Page 7 of Creed
But still, hearing Creed confirm that he was actually gay hit me like a slap to the face.
I’d been in love with him since we were kids. He was my first crush, and the reason I became a travel writer in the first place.
When he left for the military right out of high school, I started traveling to keep myself occupied and to stop myself from doing anything foolish, like running after him. That had eventually led to my career writing about all the places I’d visited.
For thirty years I’d carried this flame, snuffing it down until it was nothing more than a barely glowing ember, but still never able to extinguish it.
What would I have done all those years ago if I knew I had a chance?
“No,” I reminded myself out loud as I started pacing again. “Don’t be stupid. Just because he’s gay doesn’t automatically mean he’d be interested in you. Besides, he’s already living with two other men. He’s building a home with them. It’s clear where he wants to be.”
Although, apparently those other men, Brody and Magnus, had found their own partners. So, maybe...
No.
I cut that thought off immediately. I couldn’t judge just based on that. For all I knew, they could have some kind of open relationship. I needed to play it cool and keep my thoughts and feelings to myself.
While camping.
With Creed.
Out in the woods, alone, just the two of us.
Probably sharing a tent.
“Oh, fuck,” I shouted again as I dived for my phone and quickly dialed my editor’s number.
It took several rings before the other end of the line picked up.
“Kayden, its two in the morning? What the fuck do you want?”
I checked the clock and flinched. Oops. She was right. It was the early hours of the morning. Traveling as much as I did, I lived in a constant state of jetlag, so my sense of time was permanently skewed.
“Oh, sorry, Helen. I didn’t realize the time.”
She grumbled, but I could hear her getting out of bed. Helen had been my editor for several years, and by now, she was used to my bad sense of time.
Although, even for her, two in the morning was probably pushing it.
“Well, I’m awake now. So, what do you want?”
“You know how we were just talking about where I was going to go for my next piece?”
On the other end of the line, I heard Helen shuffling through a few pages. “Yeah. We had it narrowed down to either the Himalayas, or the Andes mountains.”
“Well, I was thinking I could do something a little closer to home this time.”
“Closer to home?”
Her voice was completely deadpan. I couldn’t tell what she thought of the idea, so I valiantly pressed on.
“Yeah, you know. Like, exotic mountains are great, but for people who want to travel on a budget, we’ve got plenty of beautiful mountains right here at home.”
More paper rustling.
“We do have a collection of domestic travel articles that we’ve been putting together, but I thought you specifically requested to travel overseas. If I remember your exact words were ‘If I’m going to go through the effort of traveling somewhere, it’s got to be some place worth the effort’. What’s changed?”
The true explanation, that my old childhood crush had just come out of the closet to me and now I was looking for any excuse to go see him, would have made me sound like a crazy person. Instead, I merely shrugged and tried to play it casual.
