“I did,” I say before wriggling around to face him. “And you, how was it without a memory foa—Oh my God,” I breathe out.
He opens his eyes, sleepy and confused. “What?”
“You have… Shit, you have a black eye,” I explain, grazing the bluish bruise under his left eye.
“Really?”
“Yes. It must have been when I head-butted you.” I wince, remembering how we’d struggled to make it work in the confined space, especially with the unpredictable pushbacks of the air mattress. “You look like you’ve been in a bar fight.”
“With a petite Latina on a mission,” he grumbles.
“I’m so sorry.” To turn my words into actions, I cover his face with light kisses.
“It’s fine. I’ve had worse. Although if you’re really sorry and want to make up for attacking me with your skull, I have a couple of ideas.”
“What?”
“You can get the coffee started.”
“I definitely can, yes. Any other demands?”
“A proper kiss.”
“My needy little baby…” I comply, of course, pecking his lips, and work my way out of both his embrace and the dual sleeping bag, and then, the tent.
God, the view in the morning is even more spectacular, and I gorge on it as I stretch the sleepiness away. My feet and legs aren’t hurting, so I feel confident about the walk back to the car. Lex joins me as I set the Moka pot on the small stove, and we both watch the beautiful scenery while we wait for our morning brew.
Dismantling our little camp goes much faster than setting it up, and about an hour later, we’re back on track, attacking the second half of the hike. Lex’s phone died during the night, but it’s fine. The trail is easy to follow, and I have my human GPS along with me. The way down the mountain seems easy at first, but about five miles in, the muscles right above my knees begin to ache. And because the path is rocky, we’re not going very fast, careful not to slip and tumble down. That would definitely require a helicopter rescue.
With the lunch break and a couple of pee breaks, we take about six hours to get back down, and to my delight, I haven’t complained a single time. Neither did Lex, though. That realization hits me just as the parking lot comes into view.
“Oh, no,” I let out, disappointed.
“What?”
“No one won the bet.”
“Right…” He looks back at the trail, frowns, and says, “I hated this. Every single minute of it was torture. Even last night. You mauled me, woman,” he explains, pointing at his purplish eye. “Never again.”
I’m taken aback at first, wondering what I did to deserve such an onslaught. But then a twinkle in his eye cues me in.
“Are you complaining?” I ask almost gleefully.
“Ah, shit. I guess I lost.”
“You’re such an idiot,” I laugh, turning around to resume our walk. “And so pussy-whipped.”
He looks like the cat that got the cream as he catches up with me. “Can’t wait to eat you out for two hours straight.”
“We said we’d spread it out.”
“I said we wereallowed to. I might decide to handle my penalty in one go.”
If it were anyone else, I would have called their bluff. But with him… all bets are fucking off.
I’m still thinking about that, about my stupid ass insisting on making it two hours, about the consequences of my actions, when we reach the car. Overall, the experience was great, and however long we have left in British Columbia, I’m definitely not opposed to trying another hike like this. Maybe we could even go a little crazy and do three days.
Once our bags are in the trunk, we both settle into our front seats. Like on the way here, Lex drives, and I handle the music. I find a cord in the glove compartment and plug it into the car and my phone before turning it on.
