“Michael, what happened?”

When she was close enough, I grabbed her, folding my arms around her to restrain her.

“Gotcha!” I called out.

“What? No fair!” she was laughing and protesting but not fighting me to get out of my grip.

She was slick with sweat, and I loved the smell of her, all worked up. I pushed her against a tree and kissed her.

“You did say… if I caught you…”

“Yes…” she said, in between kisses… “But you’ll have to hold on to me!” before I knew it, she’d broken free of my embrace and was running ahead of me again.

“Unfair!” I called out to her, laughing.

“We had a deal!”

But this was a game and sooner or later, I would win it anyway. I knew that. I was looking forward to it.

She was ahead of me, but not by far. I fell into a steady rhythm and allowed myself to take in the scenery, the sun breaking through the fog, the shadows playing on the path. We were passing the Japanese Tea Garden, one of my favorite parts of the park.

“This place is magical,” Belle said, slowing down a bit to look around. “Just look at the light in this garden.”

She was walking towards a bridge now, her hand trailing over the wood.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said. I reached out to her, and she sprinted off. I could only shake my head and laugh and run after her.

Eventually, she relented.

She collapsed onto a grassy pass on a hill and threw her arms in the air.

“Okay, okay, I give up, come and get me.”

“Oh, really? You give up?”

I fell on top of her, and slid off her, trying to catch my breath. We were lying on our backs on the cool grass, laughing at each other.

“Didn’t you teach me how to set up a challenge for the win?”

“Indeed, I did Miss Scuziak,” I leaned over to kiss her.

“Where does that surname come from anyway?” I asked her.

“My father’s family was Polish. They came to the US after the war.”

“And settled in Kansas of all places?”

“No, they ended up in Pennsylvania. I still have some cousins there. My father wanted to be a country doctor, there was a post, and he took it. I know it’s hard to believe, but he wanted to live there. He chose it.”

She was quiet for a bit. “I think it was my mother who wanted to try Kansas. She had a thing about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. I don’t know why.”

“I do,” I said. “I also have a thing about girls from Kansas.”

Belle was smiling at me now.

“So very lucky for me,” she said and kissed me.

“Would you please fuck me now?” she whispered in my ear.