Page 100 of Pumped

Me, going on a date with Owen Lambert, sounds like the craziest thing ever. And if someone had told me about it a year ago, I would’ve called them delusional.

But somehow, it feels right. We’ve already hit all the other major relationship milestones. We inherited a house together, moved in together, are raising a kid together. We fell in love. All of it kind of backward. And there’s only one thing we never got to do—go on our first date. Things have come full circle and it feels like we’re starting over—the right way this time.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about going on a date with Owen. Okay, I mean, our moms have planned a kayak tour of the East River, a whiskey tasting at a distillery, and a reservation at some fancy restaurant. It’s all the things we each like most. But it feels more special because we’ll be doing those things together—me and Owen, just the two of us.

We’ve been through a hell of a lot these last six months. So much pain and grief and heartache, but also unbelievable joy,happiness, and love. We’ve had explosive arguments and even more explosive sex. We’ve been at each other’s throats and we’ve been each other’s support too. I think we deserve to have the magic and excitement of a first date.

I stretch my arm across the back of the seat, dragging Owen to me as the rideshare drives us toward Brooklyn Bridge Park for our kayak tour. He grumbles and pretends to put up a fight, but when I tug him closer, he snuggles into my side.

“We should’ve stayed home.”

“Stop it.”

“What if something happens to Ivy?”

“There are four adults in the house. They’ll know what to do. And they have both of our phone numbers.”

“What if we don’t hear our phones ring? What if we drop our phones in the river?” Owen struggles against me as he works himself up. “What if we’re stuck in the middle of the river and can’t get back to shore?”

“Then I’ll push you out of the kayak and you can swim to shore.”

Owen glares at me and I smirk back at him.

“Seriously, babe, you need to chill the fuck out and enjoy the day. They went to all this trouble to plan it for us and it’ll go to waste if you’re worrying the whole time.”

Owen harrumphs, my little grumpy gremlin, but at least he doesn’t keep arguing.

His mood improves when we get out onto the water. Turns out he was on the varsity rowing team in college—which like, of course he did the bougie-est sport ever. His competitive side comes out and he starts showing off, paddling circles around everyone.

Not that he’s better than I am—I’m a water guy too, remember? We end up racing each other all the way to Governor’s Island, leaving the rest of our tour group in our wake.

“Cheater!” Owen shouts at me when I reach the buoy first.

“Sore loser!” I shout back at him.

He narrows his eyes at me, and before I can react, he runs his paddle across the surface of the water, sending a massive spray right at me. I sputter as water soaks through my clothes and drips off my face. I’m stunned, less from the shocking cold and more from Owen’s nerve. Hesplashedme.Hesplashedme.

I turn to him and the look on his face tells me he’s as surprised as I am. His mouth hangs open, his eyes are wide with disbelief. The second our eyes make contact he starts paddling backward, trying to escape retribution.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” I dig my paddle into the water and my kayak shoots forward. When I get close enough, I swing my kayak around and it bangs into Owen’s.

The impact knocks him off balance, his kayak rocking precariously back and forth. He throws his arms up in the air to stay upright, but then loses his grip on his paddle and it goes flying across the water.

I burst out laughing, dropping my head back and letting the summer sun shine down on my face.

“Fuck you,” Owen shouts at me before realizing we’re in public. He glances around sheepishly at the parents with their kids. “Sorry!”

“Language, language,” I scold mockingly.

Owen turns his body to hide the middle finger he flashes in my direction.

Still laughing, I retrieve his paddle and bring it back to him. When he takes it from me, he makes a point of poking me in the leg with it before sticking it back into the water. I give him a wink and blow him a kiss.

His lips twitch like he’s fighting off a smile and my chest expands with so much love it feels like I might lift off and float away. Playing with Owen like this, competing with him andteasing him, it’s not something I ever thought I’d do. He used to be so stodgy, so stuck up and boring. And I used to push way too hard, taking perverse pleasure in jabbing him right in his soft, vulnerable spots.

But we’ve found a balance. He’s lightened up and I’ve backed off. The easy give-and-take we have now has been hard-fought, but we did it. And I’ve never been more grateful for having an enemy like Owen. I’ve never been more grateful to Eden and Jeremy for sticking us together.

Would we have gotten here if we didn’t hate each other so much before? If we’d just been acquaintances, polite and civil but distant, we probably would’ve worked together just fine, but that would’ve been all there was.

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