“Want to walk over this morning?” Kai asked. “I guess there’s a trail. What do you think?”
“Yeah. I’d love to get a look at what grows around here.”
He chuckled. “That’s nice. I don’t really know how to identify plants. Have you worked up in this area much?”
“A little,” I answered, rummaging through the cupboards for mugs. “These woods were nearly destroyed, and most of the land was clear cut in the eighteen-hundreds. But conservationists were able to save the forests before they crossed the disaster point, and a lot of regrowth has occurred in the last century.”
“It must be nice, watching plants come back.”
I frowned as I poured the coffee. “I wish there were a little more of the coming back, but yeah, it’s exciting when we make progress.” I looked up. “Cream or sugar?”
“Just black.”
I brought him his coffee, and pretty quickly, we both started preparing for the day. Kai whipped up some eggs, and we each took a turn staring at the walls while the other got showered and dressed.
The group of people I met the night before had all been so laid back. I wasn’t as stressed about navigating the crowd as I had been.
Especially not now that it felt like Kai and I were together. Even with all his friends and family around, he was still thoughtful enough to bring me snacks and drinks and to always let me know when he was disappearing to help out with something. I knew he was just a nice guy and that he’d probably treat any date this way, but the more he did it, the more my fantasies got away from me.
After another Instagram photo, which felt very boyfriendy, we took off. The flat trail wound through the tall trees, guiding us near a small stream. Kai and I both wore sneakers with our suits, our dress shoes in my backpack. His burgundy suit looked like it was from some stylish designer, with a tight fit, and I had on the olive suit I’d bought myself as a reward for my grad school graduation ceremony.
“You always loved going on walks through nature,” Kai noted. “It’s cool that you got a job doing that.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I love it. I’m not running my own PR firm or anything, but I feel happy that I have enjoyable work in my field.”
“That’s what really matters. And don’t give me too much credit. I would have just gotten a steady job out of college, but Leo convinced me to try to launch our own thing.”
That made sense. Kai always seemed a little too cautious to be the type who would attempt something so risky. “You’re glad you did it?”
He smiled. “Yeah,” he said. “I am. I like the freedom, and I’m proud that we made something of our own.” He glanced around. “Tell me more about this forest?”
I appreciated the question. “We’re on the edge of it, so most of the remaining old growth is much deeper in. The hemlocks and white pines there are gigantic. The forests have all the things you’d expect, lakes and meadows and hills and rivers. Lots of deer and otters and trout and some bears. It’s a pretty happy ecosystem these days.”
“And you help keep it that way?”
“I try to. I’m just one guy. We mainly track what’s happening around our region, and when we see species that are in trouble, we document that and pass the information on to the right people.”
“You must know so much about this region now.”
I traced my fingers over the bark of a tree as we passed it. “I’m learning, but there’s always more to discover. One really heartbreaking thing is that the indigenous inhabitants, the Susquehanna, were all killed during colonization. From that tragedy and the clearcutting that followed, the forest here carries a lot of sadness, and so much knowledge has been lost. But that’s kind of how it is to work in conservation. You know you’re working to make things better, but you see a lot of loss, too.”
I glanced at Kai and, embarrassed, realized I had poeticized way more than I really intended. Walking through the quiet morning, birds chirping in the trees, just made me lose track of myself. It felt like when I was off doing field work, and my thoughts flowed easily.
“That’s got to feel complicated,” he replied, his voice even and warm. “Thanks for doing that work. I know how important it is for all of us.”
Warm relief tingled my nerves. Some people heard about my work and reacted like surveying wildlife was frivolous or silly, something I should only do for a while before I moved on to a real career. It was nice that Kai immediately saw the value in what I did and knew that it benefited everyone to have a healthy forest.
Science moms, I figured.
As though waking with his erection pressed to my backside wasn’t enough to cause a major crush escalation.
We both glanced at each other out of the corners of our eyes. The air was fresh and clean, and the light played on Kai’s cheeks as he smiled at me.
This would be the time to flirt with him. It could be totally harmless and fun, and I knew I was capable of doing it because I was flirty as hell when I was playing around online in my costumes.
I just had to channel that energy. No big deal.
Just pretend I had a mask on.
