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“I might be acting stupid, but I’m not that dumb,” he laughed. “Who knows? It just stuck with me, and trust me, I’m not really in the mood to figure it all out. I guess I just wonder where it applies to me in my life.”
“Start by taking time to figure things out that make you happy in life.”
“I’m happy with everything in my life.”
“I’m sure there’s something that, if you lost it abruptly and without warning, you would be distraught or upset for a while.”
“Nope,” he shook his head. “I learned a long time ago to save myself the heartache of allowing my happiness to depend on things I can lose.”
“Seems to me that you’ve got it all figured out, and perhaps Huckleberry Joe didn’t need to offer any wise words to you today?”
“That’s just the thing,” he said. “Something tells me he did, and the fact that I can’t figure out why this is sitting with me is what scares me the most.”
“I think you’re reading too much into it,” I said honestly.
“Perhaps I am, but after bouncing out on my family to be a doctor like I did? Well, you’d have to know my family to understand why I feel his words may be haunting me down the road.”
“About your family,” I said. “You act like you’re some secret prince over here in America, and the royals are coming to snatch up their future king soon enough.”
“Not so far off on that truth,” he answered, staring into the relaxing flames of the fire.
The look on his face made me think It might be wise not to push too far, trying to find out more about his family, but I wasn’t the type to walk away from a challenge, and I was more curious than ever about who the Aster Family was.
Chapter Seventeen
John
I had no idea what had prompted me to mention my internal conflict over the world’s most basic expression, needs versus wants. The last thing I wanted on this trip was to get deeper into my family, my upbringing, and the values instilled in me as a child raised in a home of upper elites, yet here we were.
No matter what I could do to get out of this, there was no way Mickie would let me off the hook. And by the sounds of the crickets—literally—I was fucked if I didn’t divulge a little bit about who I was and where I’d come from.
I just had no idea where to start. If I scared her off, she’d be sleeping with the bears out in those damn woods, so I don’t think that would be an issue. However, the opposite could happen; perhaps she became attracted to me because of the money I came from.
I knew deep down the latter would never be true.
Mickie had never implied that money was important to her, especially after all the shit she gave me about my 4Runner, the camping gear, and skinny Santa’s wise words of wisdom.
Ah, who gave a shit, really? If she drew interest in me due to status, she wouldn’t be the first, and she most certainly wouldn’t be the first I turned down and moved on from without a care in the world.
But I still wasn’t sure. It felt safer to hold my cards close to my chest. I truly liked the dynamic Mickie and I had. She was cute and fun, and I didn’t want to risk losing that by going deep into my personal life.
“Probably best we stay off the subject of my family,” I finally said, looking up while the fire cracked, seeing millions of stars glittering in the black night sky above where we sat.
“You’re a chicken shit, you know that?”
I smiled at her calling me out, “Trust me, I’m not a chicken shit.”
“Unless your family has secrets like the mob would carry, spill the beans, bud,” she taunted.
I pulled my eyes from instantly getting drawn into the magnificent universe above our heads and allowed my mind to find more comfort in this feisty woman sitting across the campfire from me.
“Well, doll-face,” I used the name I’d adopted for her, which was growing on me, “if you want to get deep with me, we not only have to be eating s’mores, but we also need to start cracking open the beer.”
“Liquor and I don’t?—”
“We’re discussing me this time,” I said, standing up and walking over to the camping fridge I’d purchased to keep my beer cold. “Besides, beer isn’t liquor. It’s beer. And you don’t have to worry about divulging anything.”
She chuckled, “What if it forces me to give away more than some stupid comments?”
