On the way back

As they started walking back towards the cabin together, Gavin let Victoria get a few paces ahead and plunged in his thought. He processed what she had told him, what had happened, her reaction to the kiss, everything. He listened to it over and over in his head, not certain if she really did mean it, or if she just wanted him to feel better.

He mustered his courage and broke the silence, his nervousness making him speak out a bit too loud, making he jump a little at the unexpected voice:

"Those things you said back there..." He started. "Did you mean it?"

She turned around to look at him quizzically, not sure what the expression on his face meant. Just as she opened she tripped on a root coming out of the ground. An expression of pain rose up to her face as she exclaimed it loudly before falling to the ground.

Seeing his friend in trouble, Gavin raced the few steps separating him from where she had fallen and knelled by her side, helping her up to a sitting position.

"Are you all right?" He asked frantically. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Victoria couldn't help but noticed how sweet looking he was as he tried to help her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She winced, holding her left ankle in her hands. "Though, I think I might have twisted an ankle."

Gavin looked down at her ankle and gently pulled her hands away. It did look slightly swelled. He had twisted his ankle real bad a few years ago, and he remembered what his mother and the doctor had done. He prodded gently at a few spots around her ankle, stopping and apologizing immediately when she winced, and carefully bent her foot a bit in every direction analyzing her reaction.

All the while, Vicky was admiring how how gentle and methodical he was and how it looked like he really felt guilty whenever he touched a sensitive spot. He was such a sensible, delicate and genuine guy, if only she could break the shell around the fruit, he might turn out to be a real lady's man.

After his thorough analysis, concluded that he could touch most of her ankle without too much trouble, and she was still able to move her foot around, thought there was one direction which was rather painful when she did it.

"It looks like a minor twist, nothing worth calling an ambulance over, but we should still be careful and make sure it doesn't get worse."

She couldn't help but notice how confident he was feeling at that very moment. She was then taken aback when he backed up a bit and took off his shirt. Only a few moments ago, she basically had to pry it off off his back due to how shy and self-conscious he was. Now he didn't even hesitate. He took out a pocket knife from his pocket and started working on the shirt, cutting and ripping one of the sleeves off. He then tore it down the middle into two equally long but thinner strips of fabric.

"Take off your shoe carefully." He asked her gently as he put his shirt back on.

She obeyed, unlacing her shoe and removing it slowly so it wouldn't hurt too much. Gavin then proceeded to wrap the first part of fabric from his sleeve tightly around her ankle and foot, securing and stabilizing it.

As he worked at her foot, Vicky admired the confidence and the professionalism Gavin was showing.

He then the ends into a knot and picked up the second piece of cloth, wrapping it over the first one, following a slight different pattern. he pulled it slightly tighter than the first one, helping reducing the swelling from her ankle. Finally, he picked up her
discarded shoe, carefully inserted it over her foot and tied it the laces rather tight so her ankle was nice and secure.

"There. That should help with the swelling and keep your ankle from twisting again." He said calmly. "But until we can get some ice on that, you shouldn't put too much weight on it, so until we get back to the cabin I can either carry you or you can lean on me so you can walk without putting too much stress on it."

Gavin held her hand at her to help her back to her feet. She took it slowly, and he helped her raise to her feet.

"He actually has pretty strong hands." She thought to herself as his fingers wrapped firmly around her's.

As soon as she was on her feet, she threw her arms around his chest and hugged him tight. That seemed to break the confidence spell that had been on her for the past ten minutes and he froze up, not knowing what to do.

"Gavin, that was amazing." She told him genuinely.

"What... What do you... What did I do?" He managed to stammer out, clearly taken aback by her comment.

That annoyed her. He was suck a great guy, but had such little self confidence that he wasn't even able to recognize a proper compliment. She let go of him, took his hands in her's and looked him straight in the eyes. Or a least, she tried, he looked away immediately, fixing the ground between them.

"You asked me if I had meant what I said earlier..." She asked him. His eyes came back, a worried look in them. "and the answer is absolutely."

He didn't say anything, not knowing what to do by now.

"Gavin," She started, "you truly are an amazing person. You are one of the most gentle and genuine people I have ever met."

"What do you mean?" He asked slowly.

"Gavin, one day you are going to have to realize that, beneath that shaky self-confidence you have, you have lots of amazing qualities that are just sleeping because you are too insecure to use them. The way you rushed over to help me when I fell, that demonstrated that you are someone that is clearly selfless and wanting to help people."

"Well, you're my friend!" He said defensively. "It is only normal that I help you. Anyone would've done that..."

"NO! STOP IT!" She cut him. "Stop banishing your good deeds as just normal. Not everyone would've reacted like you did. A lot of my ex-boyfriends would've fallen over laughing at me, but not you. The moment I was down, there you were, nursing me back to 100% again. And you thinking it is only natural to react that way only shows how protective and caring you are. You should learn to respect that."

"I'm not sure I..."

"And when I spoke about your self-confidence, yes I said you really had to work on that. But back there, when you were caring for me, I've never seen anyone so confident in my life. It was like you had done that your whole life. You do have it in you to impress anyone in your path, you just have to let go of your fear of people."

"So you think I might have what it takes to.. you know... about Heather..."

"Yes Gavin, you do have what it takes to SEDUCE the hell out of Heather. You are an amazingly sweet guy, and the moment you spend 10 minutes with someone while not looking at your phone, they realize how gentle and caring you are deep down inside. That is when you start generating some sort of "older brotherly care" aura that makes people at ease: you are always there to help people and you always want to make sure everyone around you is perfectly happy. That is more than enough to melt the heart of any girl. Plus, when you kissed me earlier, you were so delicate, so tender, I actually melted into you. If you can get to show all of that to any girl, she will be yours Gavin. You just gotta stop beating yourself up and start believing in yourself."