"Of course they do,” I agreed. "That's really great."

"I don't have the part yet," she said. "But this is closer than I have been before. Plus..." She waved her hands excitedly. "Blake changed his status to 'in a relationship' on his page."

"What?" I said. "Is that still a thing?"

"Of course," she said while rolling her eyes. "It's the present day equivalent of wearing someone’s letter jacket."

"I suppose you’re right,” I said reaching for my tea cup. As busy as I was I had little time or energy for social media. "Wait, Blake from the restaurant?"

"Yes, Blake from the restaurant,” she said.

Her eyes glazed over with a dreamy haze as she sighed at the mere memory of him. I laughed at her theatrics.

"I guess I didn't realize you guys were still going out,” I said.

"You don't mind. Do you?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh, of course not!" I answered.

"That's right," she said tapping her chin. "You have a thing with Aiden, don't you? How is all of that going, by the way?"

"I do not have a thing with Aiden!" I said with vehemence.

"Right," she said nodding. "You totally do, but whatever." Her eyebrows drew together in mock seriousness. "So how is all that going, by the way?"

"Ugh!" I said.

I acted on my earlier notion and plunged my head underneath the water. The sound of her laughter still reached me under the few inches of insulation below the surface.

Maybe I could hide under here forever, I thought.

I didn’t need to breath.

Not today.

When my lungs started to burn, I broke the surface, gasped and wiped my hair out of my face finding her sitting with an expectant glare.

"Okay, fine. Court went great today by the way. Thanks for asking."

"Well good,” she said. "But I knew it would. What I want to know is how things are with Aiden?"

"I have no idea,” I said. "A few weeks ago, he kissed me."

"Well that's good,” she said.

"Yeah, but... He had pretty much said that the reason he never made a move on me in high school was that I wasn't pretty enough."

"Oh, that's bad,” she said shaking her head.

"But then today he apologized, and invited me to go fishing with him tomorrow."

"That's good, I think,” she said as if keeping tally in her mind. "How did the apology go?"

"He said that the reason he never made a move when we were younger is that he hadn’t wanted to ruin our friendship."

"Makes sense." Kelsey nodded. "Are you going with him tomorrow?"

"Well, yeah,” I said. She suddenly burst into laughter that didn’t seem to have any relation to anything that had been said. "What's so funny?" I asked.

"You are!" she said. "You’re so hung up on this guy and you don't even know it! I'm sorry, I know it's not funny, but it's hilarious to watch."

"I'm glad I can be of service,” I said.

"What about that night you spent over at his place?" she said suddenly. "The morning I had to pick up your mom at the airport. Whatever happened then?"

"I don't want to talk about it, but..." I couldn’t contain the grin that broke over my face.

"No way!" she shrieked. "Did you guys...?"

"What do you think?" I said.

"I kind of thought so, but I didn't want to assume,” she said. "Are you going to do it again?"

"What?" I said. "I don't know! It shouldn’t have happened the first time."

"Totally hung up,” she said, staring at her fingernails.

I rolled my eyes.

"Can you hand me that towel? I think I'm done,” I said.

"Sure." She set the towel on the counter next to me and stepped out of the bathroom. "I'll give you some privacy. I'm going to order some take out. You want some?"

"Yeah," I called after her. "That sounds great."

We spent the rest of the evening watching old movies and eating Thai food at the coffee table. It was a much needed break.

The sun sparkled off the surface of the water as Aiden drove up to the beach making me feel glad that I had remembered my sun glasses. I gazed out the passenger window taking in the spectacular view, the jade colored ocean stretched out before us. He had brought me to a small cove where we would have lunch, and then walk down the beach to rent our fishing gear for the day.

I had gone back and forth on whether or not to wear my swimsuit or just to bring it along as I didn’t know exactly what the day entailed. In the end Kelsey had insisted that I wear the swimsuit, a flattering burgundy two piece that showed off my figure. I felt as if I had lost a bit of my trimness having worked in a sedentary job for several weeks, but between the occasional trip to the gym and Kelsey's insistence, I felt pretty confident that I could pull it off. She had also let me borrow her black cotton cover up, which doubled as a cute empire sun dress.

The sight of the water lapping against the white sands took my breath away, as we stepped out of the car.

"This place is amazing!" I said.

The path led straight to the edge of the sand. In either direction I could see masses of people, but they remained distant enough as to not be a hindrance. I could see that once we stepped onto the beach that the curve of the shoreline would give us the illusion of solitude.

We walked along the path from the parking lot. Aiden had the cooler full of food and beverages tucked under his arm. At the end of the path I slipped off my sandals and stepped out onto the hot sand. The sensation of the sun scorched surface scalded the soles of my feet and made me cry out. Instead of recoiling though, I fixed my eyes on the waves a few yards away and took off towards them with the goal of relieving the heat on the soles of my feet, as Aiden laughed behind me.

I made it to the edge of the water, sighing as the coolness embraced my skin. I turned around and looked towards him with my back to the ocean.

"Come on!" he called to me waving me to join him back on the shore.

He laid out the blanket and set down the cooler. Very gingerly I stepped out of the water, which tickled my ankles as if beckoning me back into the cool embrace, and slowly my feet acclimated to the heat of the sand beneath us.

"How did you find this place?" I asked as he handed me a large hoagie from cooler. "It's beautiful here."

I lowered myself next to him realizing that I felt hungrier than I had realized. I reached across and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler, along with an apple.

"A friend of mine recommended it,” he said. "But keep in mind that I've lived here quite a bit longer than you. I know the secrets."

"I suppose you do. I wonder what other secrets you might know,” I said, surprising even myself at my flirtatious tone.

"I meant what I said, you know,” he said as if changing the subject.

"Which part?" I asked.

"That I wouldn't try anything today." My smile faded slightly as I saw the sincerity on his face. "I want us to go back to being friends, in the good way that is. I've missed hanging out with you the way we used to."

I thought about his words as he spoke, wondering briefly why I felt a pang in my heart. After all, it had been me who had pushed him away every time he had tried to make a move.

But what did I expect after we already had sex?

His words encompassed exactly what I had said that I wanted. He finally respected my boundaries and I found myself saddened at the thought. Regardless of that, we had been through some awkwardness as of late, but our friendship had been too deep and long running for us to ignore that aspect of our relationship.