Page 44 of Need S'More Time

"I'm never cold, you know that. Though if you want to help me warm up, the boathouse does have a lock on the door..."

"Colin!"

"I'm just saying, don't knock it 'til you've tried it." He laughed, gathering his hair up in his tiny bun.

"I don't have time," she said. "I have to get ready for a hot date tonight."

"Oh really?" Colin played coy.

"Yeah, I have to go get my ball gown from the cleaners. Is your tux ready?"

"Of course," Colin replied seriously. "Do you need anything to get ready?"

"Colin, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you use grocery store brand shampoo, is that correct?" His slight blush told her everything she needed to know. "Washing my hair is an ordeal, and I don't have half of the products I need. I'll be spending half the afternoon getting ready and the other half being nervous."

"Why nervous?"

Because this is feeling real and I don't want to leave, she thought. "No major reason," is what she said. Colin shrugged, but the line between his eyebrows told June he didn't believe her for a second.

"Okay, June," he said. "I'll leave you to it. Meet up around 6? Is that enough time?" June confirmed, then basically sprinted back to her cabin to get ready.

June made sure this time, she would be prepared for her date with Colin. No naps, no fucking around on her phone. There wasn't any confusion about it was this evening - this was a date. Colin and June had messed around, made out, had sex, and had come incredibly close to making love this morning, and June knew that there was something between them. She wanted to look nice for him, wanted to see his eyes light up when she walked in the room, watch him swallow when he took in the lines of her body, the flash of her hair, the curve of her hips.

June took her time washing her hair - Colin's shower was nicer, she should have gotten ready there - and she did the best she could with the sparse bag of hair products and the weak hair dryer she found in the drawer, using her hand as a diffuser. She spun each curl around her finger, working to make sure the strands curled just right. It had taken June a long time to fall in love with her hair, but she did love it and she had noticed the way that Colin had taken to playing with a singular curl when they were close, wrapping it around a finger and tugging gently. She grew a bit wet at the thought, but willed her body to control its libido until after dinner.

June dumped out her entire bag on the bed and sorted through her clothes, digging for her one pair of jeans. After putting them on, she was struck with the best idea for what to wear, running out to the living room to get her tie dye shirt that she had made with Colin earlier in the week. She put the shirt on and looked in the mirror, tugging and pulling until she found a way to make the unisex shirt attractive. She took a hair tie, gathered the back of the shirt, and tied and tucked the shirt until there was some shapeliness to it. She then found her makeup bag - thank god she had tucked it in during the last minute of packing - and applied just a bit of eyeshadow, eyeliner, and blush. Just enough to pop her favorite features, to bring out the color of her eyes. Spritzing her hair with a bit of product, she scrunched her curls until they bounced in the way that she liked.

Yes, this was good. She looked good. Colin was good.

Colin was great, actually. Colin was everything she had been looking for, and June pushed down the thought that tomorrow was Friday. Friday meant packing, Friday meant leaving, Friday meant - just shit. Friday was shit. June took a swig from her water bottle, picked up her fleece, and went to head to Colin's. But the moment she opened the door, she encountered Colin, waiting on her front porch, a small bouquet of wildflowers in his hand. He was wearing his favorite camp shirt - Live, Laugh, Lake - with well-loved flannel over it, complete with snug jeans that were cuffed at the bottoms, revealing purple wool socks and, of course, his sandals.

"I couldn't wait," he said, smiling sheepishly. "I picked these from the meadow by the archery field this afternoon." June took them and knew she had a similar, ridiculous grin.

"Thanks," she pressed them to her nose, sniffing.

"Uh, they don't actually smell," Colin added, scratching his temple. "But they're pretty, and you're pretty, so I thought…" June dropped her metal water bottle with a soul shattering clang and threw her arms around Colin and kissed him. He stumbled back a step, surprised by her vigor, before his arms tucked around her back and he returned the kiss.

"Okay, okay," June panted against his lips. "I need to put these in water, and then we can go." Colin brushed past her, quickly found a Mason jar, filled it with water and dumped the flowers in it.

"Ready?" he asked, spinning around eagerly. June nodded and she followed him out of the cabin, to the parking lot, not even trying to not stare at his ass in his jeans as they walked. Colin headed over to a white Explorer that seemed to be on its last legs. A carabiner with a collection of friendship bracelets and bandanas hung from the rearview mirror. "Your chariot, my darling."

"Does this thing run?"

"Princess Fiona here has over 200,000 miles on her and is better than ever," Colin said, smacking the hood like a used car salesman.

"Princess Fiona?"

"Like in Shrek," Colin explained, unlocking the door - with a key - and popping in the driver's seat. "She's an ogre but she's so beautiful to me. I bought her used in New Mexico and she and I have made so many trips across the desert." June hoisted herself in the car and sniffed. A new scent was added to the usual aroma of pine trees and Irish Spring.

"Colin Whitford," she said in her best teacher voice. His head snapped to her, eyes wide. "Mr. Whitford, do you still smoke marijuana?"

He laughed. "Only occasionally, but yes, and yes - in Fiona. I can't have it on camp property, so I usually smoke here after I visit Phoebs."

"I'd love to share a joint with you. I wish I was here longer." Again, the words had escaped June’s mouth before her brain had registered what she was going to say. Shit.

“Teachers smoke?”

“If they drug tested teachers, they’d have no teachers, I swear, especially in this state,” June said, chuckling. “Not all the time, but it is a nice way to let off steam.”