A Different Slice

6 - Devil's Punchbowl (Kieran)

Kieran stretched across his living room couch with a pillow pressed against one ear and his cell against the other. His brother's words from earlier in the week echoed in his mind, but he had to believe Brinny wanted more from their friendship than to use him. Perhaps reliving some of their past adventure moments would rekindle some of their lost chemistry. They had shared that moment when she bandaged up his arm so hope wasn't impossible. She picked up the call on the second ring.

"What's up, Kier?"

"Hey, Brin, you remember when I first moved to the city, and you'd take me on all those adventures?"

"Oh yeah," she chuckled. "I was nerding out to the Travel Manitoba page, and you appeared at the perfect time."

"You ever miss it?"

Brinny laughed. "I don't have the energy anymore to miss it."

Kieran stared at the sterile white ceiling and walls of Jake's condo. Did she mean she didn't care, or she wanted to and was overwhelmed? Between work, Rusty, and Cole stress, she had a lot on her plate. 

"What if I planned something like that? Would you want to go?"

"Sure, anything to escape this house."

"Next Saturday?"

"I'm all yours, Kier."

He smiled, even though she didn't mean it the way he wanted. Perhaps if he stepped up his game, one day she would.

***

The early May sun grew in strength with each passing hour Kieran and Brinny spent in Spruce Woods Park. Weeks ago, they were still scraping ice and snow off their windshields after the thankfully last false spring, and now Kieran regretted wearing a shirt with sleeves. Brinny had shed her plaid shirt to show off her black cropped tank top, which he enjoyed as often as he could. As they traversed the sand dunes that existed despite the nearest coast being on Hudson's Bay a thousand kilometres away, she kept stopping to take selfies or ask Kieran to photograph her. She must have dressed up for social media, not him.

He didn't mind when they hiked together before because this occurred less often and they'd take pictures together, but that was rarely the case today. She kept having him redo the shots as she mumbled about looking too awkward, fat, or hideous. He'd told her she looked great, but she'd retorted that he was too nice. It was for her social media audience and had to be perfect. He wasn't sure what her eyes saw, but to him the shots already were.

The temperature soared with the golden sand reflecting the scorching sun, and he wanted to reach the shade in the grove of spruce trees.

"One more?" Brinny asked.

"We're going to get heatstroke."

"Please, Kier." She did her sexy and adorable pout. He would always say yes to that.

"Alright one, but no others till the Devil's Punchbowl, okay?"

"Deal." She stuck out her chest, stretched out her legs in the sand, and stared away from the camera at the rolling dunes. Her arms seemed more toned than usual. She'd pulled down her hair too, so it blew gently in the light breeze.

"Ready?" Once she nodded, he held his thumb on the shutter button, figuring it'd decrease his odds of having to do this again. When he stood, he handed her phone with the photo open, and her jaw dropped. Her fingers rushed to delete each one.

"Why did you take so many? I look obese."

He tried to glance at the photos but they were disappearing at lightning speed. "What are you talking about? You look amazing."