CHAPTER TWELVE
They walked most of the rest of the nature trail in silence.
Gabe expected some kind of conversation to manifest, but Liz seemed very content with the quiet walk, and, after a bit, he realized that he was, too. As they finished the loop and approached his car, Liz stretched and something popped in her back.
“I feel...a lot better,” she said.
“Same, actually. That was amazing. I also never thought I’d actually get you to do something like that, let alone you being the one to suggest it,” he replied.
She chuckled, blushing again. “I...was feeling adventurous. And we probably won’t do something like this again for a long time. This was sort of...the perfect storm. I doubt it will happen again anytime soon.”
“I’m fine with that. Now...are you ready for the rest of the day?”
Liz grinned at him with a feral intensity again, this time with a completely different vibe. She cracked her knuckles. “Are you?”
Gabe stared at her for a moment, feel a fresh stab of lust. He really loved confident women, and apparently that effect was heightened if the woman was jacked.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
…
Gabe, it turned out, was not quite ready for the day.
He knew there was a chance of this, perhaps even a good one, but he’d been feeling better about his endurance just lately.
He supposed the problem was that he was sharing this day with Liz.
And as happy as he was to do that, Liz...clearly had a competitive streak in her. And she could really lay on the heat when she wanted to.
Today, it seemed, she wanted to.
She teased him relentlessly. And today was the day that he learned that while Liz was not really a brat in the sense that Chloe and Krystal were, she absolutely could be. If anything, she was amazing at it. He couldn’t tell if she was a natural or just had so much experience from dating Krystal.
After leaving the park, they’d hit the go-karts. She hadn’t been teasing at all when they started...and then something had changed at some point. He still wasn’t sure what had flipped her brat switch, but it had been flipped up and stuck in the on position.
It had started out with sticking her tongue out at him in passing and asking really smartass questions.
It had ended with her oh so carefully causing him to overcorrect and crash into a stack of tires.
For a little while, he’d been genuinely unsure of whether or not she’d done it on purpose. Because it kind of seemed like she had.
The crash hadn’t really been a crash and he knew that, even if she’d done it on purpose, she never would have if she’d thought there was any real chance of him being hurt. It wasn’t like they were going all that fast when it had happened, and the tires were there to be crashed into.
It was after they were finished that he became sure.
It was the smile she gave him after asking if he was all right and then chastising him to be more careful.
That was when he realized that he was seeing a different side of Liz.
One that he imagined she kept hidden from damn near everyone.
The teasing Liz, the rough and tumble Liz.
From the go-karts, they’d hit the arcade, something that he hadn’t actually planned for. But she had suggested it.
When he’d asked what convinced her to try some more video games, she’d said: “I’m just in the mood to kick your ass.”
They’d been about evenly matched.
Anything physical, she dominated. Driving games, skee-ball, basketball, she not just won but won utterly. He thought he’d clean up when he suggested a light gun shooter, but while he had won, she’d kept up pretty well.
Liz was one of those people who was just kind of good at everything they did.
From there, they’d grabbed a light lunch and then he’d taken her to the next thing: rock-climbing.
Well, not real rock-climbing, but another session like they’d had on their first date.
That was when things had changed a bit between them.
In fact, they had practically recreated the first thing that led them to rush home and fuck the first time.
She’d been teasing him, poking him every now and then, and then he’d lost his grip finally, and in his flailing attempts to get it back, he grabbed her instead. They both went down onto the soft ground and she ended up atop him, though this time it felt intentional.
And there she was, grinning fiercely down at him, him staring back up at her, prepared to make a suggestion that they find somewhere to fuck, when it was like the switch had flipped back.
She’d just got off of him, apologized, and helped him to his feet.
He would have been worried he’d done something wrong and somehow fucked up the date if she wasn’t so clearly having fun with him still.
It was just that she wasn’t bratting at him. Or, well, flirting with him.
It was one and the same, really.
Gabe had assumed that she’d explain it or he’d at least be able to figure it out on his own.
But they’d finished their rock-climbing, taken a short break, then had headed for laser tag.
Which she had, of course, dominated at. Though this time she was on his team, at least. And he got to see what it was like when all that ability and skill was turned in favor of him instead of against him. She was an excellent teammate.
Now, as they walked out of the building and into the chill afternoon air, Gabe thought he had an answer. Or part of one, at least.
Okay, well, a very tiny part of one.
She had realized something. That’s all he could think of.
She’d suddenly realized, or, maybe more accurately, remembered something, something important.
Something related to their flirting. Maybe it was something like: Krystal claimed all bratting dominion over him...
but that didn’t sound right. It didn’t seem like something Krystal would do.
“So, now we go to dinner,” Liz said, sounding pleased.
“Now we go home, shower, and change. And maybe, uh…” He settled a hand over her big ass and gave it a squeeze.
She giggled, but shook her head. “No, not yet.”
“Why not?”
“...because.”
He sighed. “Always the secrets with every woman in my life.”
“Always with surprises, you mean!” she cried, and gave him a shove.
Unfortunately, he was poorly positioned mid-stride to correct for that and he went sprawling. He winced and hissed as he felt a sharp pain on the back of his hand as it scraped against the parking lot.
“Oh my God, Gabe! I’m sorry!” she cried, sounding genuinely panicked. “Are you okay!?”
“I’m all right,” he replied, sitting up, looking at the wound. “Probably should get a band-aid though. I have some in the car.”
“Oh man, oh fuck,” Liz whispered, staring at the bloody wound.
“What? What’s wrong?” he asked, looking again to see if he’d missed something obvious. But no, it was just a scrape across the back of his hand.
Not even a bad one, really.
“I-I just...come on, let’s get you to the car,” she said, helping him up. “Oh fuck, I’m really sorry, Gabe.”
“It’s fine, Liz. I forgive you. I mean, it wasn’t like you were trying to hurt me.”
“I wasn’t! I wouldn’t!”
Gabe had begun going with her to the car, but now he hesitated. “Okay, what’s going on? I’m not even seriously hurt, it just kind of stings. Probably be completely gone in a week or two.”
“I…” For a moment, she looked frozen in not just indecision, but fear.
Strong fear.
Okay, clearly this had struck a nerve, though he was struggling to imagine what. Maybe she’d shoved Krystal once and seriously hurt her on accident?
“We should get the band-aid,” she said finally.
Gabe hesitated further, then just nodded and walked over to the car. He opened the passenger’s side door and rooted around in the glovebox until he found a band-aid and some antibiotic cream.
“Let me,” Liz murmured.
He passed them to her, where she crouched beside him. She hesitated and frowned before applying the cream. “Here, give me my water bottle. We need to wash this at least a little.”
Gabe just passed it to her, watching her work as she cleaned and bandaged the wound.
Setting aside how nice it felt to be cared about like this, he was beginning to worry.
Because Liz was acting about as strange as he’d ever seen her.
She seemed to be struggling to control herself.
When she was finished, she stood back up and took a step back.
“I’m really sorry, Gabe,” she said.
“I know, I forgive you...okay, we have to talk about this.”
“No! I…”
“You what?” he asked after waiting for a long moment.
She closed her mouth firmly and looked away.
She looked...embarrassed? No. Ashamed. Of what?
“Liz, I’ll drop it if you really want, but in my experience with basically every other girl in my life, that doesn’t help.
What helps is just confronting the problem head on.
Now, I’m guessing this relates to something in your past, something you’re ashamed of. Am I close?”
She didn’t say anything, and still didn’t look at him, but she nodded, slightly.
Gabe felt some some measure of relief at that, at least. His last girlfriend before Ellen would just...
shut down. If she had a problem, she just wouldn’t talk about it.
Not until much later, like a few days after it.
But even then, most of the time she just never talked about it.
This was progress, at least. And he had the idea that if he didn’t get this figured out now, Liz was going to just clam up, because she seemed to have an indomitable will when it came to this stuff.
“Then...will you tell me about it? And trust me not to treat you worse or judge you? Because I want to help you.”
“...you should judge me,” she muttered after another pause.
“Here, come on, let’s get in the back and talk.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but just nodded again. They got in the back and sat facing each other. Well, inasmuch as they could in the backseat of a car. Liz kept quiet for almost a minute before finally looking at him.
“I was a bully,” she said finally.