“Should I even ask what I interrupted?” India asked, giggling.
“Nothing a cold shower can’t fix.” Nick joked, feeling he’d already needed more than his fair share of cooling down after leaving India’s house on Friday night.
India rolled her eyes since Nick couldn’t see her, but said, “Careful with the cold showers… I don’t you to permanently shrink anything I might want to play with later.”
Nick scoffed, “No worries there… cold showers or not.”
“Don’t start making promises you might not be able to keep…” India teased.
“I can make a lot more promises than that...” Nick said, seductively, “and deliver on them all.”
“Are you trying to tempt me?”
“Depends, is it working?”
“I’ll never tell.” India said, she was beginning to enjoy this game they were apparently going to play, teasing each other… not that it was going to get him any closer to getting with her, but she was more than willing to let him try.
Nick sighed, “Since that’s not getting me anywhere, what’s going on?”
“I had a question for you…”
“And that would be?”
“Would you want to see me in the morning?” she asked, intentionally phrasing her question to play along with him.
“Yeah… sleeping next to me.” he said, smiling to himself at the mental image that flashed in his mind- her hair all over his pillow, her scent on his sheets… her in his arms..
India laughed, she had to appreciate his attempts. “And if that’s not an option just yet?”
“I want to see you anyway I can get you.” he replied.
“Well, would you want to join me tomorrow morning for breakfast?” she asked.
“Don’t you have school?”
“Yeah… but every Monday morning, I get up, go have breakfast on the beach and watch the sunrise…. it’s an awesome way to get the week started.” she told him.
Nick liked the idea that she’d ask him to join her, let him be a part of her routine- especially a part that was special to her. “That’s really cool…I’d love to go with you. What time do you want me to meet you?”
“How about I come pick you up at 4:30?”
“Four-thirty?!? In the morning?!?” Nick asked, groaning.
India laughed, “Yup… really, it’s not that bad.”
“But it’s so eeaaarrrllllyyyy…” he whined.
“Well then get to bed as soon as we hang up.” India suggested.
“I’m gonna have to.” he said. The morning wasn’t really that early- he’d had plenty of early morning calls for videos and travel and things… and this was different… he actually wanted to get up to be able to be with her. “Do you want me to bring anything?”
“Just yourself. Go to bed, okay? I’ll be there about 4:30.”
“Yeah… I’ll be ready.” he said. “Good night.”
“Good night.. sweet dreams.” she said, then hung up, glad he’d agreed to join her.
Nick smiled as he hung up, thinking it was cute she’d wished him sweet dreams. He glanced at the clock, considered how long it was until 4:20- no need to get up earlier than necessary- then pushed the clothes off his bed and flopped down to go to sleep.
~~~
India hopped out of her car, walking up to knock on Nick’s door at 4:32 a.m.
Nick opened the door, still rubbing his eyes, and smiled at seeing her. She was wearing khakis and a light jacket and obviously was wide awake. “G’morning.”
India tried her best not to giggle at him- she could tell he’d just rolled out of bed… his clothes looked like they’d been slept in, his hair was going every which way, and he seemed to just barely be able to keep his eyes open. She leaned in to give him a sweet kiss on the lips, “Good morning!”
Nick looked at her, “Damn, you’re perky.”
She smiled and held her hand out to him after he locked the door, “Yeah, I am sort of a morning person. My mom used to call me ‘Poptart’, because I pop up out of bed when the alarm goes off like a poptart out of the toaster.”
Nick cracked up as he climbed into her car, “That’s too funny!”
“It is kind of cute, I guess… I drove everyone in my family crazy… they’re all definitely night owls… I’m the oddball.” she said, pulling out of his driveway and heading to “her” spot on the beach where she always held her ritual Monday morning breakfast.
Nick sniffed at the scent in the car as she drove, trying to figure out what she had in the picnic basket in her back seat. He tried to reach to open it up and see once, but India caught him, playfully smacking his arm away and telling him to be patient.
“Seems like you say that a lot.” he mumbled.
India shook her head and parked at a spot near the beach, got out of the car and grabbed the basket before Nick had a chance to reach for it again, and a quilt. Nick got out of the car, stretching, a little surprised that they weren’t the only people out and about at this time of the morning.
“C’mon!” India called to him, walking towards the beach as Nick watched a couple roller-blading around the parking lot they were in. She waited for him to catch up to her, then lead him to a spot next to a cluster of a few palm trees, just a few feet from where the sand and water met. She spread the quilt out on the sand as Nick looked around, investigating the area, then pulled plates, cups, and utensils out of the basket, setting them down on the quilt.
She sat down and motioned for Nick to join her as she began pulling the food from the basket- a thermos of orange juice, blueberry muffins she’d baked the night before and fruit salad.
Nick smiled as she completed her set up. “You think of everything, don’t you?” he asked as she closed the basket after pulling out a stash of napkins.
“I try to.” she replied. “Help yourself… this is self-serve.”
Nick chuckled and grabbed a muffin and some fruit, then poured some orange juice. They talked as they ate, filling each other in on the parts of the weekend they’d spent apart and the plans they had for the upcoming week, and when they’d be able to find more time to spend together.
As the sun came up, the temperature began to rise, and India unzipped her jacket, then slipped it off. Nick squinted his eyes a little at what he thought the shirt said, surely she wasn’t going to wear that to school…
India laughed as she saw him looking at “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll” emblazoned across her chest. “What?”
“They let you wear that to school?” he asked. He could see a student wearing it, but a teacher?
“Yeah…” she turned around so he could read the back of the shirt, ‘Highlights of History with Miss Evans’.
“What’s that about?”
“Some of the kids in my classes last year had them made… eventually about everyone in the school was wearing them… it was funny… there was a picture in the year book of a bunch of students with them on.” she told him.
“I don’t get it…” he said, still not understanding what sex, drugs, or rock and roll had to do with her history classes.
“I try to make the stuff I teach as much fun as possible… so I do a lesson on sex and drugs…”
Nick cut her off, interrupting, “How does that fit into history?”
“The middle ages. How do you think the missionary position got it’s name? It was from the missionaries and the monks nailing the nuns! And everybody was stoned off their asses on opium… some of the most amazing works of literature of that time period were written while the authors were higher than kites! Kids love that stuff… they walk out of my class remembering more than they learned in their entire high school career… you should see how much test scores have gone up since I started this stuff.” she said.
Again, Nick found himself totally impressed with her. He loved that she’d take a totally non-traditional approach to things, and make stuff work for her that most likely no one else could pull off. “But… where does the rock and roll fit in?”
India smiled, “Aerosmith wrote a song about me.”
“What?” Nick tried to think quickly through all the Aerosmith songs he could think of.
“Well, not about me exactly… on their Nine Lives album, the song “Taste of India”…. one of the students that came up with the t-shirt idea was a huge Aerosmith freak… he thought it was funny since my name is India…” she explained.
When she mentioned the name of the song, Nick could vaguely recall it, and made a mental note to himself to find it and listen to it again. He leaned over to kiss her, a slow, searching kiss. When he pulled away he smiled and said, “You taste sweet.”
India giggled, “I probably taste like blueberry muffin.”
“Either way… I like the way you taste…” he said, his eyes making contact with hers.
India knew from the look in his eyes he was still wanting to get a better taste of her. She slipped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to her for another kiss.
A while later, India finally thought to check her watch and realized she had to get a move on or she’d be late for school. She and Nick hurriedly packed everything back up and headed back to his house.
When they got there, she walked him to the door, slipping her arms around his waist as he wished her a good day and kissed her, her hands sliding down to grab his ass and squeeze. She stifled a little giggle at the shudder of surprise she felt, then pulled away from him. “I’ll talk to you after school.” she said, blowing him another kiss and jogging to her car and driving off.
Nick sighed as he opened the door- he was pleasantly surprised again by her actions… and in need of yet another cold shower.