Week 1 / Saturday

The next morning, Larissa was in the shower getting ready for breakfast when Julian walked into the bathroom and came to the shower and watched her. She was rubbing shampoo into her hair, so she ignored him. If he wanted to watch, that was fine with her, and she stuck her tits out at him. When she finished putting it in her hair, he opened the door, and stuck his head in and kissed her. Kissed her hard, woo. She thought he was going to stop, but no, he kept kissing her, and then he put his hand to her pussy. Fuck, that was awesome and she just went with it, kissing him hard. Something about this, she felt trapped, hair all piled up on her head, eyes closed because of the shampoo, and not able to do anything. What a feeling, and Julian was going for it on her clit. She wouldn’t have predicted it, but it took less than a minute for her to come, and hard – she rarely came standing up, and wow, that one, the surprise and the bondage feeling, it really hit her.

When she came down, she felt Julian washing the shampoo off her forehead, and she opened her eyes to his grin. Yeah, he earnt that grin, and she kissed him gently. “Wow. Awesome,” she said.

“Finish your shower!” he said, and then closed the door. She never even touched his erection ... and a very nice one it was too. Later, she thought to herself.

They had breakfast in the hotel with Tui and Marty. Straightaway, Larissa knew that things weren’t right between them. They were trying to hide it, but no, things weren’t right at all. Oh no, what had happened? It was the little things that gave them away, the pauses between speaking, the tension in Tui’s shoulders, the way Marty held his hands. Both of them, very unhappy, and flat. What was it? But she probably shouldn’t get involved. When they finished breakfast, she decided that they might just need a little more time alone, so she suggested that Julian and she would run to the ferry after they checked out. Tui shrugged – whatever. That bad? Larissa pursed her lips but they went back to their rooms and packed up their stuff. Larissa wore a sports bra and tight running shorts, and put a change of clothes in her bag. Julian did the same, and then after they checked out, they threw the stuff in the back seat of the ute and agreed to come find Marty and Tui in the car queue at the ferry, and then they hit the road.

It felt good to run, good to stretch out; they hadn’t done it since a couple of days before their wedding. Julian traced a course through the city so they could see it, but they soon turned away – too many people on the sidewalks. Instead, they ended up running through the dock area. At one point, they had to stop for a truck, so Larissa asked Julian about Marty and Tui. He’d seen it too, sure, and while they were putting their stuff in the ute he’d said ‘not so happy this morning?’ and Marty had shrugged and said, ‘maybe last night wasn’t a good idea.’ Right – if Larissa had to guess anything, she’d have guessed it was about Tui’s panic last night before dinner, that she’d said something. They hadn’t seemed that good at dealing with each other’s negative feelings so far.

“Can you split them up on the boat, leave me with Marty?” she asked him. “I’ll talk to him about our tools, and then we’ll swap and you can tell him about emotional intelligence and me?” Julian agreed that was a good idea, and then they were back running again. The last part of the run was past a stadium that they ran around, and then along the dock to the ferry terminal. They arrived to a huge mess of cars and people everywhere. Way more than they expected, and they had a quick look around, but had no idea where they might find Tui and Marty.

They were looking around at a loss what to do when Tui found them. “We didn’t think you’d find us, so I waited here for you. Marty’s going to drive on, and I’ll wait here with you.” She had their bags, so they went and changed in the toilets. Soon after they arrived, the ferry started loading, and Larissa watched in fascination as the cars drove onto the ferry. Then they opened the ferry for pedestrians, and they followed Tui up the passenger gangway and then down to the back of the ferry so they could continue watching the loading process, the massive trains rolling on, and they claimed some seats right there. Soon after that, Marty joined them. No kiss for Tui, she saw, but it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it had been. So better, but not right? Hmm...

It was another beautiful day, so they stayed outside and watched the harbour again. Eventually the ferry turned out of the harbour, and Larissa could see that dreaded reef right in the middle of the harbour entrance, and she told Julian about it and the ferry it sank. After the ferry got through the harbour headlands, Julian asked Tui to show him around the boat. Marty got up to go with them out of habit, but Larissa said, “Hey, Marty, don’t leave me here alone!”

He looked at her in surprise but agreed to sit down. Once Julian and Tui were gone, he said, “What’s up?”

Larissa nodded. “I asked Julian to do that so I could talk to you about something.”

“Well, OK,” Marty said, shrugging. “What?”

“Did Tui say anything to you about last night?”

His face fell. “Not you too? She got into me about it this morning,” he said sullenly.

“Yeah, I figured she would, and things looked a little uncomfortable between you guys at breakfast. I’m not going to get into you too, Marty. I’m asking for a reason, you’ll see. What did she say?”

“Oh, she was mad that I took her for granted, just assumed she’d be good with dinner. And I suppose I should’ve asked her in person. It’s just that we were so busy, and it was so important for me.”

Larissa nodded. “Right. And it was no big deal, right? She’s such a strong woman, such a powerful heritage, so why did she even feel that way?”

Bingo, she’d scored a hit with that. Marty really agreed. “Right. I mean, I was really caught by surprise there.”

“Yep. So, Marty, I’m going to explain what happened, and try to give you the tools to not get caught out like that. Because I knew straight away it was going to be a huge deal for her.” Marty looked her in surprise. “Right. Julian and me, Marty, exactly the same at the start of our relationship, and it would’ve done us in, nearly did, if an angel hadn’t stepped in and given us the tools to manage our feelings. This has happened before, right?” Marty nodded ruefully.

“OK. So let me explain about being a girl, Marty. Tui, she’s got lots of friends, right? Gets on with people fine?” he nodded, but a bit uncertainly. “Yeah. Maybe not that many friends. But it really matters to her that people don’t think of her badly?” No hesitation in Marty’s nod to that one. “Right. It’s a girl thing. We learn when we first go to school: if you don’t fit in, you get hammered. No friends, worse than being beaten up.”

“But for lots of girls, it’s really hard to figure out the rules for being friends, and we all figure out our own rules for how to survive our urban social warfare, and it’s when we’re very young too. Tui’s the same, and her rules are: you’re a stranger and she knows where you stand, or you’re one of her people, and she knows how to do that. Or you’re a good friend, and her total focus, and that’s hard work for her, takes lots of energy, but really rewarding for her. But if you’re something else, she’s unsure, scared. What’s the rules for this person? Do they bite? And it’s even harder if they’re not the kind of person she’s used to, the kind whose rules she might be familiar with. And that uncertainty ... we learn to hide that, put lots of work into hiding it, because when other girls see it ... shark time.” She mimed snapping her teeth together. “The only thing that could make it worse ... if Tui really cared about the outcome, if it really mattered.”

Marty was following this, she could see. “And last night ... it really mattered to her, because of how important it was for you. So, bingo, you and Julian dropped the two of us in it big time last night. Now I was fine. Julian and I, we do that kind of stuff all the time, and after doing all the Youtube related things ... I know I’ll be good, and he knows that I know. But Tui ... we very nearly had a full-blown panic attack on our hands last night, which would’ve been totally reasonable. We didn’t, those warrior princess outfits saved the day.”

“And the stuff you said to her,” Marty interjected.

Larissa nodded. “And that stuff too. So, does that help you understand what happened last night?”

Marty was nodding. “Yes, it really does.”

“Right. It’s amazing she left it to this morning. That she was feeling taken for granted, that was a symptom, not the cause. I do that too, freak out at Julian about something, and then, when he makes me work through it, I realise that the real problem is a few steps back, but I couldn’t even put it into words.” More nodding from Marty. “Now we get to the tools, Marty. Have you heard of emotional intelligence?”

Maybe, Larissa could see, but it wasn’t something he was really aware of. She spent some time explaining emotional intelligence, and the tools Sal had given them for managing disagreements. She was nearly through that when she saw Julian and Tui coming back. “Here comes Julian. Now I’m going to run off with Tui, get the same tour, and Julian’s going to tell you about his journey with emotional intelligence, and how he can live with me. Because that’s hard work, even though I’m quite a different set of challenges than Tui. And I’m going to talk to Tui a bit as well.”

She gave Julian a thumbs up, and jumped up and hugged him, and then he said, “Tui, that was much more interesting than I thought. You should give Larissa the same tour.”

Tui wasn’t stupid, and she knew, so she just grabbed Larissa by the hand and dragged her up the nearest gangway. At the top, she said, “Ok, tell me. What’s going on?”

Larissa held her hand tight and said, “We could see that things were a bit tense between you two this morning. You kicked Marty’s butt this morning about last night, right?”

Tui’s face fell, and she nodded, reluctantly.

Larissa smiled at her. “And so you should’ve. He totally deserved it. Though you made sure you got laid good last night first, right?” she asked, grinning.

She got a quick grin from Tui back, but then her face fell again. “He might have totally deserved it, but it didn’t go very well.”

Larissa nodded seriously. “Yeah, that’s why I talked to him, explaining some of the background stuff to help him understand, and now Julian’s talking to him about learning to live with me, the process he had to go through. Cause I’m pretty hard to live with. You can tell that, right?” Tui nodded. “And honestly, what I saw between you two this morning reminded me of the issues that Julian and I nearly fell apart over at the start, and we would’ve if my angel hadn’t given us the tools to manage this. So I was telling Marty about those tools, and now I’m going to tell you about them.”

She told Tui about emotional intelligence, and Sal’s comments about validating each other’s feelings, and her conflict resolution process, and then about how Sal made her make videos explaining how she felt, and then watching them again later, before she talked to Julian about how she felt, and how that process had helped her explain her feelings to herself. She didn’t do it very often, and sometimes she hadn’t done it when she needed to, but it was still super useful. And Tui listened, and practiced saying how she felt, but also, she agreed that she could be more confident about interacting with people. After all, she’d aced it last night, she agreed with Larissa when they talked about it.

And while they were talking about this, Tui gave her a thorough tour of the boat. Amazing ... it was still much bigger than she realised, and there were so many people on it. Awesome, and they were pretty much done with what she’d wanted to talk about when they made their way back to Julian and Marty. Just before they got there, Tui stopped and hugged Larissa tight. “Thanks. I mean, really, thanks bro, for being such a good friend, I think this has made a big difference. And will make a big difference. I really love Marty, and he’s mostly a great guy, but sometimes we ... well, it just falls apart. But maybe we can be better.”

Larissa smiled at her, and then, when they got back to Marty and Julian, Marty leapt up and hugged and kissed Tui as hard as he could, and she was returning it. Great. Then it was time to grab some food, energy for the afternoon’s challenge, so they stood in the cafeteria line, leaning against the wall while the boat rocked. Except for Tui, who was leaning against Marty and kissing him pretty hard. Julian said something about that to her, so Tui said, “Larissa said she was hard to live with, but after watching her all week, I think Julian’s the hard one.” Much laughter for that, and Larissa said she did her best to make sure he wasn’t hard for long. Ironic, after this morning, since she hadn’t had a chance to make him come yet. And on that subject, she pointed out to Tui that the two of them really needed to find a room. Both of them frowned – no options on the boat here. Specially not in the toilets. And after Larissa got around to using them, she knew why – yuck. Public toilets...

While they were eating, the boat had entered the Marlborough Sounds, and they watched fascinated from their spot on the deck as the boat made its way between the hills, sheep grazing on either side of it, with occasional little houses down on the beach, each with their own boat, since there were no roads. There was nothing at all like this anywhere in Australia.

Shortly before the boat docked, they made an announcement that the vehicle decks were open, and Marty and Tui took all their stuff down to the van to drive it off, while Larissa and Julian walked off the boat, to meet them down in the car park. Watching the boat unload was just as interesting, and they were nearly the last off, though cars and trains were still unloading. When they came out of the passenger ramp into the terminal, someone called their name, and there were their hosts for the night, a couple about their age from nearby, Ava and Ollie. Ava and Ollie were Patreon fans of Layna, and when they’d seen the discussion about Julian and Larissa they’d got straight into the picture and offered to do what they were doing this afternoon, and that had done almost straight to the top of their must-do list for the trip. They walked out to the car park and found Marty and Tui – they’d just arrived. Larissa stuck her head into the back of the ute to grab her bag and realised that everything had been moved around from when they were at the hotel. What? Then she glanced at Tui, and realised, she was a bit messed up, and she had a guilty look on her face. Really?

Larissa grinned at Tui. “A quickie?” she asked.

Tui nodded ruefully. “Sort of. We tried, but we just didn’t have enough time when there was no one around.”

“Oh that’s really great! I’m so happy. But you didn’t finish? So both still sexed up, huh?” Yeah they were both nodding, Marty with a smile too, though his was more gleeful, really.

“It’s your fault!” Tui said. “You’re the one always getting it on!”

Larissa laughed. “Yep, that’s me, always hot for it! So that means you’ll be up for an adventure if I can make a chance?” Tui nodded. And it seemed like Ava would be up for that kind of thing too – she had a thin bikini top on, and a clear thong line under her thin shorts, and she’d had her hand suggestively in Ollie’s back pocket as they walked over to the ute. “Anyway, come and say hello!”

They scrambled out of the car, and she introduced them to Ava and Ollie. Ollie pointed out his own car, and said they’d have to follow them – about a thirty minute drive. Though maybe two them wanted to sit in the back of their car where there was more space? Larissa jumped at that – she wanted a head start getting to know Ava, and she dragged Tui into that as well. In fact, she suggested that Ollie switch to the guys and then both cars would have someone who knew where they were going. Ava knew exactly what Larissa was up to and kicked Ollie somewhat reluctantly out of the car. It’s going to be just us girls in the car, she told him, you go and do whatever it is that guys do well in Marty’s ute.

Right away Larissa knew that she was going to get on fine with Ava. She got Tui to sit in the front, and she sat in the middle of the back, as far forward as she could, so they were very close. Ava started by asking what they’d been up to, and Larissa purposefully gave a totally inadequate description of their trip so far, to trigger Tui to jump in – she knew how to work Tui now, what would get Tui over her initial nervousness with Ava. And it worked, Tui took over and gave Ava a more in-depth description of what they’d done, all of which Ava loved. Then, on a roll, Tui grinned at Larissa and said, “But I’ve only told you half of it. Let me tell you about Larissa!” Then she gave Ava a very quick rundown of some of what Larissa had done with Julian. Ava laughed and said that they totally expected that from Julian and Larissa, given that it was their honeymoon, and what they’d seen on Youtube, and something Suzy had said. None of that was a problem, and she really wanted Larissa to enjoy herself. Then Larissa asked her about her and Ollie. He was a mechanic, and she was a dental nurse, but neither of them were at all interested in their jobs – that was just money for them to use to explore and have fun however they could. Their families were local, and they’d met in school and been together since then.

Finally, they talked about what they were doing once they got to their destination. They had a sea kayak each, and they were going to paddle out into the sound, north to one of the few beaches in the sounds. There was a little camping spot there, and they were going have a campfire on the sand, sleep there overnight, and then just chill on the beach the next morning, and then paddle back after lunch.

By this time, they arrived at the destination, a little park right on the coast. When they hopped out, she walked over to the ute, and she could hear the guys laughing hysterically. Obviously, that worked out, but they weren’t going to let her in on the joke, she found. Ava introduced them to her parents who were there waiting for them, watching the kayaks, since they’d come earlier and set them up. Where had they got six good sea kayaks? Well, there were plenty around the sounds, but four were from family, and two from friends. Each kayak had a paddle, leash, water bottle, and life jacket, and they just had to carry them into the water and go.

Ava gave each of them a little water-proof bag. “Here, pack a towel, a change of clothes, togs, phones, and your personal stuff. And for clothes now, just wear a bikini and shorts. Guys, just shorts for you, the tighter the better.” Ava checked them out as she said that, so they laughed. “And I bet you’ve got a backlog of dirty clothes after the week you’ve had, so mum said she’s happy to wash stuff for you.” Larissa looked at her mum in grateful surprise – that would be just just awesome.

“On thanks, that’s wonderful, but are you sure? I’ve got some pretty dirty clothes. And some if it is, umm...” Ava’s mum might be a conservative country person, she couldn’t tell.

“It’s your honeymoon, of course,” Ava’s mum said with a smile. “So don’t worry about that! Here, just stick it all in this bag.”

She dug her jeans out, and showed them to Ava’s mum, who laughed. “Reminds me of someone!” she said, and Ava looked a bit sheepish. She threw the rest of her damp and dirty clothes in the bag, sorted through Julian’s clothes, and gave the bag to Ava’s mum. She packed the few things she’d need on the kayak – bikinis and a couple of t-shirts, her bathroom bag, and phone and battery. No need for anything else. Then she changed quickly, her back to the guys, into a bikini and shorts as instructed. Tui did too, no hesitation this time. Larissa pulled out her hat, and made sure Julian had his on too. It was a lovely day, bright and sunny, and they were going to be out on the water for hours. She grabbed her sunscreen and started putting it on, and that prompted all of them to do it. She did Julian’s back, and then he did hers.