CHAPTER 19
Arlowe hadn’t meant to get dating advice from Gabi, but Gabi had gone to the office kitchen to get a quick snack at the same time Arlowe had, and they’d talked a little about how nervous she’d been.
Gabi had shared with her how nervous she’d been about her first date with Sarai, wanting it to be special, too, and since Arlowe hadn’t been sure that Sarai had ever told them what they’d done on their first date, she’d asked.
Gabi had told her that she’d gotten them this riverboat dinner cruise because it had been the closest she’d been able to get to a canal in Amsterdam around here, and that had given Arlowe an idea of her own.
“Where are we?” Eline asked when Arlowe pulled into the parking lot.
“We’re at the river. Have you been here yet?”
“No,” Eline replied.
“It’s wider in other areas, but this is where they have the smaller boats you can rent.”
Arlowe pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car.
“Boats?” Eline asked her, surprised.
Arlowe turned to her then and said, “I know it’s not a canal, and this isn’t really Amsterdam, but I thought we could rent a boat like we were there.
And I know we’re moving forward, but I thought this would be a nice first date; a way for us to celebrate the good parts of our time together then while talking about being together now. ”
Eline smiled over at her and said, “That is very sweet, Arlowe.”
“Well, I’m a sweet person; when it comes to you, at least. Not other people.”
Eline chuckled and said, “I remember when I first figured that out about you. We met and had that whole day and night together on our own, so I hadn’t seen you with anyone else, but when we hung out with your friends for the first time, you were a little – what’s the word I’m looking for – sassier with them. ”
“I’m sure they deserved it. Come on. We only have the boat for two hours.”
Arlowe got out of the car, walked around to the other side, and waited for Eline to get out so that she could close the door behind her.
Then, she locked the car, took Eline’s hand, and they walked in silence toward the dock where people just like them were waiting to get on boats they’d rented.
Arlowe looked around for the one she had booked for them and found it at the end of the dock.
It wasn’t cheap, booking the whole boat just for them, but she prayed that it would be worth it.
“Where’s everyone else?” Eline asked once they were on board.
“Everyone else who?” Arlowe asked.
“The other people going on this boat.”
“Oh, I booked it just for us. We’re the only people going on it tonight,” she replied.
“Ma’am, my name is Captain Paul,” a man in a white uniform said when he approached them. “I believe we have the two-hour dinner cruise booked?”
“Yes,” Arlowe said.
“Great. I have a steward. His name is Chris, and he has your dinner prepared and ready to serve right after we get going here. Would you like to eat downstairs next to the galley, or up on the deck? It’s getting a little cooler, but we’ve got blankets should you need any.”
“Eline?” Arlowe checked.
“Can we eat up here?”
“Yeah, of course,” Arlowe said. “We’ll eat up here,” she told the captain.
“Great. We’re just wrapping up with some checks, and we’ll be off soon, but I do need to walk you through some quick safety items before we get moving.”
Captain Paul talked to them about what to do if something went wrong, showed them where the life jackets were stowed and where a life raft was located, reminding them that the river wasn’t all that wide or deep, so none of that would likely be necessary so as not to scare them, and then showed them around the boat, which only had the upper deck and the galley, a small sitting area, and an even smaller bathroom below.
Arlowe would probably never be wealthy enough to afford a giant yacht, nor did she want one, but this would do because Eline hadn’t stopped smiling since she’d found out what they were doing tonight.
There was a table set up for them with a chair on one side and a bench with a cushion on it on the other, so she’d planned to give Eline the bench seat, but when they walked over to sit down and she went to take the chair, Eline took her hand.
“Sit next to me?”
Arlowe obliged, smiling because this felt real now.
She got to sit next to Eline. They were on a date.
If she wanted to, she could wrap her arm around Eline’s shoulders, pull her in, and hold her for the first time in so long.
She wanted to do all of those things and more, but before she did, she wanted to make sure that Eline was warm, so she stood, pulled one of the available blankets from a pile, and handed it to Eline, who took it, seemingly grateful, and placed it over her legs.
“Do you need one for your shoulders?” she asked.
“I’m all right for now. Sit down with me, please.”
Arlowe returned to her seat and placed her arm over the back of the bench seat. Right when she did, the boat started up, jolted, and a second later, it began moving on the river.
“I can’t believe we’re having dinner on the water. It’s so nice out here,” Eline said after a minute.
“I can’t believe we’re here together after all this time,” she replied.
Eline shifted to lean against her, so Arlowe placed her arm over her shoulders, and finally, they were holding on to each other. Eline’s arm was on Arlowe’s stomach, her head was on Arlowe’s shoulder, and all felt right in the world for the first time in the longest time.
“Hello. My name is Chris. I’ll be your steward this evening. May I get you started with something to drink? We have the selection on your menu.”
Arlowe hadn’t even noticed the small piece of cardstock on the table in front of them.
“Red?” she asked Eline.
“Whatever you want is fine,” Eline said softly.
“Can we have the merlot?” Arlowe asked.
“Of course. I’ll bring out some waters for you as well. Lemon?”
Eline nodded against her.
“Yeah,” Arlowe said with a smile.
“I’ll have that right out and then your appetizer.”
“Thanks,” Arlowe replied before he walked back down the stairs into the belly of the boat or whatever the belly of a boat was actually called.
“Appetizer?” Eline asked.
“They have a set menu, so if you don’t like something, don’t feel like you have to eat it.
If you’re hungry after this, we can grab something on the way home.
I think the appetizer is crostini, if I remember correctly.
The main course is chicken. I’m sure it’ll be okay, but nothing amazing.
Dessert is a cheesecake with strawberries or a chocolate torte thing.
I went with the cheesecake because I know how much you love the stuff. ”
“You remember so much,” Eline noted.
“I remember everything,” she said. “I remember how your hair smelled whenever you used my shampoo, how you looked when you would borrow my clothes and only sleep in one of my shirts that was a little too long on you. I remember how you yelled at the TVs at the bar whenever we watched soccer and your team messed up. I remember how you felt every time I hugged you, and I… I still remember how you taste.” She pressed her cheek to the side of Eline’s head that she could reach. “Every part of you.”
“Arlowe!” Eline exclaimed with a little laugh.
“What? It’s true.”
“I remember everything, too,” Eline said. “I remember how you got annoyed in class when you knew more than the professor.”
Arlowe chuckled.
“I remember how cute I thought it was because I could always tell. I remember how your clothes always smelled like the laundry detergent you bought that was so cheap; I’m surprised it actually cleaned anything.”
Arlowe laughed again.
“I remember how it felt to sit on the side of a bed and pull you into me so that I could kiss you anywhere I could reach because I couldn’t not kiss you.
I remember how you sounded when I kissed you so deeply.
You’d do this moan-and-groan thing like you couldn’t hold it in.
And I definitely remember how you taste. ”
Chris walked up then and likely didn’t hear them over the sound of the boat and the water around them, but they paused their conversation all the same as he placed their drinks down and walked back inside to get their appetizers.
“This is an amazing date, Arlowe.”
Eline snuggled in closer, and Arlowe no longer wanted to eat dinner. She wanted to lie on the deck of the boat, holding Eline and staring up at the stars, and Eline seemed to want the same thing by the way she was holding on to her.
“Want to eat fast and push this table out of the way? I bet we can fit if we lie down on the bench.”
“No, we can’t,” Eline said with a chuckle and lifted her head up to look at her.
“We can if you lie half on top of me. All the way on top of me is also an option.”
Eline laughed, and their eyes connected. Arlowe wondered if this was the moment when they’d kiss. She swallowed, trying to help her dry throat, but unfortunately, that was all she could do because Chris was back with their appetizer.
“Crostini with ricotta, topped with pear, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and honey,” he announced as he set the plate down. “Enjoy. I’ll have your entrées out in a few minutes. If you’d like to wait longer for any course, though, just–”
“No, no need to wait,” Arlowe interrupted.
Eline laughed and said, “Thank you, Chris.”
He gave them a smile and walked back down into the boat.
“Did you know these would have pears?”
“No,” Arlowe replied. “Nice coincidence.”
“Are they still your favorite fruit?” Eline asked, picking up one off the plate.
“Yes. I don’t eat them that often, but I still love them.”
Eline held it out in front of her and asked, “Want this one?”
“Oh, that’s a loaded question,” Arlowe joked.
Eline smirked a little and gave her a wink.
“You can’t do that.”
“Yes, I can,” Eline said. “Here, take a bite.”
“Of you?”
Eline laughed and held the crostini a little closer.
“Of this.”
Arlowe did, and for once, she didn’t care about how ridiculous it might look to someone, watching them feed each other, and they had fed each other.
Their entrées had been fine, but not anything worth mentioning, so they’d eaten the chicken and vegetables while they talked, but when their desserts came, Arlowe held out her fork with a whole fresh strawberry on it, and Eline ate it and smiled as she chewed.
When they’d finished their meal, they stood up and let Chris clear the table while they took their wineglasses over to the other side of the small boat.
Eline had a blanket around her shoulders, but Arlowe set her own glass down and moved behind her, wrapping her arms tightly around the woman she’d never stopped loving and resting her chin against her shoulder as the boat turned around at a wider part of the river and took them back to the dock.
With their two hours being up, they got off, thanked the captain and the steward, Arlowe tipped each of them, and they walked back to the car hand in hand.
Once buckled in, Arlowe started them in the direction of Eline’s apartment and moved Eline’s hand into her lap for the entirety of the drive.
Having arrived at her complex, though, she pulled up to the building and wasn’t sure what to do now.
They hadn’t talked about what would happen at the end of the night, given that it was their first date in a dozen years.
Her nerves were close to getting the best of her, so she silently prayed for Eline to say something and take the lead.
“You can park,” Eline told her.
“Yeah?”
“Over there.” Eline nodded. “I have a guest spot. That one’s mine.”
“Well, aren’t you special,” Arlowe teased, but she pulled the car into the spot and waited.
“Arlowe, come on. Walk me to my door.”
Happy to hear that they were on the same page, Arlowe nodded, and they walked up to the main door, where Eline used her key to let them in.
Arlowe hadn’t needed one earlier because a neighbor had let her into the building, and when they got to Eline’s door, she took a deep breath and stood back a little, waiting for another cue.
“I had an amazing time tonight,” Eline said, turning to face her after unlocking the door.
“Me too,” she replied.
“Do you remember what I said earlier about how I remember how it felt to pull you toward me when I couldn’t wait to kiss you?”
“Yeah.”
“Babe, I really need to kiss you right now,” Eline said, pulling on her shirt, which Arlowe was so happy to have left untucked because suddenly, she was right against Eline.
Arlowe moved her hand to Eline’s cheek, tilted her head, and asked, “Are you sure?”
Eline nodded.
“I can’t believe–”
“Enough of that,” Eline said and leaned in.
Their lips connected, and Arlowe melted into the kiss.
Nothing had ever felt this good. Every kiss she and Eline had shared years ago had been amazing, but this one, after all this time, was perfect.
It was slow, and they both seemed to want that before, eventually, Eline gave a little moan and pulled her in closer, wrapping her arms around Arlowe’s neck.
Arlowe let her tongue seek out Eline’s, found it, and let them dance for a moment before she got closer still and wrapped her arms around Eline’s waist, trying to push her against the door behind them, which Eline must have actually opened, not just unlocked earlier, because it gave, and they nearly toppled over, causing them to break apart and Eline to laugh.
“Sorry,” she said, pulling Eline back into her to make sure to keep them both upright.
Eline reached over Arlowe’s shoulder, pushed the door back to close it, and ordered, “Kiss me.”
Arlowe leaned back in, not wasting another second, and their lips moved together a little faster this time. Eline nipped at her bottom lip, too, and Arlowe couldn’t contain a moan.
“God, I love when you do that,” she said, pulling out of the kiss.
“I remember that, too,” Eline replied with a smirk.
Arlowe tipped her head back a bit and said, “I want to stay over.”
“What?”
“Not for that. Not yet anyway. But I want to stay here tonight and keep doing this.” She leaned in for a quick kiss. “I want to hold you. Can I, please?”
Eline gave her a slow nod and said, “You’ll have to borrow some of my clothes. And I mean borrow, Arlowe. You cannot steal another shirt.”
Arlowe laughed and replied, “If I did, you could always get it back this time. I’m not going anywhere.”
Then, she leaned back in and kissed Eline deeply.