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Never again will she allow her friends to fool her into third-wheeling. Brienne decided so as she followed Sansa and Margaery toward the next ride in the newly opened amusement park.
In the last three rides – the Krakentacles, the Dragon’s Back and the Slithering Rattler – the couple (of course) had sat side-by-side on the two-seater rides, leaving Brienne to deal with her fear of not being in control all by herself. So much for inviting her along to distract her from her recent heartbreak! (Renly just revealed that he was gay.) Surely, with the trauma her heart experienced from those rides, it would be too busy trying to slow down its beats to still feel the pain of discovering that more than her ugliness, her gender removes her from her first love’s romance radar. Her knees were still weak from the unwanted rush.
“I don’t think I can take another extreme ride for now, Sansa,” Brienne heard Margaery complain before turning back to look at her. “We should rest a bit, right Brienne?”
Brienne was about to say yes and beg to sit somewhere her guts wouldn’t be turned upside down. However, she caught sight of Sansa’s pout. That was never a good sign. That pout always led to an argument about Sansa always getting her way, Sansa protesting that it’s actually Margaery who always gets the upper hand in everything, an endless contest of who-has-a-louder-voice and who-can-speak-the-most-words-in-ten-seconds, the eventual making up and the inappropriate making out in public after.
“If Sansa still wants to get on a ride but you’re already tired, maybe we should try the swan boats,” Brienne proposed, hoping Sansa wouldn’t catch that she only suggested it to hopefully help the girls meet halfway. She also prayed that the swan boat somehow qualified as a ride... at least to Sansa.
“Oh! That’s going to be so romantic!” Sansa squealed as she shook her girlfriend’s arm.
‘Romantic,’ Brienne deadpanned in her head. ‘Indeed.’
“I’m sorry, Sir, but you need a partner to get on the boat,” the young park personnel explained as he squinted at Brienne before returning his gaze to Margaery and Sansa. “There should be two people pedalling for the boat to move forward.”
Brienne flinched when the lad called her a sir but she felt more frustrated about not being able to just get on the damned boat to relax on her own.
“I have strong legs, I’m sure I can pedal that thing forward.” She hated how desperate she sounded, but she really was desperate for a non-extreme ride.
The boy gasped upon hearing her voice. “Oh my gods! I’m sorry, Miss. I thought... I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s fine.” You’re not the first and only one to assume that. “But, about the boat...”
“I’m really sorry, Miss. But really, strict park rules say there should always be a passenger on each of the two boat seats.” Another park employee called the boy from the dock. He smiled apologetically at Brienne. “I’ll come back when the next boats are ready.”
‘So much for being a strong, independent woman,’ Brienne silently sighed. ‘My strength and independence aren’t applicable here. And this boy didn’t even notice I was a woman.’
“What if we just skip the Swan boats, Brienne?” Sansa suggested with a worried look on her face.
Brienne hated that worry/pity face more than Sansa’s pout. It’s always worse when her friends make that face for her.
“No, girls,” she said firmly. “You go ahead. I’ll just wait for you back there at the end of the line.”
Both girls frowned as they looked at Brienne then at each other, but Brienne knew so well that they would really like that Swan Boat date. Girls like these two deserved to enjoy romantic swan boat dates and girls like Brienne should not get in the way.
So before they could ask “Are you sure?” at the same time, she already blurted out, “I’ll be perfectly fine.”
“Yes, she will,” a man interrupted as he stood between Brienne and the other two girls, flashing a smile that could sink all the boats in the park lake. “She’ll be fine because she’ll get on the boat with me.”
Familiar with assholes like him, Brienne immediately stepped back and glared at the man. “Excuse me?”
“I know you want to get on the boat. I need exactly that, too,” he replied, his smug expression making Brienne’s knuckles itch to erase it.
“And what makes you think I’m so desperate as to ride on that stupid boat with someone I don't know?” she scoffed. She glanced at her friends (who were both staring at the arrogant stranger, Margaery with a suspicious smirk) then glowered at the man again.
The smug face faded a little as he ran his fingers through his smooth, golden hair and bit his lip.
“Maybe not, then,” he murmured almost inaudibly before looking straight into her eyes with probably the most hypnotizing emerald eyes Brienne had ever seen. “But I am that desperate. Just consider it a favour for a man in need. I’ll treat you girls to lunch in the food court after.”
Brienne crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. He may have hypnotizing eyes and a charming face but so did some of the guys who made a bet on who could take Brienne the Beauty’s virginity back in high school. This man may be way more attractive than those guys but that can’t mean he’s any less of a jerk. He’s probably even worse.
Another park employee, a pinch-faced woman, approached and interrupted their exchange. “The next two boats are ready. Are you guys getting in or what?”
The man clasped his hands together in plea.
“Just get on the boat with him, B,” Margaery said as she grabbed her girlfriend’s hand and pulled her towards the dock. Brienne didn't catch her wink at Sansa. “At least we won’t be leaving you by yourself.”
The girls already got on their boat but Brienne stayed glued to where she stood, still scowling at the man.
“I’m no pervert, if that’s what you’re wary of.” He sported an irritating enigmatic smile. “Besides, you're bulkier than I am, you can just toss me off the boat if I even thought of doing anything to you.”
Brienne gritted her teeth but before she could kick him on his balls, the pinch-faced woman stood between them with hands on her hips.
“You’re holding the line, people,” she grumbled. “Get your asses in the boat or get the hell out of here.”
That seemed to make the blonde jerk panic because he immediately pulled Brienne’s arm towards the dock and basically dragged her to the boat.
“Before you could call me rude or anything,” he began as he frantically pedalled away from the dock. “I’m Jaime, by the way.”
Jaime knew he needed to keep an eye out for Myrcella every second of every hour because her Martell date cannot be trusted. Actually, no man but himself and Tyrion can be trusted around his daughter. He didn’t fight for custody rights against his crazy ass ex-wife only to lose Myr to a cunning, untrustworthy viper.
Keeping said eye out was getting difficult though as he couldn’t help chancing glances at his boat-pedalling partner (Brienne, she groaned her name every time he chose to endearingly call her Freckles), hoping she’d at least scowl at him again so he could see her astonishing eyes. His japes worked in the beginning of their journey around the lake but by the middle of their little voyage she resorted to just looking straight ahead and blushing and reddening the patches of skin spared by her adorable freckles.
“I bet you’re such an exciting friend and company,” he started teasing her again. “I mean, why else would a completely smitten couple let you tag along on their date if you’re not?”
She sighed deeply and bit her poor chapped lips for the nth time. “More like... They forced me to come here with them.”
“Oh! You’re that fun?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m that lonely. In their opinion.”
“Lonely. Breakup with a boyfriend?”
She looked away without a reply.
“Girlfriend?”
She chuckled with a hint of bitterness. “A bit of all that, I think. A friend. A boy. With a girl’s heart.”
She looked at him like she was waiting for him to laugh at her. But he didn’t feel any urge to even smile at that. After all, he knew something so well. “We don’t get to choose who we love.”
His ex-wife -- despite her controlling, possessive behaviour, her cheating and lying spree, and her feeling of entitlement that Jaime still should never betray her -- had been the one and only love of his life for the longest time. Thank the Seven, that part of his life was over and he had been allowed to start over without losing his daughter.
Speaking of his daughter...
He saw her familiar golden curls several meters ahead of their boat. Said curls were being caressed by the Martell boy. Immediately, he snapped out of drama and memory lane and stood up from his seat to yell at the impudent fool he’s going to skin alive soon enough.
“What are you doing?!” Brienne yelled at him halfway through his attempt to get up. “Are you crazy?”
She pulled his arm down to sit his ass back down the boat. Surprised,he watched her speak the most number of words she had spoken during their whole trip.
“And don’t stop pedalling,” she ordered as she pulled the manoeuvre to the right. “You’re not exactly light, mister. I can’t do all the pedalling by myself.”
Jaime had been busy casting killer glares at the black swan boat Myr and the Martell boy had taken so he stopped pedalling for a while. But he thought that couldn’t have been that long to work up Miss Freckles this much.
So, just to taunt her a bit more, he placed his feet on the pedals again and kicked forward fast and unstoppably. He even considered trying to hit the black swan boat with their own while he's teasing Brienne -- two birds with one stone.
“Hey!” she slapped his arm as she panicked with pushing and pulling the manoeuvre left and right, trying to avoid the concrete lake side and edges of cemented islands. “Stop! Stop! We’re going to hit the bay!”
“Well, steer the boat in the right direction then.” Jaime kept kicking the pedals with all his might while heartily laughing.
“You’ll destroy the boat, idiot!”
“The water’s only four feet deep,” he chuckled before grabbing her hand on the manoeuvre and pulling it to the left, missing an island edge by just mere inches. “You’re more than six feet!”
She pulled her hand away and bellowed, “Four feet of water will still get me wet!”
“But you told me not to stop,” he reasoned, grinning and admiring the sapphire eyes glaring at him again while his legs accelerated his pedals some more.
Little did he know, they were really about to hit the concrete. And since she had already stopped pedalling and manoeuvring in panic, the boat steered to the right, hit a pretty steep edge with a loud bang and toppled over, throwing off its two giant passengers to the water with a splash.
“I.Will.Kill.You,” Brienne threatened through chattering teeth after she finally managed to stand without slipping and falling over again to the water.
She couldn’t make certain whether she was shaking because of the cold water or in so much anger with the incorrigible man.
She almost thought he could be forgivable when he didn’t laugh after knowing that she fell in love with a gay man. She almost allowed herself to fantasize caressing his defined jaw, taking a sniff closer to his delectable neck, running a hand through his hair while the other is on his hard chest. Almost. Just almost.
Because right now, all she wants is to strangle him and give in to the itch of her knuckles to swipe at his face.
He was just quietly staring at the sky, though. For all that chattering he did before they fell to the water, he could only look up now? Just one long glance at her shirt then an eternal staring at the clouds? Not even a quick apology?
Brienne shook her head and looked down at where his eyes had been before he offered his eyesight to the heavens. She looked at her chest -- her thin white shirt... and her thinner, gray cardigan... both sticking to her almost flat but very pert, braless nipples and chest.
Seven hells.
She gasped out loud just before she heard the lot of park employees headed their way. She immediately crossed her arms over her breasts.
Before the park people could row close though, Jaime had already removed his jacket and draped it over her shoulders, making sure the front part covered everything well.
She opened her mouth to thank him but ended up gaping like a fish out of water (Although she was still in the water).
“Daddy?”
Brienne turned around to see a black swan boat coming close and a blonde teenage girl on it called out to Jaime again, “Dad?”
Jaime gasped as he looked nervously at his daughter.
He whispered to Brienne, “I’m so sorry about being so rude to you earlier. I gotta go for now and convince my daughter I wasn’t spying on her and her date.”
He waded towards the black boat but halted and turned to her again with a grin. “I had fun, by the way. Let’s just hope my fun won’t be spoiled later when my daughter curses at me and my failed spying... and asks me to give up my custody rights to her mom.”
He grimaced at his last statement and shrugged but smiled at Brienne once again before proceeding to the other boat.
Something stirred inside Brienne’s chest now that she's a little warmer in Jaime’s jacket.
Before she could start thinking again, she walked towards Jaime, grabbed his hand and faced his daughter with the least awkward smile she could muster.
“Tell her you were here on a date,” she spoke to Jaime, still displaying her frozen smiley face.
It was Jaime’s turn to be surprised. “What?” he whispered back.
“She won’t curse you or go back to her mom,” Brienne murmured. “Tell her this was a date. Ours.”
"O-Okay," he replied as he stared intently at her.
He faced his daughter again, but not before declaring something that made Brienne's heart race.
"I'll take you on a real date after this, though."