“I had no idea that would be so peaceful,” she says and then looks at me. “Can I get down?” I nod my head, then walk to her and hold out a hand. She takes it and climbs down. “I’m not going to lie. At first, I was scared shitless. And when you went a touch faster, I said a prayer in case we died.” We both laugh. “But then riding up the mountain, it just cleared my head,” she says and looks down at the water crashing against the rocks. “This is the best therapy.” I stand next to her, my mind empty but content to be here at this moment with her. “And it was free.”
Now I throw my head back and laugh. She has no idea I had to buy this bike, and at the end of the day, I will likely just have to ship it back to LA to be added to my collection. “You ready to keep going?” I ask her, and she just smiles at me, her expression filling her whole face. “Let’s go,” I say, walking back to the bike. This time, she snaps her own helmet and throws her leg over like a pro. Her arms loop around me, but she doesn’t interlock them. She puts both palms on my stomach, and I take off. I don’t know how long we ride, but we finally come back down into the city, going to our first stop. After zigzagging through the tons of traffic, I park in the middle of the sandy parking lot and climb off the bike first. She follows, and we take our helmets off. “Are you sore?” I ask her when she walks a bit funny.
“It’s like when you get off from riding a horse.” She laughs. “I’ll be fine. Where are we?” she asks, looking around at all the trees. We look like we are in a forest.
“Follow me.” I start down the asphalt path. Benches line each side as some people walk and others sit and talk on the benches.
“Aren’t you afraid people are going to know who you are?” she asks from beside me.
I shrug my shoulders. “I’m hoping they don’t, or they look at me and say there’s no way he would be here.” We finally walk to a small boathouse, and she sees the boats. “We did the bike, so now let’s do water.”
“What is this?” she asks, looking around. She doesn’t see it yet. You can’t really see anything but the different colored boats tied up to a dock. Rows of red, blue, and yellow rowboats all rock with the current of the soft water.
I walk up to the wooden desk and give the little man my name. He just smiles and hands me a number, then points at the door in the back of the room, so I nod. He says something, and I obviously have no idea what he is saying, so he walks to us and grabs our helmets and puts them behind the desk. “Stay here,” he says in broken English, and we just nod as he walks out the back door. I grab Jessica’s hand, and she lets her fingers intertwine with mine loosely as we walk down the dock toward a little boathouse with the door open. She looks around, seeing trees on both sides.
A little guy is standing at the end of the dock, organizing the boats and the people who are waiting. “What color did you want?” I ask her as her eyes take in everything.
“I don’t care,” she says and points down at where other boaters are rowing. “Look at those trees over there. Look how they are covering the water.” She points to exactly where we are going. We finally walk up and hand the man our paper, and he nods his head.
“Color?” he says and walks to the red one. “This okay?”
“Yes,” Jessica says, then looks at me. “What if we fall in?” she asks. “Do you know how to row a boat without us tipping over?” Shaking my head, I try not to laugh. The man holds out his hand for her as she steps into the boat. The boat moves side to side, and she lets go of the man’s hands and grabs the sides of the boat, letting out a shriek. “If I fall into this water,” she hisses as she tries to get her balance to sit down and not rock the boat even more. “I am going to kill you,” she says, now breathing a sigh of semi relief.
“You,” the man says, and then I get in, making sure I don’t rock the boat and freak her out anymore. I sit with my back to the water, facing her. When the man hands us two water bottles, Jessica takes both and tries not to move. He points at the oars lying on one side. I nod at him, then grab one and clip it on, repeating the same thing for the second. After he double checks to make sure they are locked in, he smiles, grabs his own oar, and then pushes us away from the dock, making the boat rock from side to side. Jessica reaches her arms out to grab the sides and then glares at the guy who’s laughing at her.
“Relax,” I tell her, steering the boat away from the dock.
“Should you be rowing with your back toward everything?” she asks, looking around. “I know you’re a daredevil and all, but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. Surely, there’s a YouTube video we can watch before we go any farther, right?”
“I promise you that I know what I’m doing,” I tell her and then slowly move over. “I mean, worst case, the water is warm this time of year.” Chuckling, I look over my shoulder and see boats scattered everywhere. I row up around the bend, and it finally comes into view.
“Oh my God,” she says, her eyes big and wide. “Are those cherry blossoms?” I watch her face, then look over my shoulder and slow my pace. The trees have gone from green to a light white and are now a soft pink. She takes her phone out of her pocket and then looks at me. “I won’t get you in the shot.” Holding her phone up, she snaps pictures of the pink trees.
“Give me your phone,” I say, but she ignores me. I take the oars and lock them in place so I take my own out, and I snap a picture of her with the blossoms hanging over her head. She looks at me when I’m taking the picture, and she smiles. “I won’t post it anywhere.” I wink at her.
“Look over there.” She points at the side of the water where it looks pink because the fallen cherry blossoms are floating on top. We have drifted into the middle of it, and the cherry blossom trees cover our heads with the sun peeking in just a touch.
“This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to,” she says, smiling as her eyes capture the scene. With her phone in her hand, she’s trying to catch the beauty of it, but nothing will capture the beauty of this moment. Sitting here with her, I admire her eyes and how they sparkle in happiness without a care. I snap another picture of her, and she looks at me. She turns her back to me, puts her hand in the air, and I see us fill the screen. “Say cheese,” she says, and I smile as she takes three pictures. “This is off the record,” she tells me, turning and scrolling through the pictures of us. “I give you my word that no one will see this picture.”
“I believe you,” I tell her, looking around. “I don’t think you would put yourself in that position.” Laughing, I say, “Being linked to me for the rest of your life just because we took a picture on a boat. I wish it wasn’t true. I wish that you could post that picture, and it would simply be two friends enjoying their day.” Shaking my head, I look away from her, then turn back to look at her. “The pros and cons, right?” I try to make a joke of it, but the reality of who I am and who she is, both with careers often directly at odds with each other, is the ever-present white elephant in the room.
“I understand you now,” she says softly, putting the phone down. “Will the boat capsize if I come over there and sit with you?” Stopping when she feels the boat tilt side to side, she slowly comes over and sits next to me. “Just so you know, I wouldn’t put myself or you in that situation. What we speak about when I’m not sitting in that room is between us, and I hope you trust me enough to know that.” I want to reach out and touch her face, to see if her skin is as soft as it looks. I want to see if her eyes change when I touch her. To see if she feels this, whatever the fuck this thing is. She takes my phone from my hand and opens the camera from the lock screen. “Smile,” she says. I put my arm around her shoulder, and we take a picture of the two of us. “There. Now if I leak mine, you can leak yours.”