The car ride to Tybee Island was pretty uneventful. We mainly just listened to the country station on the radio and sang a little. I could feel the tension in the car. After thinking more about what I wanted to ask, I had realized we hadn't talked about what we actually wanted for our futures. We had touched on different topics a little bit, but a lot of questions were still unanswered. Like how many kids did he want, or if he even wanted kids? Or what were his plans regarding staying in the Army?
My mind was racing of what his different answers would be vs what I would hope they would be. I could feel that Austin was on edge as well, which made me even more uneasy. While the questions I had for him myself were important, the idea that he would also have questions for me was daunting. Just as I would be putting him on the spot to essentially play a guessing game, he was putting me in the same position.
"You can park at my parents beach house." I finally spoke up, "my mom said no one booked it for tonight, so we could stay there if we need to."
Austin nodded and drove the few minutes farther to the house. After we got out, he linked his hand in mine as we headed towards the beach.
"Chlo, you need to relax. Regardless of how this conversation goes, I'm always going to be in your life, romantically or not," he said, squeezing my hand.
I nodded before looking up at him, "I know, it's just that this is literally going to be a huge deciding factor for our future. If we want different things in life, then the feelings I have for you now are going to crush me."
As we reached the bridges that led down to the beach, we slipped off our shoes and hid them under the edge of the bridge. The first couple of minutes of walking the beach were in total silence, it seemed both of us were too afraid to speak.
Finally, Austin linked his fingers back through mine, drawing my attention back to him.
"I think the biggest question, for both of us, are what our plans are regarding our careers," he said.
I swallowed before responding, drawing in a deep breath, "Well, for me, I plan on taking this Summer to enjoy time with my friends and family before jumping into the workforce. Also, so that I can take the time to accept a job that I know I'll be happy with."
Austin smiled and nodded, "Sounds like a good idea, I don't know what I would do had I been stationed somewhere else, and not here with my family. But in regard to my career plans, obviously I dropped out of college for the military, which I have around 6 months left on my contract. As of now, I plan to renew it, but that's not been finalized, so I may change my mind and leave."
While the last thing I wanted to do was ask Austin not to reenlist, I also wasn't sure about how I felt about what would happen if he did choose to stay. For all we knew, he could show up on Monday and find out he's being transferred to the other side of the U.S.
"What would happen if you were restationed? Would you expect me to come with you or would we do long distance," I asked, nervous for his answer.
Austin seemed to take a moment to think, "Well, I would love if you were to come with me, but I wouldn't want to drag you away from your own opportunities. But I also would say that it really depends on where our relationship is at that point."
I felt my heart rate speed up when he expressed that he wanted me with him. But honestly, I had no idea as to if I would want to go with him.
"I agree, I guess that would be one of those things where we'd cross that road when we get to it. What about kids," I moved on.
Austin's face lit up, "Oh I definitely want children someday, maybe three or four!"
I smiled, "I'd love to have two boys and two girls, a boy first so that he can protect his little sisters."
Austin laughed and threw his head back, the strong wind pushing the small amount of hair he had into a tangled mess. We continued chatting about our hypothetical children and other small questions we had as the sun began to set.
Soon enough, we ended up at Spanky's to grab a bite to eat. At this point, the sun was beginning to set, and all the tension had dissipated.
I leaned over the table and grabbed both of Austin's hands, "Thank you for allowing us to take some time and figure out if we even want the same things. I honestly feel a lot better now."
"I wouldn't want to start a relationship without doing so anyway. The start of our relationship may have been far from conventional, but I want us both to feel secure in our feelings about where this could go," he responded, causing the butterflies in my stomach to begin swirling again.
I pulled my hands away, a giant smile plastered across my face, as the waitress walked up, "Hello! My name is Clara, what can I get ya'll to drink?"
Austin spoke up first, "I could go for a Blue Moon on tap and let's also do an order of the fried mushrooms and the hot bread and cheese."
Austin then looked to me, "I think I'll just stick with a sweet tea, please."
The waitress walked off to grab our drinks and I went back to reviewing the menu. When she returned, she slid our drinks in front of us and let us know the appetizers would be out shortly. For a May night on Tybee, Spanky's was relatively slow. Normally, there would have been a minimum wait of 20 minutes and the building would be packed with belligerent families.
"I don't intend on drinking anymore alcohol tonight, just to let you know," he said as he took a sip of his beer. "You are okay with staying down here tonight, right?"
"Yeah, I brought a bag with some extra clothes. Sucks the water was still a little too cold to get in, but there's a hot tub at the beach house, if you're interested," I threw out.
Shortly after, the waitress returned with our appetizers and took the rest of our orders.
"I'll have a chicken finger basket with spuds and honey mustard sauce," Austin told her.
I smiled and found what I was getting in the menu, "I'll go with the shrimp and scallions quesadilla, please. Oh, and a side of spuds, too."
I handed the waitress my menu and then swirled my straw in my glass before taking a sip.
"Oh, how much I missed real southern sweet tea. Never order it up north, it literally tastes unsweetened there," I sighed as I set my glass back down.
Austin laughed as he tore off a piece of bread and smeared some of the hot cheese on it, "Yeah, I made that mistake while I was away at basic. I think I sent the poor waiter back 3 times before realizing that there just wasn't enough sugar in it."
"I could totally see you doing that," I laughed. "My roommate in college is from Maine and literally spit it out the first time I made some. She said it tasted like syrup."
We continued to goof around throughout dinner and then began our walk back to the beach house. Austin, who was carrying the bag of our leftovers, had not held up to his previous words and had ordered a second beer. While he wasn't drunk, he was definitely tipsy.
When we arrived at the house, Austin grabbed our overnight bags from his truck while I climbed the stairs to unlock the door. Austin had been to our beach house multiple times but hadn't been here since we renovated it a couple years ago.
I took him inside and quickly showed him around before we changed into our bathing suits. While I waited for Austin, I moved our leftovers to the fridge and grabbed a couple towels. We kept the hot tub warmed whenever the water at the beach was too cold, so it was all ready for us.
Once Austin was changed, we walked up to the third floor and onto the balcony. He helped me pull off the cover and then we stepped inside. From the balcony, we had a beautiful view of the beach, but it was dark out so we could only hear the sound of the waves crashing against the sand.
I climbed in and sat next to Austin, who wrapped an arm around me, as I leaned my head on his shoulder.
"This may seem like it's soon, but all of this is happening really fast anyway so I might as well ask," Austin started, biting his lip. "Would you accept the title of being my girlfriend, Chlo?"
And at that, I climbed on top of him and began to kiss him, "After tonight, there's no way I could possibly say no."
Soon after, Austin had untied my bikini top and as you can probably guess, one thing led to another.