After I had swallowed, I grinned up at him. “Did you like that?”
His chest heaved as he laughed. “Are you kidding? I enjoyed that so much I almost drove off the road.”
Hunter’s fingers returned to my hair and he squeezed gently, pulling my lips to his in a faintly-salty kiss.
“Thanks, Redding,” he said with a big smile.
I loved being dirty with Hunter. He brought out a side of me that I never knew I had.
Our fun wasn’t just limited to new sex positions and road head. We enjoyed exploring each new city we stayed in. Every city had a different atmosphere in its restaurants and bars that was totally unique to the other cities we had visited. We booked hotels in the downtown center of every city so we could walk everywhere and get a feel for the city’s heartbeat.
“Houston is too hot,” Hunter said after walking two minutes to the restaurant down the street from our hotel. He was covered in a sheen of sweat, and his shirt was dark with moisture around the collar.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I agreed. “It’s almost eight o’clock and it’s still ninety-seven degrees out!”
“Then it’s settled,” Hunter said with a nod. “Houston is off the list of potential cities to live in.”
For the most part, Hunter and I were on the same page when it came to things we liked. At first I thought it was because our relationship was new and we were both trying to be as agreeable as possible, but soon I realized it was because we were just that compatible. We both preferred beer, and would occasionally get wine or a mixed drink. Neither of us liked seafood, except for maybe salmon. At dinner, we always ordered two different entrees and then shared from each other’s plate.
There were long silences while we drove between cities. The good kind of silences, where we were totally comfortable together and didn’t need to talk for the sake of talking. We were together all the time, from the moment we woke up to the time we went to bed, and even while we slept.
But we weren’t sick of each other. Not even close.
We were compatible. We were happy.
This isn’t just a fling,I thought to myself while we drove north out of California.This is the real thing.
Brad and I kept in touch via text message for most of the trip, until he called me one day and asked where we would be staying the following day.
“We’ll be in Portland tomorrow,” I replied. “Why do you ask?”
“I have something I need to send you,” he replied. “Text me the address of your hotel and I’ll ship it overnight.”
“Is it related to the business?” I asked. That was the only thing I could think of that he would send so quickly.
“No, nothing like that. You’ll see when it arrives. Hope you’re having fun!”
We reached Portland the next day. The city was nestled in the Williamette Valley along the southern edge of the Columbia River, with Mt. Hood looming to the southeast and various other solo mountains dotting the horizon to the south and north. Hunter grew progressively more excited as we drove into the city. We couldn’t check-in at the hotel until the afternoon, so he drove me around his old stomping grounds and showed me the sights.
We paid a visit to his uncle—a bespectacled man who hugged me and referred to me asthe girl who Hunter ran away from—and then went out on the town. Portland felt young and hip, with lots of dive bars and hole-in-the-wall breweries.
At our third brewery of the evening, I frowned at the menu. “They have sixteen sour beers and one pale ale.”
“Sours are popular up here,” Hunter said while giving the bartender our order.
As we carried our drinks over to a secluded table, I said, “Beer shouldn’t make your lips pucker.”
“I like sours,” Hunter said, backing up the statement with a long sip from his. “They’re good when they’re alittletart.”
“Gross.” I drank from my own,normal, pale ale. “It sucks that I’m just now learning this about you. I thought you were perfect, but this is an unforgivable flaw.”
Hunter grimaced and shrugged. “Damn, that’s too bad. Because I was going to give you this.”
He put a box down on the table.
A small, square box.
I didn’t understand what was happening until he opened it.