Hello Literotica! This is my first submission ever and I'm excited to see if anyone likes it. These stories are based on my experiences; names of course have been changed. Leave me some feedback and stay tuned for more installments on the story.
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It was a crisp December day in West Virginia on the top of Snowshoe Mountain. A bluebird day and as much visibility as one could ask for.
"Jesus, there's nothing out here." Finn said with a smile. He was right, due to a massive radio wave telescope located about 30 miles away from the mountain, no cell towers were allowed to be installed in the area because of the wave interruption. People tend not to live where they can't have their phones. That was fine with Finn though, because it made for a beautifully remote wilderness, relatively untouched by the machine of industrialism.
Finn had had an amazing last year and a half. It had been a kind of rebirth for him. The day after high school he moved from Nashville, TN to Colorado Springs with his oldest sister Rachel and her newborn son Heath. However, Rachel's husband had been deployed to Afghanistan right after the birth so Finn had become surrogate "daddy" for the first 8 months of Heath's life.
After changing diapers, rocking him back to sleep in the middle of the night, and being woken up at the crack of dawn Rachel told Finn she had the swing of being a momma now and encouraged him to move on. After much deliberation, he took her advice and soon started teaching adult snowboard lessons at Copper Mountain in the high Rockies of Colorado.
Once winter had drawn to a close though, Finn finally got his chance to go on a hike he had been planning for five years. After four and a half months he successfully hiked from Georgia to Maine covering 2,185.3 miles on the Appalachian Trail. The experience had made him confident, insightful, and just really likable. People love people who do things they wish they could. He had changed for the better. He found a new perspective on life; if he could carry everything he needed on his back to not just survive, but to thrive and be happier than he ever could than everyday "problems" seemed insignificant now. That confidence was desirable to everyone around him, and he had a way with making whomever he was talking to feel like the most important human being on earth. It's nice to feel important. He never let any of it go to his head though, there was a bigger picture than just himself.
As a transition back into the "real world" at the completion of his Appalachian Trail thru hike, Finn and his other older sister (middle child) Kat had plans to backpack around Europe for about five weeks.
They explored the crystal clear Aegean Sea around Greece, watched sunsets on the island of Santorini, marveled at the gothic architecture in Budapest, Hungary, and rode bicycles on the streets of Austria. Cheap wine welcomed them to Italy and they ventured across as much countryside as historic cities. Vineyards and sunflower fields stretched as far as the eye could see and he fell in love with the beauty of nature all over again for the millionth time.
Then Barcelona beckoned for them to spend the late hours of the night in the countless salsa clubs, passionately intertwining with a partner while their sweaty bodies pressed hard against each, short of breath. Salsa is a dance for lovers, the dance floor is their bed and the music reverberates their rapid heartbeats.
The journey ended in London, where it began. Despite feeling extremely thankful to be able to live a life like this, Finn never shook the feeling that there was a huge hole in his life.
"I'm tired of being alone." Finn finally said to Kat while on their layover in the London airport. "I'm the kind of person that needs to take care of someone. I can't wait to have a girl in my life that I can treat like the princess she is," he said dreamily with a hint of sadness.
"I have a feeling that'll happen sooner than you think. As soon as you stop looking, your dream girl is gonna bump right into you. I've always thought you were gonna be the kinda guy that never slept around or had meaningless relationships. There would be like one, maybe two, girls before the perfect one finds you." She assured him.
"Thanks," he said. "That means a lot. Really." Because it was true, so true in fact that he was still a virgin. It never bothered him much like it did some of his buddies in high school though. Sex was a good thing. And used in the right context could be a great thing. He knew that whenever he found that girl he genuinely wanted to share it with, amazing things would happen. Not because of the actual act of sex, but because the girl must be something really special. He'd always had a list in his head of what he knew he wanted. It was a pretty strict list and so far, no girl had made the cut. Finn knew what he wanted and wasn't afraid to wait for it.
Once stateside, winter was rolling around again and Finn had secured a job at Snowshoe Mountain ski resort in West Virginia on a whim. All he knew was that he had to go to West Virginia. Little did he know, his life was about to change all because of one girl, the perfect girl.
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Orientation was today and Finn was getting excited to meet some new people. Running a little late, he ran into the conference building to find orientation had started a few minutes prior. "Shit..." he thought, and immediately started scanning for a seat.
"Next to fat, sweaty guy with sideburns... nope. A group of Venezuelan looking guys... maybe later. Wait, there's a seat next to that girl. That adorable girl..."
She had dark curly hair that pulled up into a sporty ponytail and a fair complexion. No tanning beds or makeup for her, there was no need. She was beautiful, and confident enough to believe it herself. Oh shit, she just looked and saw me staring!" How long had I been looking? It had felt like years. We both shied our eyes away, but not before she threw me one of the most amazing smiles I had ever seen anywhere in the world.
"Out of my league." I thought to myself after another second of deliberation and took a seat in the back near a younger looking guy.
Throughout the entire orientation Finn couldn't keep his mind on anything but the girl 5 rows in front and 3 seats to the right of him. Not as if he had noticed... He loved the way she took studious notes and was genuinely interested in the presentation. Most everyone was about to fall asleep much less seem excited about when the company had been started.
Entirely too soon, the speaker was thanking everyone and hoped it would be an excellent year, and if anyone needed help finding employee housing to stay behind for a bit.
As everyone was getting up Finn panicked, "Oh god, what if I never see her again? Don't' be stupid Finn, you work on the same mountain, she can't get very far." Continuing a small battle in his own head while heading to his apartment, He didn't notice the very same girl walking the same direction as him. And then he saw her.
His heart leaped into his throat and he felt as if he had swallowed a goldfish and it was swimming circles in his stomach. God she was cute. That hair he had stared at for the last hour, her milky skin that showed her youth but also the intelligence that she seemed to exude. And finally after what seemed a lifetime he muttered his old mantra to himself he had from when he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. "Ain't no thang. Ain't no thang. Ain't no thang." He had started saying it facetiously but soon found comfort in how simple and effective it was in cheering up his mood. You just gotta make fun of yourself from time to time, even hat means acting way more country than you actually are. "Ain't no thang." Finn let out a big breath and turned to the girl giving her the best smile he could muster.
"Hey, I uh, noticed you in orientation this morning. My name's, uh, Finn. I'm Finn."
She flashed that smile of hers at him again. That smile that could light up a room when it's dreary and raining outside, everyone said his smile did that but he'd never seen it. Not like this anyways, hers was real. It immediately made him feel better.
"Hi Finn! That's a really great name. Your parents Mark Twain fans huh? It's lovely to meet you, my name's Lyla! So what're you gonna be doing up here in the middle of nowhere all winter?" She asked with an ever so slight West Virginian drawl accompanied by her smile again.
"Lyla. That's a really nice name too. Yeah, I'm a full time youth snowboard and ski instructor, like the three to twelve year olds. I'm kinda nervous because I've only ever taught adults. I love kids, but it's kind of a scary thing being responsible for six tiny kids on a big ass mountain with slippery sticks attached to their feet and giant boots on. " Finn said with a nervous chuckle. Was he talking too much? He felt like it. He really felt like he'd become a puddle of the hot chocolate he smelled coming from a quaint café off to the side of Center Village. Then she laughed too and he couldn't believe it but her laugh might have been better than her smile.
A person's laugh tells a lot about them. Lyla's laugh was the kind that exudes confidence and whimsicalness all at the same time. Like the perfect amount of woman mixed with just the right amount of little girl who still wants to be a princess. She didn't care what people thought of her, she seemed to be ok with who she was. Finn's items on his "list" were quickly being crossed off.
"Hey I'm a youth ski instructor too! I guess we'll be a seeing a lot of each other. And I know what you mean, but I've never taught before! How do I think I feel?" She teased, "Where have you taught before?"
"I lived in Colorado for a little over a year and was teaching at Copper Mt. last winter. It was a lot of fun, didn't make any money but I learned how to ride." Finn responded, getting more and more comfortable the more he looked into Lyla's eyes. Her demeanor was so welcoming; it was impossible to not be friendly to this girl.
