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“Good because I have already booked something for today and just asked them to add another person. We need to be in the lobby in forty-five minutes in comfortable clothing. Make sure you have your swimming costume underneath and a towel and shoes that you don’t mind getting wet.”
“Now you have me intrigued. I just hope it has nothing to do with crocodiles or snakes.” I said as I shook my head and munched on a croissant.
“I think you’ll be fine from them though I can’t make any guarantees. They just weren’t mentioned in the brochure.”
He smiled at me over his coffee and my heart did that little jump. This guy was so hot I was not sure my mind could cope with it, but I would damn well try.
So here I was waiting in the lobby for Corey to come back from his villa. Maybe he was having a joke on me, and we were not going anywhere. I had booked the cruise for the two of us and hoped we would be back in time. I stood there in my leggings and a t-shirt. I assumed we were not going for a five-course meal at a fancy restaurant or wine tasting. There he was again. All hunky and smiling. I would not go weak at the knees. Too late.
“Sorry. I had a call from work I had to take. Reception said the car was out front. It’s about an hour’s drive from here I was told.”
We made our way down the coast, and I enjoyed the scenery once again. It was easy to make conversation about our surroundings rather than talk about ourselves. We eventually pulled up at a rainforest carpark. I had seen a sign on the way in saying this was Barron Falls. A bus and more people gathered around.
“So, what are we doing here?”
“We are going white water rafting. By the way, you said last night you could swim when you fell in my pool. You weren’t kidding, were you?”
“I can swim,” I replied though my voice sounded higher than it usually did. “Pretty much all kids in Australia learn from a young age.” I didn’t know if I was excited or terrified, but my heart was beating fast. I followed everyone else down to the riverbank where we were given hard hats and life preservers. I could hear the roar of the river downstream though the area we were next to was calm. Corey was all smiles so I would not let him see how scared I was.
“You, okay? You look a bit pale. If you don’t want to do this, we can go somewhere else. The car hasn’t left yet.”
“No, I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t a quitter. I could do this, I hoped.
I followed a small group down to the water’s edge and waded in. Surprisingly, the water didn’t feel that cold. The instructor was a tall blond-haired guy called Oscar who looked like he would be happy to be down at the beach surfing the waves. I hoped he knew what he was doing as we were going to put our lives in his hands.
“Okay, my little group of sacrifices to the great Barron River. Help me drag this inflatable out into the water a bit,” he said.
I laughed along with the others but leaned in to Corey and whispered, “I just realized I have not written my will. What have you brought us on?”
“I promise to save you and give you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”
“That’s a deal. I might fall overboard just for that.” He gave me that lovely smile of his, and my knees went wobbly, or maybe I was just petrified about what we were about to do. No, it was him. I also gave Oscar my puffer to keep in his waterproof pouch.
Oscar took three people to sit in the inflatable. I had a feeling this was going to be different from what I was expecting.
“So, before we take you down the river, I’m going to capsize you. I want you to sit on the side, I’ll tip the boat up, and you will come up underneath. Take a deep breath and swim back out.”
Was he kidding? Nope. The first group was tipped under, and all came out from under the craft laughing. We were up next, and Corey held my hand as we climbed on board. I was already feeling way too attached to him for a guy I had just met.
My heart was pumping so hard I thought it would jump right out of my chest. We sat on the edge, and Oscar tipped us up. Like when I fell in Corey’s pool, I was disorientated for a moment but then bobbed up underneath the dark cover of the floor of the inflatable. Corey was there next to me.
“You, Okay?”
“Yes. I hate to admit it to Oscar, but that was fun. Now let’s get out of here.” I took a deep breath and dived under the side of the craft and into the open air. We stood there proud of our achievement though I had no idea of what was to come. Corey put his arm around my waist, and my body zinged at his touch.
“Okay, everyone grab your paddle and we will go through what you need to know,” Oscar called out.
We went through how we would turn one way or another while he steered from the back.
Oscar spoke again. “The most important thing for you to know is that we come to a really big rapid that I will shout out, ‘Hold onto your tits’ and that means grab your paddle and get down inside the craft.”
That was our chat, and we were off. At first the river was not too fast or rough and we could paddle easily and observe the scenery. Everything was so green and lush, and I could not keep the smile off my face. I glanced across at Corey who was grinning from ear to ear as well. I was just being lulled into a sense of security when Oscar stood up at the back and started splashing the water with his paddle.
“Bloody crocodiles. Don’t worry, people. I’ll keep them away.” Then he sat down again.
“We have put our lives in the hands of a lunatic,” I said to Corey.
I knew it was a joke and that there were no crocodiles here, but I still kept a lookout just in case. Then the river started to speed up, and I could hear the roar of the rapids ahead. Water went everywhere as we paddled as hard as we could with the raft bouncing around. We were being hurtled all over the place and I loved every minute of it. Then we went through a slow patch where we could just take in the lush rainforest surrounding us. Then we were off again. This time we headed toward the jagged cliffs down one side of the river. There was a small waterfall flowing down from the heights. Oscar steered us straight toward it so the water cascaded down on our heads. It was wonderful as we screamed and laughed.
