Dave chuckled, then turned around to face Julia, wrapping her up in a hug. The ocean breeze blew by, the morning sun weak against it, sending chills down Julia’s spine. Held tightly in Dave’s arms, sensing the tenderness in his embrace, she’d bet that he was feeling the same, reluctant to leave. After a few moments, Dave loosened and pulled back, kissing Julia quickly on the lips.
Julia followed behind Dave, a little slow because she’d woken up about six minutes ago and the sand felt nothing short of magical between her toes. The whole world should have been filled with sand. Dave was already up by the highway shoulder, walking a little too quickly. Julia glanced back at the spot, because the day could survive another cliché. She took note of the surroundings, the trees on the other side of the road, the wooden fence that must have belonged to some unseen property. Oh, how trite it was to be a girl memorizing the details of her first time.
She turned back and saw Dave was already in the car, which they’d parked behind some boulders to avoid being spotted. He was in the driver’s seat with the engine started, squinting though the sun wasn’t completely on his face. They were a bit more than a couple of hours outside of San Luis Obispo, and Julia was going to relish every mile of the drive back home.
She put her feet up on the dashboard, undid her hair tie, and let the wind whip away the sand as they pulled onto the freeway. She grabbed her sunglasses from the center console but didn’t put them on, not wanting to lessen the brightness of the day. “I wish we’d brought some breakfast snacks,” Julia said, plugging her phone into the car for music. “You wanna stop at a diner somewhere?”
Dave leaned his elbow on the car door, looking worried. “We should probably get back soonish.”
“So cute, still worried about school.” Julia reached over and poked him in the stomach. “All right, no diner. But we need some road-trip food. I want Flamin’ Hot Cheetos for breakfast.”
“Gross.”
“David Babycakes Howard, you start bad mouthing hot Cheetos and I’m gonna take away your Mexican passport.”
Dave smiled at that, but he was squinting like the sun was in his eyes, worried. He reached over to turn the music up a bit, which was weird because a dance song was playing and Dave didn’t like dance music. Julia sat back and sang along, shoulder-shimmying in her seat, her hand out the window. It was cold enough outside to get goose bumps from the wind, but Julia was too happy to care.
They pulled into a gas station. “What are you having for breakfast?” Julia said, climbing out of the car. Dave didn’t make a move to get out. “Want me to grab you anything? Skittles? Red Bull? Hot Cheetos?”
“A barf bag,” Dave said with a groan.
When Julia came back out from the store with a bag full of junk food, Dave was resting his head back with his eyes closed. She stood and stared for a second, thankful she couldn’t see the look on her own face, how wide she was grinning. Dave, on the other hand, was not grinning very much. Quite the contrary, actually. He looked stressed. She was about to make a joke about postcoital vulnerability, when she was struck by a realization that she was surprised hadn’t come sooner. Gretchen was on his mind. His heart was too big not to think about her.
“You want me to drive?”
Dave opened one eye. “You’re never getting these keys back. I’m the driver now.”
“That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? Sneaky.” She reached into the bag and tossed the Cheetos at Dave, then slid back into the passenger seat. Before he could turn the car back on, Julia reached for his hand, lacing their fingers together. “This is kind of cool, isn’t it?” She smiled, holding their hands up together, then bringing them up to her mouth and planting a long kiss on the knuckle of his middle finger.