After the short lived counselling session that Anthony and I were excused from early - mostly because of our bickering and the fact that neither of us were willing to act like reasonable adults. We had both been very quiet since with neither one of us wanting to admit that we took things a little too far - Name calling, in particular - and neither of us wanting to be the first to apologize.

I wasn't proud of my actions.

I am.

I shouldn't have let him bait me like that.

You should have said more!

I won't let it happen again.

Bring on another round!

I gulped and turned back to look at Anthony. His head was down as he looked at his shoes, rocking back slight on his heels. His hands were in his pockets and his hair was messy with the beginnings of curls at his sides from the humid air.

I smiled as I saw the curls. I had never seen his hair take on the curly persona before and something about it made the sight seem that much more than just simple curls. It was something he obviously suppressed with mountains of jell. Seeing them alone made me feel something - what that was? I am still figuring out.

I supposed this was what we were, a constant stand off with one another. And sooner or later, one of us had to break, one of us had to apologize and be the bigger person.

Define bigger person? 'Cause if you mean weight, well then I think your ass has that covered.

I rolled my eyes at my inner self and pushed all thoughts butt related to the back of my mind for her to secretly dwell on. I stole another look at Anthony. He looked almost as ashamed as I was by the outburst.

Looking down, I drew a circle in the hot sand with my toe, not bothering to look at him as I started to speak. "I'm sorry about before, I know we said 'act like reasonable adults' but in my defense, you baited me."

There. I got it off my chest and the guilt was no longer mine to bare. I was the bigger person - and that had nothing to do with my butt.

"I did." He answered back. I looked up to face him with a hint of surprise. Did he just admit that? He was still looking down at the sand and rocking back and forth ever so slightly on his heels. "I hate counselling, it always gets me nervous and so I acted like a child."

I raised my eyebrows slightly shocked. "Wow, brutal confessions."

He chuckled deeply and walked over towards me. "Reasonable adults from now on." He held out his hand towards me in truce.

"Reasonable adults." I shook his hand and agreed.

We waited on the beach for another brief moment while we waited for our next scheduled activity to begin. Canoeing.

A few other couples were already on the water while Anthony and I got geared up for the small boat ride.

I hadn't exactly made up my mind about this activity just yet. Although, judging from past experiences I've had with unstable objects, and water simply on their own, let alone together, I knew this was going to be a terrible idea.

I should run now. Fake a stomach ache. Pretend to faint from heat exhaustion, anything was going to be better than sitting in a small canoe only inches off the water.

It only took us a few minutes to climb into the canoe with the assistant at the dock helping us to steady the small boat as we climbed in. Anthony took the seat at the back while I sat just in front of him, sitting mostly between his legs and facing forward.

We paddled silently. Anthony adjusted his stroke to match the slow pace I was setting in front as we made our way out further into the ocean.

"I don't want to go too far from shore." I told him, breaking the silence.

"Why?" He asked from behind. "Afraid we'll get lost?"

Well now that you mentioned it - Hell yes!

"I don't trust you not to tip us over and I don't want to think about what kind of fish is swimming underneath me when we do."

The thought of floating there in the open ocean with all sorts of slimy scaly fish, sharks and jellyfish scared me, especially since they could see me, but I couldn't see them.

He gave a husky chuckle. "Yeah I wouldn't trust me either."

We paddled out by a buoy floating in the water and Anthony reached out and used it to turn us back around after my failed attempts at steering had ended with us spinning in circles along the water's surface.

"Before," started again, deciding I would take the opportunity to clear up some information. "When you said you hated counselling..." I paused trying to find the words. Have you had to be counselled for something before? Why? I couldn't voice them as clearly as I said them in my head.

"I was sixteen. One of the kids I went to school with died, it was mandatory." He answered clearly catching on to what I was asking. "I was told to stay on, the school counselor thought I was having trouble at home and wanted to make our visits routine."

I turned to look at him over my shoulder finding it difficult to read his voice without the aid of body and facial cues. "And was there?"

Sandra seemed nice, just like a loving and caring mother should be but I hadn't seen much of Anthony's father in the picture, in fact I had only met the man once. He didn't strike me as cold, or distant but that didn't mean he was estranged from his own son.

Anthony shrugged, his eyes were focused on the base of the canoe, not looking at me directly. "Nothing out of the ordinary. My dad and I aren't overly close but my Mum tries to make up for it."

I nodded in understanding and turned back to face the water in front of me. We were a fair distance away from shore now but the waves were slowly driving us back to shore without much effort.

I pulled up my ore and rested my arms for a brief moment, feeling the itchy burn of my muscles.

"Liking the fresh air?" Anthony asked as he copied my movements, letting his arms rest.

"It's a nice change from all that noise."

"Yeah, I kind of miss the lights though." He admitted truthfully.

I smiled thinking about the bright city lights that never seem to have an off switch. I supposed I missed them too, the constant light glow that they set was like a never ending night light that helped chase away the shadows. Perfect for a kid who was always afraid of the dark.

"Would you ever leave it?"

I frowned a little. "What?"

"The city? Would you ever leave it, settle down in the suburbs or country or something?" I could feel his eyes hovering just above my shoulder, burning my skin under my singlet. His eyes were watching my reactions closely. From the tension in my shoulders to the rigid breaths escaping me.

"Maybe not the country." I admitted, not thinking I could survive full time with the fly's and over sized ants that fresh air seemed to attract. "But suburbia could be nice. Close to work."

He chuckled a little making me turn to face him. "How considerate of you babe."

"Not your work, my work." I frowned.

"You mean your full time position as a pain in my ass? Or is it the part-time home demolition that you need easy access to?"

"Both are very demanding." I smiled and crossed my arms over my chest, defensively.

He laughed at my answer, his body shook the boat as he laughed.

"Anthony don't!" I yelled at him, gripping the edge of the boat in a vice like grip.

He smiled wickedly. "Do what?"

He rocked again.

"That! Don't do that, Anthony I mean it."

He laughed again and rocked his weight to the side of the boat, but a little too hard to recover the momentum.

We fell into the water together.

My life-jacket blew up and hurled my body upward and out of the water. The pressure forced me on my back and my limbs spread out like a star.

You look like a fat starfish.

Oh shut up.

***

After changing clothes for the third time today, I was starting to think I hadn't brought enough clothes with me. I decided to wear my red halter neck dress that was brought along in case we partook in anything semi-formal on our holiday and I figured our 'private dinner' was the closest thing to semi formal I was going to get on the beach.

"Hurry up Sky." Anthony banged on the door once again and I was almost convinced he had started using his head as a door knocker several minutes ago. "Move those legs woman I'm hungry."

I rolled my eyes and fluffed my hair out letting it take on the natural wavy pattern I always tried to tame. I opened the door and caught Anthony just as his head was about to connect with the door for another round of knocking. I was right, he had opted for using his head as a door knocker. He caught himself quickly before he fell forward and looked down instinctively, his eyes flickering and giving me a once over.

"Thank god I'm so hungry I was ready to start eating my arm off."

"Now that I would pay to see." I muttered and quickly slid my feet into my ballet flats that waited by the door.

It was a short walk down to the water's edge and over to another gazebo that was set up for two. A table was situated over to the left, leaving some room for dancing or - well, whatever else couples had in mind after a meal that they felt comfortable doing on the floor. Let's just stick with dancing.

Our attendant dragged out my chair for me and I graciously sat down, smiling to myself when I didn't trip or slip into the seat. He then lifted the silver dome covering our food revealing a gush of steam that was trapped beneath it. I looked down at my food with a smile on my face as I saw rock lobsters with salad.

I looked up briefly to see Anthony flinch back a little and quickly over his eyes from his plate, clearly not overly fond of seafood.

Our attendant left us to own devices and we enjoyed the peaceful calm noise of the waves as they rolled up on the shore mixed with the gentle hum of the cd player that I could hear but couldn't see - I suspected it was under the table and out of sight.

After watching me pick at my lobster, Anthony stood from his seat and rolled his shoulders; stretching. Pivoting on the ball of his foot he turned to face me, a mischievous glint twinkled in eyes while a cheeky smirk spread wide across his lips. "Dance with me?"

I couldn't help the slight giggle that escaped me at his question.

Anthony frowned slightly - almost offended.

"Oh you were being serious?" My smile quickly fell.

He rolled his eyes and reached for my hand. Grabbing a hold of my hand he pulled me to my feet and then into his embrace. I licked my lips nervously as music began to play and we started to dance - or, more accurately, sway.

My right hand rested on Anthony's shoulder while he held my left hand. I tensed as his other hand dipped a little to rest comfortably on my lower back and his eyes carefully studied me, probably measuring just how much I was going to let him get away with.

Anthony's eyes were burning into my skin making my heart race. I didn't know where to look. It was too intense to stare directly into his eyes so my gaze quickly darted between his eyes, his smirking lips and my black ballet flats as they made their small shuffle on the floor.

The song shifted from a classical piece to John Legend's All of me that began to overpower the sound of waves in the background. Anthony - to my surprise - started to hum along to the music.

"Legend fan?" I asked him as I tried to bite down a smile.

"Something like that."

...What's going on in that beautiful mind. I'm on your magical mystery ride. And I'm so dizzy don't know what hit me but I'll be alright. My head's underwater but I'm breathing fine...

"You're crazy and I'm out of my mind." Anthony sung along to the main chorus in his husky borderline-tone-deaf singing voice.

That line basically sums up your life.

We swayed in silence with nothing but the light sound of music and the occasional husky hum from Anthony. I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder. This had to be the most relaxed I have felt in the past month, and I never wanted it to end.

I let Anthony guide my movements, my body completely trusting him to lead me. His thumb moved gently against the small of my back, brushing my back in soothing strokes.

Here and now, I could forget. Forget about our families, about our strange agreement, about the endless reasons that said this was not going to end well. But mostly, here, now, in his arms and cradled against his chest, I could forget about his ambition and my quirks. In this moment right now, we were nothing more than what we seemed and neither one of us minded.

And I wanted nothing more than to stay in this moment forever.

"Sky?" Anthony whispered to catch my attention as his head bent down to look at me.

"Hmhm." I brought my head back to look at him.

His eyes blazed, the darkness of his pupil spread like a black-hole, swallowing a golden sun as his lips found mine. I closed my eyes instinctively and let him kiss me. His lips were soft, his kiss gentle and sweet, and not at all pushing.

He pulled back and I didn't protest or attempt to kiss him back. He pressed his forehead against mine and breathed a deep sigh.

"Can the pillow wall take the night off?" He asked, his voice raspier than normal.

"Not a chance." I answered making him smile.

I didn't lie. My pillow wall still remained, but for good behaviour, I decided to remodel it leaving only one pillow between us which seemed to put Anthony in a better mood than before.

We laid down beside each other and I could feel his heat through the thin barrier of one pillow, more than I could the previous nights. A part of me wanted to envelop myself in his warmth. To hold me through the cold nights and stop the shiver of my bones. But I didn't. Not yet.

He reached out towards me, his arm running along next to mine on the pillow while his little finger wrapped around mine. I smiled at the giddy feeling the small simple gesture caused.

When his foot reached out and tried to intertwine our bodies further, my eyes flew open and I pulled back from him.

"What?" Anthony frowned puzzled as he looked at me.

"What kind of a man touches someone with their feet?!"

"Oh god here we go." He sighed and moved his hand over his eyes to cover them despite the fact there was no light streaming in the room.

"That is just gross!"

***