Page 23 of Tied Up in Riches

I rub my eyes, allowing myself only a quick glance at her before I scan our surroundings through the window. We’re at one of my favorite places to hike. It’s also a go-to place for my buddies and me to backpack camp.

Jumping down from the truck, I loop my Nalgene bottle through my finger. The full trail is a seven mile loop, so hopefully I don’t need more than that.

“Here.” Dean smirks as a packet of bug spray wipes hits me straight in the chest. I barely catch it before it slides to the dirt.

I take a step, smacking him upside the head with it at his joke.

“Ignore those two,” Maci says with a laugh. “Their bromance is something else. They’ve got more inside jokes than we’ll ever have.”

Brooke laughs, zipping her hoodie over her sports bra. “Do I even want to hear this story?”

“Oh yes, you definitely do.” Maci nods emphatically.

I groan at the stupidity of younger me but don’t fight it, my mind wandering to a curiosity about whether or not Brooke enjoys camping. Would she be a tent girl or insist on an RV? She must have an adventurous side if she lived in Thailand, but there are drastically different ways to live life there.

Maci starts the story without permission. “One time, when they went camping there was an unfortunate marshmallow incident that led to so many mosquito bites that they woke up with welts all over their bodies.”

I didn’t plan to chime in but can’t help it. Chuckling, I say, “You’re a terrible story teller. You’re missing all the key elements.”

“You tell it then,” she says over her shoulder, reaching her hand behind her as she walks toward the trailhead marked with a wooden display box filled with a trail map, emergency numbers, and instruction guide for what to do if you encounter a bear.

Dean shuts his door, slinging the lunch backpack over his shoulder and slipping the keys into the pocket of his basketball shorts, replacing them with Maci’s hand. All of a sudden this feels like a double date. I glance at Brooke, looking at me with anticipation for the story–not at all giving a sign that she wishes it was a date. I’m her boss now–at least temporarily–and she won’t be here long. I definitely don’t wish that’s what was happening here. It’s nice not to be a lone third wheel for once, though. “What happened was this fucker,” I motion to Dean, “wouldn’t help me put out a fire.”

“A three inch fire on your marshmallow,” he cuts in.

“I had no choice but to fling it through the air and let the wind help me put it out.”

“You couldn’t just blow on it?” Brooke asks, scrunching her face at me as we leave the openness of the parking lot to enter a barely wide enough for two people path between the trees.

“THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” Maci exclaims, dropping Dean’s hand to turn back toward where Brooke and I walk a few steps behind them.

Shaking my head, I can’t help but grin. I am much more intelligent than that, but a twelve pack of beer between the three of us dissolved common sense. “You’re not allowed to tell her any more stories about the days we were young and dumb.”

“And full of cum,” Brooke chimes in.

A laugh bursts out of Maci, and Dean says, “I like this girl.”

I stop in my tracks and stare at her.

“What?” She shrugs. “That’s how the saying goes.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, forcing my eyes back to the trail instead of trailing her body at the mention of anything regarding sex.

Dean helps Maci over the giant tree that’s fallen across the path as Brooke asks, “What? You’re telling me sex was not part of your young and dumbness?”

Biting back a smile, I hop up on the log, instinctively reaching for Brooke. She eyes me for a moment but slides her hand in mine and lets me pull her onto the fallen tree. I hop down gently, not releasing her until she’s safely on the ground. “You don’t hold back, do you?”

“Not anymore. Not in what I say, anyway.”

I want to dig more into her words, but the idea screams trouble. The last thing I need to do is talk about sex with someone who is an employee. The point is to keep me from going there, from preventing me from letting anything overpower the truth: I don’t have time for a girlfriend, and Brooke isn’t going to be here forever anyway.

Brooke doesn’t add anything else, and refusing to continue on the topic, I watch as Maci steps up on her toes to whisper something in Dean’s ear. His hand falls to her lower back, sliding around her waist to keep her from falling over as she tells him a secret.

“Those two are disgustingly cute.”

I chuckle. “You get used to it.”

“You don’t have a girlfriend, right?”

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