Jungle Adventures: Selvadorada Surprise

A month earlier…

“I feel like I need to apologize,” Zaiden said, looking less confident and sure of himself as she’d ever seen him.  He’d come to the camp house the morning after their passionate encounter in the jungle. “I have no idea what came over me.  I didn’t mean to maul you or…do what we did…out there in the jungle.”

Avirelle was just as insecure as he was, a rare feeling for her.  “I didn’t mean for it to happen either. I guess we got carried away.”

“Yeah, but that’s not really a good excuse.”

“Maybe not, but I was thinking about it, and we did both eat some of those freaky berries.  Maybe the locals are right about them enhancing emotions.” Avi was trying to be reasonable, giving them both something to blame for what happened.

“Even if we were under the influence, I’d like to think I’d treat a woman better, especially since it was only our second date,” Zaiden said.

Avi wanted to scream that it hadn’t been a date, but she figured the point was moot.  

He continued, “I just wanted you to know that I’m not really the kind of asshole who does stuff like that. But at least I had the forethought to use the condom I had in my wallet.”

“Thanks for that,” Avi said, and then added, “And I wouldn’t call you an asshole. Other than being stubborn and refusing to take no as an answer, you were fine–only mildly a jerk.”

He pulled back and raised his hands in mock retreat. “Mildly a jerk!?” he grinned. “How about I was totally charming the whole time until the end…then, well…I’ll just say it wasn’t one of my best moments.”

Avirelle smailed back. “I think we both acted out of character. I probably should apologize as well. That wasn’t one of my best moments either.”

Zaiden raised an eyebrow. “On my end, it was a pretty good moment. But I get what you mean. Did we ruin everything for our third date?” he asked, some of his humor returning.

“Yeah,” Avi snorted. “You totally blew it.  We can’t ever have a date (first, second, or third).”

“Cruel woman.”

She laughed.  “No, seriously.  I head back home in a few days.  You said you’re from Sulani. That’s a pretty long way to travel to date someone who lives in Britechester.”

“If I gave you a cheesy answer about swimming across the ocean just to see you, would you agree to a third date?”

 “Absolutely not!” Avi snorted again.  “If you say something like that, I’m just going to laugh in your face and then make fun of you with my friends behind your back.”

“Harsh.”

She grinned.  “Look, no matter what happened, whether it was normal or not, I enjoyed myself yesterday when it came right down to it.”

“I knew it,” he said smugly.

“But anything more is just unrealistic,” she continued.  “I don’t even know your last name or what you do for a living or anything more than the fact that you make too many jokes and you tend to take women for granted.”

“Hey!”

She chuckled.  “Sorry. That last one I know isn’t true, but still.”

Zaiden grinned back at her.  “My last name is Bradshaw,” he said.  “I am from Sulani, like I said, and I moonlight as a part-time professor at the Sulani Community College when I’m not chasing treasures.”

“Nice to meet you Professor Bradshaw.”

“Nice to meet you as well Miss…?”

“Adamson.”

“Miss Adamson.” He smiled at her sweetly, looking like he really regretted that they lived so far from each other.  “I’m sorry we can’t have a third date. If you’d agree, I really would swim the whole ocean to get to Britechester and take you out on a real date.”

“Well now you’ve done it,” she said with mock sarcasm.  “When you leave I’m going to have to make fun of your cheesy lines with all of my girlfriends.  I’ll put it on all of the student forums, and you’ll be the laughing stock of all the female coeds.”

“Cruel, Woman, cruel.”

They both laughed and then she made an excuse about having to help Professor Clement so Zaiden reluctantly left the camp house.

Amy, who’d been lurking near the kitchen, stepped out.  “I can’t believe you let him walk out of here. We’ve got a few more days. I would have blown this whole dig off and gone exploring with him, if you know what I mean.”

Avi blushed.  “It wouldn’t have worked out.”

“Who cares!  All you’d have to do is use him for a little jungle lovin’ and then say ‘goodbye, thanks for the memories.’  It isn’t like you needed to marry the guy.”

Avi blushed even more and her friend noticed.

“Wait a minute!  Why are you blushing like that?  Did you guys have a little jungle woohoo the other day?  You did, didn’t you? Bad girl! I hope you used protection.”

“We ate some strange fruit that made us hyper romantic or something.  It wasn’t what you think! And yes, we did use protection, thank you very much!”

“Good. So you woohoo’d once; why couldn’t you do it again? He took the time to stock up on protection, so that’s covered. What would be the harm in making it a two-fer?”

“We just couldn’t, ok? Leave it alone.”

“Fine, but if he’d been interested in me, I’d have hit the jungle every single day.”

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