Well, hell, I was just going to go over there. We always got together at my place, but that was a habit, not a rule.
We didn’t have rules. That was the whole point. We weren’t in a relationship where we made demands on each other.Therefore, it was perfectly reasonable for me to go over there and see what was up.
Which did not explain why I had butterflies in my stomach as I did so. I crept around my cabin, trying to be casual. I didn’t care if anyone knew we were hooking up, but Gretchen did. I glanced around furtively. While this amateur spy shit was cute on Gretchen, I was aware that I probably looked like a fucking idiot.
The butterflies went into a frenzy as I knocked softly.
No answer. Maybe she wasn’t in there despite the light. I knocked again, and I was about to give up when she swung open the door.
“Teddy?” She was all disheveled and blinking—and adorable. She was wearing a leotard and shorts, and she had creases in the side of her face. “Oh my God, I fell asleep. What time is it?”
“I’m sorry I woke you. I’ll go.” Disappointment sliced through my gut, displacing the butterflies.
“No!” She pulled me inside. I was probably more flattered than I should have been.
She sniffed her armpit. “I gotta shower. We had a big day—the final rehearsal. Then I spent longer than anticipated on the project I’m working on. I intended to lie down for a few minutes, but I guess I conked out.”
“If you’re tired, we don’t have to… you know,” I said, offering her an out I hoped she wouldn’t take.
“Hell yes, we do.”
I—and my dick—swelled with pride.
“It’s our last chance, so we gotta make the most of it.”
Wait. “What?” I tried to be casual. “We have two more nights before session one is over, right?”
“Yes, but my friend Rory is coming to the show tomorrow—
she’s the pregnant one. She doesn’t want to sleep in a cabin. So she’s got a hotel room in Duluth that she’s driving back to after the show, and then she’s going back to the Cities the next day. It made sense for me to go with her. Plus, I’ve missed her.”
“So this is it,” I said, realizing how much I’d been counting on us having two more nights. Finding out that it was in fact just one… well, it stung.
“This is it,” she echoed. Was I imagining that wistfulness in her tone? She was all business as she said, “I’ll run and take a shower. You want to wait here, or should I come to your place?” So yeah, I guess any wistfulness in this exchange had been imaginary.
“Let’s swim,” I said, letting the impulse rise in my brain and flow directly out of my mouth.
“What?”
“Come on. It’s your last night.” It wasourlast night, but I wasn’t going to say that.
She stared at me for a beat, and I could not read her expression. She looked more like herself when she finally said, “OK.”
We made arrangements to meet on my porch, and as I waited for her, I thought about how if I’d known tonight was her last night, I would have suggested a campfire. A proper send-off. But it seemed like everyone was preoccupied with tomorrow’s show.
Anyway, did I really want to spend my last night with Gretchen in the company of everyone else? I could give her a very proper send-off all by myself. Heh.
She appeared a few minutes later, the beam of the flashlight she was carrying slicing through the darkness—though it wasn’t dark-dark. It was clear, and the nearly full moon pinned over the lake had poured a glaze over the night.
She lowered herself onto the glider next to me. She was wearing the Target swimsuit and carrying a shower caddy.
“Going for the full bathing experience, are we?”
“I really do not smell good, so I either gotta wash in the lake or take this to the shower afterward and you’ll have to wait for me.”
You’ll have to wait for me.
A strange feeling came over me, like I would wait for her in any setting, for any amount of time. I quashed it. “Let’s do the lake bath. I could stand to get clean, too. I’d suggest a joint shower later—I’m wagging my eyebrows lecherously, but it’s too dark for you to see them—but although I’m always up for adventure, I’m not sure you want to risk discovery.”
