motherhood, trapping her in fallarbor, keeping her close and just out of arm's reach from bo, close enough to find him again. 

close enough to smile, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and to reach up and cradle his jaw, tucking her thumb against his chin to ask, without words, will you kiss me again?

boruta maher

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a second too late, he realized how dumb his question sounded. an awkward moment passed where she didn’t answer, which only confirmed it.[break][break]

as he stared at taller trees and thought back in time, internally running from the last moment, he wondered, had roman been conceived there? [break][break]

he opened his mouth to ask, but her hand went up to cradle his jaw, and her eyes suddenly became mesmerizing, flecked with the fading purple light of the sunset. pleasantly silenced, he smiled back and leaned in, tentatively at first. there was no moonshine in his system, only a too-clear memory of that day in the barn, when he’d fucked up.[break][break]

however, as his lips brushed hers, such doubt faded, and her warm breath awakened something old and instinctive within him. a hand slid gently over the back of her neck, combing through blonde hair he pushed behind her ear before kissing her more deeply.[break][break]

stubble brushes under her thumb. he's so different from the boy he was back then. she traces the mountains that are his shoulders, the valleys behind his collarbone, and all the while he is answering her as quickly as she'd asked. his lips fold over hers and she stands a little on her tiptoes, neck craning back, that stubborn lock of hair slipping from behind her ear again. 

the trees move in their slow, imperceptible sway, and gravel crunches under her boots. her hips shift and her exploration leads both hands up the river of his throat, past his ears and his messy hair, and into the sky, where her wrists cross and she draws him in. 

she asks him to bow and settle them down in the grass. they've been here before. do you remember? do you remember how we used to love each other?

boruta maher

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he was different, but still the same in the energy behind every movement and brush of lips and skin, as enamored with her as he ever had been before. he fell into a timelessly familiar dance, lowering to the cool grass and the smell of earth, and her embrace.[break][break]

he pulled her to him, into his lap if she allowed, meeting every hint of wanting in her wandering hands with the warm need to give.[break][break]

fingers curled at the curve of her hips, his mouth drifting down the plane of her jaw to tickle behind her ear with a smile and tell her again, like he used to, ”you’re so beautiful.”[break][break]

and like she used to, she shivers into him. her hands drop to his chest, legs folded around his sides, the scratch of jean against jean, feeling all the world asking them to shed their clothes and return to the imprint they'd made here once before. nature has since reclaimed the place where they'd tumbled over one another, but an energy lingers here - 

and she feels it now. sunlight skittering off her fingertips with every brush against bo's jaw, nape, collar. his warm breath spreads over her ear and she chuffs a laugh, turning her head to shake off the goosebumps, and to kiss him on the side of his neck. 

"sorry about this," she mumbles playfully, but she's not really sorry at all as she leaves a careful trail of red skin, fading blue, with her pursed lips and tongue.

boruta maher

☉