Thread: No Better Time to Bond - [QuirkyVixen & Crescent]

SO large. Joel channeled the exuberance 10 year-old describing a reassembled dinosaur fossil from the museum to their parents Way larger than you'd expect. He reveled in her playful encouraging. Heather's ability to spur on his often nonsensical theatrics was a trait Joel loved in her. In their relatively short time as a couple, she had proven to be a stimulant for his already substantial self-confidence. After the long week apart, this affectionate banter served as a shot of Heather adrenaline, needled directly into his blood stream. To a lesser effect, Alex experienced the same. Little had sounded better than a warm shower, followed by spreading out on a motel couch with a beer and pizza, an evening he might have contested his cousin in favor of were she not present. Her smiling eyes though, during their brief introduction, seemed to promise adventure, even if Alex knew it was with Joel, not him. En route to the restaurant, Alex considered his options for becoming presentable in public while Joel fiddled with the radio. Among the provisions Heather had brought them was a bag of changing clothes, a god send given that all of their efficiently packed hiking attire had seen multiple days on unwashed bodies. Back in the parking lot, Joel had pointed out, Hey, we jumped in a lake, like...two days ago? Uhh, three, Alex had corrected him. At the time he had laughed at Heather's soured expression, but now he questioned whether or not it was truly exaggerated. Finding a yellow cotton t-shirt of his folded into the bag, Alex withdrew it and began unbuttoning his flannel top. Joel, still at work trying to find the least fuzzy country station, left answering Heather's moose question to him. Uhh, yeah. It was about a mile from the campsite on Tuesday morning, getting a drink from the lake. I got some good pictures of it. Sitting forward from the seat's back, Alex's bare chest came into view as he tugged open his unfastened shirt. Mostly bereft of hair, his pecks and abdominal muscles were fairly taut, though ghostly white compared to the fresh tan extending down his arms. An exchange of glances in the rear view mirror brought touch of red to Alex's cheeks. Quick to pull on the fresh tshirt, Alex's eyes kept to the window for the duration of the drive. Having resigned from radio tuning, Joel let his hand drop from the stereo to strategically land on Heather's thigh. Glancing over his shoulder to the backseat, he said, Cameraman back here took a million pictures. Possibly even some good ones. With his fingers grazing down the inner curvature between her legs, he turned his attention to his girlfriend. We should take a look at them later. Maybe tomorrow. The unspoken implication came through a cheshire grin, his fingertips skimming the inseam of her jeans. Cracked, gravelly pavement crunched under the tires as they drew to a stop in the restaurant parking lot, a pair of towering Ford pick-ups looming on either side of the crossover. Alex's rear door popped open, and he hopped out into the still gray evening holding another item from their weekend bag. A hand passed through his grimy, reddish hair which he then capped with a throwback, plastic mesh in the back, honest to god trucker hat. Adjusting it on his head, he looked over the impressively flat establishment. Possessing no awning nor outer decor, the flat wood front wall rose up to a flat, forward-slanted roof. The wood board exterior gave the place it's shack-like quality. A sparse row of outer windows were obscured by a smokey tint, allowing no visibility nor external light inside. A far cry from the local microbreweries that had taken over Hey, isn't that my hat? Joel had lingered in the front seat just long enough to mash lips again with his girlfriend over the center console, but now joining his cousin outside, he leveled the accusation at his cousin. Already several paces towards the entrance, Alex kept moving forward, calling back over his shoulder, You're the one that abdicated showering. For good measure, he worked gripped the brim and worked the hat firmly in place on his head. The flustered face Joel made was aimed equally at the sullying of his hat and the four-syllable word used to justify it. Did I abdicate showering? he inquired of Heather, trusting his girlfriend's vocabulary over his own and draping an arm around her. The front door opened up directly into the seating area, such as it were. A handful of booths lined the edge of the place, their seats red upholstery covering un-cushioned wood. Uniform round tables, none fit for more than four people, filled in the rest of the floor space. A beaten up wood-grain bar spanned the middle of the back wall and attracted the biggest congestion of patrons, primarily locals. Amongst the tabled seating, a few parties were recognizably tourists, also stopping at the first food and beer available coming from the park visitor's center. Though reasonably full, nothing bustled about the place. A pair of TVs hanging over the bar both tuned to a baseball game of little consequence, judging by the half-interested watchers occupying bar stools. Alex bee-lined towards an open booth that had just been bussed. He was disappointed to find the seat hard and wooden, but the scent of greasy food had both his and Joel's mouths watering. Before long, a waitress with a graying, blonde ponytail, looking to be around her mid 40's approached their table. What can I get you kids to drink?