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“Nothing like that. Just camping, but I know some girls aren’t into sleeping outdoors.”
“I’ve never been camping before but I’m up for it.”
“That’s my girl. It’s going to be warm and I know of a nice spot that’s off the beaten path. There’s decent hiking and it’s right on the river.”
“What should I bring?”
“A bathing suit, sweats for late-night, a towel, some sunblock…I can’t think of anything else right now.”
“Is this like a campground that has bathrooms and showers?”
“That’s not camping,” he says. “I want you to have the real experience. We’ll catch our dinner, cook it over an open fire and we’ll get clean in the river.”
“Oh…kay.”
“It’s one night, Gracie girl.”
Gracie girl or just plain Gracie. I smile every time he calls me by that nickname. It makes me feel special, makes me feel like I’m his.
It’s been two weeks since our first official date. Two weeks since I sat on my bed half-dressed and spilled all of my secrets to Damien. He knows me better than the family and friends who’ve known me all my life.
In the light of the morning after, I convinced myself that I’d scared him off. Poor Grace, a damaged little girl who’s been looking for love in all the wrong places. She lies to her parents because she’s desperate for their approval and she lets boys use her because she sees herself as unworthy. That’s not who I am. Maybe that’s who I was at fifteen, but I’m not that girl anymore.
But I let him in, showed him everything ugly and embarrassing—everything I regret.
When he texted that he was waiting for me outside the fine arts building the next day and asked if he could take me to lunch, my heart just about melted.
Damien is kind. That first night in the bar when he shut Gianna down and defended me I knew it, and he’s shown me kindness every day since.
“I guess I can rough it for one night.”
“No, Gracie girl, you’re tougher than you think. I think you could survive in the great outdoors with me for weeks.”
“We could be like those contestants onNaked Survivor.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve never seen that show?”
“Never even heard of it.”
“Damien, it’s crazy! I’m not even sure if that’s the name of the show, but it’s likeSurvivorexcept way more intense. It’s a guy and a girl who meet for the very first time when they’re dropped off in some jungle, mountain range or a desert, and then they get naked and have to survive for, I don’t know, a month with nothing. No food, no bottled water, no shelter. It can be brutally hot or freezing cold. They have to make fire, find water and figure out a way to make it drinkable, and they have to catch and kill their food.”
“They do all of this naked?”
“Yes, it’s bananas!”
“Hmm…Maybe we’ll give it a go this weekend. I’d like to get you naked and see if we can survive the elements.”
“In your dreams.” I cringe thinking back to one particularly brutal episode. “They get covered in bug bites and scratched by branches in places that look, um, uncomfortable.”
“Wait. How do they keep warm at night?”
“Body heat, baby.”
“Seriously?”
“It never seems like the people hook up, though. Which is weird because they’re as naked as the day they were born.”
