That one summer

Aurora

As I stepped onto the terrace, the girls pulled me into a huddle. Juniper handed me a bottle of ice-cold water. These girls did know me the best. "So, tell us what happened?"

I looked at all three of them, Ev rolled her eyes "I know he is like a brother to me, but I still want to know hoping he has not fucked things up, since you are like a gem."

"Technically, he almost fucked me up."

Lina narrowed her eyes "Spill it!"

As I was about to start, Orion stepped in with a blanket and a glass of water with ice. I guess there is another person who knows me. I took both of them from him, "Thank you!"

He gave a shy smile and went towards Declan and some other guys and I had noticed he had changed from shorts into pants.

Apparently, I was not the only one who noticed that Ev was also looking in that direction. "Why is he in pants? He never wears pants at the restaurant even during winters. Oh my god, spill it girl."

All three pairs of eyes were on me, after I finished, they were wide-eyed.

"At my dad's kitchen. Hot for you but gross for me. I would never be able to eat food made on that counter again." Ev gagged at that.

"That was quick, but why did he give you a blanket? You rarely get cold"? Juniper questioned.

I fiddled with the glass as I was not sure how to put forth that piece of information and was pretty sure my cheeks were flaming "That would be because he pocketed my thong."

As soon as I said, all three of them stood up and exclaimed, shouted and Lina even whistled. All eyes were on us, but in the crowd all I could see was Orion's and I could not help but smile in that embarrassing moment.

Grace yelled from the other end of the terrace "What are you girls so happy about?"

Ev replied back "Nothing much, ignore us. Continue with your party."

All three of them sat down laughing when Juniper pitched in "How about a walk on the beach?"

All of us agreed to that and before we left Ev pulled me aside, "You might want to bye to Rhino and his parents before stepping out. You know for the girlfriend thing,"

Right the charade, I had completely forgotten about that. I nodded when Ev called out to her parents, "We are stepping out for a walk." And looked back at me "We will wait for you downstairs."

I went forward to let Grace & Phil know when both of them pulled me into a hug, "We are glad that you are in Rhino's life". Grace gave me a loving look which made me miss my mother.

"It was really nice meeting you guys, and today evening was quite fun. Thank you for inviting us."

Phil waved his hand "Oh, don't be silly. You are one of us now."

And that hit to my gut and I made a mistake of looking up at Orion at that moment. He was already standing next to me, "I will walk her out."

"I will see you guys later" I waved them goodbye. Declan and Rhys gave a dramatic wave back with hands flying high and Declan even wiped his fake tears away, which made me laugh. I knew Declan was funny at times at work but seeing this other side of him was something.

As we climbed down the stairs, Orion held on to my hips and that made a jolt of electricity pass through me. But I kept forgetting that it was all pretend. And I had to step out of this bubble and come back. "Today was fun, Rhino."

Orion suddenly held my hips tight and I was unable to move from the last step. He stepped down in front of me, "You can call me literally anything else but that. Only my family calls me by that name."

Ouch, that hurt. I was joking, trying to ease the tension, but it seemed he did not like that. I nodded, "Sorry, I will not call you that Mr Wright." I had only used that name on him when I was really annoyed at him, but this scenario was making me feel more embarrassed than annoyed.

As I was about to step down, Orion held my hand and tipped my chin towards him, "Hey, I did not mean it like that. I would honestly feel embarrassed if you called me Rhino, it makes me feel that I am a seven-year-old kid. My family has been calling me that since I was a child, I tried getting rid of that name so many times but there was no point. Rhino always came back. And that is why I said literally call me anything else."

I snorted at that. He looked so damn cute, and those puppy eyes. God, I really wanted to kiss him again and not call it an accident.

He started moving both our hands "You know you can call me yours." And then he winked, and that wink would have dropped my panties to the floor if I had any on. But my overthinking brain straight up went to the thought of whether would he continue being like this once we got back to Leeds.

I cleared my throat and walked past him, "In your dreams Mr. Wrong." He dipped his head and chuckled. And that is when I noticed, he had dimples on both cheeks. How come I had never noticed this before and why did he need those perfect dimples when he already had a banging body, a really cute smile, cleverness, and on top of this, a math genius?

I had to run out of here before I felt like pulling him back into the kitchen and asking him to finish what he had started. "The girls are waiting; I will see you Monday."

With that, I stepped out, but I heard him shout back, "You will definitely be seeing me before that."

"Not happening."

I reached the girls; they were already waiting for me across the road towards the beach. We had quickly gotten close to Ev in the few hours we had spent with her. She was tall, smart, and really cute. When we found out last night that all of us lived in the same building, we called it fate. Ev had mentioned that she had a childhood friend who moved to Australia when they reached Uni and she lost contact with her after that Ev had a few friends through Uni and work but none of them were really close ones. And that is when we had collectively decided on the spot, she is in.

As we walked the beach we talked about life, our dreams, and challenges. It was comfortable being around them, all of us had our own journeys but we understood pretty well what the others were going through.

After the walk, we invited Ev back to our guest house for a round of wine, but she said she was returning back to Leeds at five in the morning tomorrow and would prefer to sleep in early.

We reached our guest house and took turns taking a shower. Our train was at ten in the morning and we were certain all of us would be getting up late and leaving in a hurry, thus showering the night before is the best option although not so hygienic.

I was the first one to step out of the shower and Lina went in second, Juniper was on her phone next to me. I lay down and placed my head on her lap. "Just saying, you and Orion looked cute today."

I groaned as I covered my face with my hands, "We were just drunk, nothing else."

"Whatever you say, but I have a good feeling about him."

I nodded as I got the text from the man of the hour himself which made me sit upright, smiling and feeling all giddy!