“Are you going to tell me where we’re going yet?” He picked up his bag from behind the couch and checked one last time to make sure his lights were turned off.
“I will if you want,” Ben said. “But if you’ll give me four hours, you can find out on your own.”
Thomas tried to think about places that were four hours away and he drew an absolute blank. The vacations he’d taken when the kids were younger were always to national parks or places like Disney World. Once, Jennifer had wanted to take a cruise, so they’d done that when the kids were old enough to stay on their own. This trip with Ben…this was the first time someone had planned something for him to do. His entire life had been the other way around.
“I’ll wait,” he said, gesturing to the door. “You ready to get going?”
Ben smiled and kissed him, a quick and chaste peck against the corner of his mouth. Thomas offered to drive, but Ben told him no, so Thomas settled into the passenger seat with a gentle sigh. He didn’t bother to ask for the aux cord, letting Ben play whatever he wanted to keep him awake for the drive. The miles passed with comfortable silence and easy conversation, and when they pulled onto a winding dirt road that led toward the base of the Evergreen Mountains, Thomas’s heart began to race.
“Camping?” he asked, staring out the window as the car bumped down the gravelly road.
“Glamping,” Ben corrected, pulling into a parking spot at the end of the road. There was a rock and wood-framed building tucked into the mountain with amber lights glowing out from the massive front windows. “You wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Ben jumped out of the car and ran inside. Through the glass, Thomas watched him chat with the host behind the check-in counter, then smile and head back toward the car. There was something in the moment, in the way the light caught Ben’s hair when he stepped out of the building, and Thomas knew he was in love.
He swallowed the exhilarating and terrifying idea into the back of his throat just in time for Ben to get back to the car. He tossed an old-fashioned hotel keychain onto Thomas’s lap and threw the car into reverse.
“You ready?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat and grabbed the key.
Ben backed out of the parking spot and headed back toward the highway, making a sharp right off the dirt road and heading down a path thick with trees. It wasn’t late, but the tree cover kept it cool and dark. Thomas unrolled the window and stuck his arm out, enjoying the dry air against his fingertips as Ben drove them closer to the mountains.
“Glamping?” he asked, watching the road get bumpier. “Are you sure?”
“That’s what the flyer said.” Ben laughed just as the tree line broke apart and revealed a massive beige tent that reminded him of a circus big top. “Holy shit.”
“Is this what the flyer said?”
“I don’t think pictures did it justice.”
Ben parked and the two of them got out of the car. Thomas looked down at the key in his hand, realizing the tent didn’t even have a door. The flaps were pulled open, revealing a massive bed against the far end, decked out with a dozen jewel-colored throw pillows and a thick white duvet that stood out against the natural browns and greens of the landscape around them.
“Why a key?” he asked.
“No idea.”
Thomas followed Ben into the tent, taking note of the dark red Persian carpets that lay in a mismatched but intentional pattern across the floor. There was a small couch opposite the bed with a coffee table in front of it. On the other side of the tent there was a dorm size refrigerator hidden in a cabinet, but the real beauty of the space was the massive cut-out in the top of the tent that offered an uninterrupted view of the sky.
“This is amazing,” he whispered, dropping his bag at the foot of the bed. He reached for Ben and pulled him close, turning him and pressing a gentle kiss against his lips. “Thank you.”
“We just got here,” Ben murmured, opening his mouth and making way for Thomas’s tongue. Thomas kissed him deeply, bracketing his arm around the small of Ben’s back to dip him down and bend over him to take all of his mouth.
“Three nights alone here with you?” he asked.
When he swallowed, his saliva lodged in his throat. The prospect of three uninterrupted nights and two full days with Ben alone in the middle of nowhere was overwhelming in a good way. Spending time with this man seemed like the best way to celebrate turning another year older and officially ending his marriage.
“Do you want to test out the bed?” Ben laughed and flopped onto his back. He kicked his shoes off and let them land on the rugs with two quiet thumps.
“Yes, but…” Thomas toed off his own shoes and climbed onto the bed, tucking himself in against Ben’s side. “This is nice too.”
“We can do this.” Ben arranged himself so Thomas better fit alongside him and Thomas closed his eyes, relishing the now familiar scent of Ben’s soap, his detergent, his skin.
He had assuredly not meant to fall in love with the first person he involved himself with after Jennifer, whether that person was a man or a woman. His intent had been to gather the experience and see what moving forward looked like, but he’d genuinely not stood a chance with Ben. Ben, who from the start had been so perfect for him. So unassuming and on the same page. So understanding and amenable. So…good. Thomas breathed in, resting his arm across the hard lines of Ben’s stomach and relaxing further into him.
“When…when we get home—”
“I don’t want to talk about there,” Ben interrupted. “I want to be here with you now. Whatever is there and then can wait for us.”
