Page 75 of Inevitable

There were a handful of moments during our relationship thus far where I considered filling him in on what we did that night. I thought it might have come back to him in pieces or maybe he'd magically wake up remembering all of it, but no such luck. For some reason, I would have felt bad holding it back from him for so long just to tell him on a random day. I worried that he'd be upset or embarrassed that he had jacked us off to high heaven and then promptly forgotten all of it, so I kept it to myself and tried to put it out of my mind. We had madeso many new, delicious memories recently that it didn't matter in the big scheme of things.

“Was there any…learning curve to the sex stuff for him?” Rhys asked, awkwardly curious.

It was my turn for my face to flood with color. “Uhh, no. Not like you would think. He said he did a lot of research before we got together. First he looked out of sheer curiosity, then to make sure he was doing it right and making it good for me. There were some things he dove into so enthusiastically that it had my head spinning a bit. Like he took to rimming like a champ. Whether he realizes it or not, that boy was made to eat ass.” Rhys choked on the coffee that he had unfortunately been sipping while I talked.Ooookay, so maybe I should have kept that part to myself…oops.

“Well, that's still good to hear,” Rhys forced out, trying to steady his voice. “So, tomorrow's the last day before Spring Break! You guys have any plans for the next week?”

“Yeah, actually! Bash has a surprise planned for me on Wednesday, but the rest of the time we'll probably just spend hanging out together, barely leaving his apartment,” I mused half to myself, thinking of all the salaciously fun things he and I could get up to with nine whole days to ourselves.

“That's awesome, Micah! Maybe we three can get together one night and do something! Would that be okay?”

“Hell yeah, that'd be great! I'll let Bash know and I'll text you!” I smiled, happy that Rhys and I had gotten this chance to catch up. He'd been a friend I didn't know I needed until I met him.

*****

Spring Break started off as good as I had expected it to. I packed a week's worth of clothes and necessities, planning to stay at Bash's apartment every waking minute to spend time with him. Our codependency hadn't really improved with our new bestie-boyfriend status, but who was going to judge? My parents had weirdly enough been supportive of me staying in Austin for the break to be with Bash. It seemed like my moving away hadn't impacted them too badly, and they actually started going out more and enjoying their alone time. They deserved it. My mom and dad had never batted an eye when I would randomly drop by or come crash for the weekend when I was at UNT, but I never thought how I might've been cramping their empty nest lifestyle. Maybe we all three needed the space.

Of course, I'm sure the same could be said of Bash and me, but good fucking luck with that one. He was mine and I wanted the leastamount of space between us as physically allowed by the laws of science. I didn't even want an atom's worth of space from him, which sounded only mildly deranged as I thought it.

The first few days of the break were spent exploring Austin together as we had always wanted to. We played a competitive game at Peter Pan Mini Golf, took in a comedy show at Esther's Follies, and hiked up Mt. Bonnell. On Tuesday, he had taken me to Zilker Park for a picnic and afterwards we walked through the Botanical Gardens there. Bash had been flirty and playful the whole time, stealing kisses and sneaking his hand along my body when no one was around. That day we weren't best friends, but lovers who couldn't seem to get enough of each other. Every minute of that day had my pulse thrumming a hard, steady rhythm and electricity racing through me from his touches. That night we fucked like rabbits over so many surfaces in Bash's place that I lost count.

He had bent me over his kitchen island and taken me from behind, then moved me to his couch where he drilled me into the seat cushions until I screamed. Later in the shower, he rimmed me until I nearly cried, and then soothed it all when he plunged into me on his bed, holding my gaze and whispering filthy, beautiful words to me the whole time. It was complete rapture and I was living for it.

Today was Bash's surprise for me, and I was once again kept in suspense the whole day, unable to draw any useful information from him to decipher where we were going and what we'd be doing. It was another date like the 360 bridge where we had to leave at a specific time, so at half past four we headed out. We drove through downtown Austin toward the river, and when Bash turned into a parking lot for a boat tour agency, excitement kicked up in my chest.

“Are we going…” I started to say, but was quickly denied.

“No! No questions! Just wait! I promise it'll be worth it, beautiful,” Bash winked at me and had me melting into a puddle at his feet.

Jesus, will I ever not be affected by him like this? Almost nine years of friendship and you'd think I'd keep a better hold of my shit around him, but nooo…one wink and he's got me falling apart into a gelatinous pile of goo for him. Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

I fought against my inner brat to pout that I had to wait some more. Even I had my limits to how pathetic I was willing to act. Most days. A friendly man with a neatly trimmed beard and a slight paunch came out to help us. He and Bash talked off to the side out of earshot, ostensibly to discuss the mechanics of everything and ensure we were good to go. Even if he cut me off earlier, I knew we were going on a boat. I wasn't a total idiot. I was just idiot adjacent at times.

I got lost in a daydream about Bash and I on some massive river yacht with a fancy bow where we'd reenact the scene from Titanic, my Rose to his Jack. The sun was just starting to drop, barely seen above the high rises on the Austin skyline in front of us, so it would have been a perfect opportunity. I sighed dreamily, letting my penchant for the dramatic drum up this fanciful vision in my head. It all got wiped clean in a millisecond when the nice boat man returned hauling a bright red…canoe.

“Uhh, what is that?” The words escaped before I could stop them. Bash just chuckled, not offended by my slightly judgmental tone.

“It's a canoe, babe. Thought that one would have been obvious. Remind me, how did you get into UT again?” Bash jabbed, narrowing his gaze playfully.

I blinked at him and gave him a one-fingered salute, which only caused him to laugh. I felt my lips twitch in response, but tamped it down in a fit of bratitude. “Careful Dupont, or you'll find yourself the victim of a very unfortunate, tragically unexpected and unexplained canoe capsizing which you may or may not return from.” His stupid, sexy laugh only grew and my traitorous smile cracked through.

The canoe was fed into the water and Bash climbed in, holding out his hand to me so I could climb aboard and sit down gently without rocking the boat too much. We were given a brief talk on how to paddle and steer, and then we were off. Evidently, it wasn't Bash's first time on one of these little river toys, so I let him take the lead. Also it was his date idea, so I didn't have much say in the matter to begin with.

Once we ventured out past the trees and overhanging foliage of the river bank, everything changed. It was like the few feet into the middle of the river launched us into a different world. The city skyline rose up, seeming to grow in size right before our eyes with the setting sun providing the most ethereal backdrop.

We passed under one bridge that had people on top waving down to us, and I waved back to a little girl who was adorably hanging half over the edge with a giant smile on her cute little face. We traveled a little further down the river in silence, just taking in the urban beauty of the lit up high rises mingling with the gorgeous nature scene running parallel to it.

It was like two different worlds had merged together in a seamless blend, and it stole my breath. It wasn't like this was the most exotic place on earth, but right then at that moment with Bash sitting across from me, it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever been.

I caught his gaze and his smile was soft and knowing, like he could read my thoughts and knew what I was feeling. It was nothing new.Bash could read me like an open book, and my soul was always bared to him. It was his after all.

Suddenly, Bash stopped rowing and motioned for me to stop as well. My brows furrowed in confusion, wondering why we had halted. “Aren't we going further down the river? That seemed like an awfully short ride if that's not the case,” I quipped.

Bash carefully stood up and made his way over to my seat, the boat rocking moderately from his movements. Once he sat down, he interlocked my right hand with his left and leaned in close.

“Watch the bridge,” he whispered, pointing up to the large stone bridge in front of us that I knew stood as one of the major roads into the city center. I waited with baited breath, but nothing happened. All I could see were the throngs of people clustered on top of the bridge, and I absently wondered why they were there. After what seemed like several minutes of silence with Bash not saying anything and no changes in our surroundings, I decided to risk it.

“Okay, sooo…what's supposed to be happening? Are those people waiting for something? I mean, this is cool and all, but I have to admit I kind of expected mo—”

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