River Rat

"So in celebration of forgiveness," Ethan said, rubbing smooth circles on my bare back, "let's go out to eat tomorrow."

"I don't know, Ethan, I haven't been feeling all that well recently. Stomach flu," I sighed.

"Come on, it'll be fun," he urged, giving me that irresistible smile of his. I couldn't help but melt at the sight of it.

"Okay, if you say so." He smiled one last time before pulling me into his arms and kissing me deeply, picking up where we had left off.

~

"That was some fancy dinner, huh?" Ethan said, smirking. In truth, that was probably the worst dinner I'd ever had. Especially because the waitress was flirting with me the whole time. "My favorite part was when she took out her phone number from her bra and handed it to you." Ethan was full on laughing by now and I reached over to punch him on the arm.

"Shut up, that was super uncomfortable," I groaned. He continued chuckling away, not paying the slightest attention to the road. "Ethan, keep your eyes on the road."

"Hey, I got this. I'm a really good driver," he replied smoothly, still laughing.

"If you say so." I fought back the urge to say my mom was too. Ethan kept up small talk, though he was clearly still amused by the whole waitress incident. "You know what, get it all out at once," I finally said and he burst into laughter. He occasionally muttered things like, "Of all the places," and "Funniest thing I've ever seen."

Suddenly, I looked out the windshield to see a small figure standing in the middle of the road. It was on all fours and looked suspiciously like ... "Ethan!" I shouted. "Deer!"

Ethan quickly swerved to avoid hitting the poor thing, sending the car spiraling off the road. I couldn't see where we were going and didn't know when we would stop spinning. The last thing I remembered was Ethan sitting in the driver's seat, looking at me with terrified eyes.