Kieran stretched across his living room couch with a pillow pressed against one ear and his cell against the other. His brother's words from earlier in the week echoed in his mind, but he had to believe Brinny wanted more from their friendship than to use him. Perhaps reliving some of their past adventure moments would rekindle some of their lost chemistry. They had shared that moment when she bandaged up his arm so hope wasn't impossible. She picked up the call on the second ring.

"What's up, Kier?"

"Hey, Brin, you remember when I first moved to the city, and you'd take me on all those adventures?"

"Oh yeah," she chuckled. "I was nerding out to the Travel Manitoba page, and you appeared at the perfect time."

"You ever miss it?"

Brinny laughed. "I don't have the energy anymore to miss it."

Kieran stared at the sterile white ceiling and walls of Jake's condo. Did she mean she didn't care, or she wanted to and was overwhelmed? Between work, Rusty, and Cole stress, she had a lot on her plate. 

"What if I planned something like that? Would you want to go?"

"Sure, anything to escape this house."

"Next Saturday?"

"I'm all yours, Kier."

He smiled, even though she didn't mean it the way he wanted. Perhaps if he stepped up his game, one day she would.

***

The early May sun grew in strength with each passing hour Kieran and Brinny spent in Spruce Woods Park. Weeks ago, they were still scraping ice and snow off their windshields after the thankfully last false spring, and now Kieran regretted wearing a shirt with sleeves. Brinny had shed her plaid shirt to show off her black cropped tank top, which he enjoyed as often as he could. As they traversed the sand dunes that existed despite the nearest coast being on Hudson's Bay a thousand kilometres away, she kept stopping to take selfies or ask Kieran to photograph her. She must have dressed up for social media, not him.

He didn't mind when they hiked together before because this occurred less often and they'd take pictures together, but that was rarely the case today. She kept having him redo the shots as she mumbled about looking too awkward, fat, or hideous. He'd told her she looked great, but she'd retorted that he was too nice. It was for her social media audience and had to be perfect. He wasn't sure what her eyes saw, but to him the shots already were.

The temperature soared with the golden sand reflecting the scorching sun, and he wanted to reach the shade in the grove of spruce trees.

"One more?" Brinny asked.

"We're going to get heatstroke."

"Please, Kier." She did her sexy and adorable pout. He would always say yes to that.

"Alright one, but no others till the Devil's Punchbowl, okay?"

"Deal." She stuck out her chest, stretched out her legs in the sand, and stared away from the camera at the rolling dunes. Her arms seemed more toned than usual. She'd pulled down her hair too, so it blew gently in the light breeze.

"Ready?" Once she nodded, he held his thumb on the shutter button, figuring it'd decrease his odds of having to do this again. When he stood, he handed her phone with the photo open, and her jaw dropped. Her fingers rushed to delete each one.

"Why did you take so many? I look obese."

He tried to glance at the photos but they were disappearing at lightning speed. "What are you talking about? You look amazing."

"You don't get it," she muttered. 

"I don't get feeling like I look fat in a photo?" Kieran gestured to his body. "Really, Brin?"

"You get away with it. I don't." 

"But you're..." 

How did he tell her without insulting her? Brinny had weighed significantly more when they first met, not that it ever bothered him or made him any less beautiful in his eyes. Honestly, she was far more fun and relaxed back then, but over the past year or so she'd been steadily losing weight. This whole fixation with posting selfies on social media had started a few months ago around the time Cole stopped spending so much time in the city.  

Brinny stared at him like she expected an answer. "You're beautiful, Brin. You've always been."

"You're just being nice."

"I mean it."

She picked at the skin on her hands. "I have to be more than that." 

After snatching her bag, she stalked toward the spruce grove tucked in a low spot amongst the dunes, leaving Kieran unsure if he should give her space or hurry to reassure her.

When they stopped for a rest on the benches under the spruce trees, she changed the subject, talking about an upcoming girls' day with her friends, and he figured it was best to avoid the earlier topic.

Next, they climbed the wooden logs stuck in the dune's side to serve as stairs, passing fuzzy purple wildflowers and areas of semi-parched grass. It wasn't the full desert experience since this was a tiny pocket of a province with a continental climate, but their destination, the Devil's Punchbowl, wouldn't exist without some rainfall.

When they reached the top, Brinny said, "My friend Heidi got engaged last week."

Was that motivating some of Brinny's photo shoots, having something to brag about? "Wow, that's quick. How long have they been dating?"

"A year, and it's not that fast. When they get married, it'll be two years."

"It's a big step, and you want to be certain before agreeing to it."

"Not everyone's a commitment-phobe like you, Kier." She smiled, but the look in her eyes contrasted the action. 

Was Jake right that she was waiting for him to ask her to be his girlfriend? He shook away the notion. She had a boyfriend, an absentee, deceptive one, but a boyfriend nonetheless.

"I'm not scared of relationships. Marriage takes a lot of work, and when it fails, it's damaging."

She put her hands on her hips. "But when it works, it's amazing. Remember my cousin's wedding?"

He remembered dancing with Brinny, laughing with her family, and getting into a low-key cake fight with her, resulting in icing all over their faces that he had to fight himself not to kiss or lick off her lips. Not that their relationship ever reached that point, but it didn't stop him from imagining it.

"Sort of."

"That's such a you answer. They had the most beautiful vows. What I wouldn't give to be loved like that."

The more weddings he attended, especially as a friend or friend of a friend of the wedding party, the emptier the words seemed. People professed how constantly perfect their spouse and relationship were when months earlier they'd shouted obscenities and threats at each other. To Kieran, weddings existed to project an unrealistic dream, document it with pictures and videos, then contrast it with the lived reality. His parents had beautiful wedding photos, but he couldn't ever see that love in their life. Resentment and loathing, however, were clearly imprinted in his memory. The guys at work complained relentlessly about their wives and the habits that pissed them off, so much so that Kieran was convinced no marriage would ever really be happy.

"Vows are just words until they're backed up with action."

"Marriage and commitment are the actions, Kier."

The intensity in her stare left him quiet. As a child of a successful marriage, she wouldn't understand that those words weren't synonymous, and a ring didn't guarantee those promises. Everyone was human and flawed. Some simply hid it more successfully. 

But Brinny never lost arguments, and he had no desire to dredge up his past, so he conceded. "You're right."

She grinned. "See, and someday you'll meet someone who'll make you believe in love."

Kieran chuckled.

"Laugh all you want, but you'll understand eventually."

He believed in love, just not marriage. Honestly, the relationships he respected the most never involved ceremonies, but the couples stayed together for decades out of choice, not for fear of breaking a vow. They could leave anytime, but to chose to stay even on the hard days. Few people saw the beauty of that.

Katy did.

But Katy's gone.

Brinny was quiet for the rest of the walk to the punchbowl, probably planning her dream wedding or imagining her future with Cole. He enjoyed the silence and the opportunity to take in the cloud-blotted blue sky and the occasional hawk flying overhead. A light breeze cooled their skin.

Soon they descended the wooden staircase that wound down the green hills toward a dark turquoise pool flanked by spruce trees. The boardwalk continued across the water and up the opposing hill. People lingered, checking out the water. The crowds didn't compare to those at attractions in Ontario, but for Manitoba, it was busy. Sometimes it was nice that nothing was too renowned or touristy out here, so it retained its natural charm.

"No Niagara Falls, eh?" Brinny said.

"Also, no never-ending line of souvenir shops and tourist traps."

She met his gaze. "You ever want to move back home?"

Kieran shrugged as they passed a family with two energetic preteen kids. "Kingston isn't that close to Niagara Falls."

"I wouldn't have stuck around here this long in your shoes."

"There's not much at home for me anymore." His friendships had all dried up after the drama in Ontario. He couldn't imagine leaving Jake all alone. His brother would never forgive their parents or return to Kingston.

"How does that happen? Didn't you spend most of your life there?"

"I did." Her stare let him know she was unhappy with his answer. "It just does. Plus, you're not in Kingston." He gave her a cheesy wink.

"No, but if I didn't have family here, I'd pick up and move east. It's so much more lively and exciting."

"Jake's here."

Brinny laughed as they reached the low point of the boardwalk at the water level. "He's more of a reason to leave than to stay to me."

The surface rippled as a stronger breeze passed, distorting the reflections of the sky and stable spruce branches. On the horizon to the west, clouds clustered in growing towers.

Kieran found her disdain for Jake hard to swallow. It could have been what withheld him from crossing a romantic line with her. His brother wasn't easy to tolerate—Kieran acknowledged that—but he'd hoped with time Brinny would see Jake's better qualities like Katy had. But two years had passed, and Brinny's opinion hadn't changed.

"I'm joking, Kier. I know how close you are. Makes me wish I wasn't an only child."

Kieran nodded. He wouldn't have survived their parents' divorce or the chaos of his life three years ago without Jake.

***

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed Kieran and Brinny's little trip and getting to know him a little better with a few hints at his past. 

Do you think Kieran and Naomi will cross paths again? Have any guesses of how it might happen?

Here's the park Kieran and Brinny visited.