"Now, aren't I just a sight." he exclaims, coming up from the muddy water. "I look like The Creature from the Black Lagoon."
As I climb down from my horse, I can't contain my laughter and I topple over into the muddy water as well.
He offers me a hand and I keep slipping in the mud until I fall again, pulling him in with me. Together, we just sit there in the shallow water, mucking it up.
"I wondered how long before that wine would catch up." he teasingly pushes me away from him.
I pick up a little mud and throw it at him, smacking him in the chest.
"I'm not one bit drunk. I can hold my alcohol."
He laughs at me.
"I know. I know." he holds up two hands to say he's done.
"C'mon. We have to get back."
Climbing back onto the horses, they grunt at our soaking wet bodies.
As we take a different way back through the tall oaks, I listen to a variety of birds singing and tweeting. The only other sound we can hear is that of the horses' hooves. The breeze throughout the shade of the trees is cool and smells of damp earth.
Dropping the horses off and thanking the chefs at the winery, Mattheo makes a request.
"Can we have a couple of towels, and dinner to go?"
Raising their eyebrows at us, we laugh as we gratefully claim the towels, placing the food in the back of the car.
All the way home, I think about how different my two suitors are. The dates each man chose to take me on, reflects their opinions and their ideology on life. Both have a sense of sophistication in their own way, and definitely live life on their own terms.
Like me. Pulling to a stop in front of my house, he comes around to my side and pulls me from the car. Handing me my dinner, he plants a passionate kiss on my lips, not too overpowering, but enough to make me swoon.
He stops and smiles, leaving me on the sidewalk, not knowing what to do or which man to give my heart to. I’m fucking screwed.