“So are you completely bored?”

I don’t look up right away from the photo album but when I do, I find Emily’s large eyes staring at me. “No. Why?”

“You must be bored. We’re just sitting here.”

“I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

I laugh. “Are YOU bored?”

“No. But last night you said how you wanted to go to town tonight and we aren’t.”

“Last night I greatly underestimated how tired I would be today after helping your dad rebuild the barn.”

“You seriously don’t have to do all this while you’re on vacation. I can tell him to lay off.”

She’s so concerned and it’s so cute. “I already told you. I like helping him out. He’s really great. Really interesting.” I turn the page of the photo album and stare at the pictures for a second before looking back up at her. She looks so good sitting on the bed, her legs crossed under her. No make up except a hint of lip gloss is on her face and her hair is pulled away from her face in a French braid.

Most girls can make themselves look pretty good with enough makeup and hair products. But a girl who can be completely natural and look just as beautiful is a rare thing. And the fact that she’s so completely unaware of how gorgeous she is makes her that much more appealing.

Today I saw this domestic side of her that I’ve never really fully seen before. This afternoon I found her and her mom in the kitchen making pie. And not just any pie. I’m talking completely homemade, apples from the trees outside, crisscrossed pastry on top kind of pie. She normally likes to bake but not so hardcore.

And it’s not just pie. I found out today that she knits. In the three years we’ve known each other, she’s never divulged that piece of information before. But then today, she and her mom were sitting on the porch swing and she was knitting. She got all embarrassed when I teased her about it later but I think it’s just one more endearing quality.

I turn the last page of the photo album and then close it and push it to the side. Lifting up my legs, I prop up my feet on the edge of her bed. “So.”

She smiles a bit. “So,” she echoes.

I tap my feet on the mattress a couple times. “Okay, so maybe I’m a little bored.”

She laughs. “I knew you were,” she says, placing her palms on the bed behind her and leaning back.

“So?”

“So.”

“So this is your stomping ground. What should we do?”

“What kind of thing are you up to?”

“Nothing too crazy. I’m sore after today.”

She gives me a thoughtful look and taps her finger against her cheek. “Okay, I have an idea. It’s a bit cheesy though.”

“What is it?”

She doesn’t answer my question. “Are you hungry?”

“I could eat something.”

“You should go to the kitchen and grab something to eat and I’m going to change and get a couple things.”

I let my feet drop to the ground and slowly stand up. “Okay…But where are we going exactly?”

She smiles and jumps off her bed. “Surprise.” She takes my hands in hers and gives me a push towards her door. “Go find food.”

Chuckling, I leave her room and wander down the hallway to the kitchen. It’s dark and empty and I leave the lights off as I go to the fridge and open it. Leaning down a bit, I evaluate the food situation.

“What are you looking for, Sweetie?”

Pulling my head up, I turn and see Emily’s mom, Alice, in the doorway. “Emily sent me to get food.”

She comes into the room, flipping on the light on her way. “What sort of food are you looking for?”

“I dunno. She’s taking me somewhere and told me to grab something to eat.”

Alice smiles and joins me at the fridge. “How about I make something for you two?”

I return her smile. “Sounds good.”

“You have a seat and we can chat.”

My smile grows a bit as I sit on the stool by the island counter in the middle of the room. I’ve found while working with him, that Phil is a man of few words. But Alice is like Emily and a talker. At dinner, Emily and Alice will go back and forth and it’s almost a struggle to keep up with them. It’s entertaining in the least.

“So where are you two going?” Alice asks as she places some fruit on the counter and stands across from me.

“I don’t know actually. She says it’s a surprise. Any ideas where it might be?”

“Oh I couldn’t even begin to think of all the places she can dream up.” She drops some sliced strawberries in a plastic container. “She’s really happy with you, Justin.”

I rest my forearms on the counter and lean my upper body forward. “I’m really happy with her,” I say and watch her cut the core from an apple.

She’s silent for a brief moment before speaking again. “When I was young, my high school used to put on a big play production every spring.”

Random. “Oh, really?”

“I had a best friend, Carolyn, who tried out for the play every year while we were in high school. She wanted to be an actress when she grew up. And every year except for our senior year, she got some part in the play.”

This has to be going somewhere so I simply sit there silently and listen.

“In our senior year, she tried out for the main part in the play but the director didn’t like her for the part and she didn’t get it. She was so upset about it and vowed never to act again.” Alice put the apples into another container and then went to the fridge. “I was helping with the set design and one day while I was there, the main actress who had the part that Carolyn wanted, got sick with a bad case of the flu. There was no one else there and the director asked if I would fill in.”

“Did you?”

Returning with some small muffins, she continued. “At first I refused because I had never even considered acting and also, out of loyalty to Carolyn, I felt I couldn’t take the part she had wanted. But eventually, it was too tempting of an offer and I accepted.”

“Did you tell your friend?”

“No. I swore all the cast members to secrecy because I thought that Carolyn would hate me if she found out. After all, this was the part that she wanted and now I had it. And although I didn’t intentionally go after it, I still believed that she would hate me forever if she found out.”

I think I know where this is going. “So you snuck around.”

“I tried. Eventually it became clear that I was weaving myself into so many lies that I didn’t even know which way was up.” The muffins went into a plastic bag and joined the containers of fruit on the counter. “And at a certain point, it became clear that she would find out. One way or another, the truth always comes out. The only thing we can control is when it will come out. And the question became did I want to continue hiding this from her and have her find out by going to the play and seeing me in the leading role or should I go to her and tell her myself.”

I bit the side of my cheek. “So what did you do?”

“Two days before the play I went to her house and told her everything.”

“What did she do?”

“She was mad at me. At first just at the fact that I had the part she wanted but then later, more about the fact that I had hid it from her. I can still remember her telling me that ‘Best friends don’t keep secrets from each other’.”

I drop my head down and lift up my hands to rub over my forehead. I say nothing and instead let out a sigh.

“You know why I’m telling you this, don’t you, Justin?”

I pull my head back up. “Yeah.”

“I don’t want to see neither Emily nor you get hurt and it’s obviously heading in that direction. I don’t think she knows that and maybe you don’t either. But the lies will eventually catch up to both of you.”

I slowly nod. “I’m realizing that.”

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

“Sir Walter Scott.”

She smiles. “I’m impressed you know that.”

The corner of my mouth turns up. “I’m good at remembering random facts.”

She goes to the pantry and returns with a plastic bag. She puts the food in it and then pushes it towards me. “I realize that I’m not in your situation and you know more than I do how Ben would react to finding out you’re dating Emily. But the truth does always come out, in one way or another.”

“I just don’t know how to go about telling him tactfully.”

“I’m sure it will come to you.”

“Did you get food?”

I turn my head when Emily’s voice joins the room and I see her coming into the room. “Yeah.”

“Where are you two off too?” Alice asks as she wipes the counter.

Emily comes over and links her arm in mine. “It’s a surprise. We won’t be really late though.”

“Your dad and I will probably be going to bed soon so we won’t see you until morning.”

“Okay.” Emily looks over to me. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yep.” I push the stool back and grab the bag of food from the counter as I stand. “Thanks for the food, Alice.”

“You’re welcome. Have fun.”

“Bye, Mom.”

Emily practically drags me from the room and to the back door of the house. “What were you guys talking about?” she asks as soon as we’re out of earshot of her mom.

I look down at her and smirk a bit. “Why?”

“Were you talking about me?”

“Ugh, you’re so egotistical,” I tease. She scoffs and I just laugh and put my shoes on. “Not everything in this world is about you.”

She simply gives me a look and then goes out the door. Still laughing, I take a few long strides to catch up to her stalking form. I snake my arm around her waist from behind and halt her.

“Kidding,” I murmur in her ear, placing a few light kisses along her jaw line. “Everything is and should always be about you.”

Without looking, I know she’s smiling and her body relaxes against mine. “That’s right.”

I move my arm to slip around her side. “So we’re standing outside. What’s the destination?”

She points towards the patch of trees on the side of the property. “That way.”

We began to walk together in the direction of the trees, her head leaning against my shoulder.

“So what were you guys talking about?” she tries again.

I didn’t really want to get involved in the whole us keeping our relationship a secret thing. “She was just telling me about when she was in high school.”

“Oh.”

I run my fingers against the skin of her hip that’s exposed from her shirt riding up. “Do you know if your mom is friends with a lady named Carolyn?”

“Carolyn Shultz? Yeah, they’ve been best friends since elementary. Why?”

“Just wondering.” It’s a bit reassuring to know that they stayed friends even after the drama of the high school play. But as well as that situation turned out for them, my situation with Ben is still different. It’s not a play I’m hiding from him; it’s a relationship with his ex girlfriend.

We reach the edge of the trees and I pull her to a stop. “So I’m beginning to get a bit nervous about the fact that I’m about to enter the dark woods to some unknown destination with you carrying a duffle bag.”

She giggles and grabs my hand from her hip. She begins to walk into the woods, giving me a yank to follow behind her. “You think I’m leading you in here to rape you or something?”

“That’s actually what I’m hoping for,” I say as I trail behind her on the dirt path, watching the ground so I don’t trip. “I’m just worried about that mystery duffle bag.”

She gives me a push and I stumble a bit. “Don’t be stupid.”

I laugh as I regain my balance and continue to trail after her. “Oh, Emily…”

She stops abruptly and I quickly stop so I don’t run into her. “We’re here.”

I look around. “Our secret destination is an oak tree?”

She gives my shoulder a push. “No, you loser. Look up.”

I tilt my head up but with the darkening sky it’s a bit hard to make out what’s above us. “What is that?”

“My treehouse.”

I begin to smile. “There’s a treehouse up there?”

“Yep. Hold the mystery duffle bag.”

I take the duffle bag in my free hand and watch as she begins to climb the makeshift ladder I hadn’t seen before. After a second she disappeared into the treehouse. Her head popped out.

“Hand me up the bags.”

I reach the bags up and she manages to get them. Once my hands were free, I begin to climb up the ladder. “You’re sure this thing will hold both of us?” I call up to her.

“Positive. When I was little I used to have all my friends up here.”

It only takes me a few seconds to reach the opening and I push myself up into the treehouse. The wooden floor creaks a bit but holds steady. Once settled inside, I look around. It’s small up here but cute. There’s pictures painted on the walls and what looks to be messages written on the low ceiling. It’s pretty bare but I’m assuming no one really comes up here anymore.

“Did your dad make this?”

“My dad and grandpa,” Emily says, unzipping the duffle bag. “My mom used to hate me coming out here all alone. She thought I’d fall and break my leg or something.” She pulls some blankets from the bag and spreads them on the wooden floor. I move onto them and stretch out my legs as she produces a couple candles and lights them so there’s some light in the space.

“There,” she says, joining me on the blankets. “Isn’t this perfect?”

Smiling, I rub my hand up and down her jean covered leg. “Yeah, it is.”

We sit up there and eat the food her mom made for us and talk about nothing and everything for almost two hours. Being here alone with her it’s easy to imagine that this is our life and we’re free to be what we want to be. But I know that in two days, we’ll be getting back on a flight to LA where things will have to go back to the way they were. I know Alice’s words held truth and something needs to be done. But until I’m forced too, I’m going to allow myself to fall into this little fantasy world with Emily where everything is perfect.

The candles are burning low and I’m lying on my back on the floor with Emily curled up beside me, her head on my shoulder. We’ve been quiet for a while now, only the sounds of the outside breaking the silence. This is such a comfortable stage we’re in. We’re at the point where no words need to be said and we don’t need to be doing anything exciting to have a good time. Sure, we were at that point in our friendship before, but being at that point while dating is just different in some way.

Emily sighs against me and curls a little more into me. I give her a squeeze with the arm wrapped around her shoulders and turn my head to the side to kiss her temple. Her body relaxes again and her fingers resumes tracing patterns on my stomach.

Sometimes I worry that I rush things when it comes to dating. I want too much too fast and it’s burnt me in the past. But there’s something about being with Emily that makes me feel like I don’t need to worry if I’m moving too fast. She compliments me in every way and just being around her makes me feel like I’m home. I want to lay here and tell her all this but I know there’s only one simple way I can truly convey it to her.

“Em.”

She doesn’t lift her head but her fingers still. “Hmm?”

I turn my head to look at her. “I love you, Em.”

At those words, her head lifts and her eyes connect with mine. The flickering candlelight prevents me from being able to read anything in her stare. “You…”

“I’m in love with you,” I say and bring my head up to kiss her. I pull away just an inch so I can say, “Don’t feel like you have to say anything back. I just had to say it.”

She kisses me and I bring my hand to the back of her head. She only kisses me softly a couple times before pulling back. I lay my head back down on the blanket.

“I love you too.”

“You don’t have to-” I start but she stops me with a finger over my lips. She raises her upper body and props herself up with an elbow, hovering over top of me.

“It’s not an obligation type thing. Do you really think I would just say that?”

Her finger still on my lips, I smile slightly and shake my head.

“You love me and I am completely, head over heals in love with you,” she finishes with a whisper and leans down to kiss me, pulling her hand away from my mouth.

I wrap both arms around her as we kiss, bringing her down on top of me. Weaving my hand through her hair, I kiss her long and slow, showing her instead of telling her how I feel about her.

Screw the list of things that can go wrong. This is perfect.