Chapter 12

Max

I smiled. “I was just teasing you.”

“Hmm-hmm.” She scoffed.

“Of course, I’ll help you.”

I stood up and smashed the coconut repeatedly against the rock until a crack was there and juices drizzled out.

“Thanks, Max,” she said. Oh, the way she spoke my name. And the way she just winked at me.

Oh, my heart.

~

The rest of the day went by fast and without trouble. We did what we did every day: we checked the beach and looked if there were any ships to be seen, which weren’t there; searched for food; slept; strolled around; laughed; and, of course, kissed.

Oh God, I couldn’t get enough of kissing her. Just to feel her hands around my neck, her soft breasts pressed against my chest, her warm mouth on my lips.

On our way back to the cave, I was already picturing us in “bed” again, which made me feel all ticklish inside when Cassie suddenly grabbed my hand and yanked at my arm.

“Look,” she said.

A green-blue lizard sat on one of the thick branches, its vibrant turquoise skin in contrast with the dark green leaves in the background.

“Wow, he’s so cool,” I replied.

We’d seen bugs, birds, some monkeys, small reptiles, and frogs during our days here, but never such a lizard.

“Yeah, he looks so pretty with those colors.”

“Not as pretty as you.” I wrapped my arm around her waist, pushing myself against her soft, round bum.

She started chuckling, turning herself around, wrapping her arms around my neck. “It would be sad if we would eat him, wouldn’t it?”

“Eat him up?” I half yelled. “Ew, Zi!”

“Haha. I have a friend that’s from Suriname and the people there eat lizards like it’s the most normal thing on earth. But those lizards are not blue though. They say they taste like chicken.”

“Well, we can’t eat him,” I stated. “Look at his face, it even looks like he’s smiling at us.”

She turned around again. “He does look pretty cute. Okay, okay. We probably wouldn’t have been able to catch him, anyway. Let’s see if we can succeed in catching some fish instead.”

When Ziya wanted to wiggle her way out of my embrace, I held her in place. “Hey,” she said before she looked into my eyes. “Are you okay? You look... serious suddenly.”

“I’m okay. I’m actually better than okay.”

“That’s... good?” she gave me a peck on the lips, which I turned into a kiss.

“It is good,” I said after I broke the kiss. “I like you so much, Zi.”

“You already said that yesterday,” she said, smiling, her hands stroking my back.

“No, I mean... I really like you. And not just because of our intimate moments. I’ve liked you from the start.”

“You’re such a sweetheart.”

“What will happen once we get rescued?”

“Well, then we will go home and you can have pizza and I’m getting the biggest piece of chocolate cake—”

“I’m serious here,” I cut her off. “We live hours apart. Will the rescue be the end of this? Whatever this is, I don’t want it to end.”

“I... I don’t know,” she said, honestly. “But for now we are still here.”

“Yeah, but we could be on a boat going home tomorrow, and it’ll end right then. Call me crazy, but I don’t want it to end. Of course, I want to go home too, but...”

Ziya stroked one of her feet over the ground, her toes moving some dried leaves. “I don’t have an answer, Max, except for I like you too and we’ll figure it out.” She leaned in and let her lips brush against my chest. “Let’s go back. For now, the cave is our home and not two homes that are hours apart.”

I sighed through my nose and nodded.

“Look... my mom always says the soup is never eaten as hot as it was served. Do you know what that means?” Ziya asked.

I shook my head.

“It means that things are not as bad as they might now seem. It’ll work out, okay? You and I will work things out if it’s needed.” She pinched in my cheeks as if I was still a child. Maybe I was acting a little ridiculous. “We don’t know how we feel in a day or a week or a month. We might be here or we might be home. My point is, let’s not waste energy on worrying about the future. Let’s live in the now.”

“Okay, you’re right,” I said.

Once again, she was right.

Once again, she made me feel better.

Ziya

Max, who was always so confident and positive and sure about everything, seemed to have a weak spot. And I found out that weak spot was me and I could tell he really liked me. It wasn’t just some fling or purely physical. He genuinely liked me and was already anxious about our future.

If I was completely honest, it also had crossed my thoughts, but I felt ridiculous for thinking about it at this stage. We were trapped here on this island, and we should hope to find rescue as soon as possible, not wanting to have a romantic vacation.

Things were so unsure, a hundred different things could be potentially dangerous. We really should be rescued as soon as possible, and still… I understood his thoughts because I had them too. I truly liked him. And I loved to be here with him.

If someone would have told me I would get the hots for a nineteen-year-old virgin jock, I would have laughed at their face, but the only laugh that was on my face now was because of him. A laugh of satisfaction, happiness, and joy.

I could look at him for hours, as he was busy sharpening a wooden stick into a spear or when he tried to catch fish or climbed in the trees to get us food. He was more manly than most men I knew, most of them my age or older. And that made him so sexy too.

And the way his muscles moved underneath his skin. The way he smelled. The way he threw his head back, running his hands through his wet hair when we swam in the lake. His veiny hands, his tattoos, his smile.

Damn, I couldn’t get enough of touching him. I turned him on half of the day too, and that surely was a boost for my confidence. My ex never told me how beautiful and sexy I was. Max did, and his face looked at me with a certain hunger.

And, oh, how I loved to please him. I’d always been a pleaser, but now, for the first time, I felt truly appreciated for it. And not just during the times we were intimate, I mean, yeah… with sex it was the same—he also appreciated me for that. But also during “normal day life”, when I picked him berries, or cleaned the water bottles and filled them again; he always made me feel appreciated. It felt so much better to please someone this way. I thought men like him only existed in movies and shows, but apparently, it had to be a younger guy to show me they were really out there.

Fuck, he was just great.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~