I dreamed of Cooper that night. He was on a deserted street, late at night, and he was slowly walking away from me. I soon discovered that although he was walking slowly, I couldn't move quickly enough to catch up with him. Walk or run, the distance between us remained the same. I called to him, but he couldn't hear me. He just continued walking slowly and steadily away from me, never turning or hesitating.
As I regained consciousness, I became aware of Cooper's arms wrapped tightly around me. The regular rise and fall of his massive chest against my back told me he was still asleep. In my groggy state, I absently wondered how he could hold me so tight without being awake.
I knew we were in no real hurry to get moving, because the end of the trail was only a few miles away, so I tried to go back to sleep. My dream was fading rapidly, but the fear and frustration I had felt were still lingering in my mind. I couldn't fully relax, which unfortunately meant that I was awake for good. I lay there, wide awake and worrying, for what felt like hours. I was afraid to move much, because I didn't want to wake Cooper, but my current position was becoming less comfortable with every passing minute.
Just when I was about to risk changing positions, Cooper let out a long sigh, and the arms around my torso relaxed. He ran his hand lightly from my shoulder to my wrist, then slipped his fingers between my own. Warmth filled my chest, and I smiled involuntarily. A breath on the back of my neck was followed by a lazy kiss.
"Good morning," I whispered.
"Same to you, handsome."
Being called handsome filled my stomach with butterflies, and I smiled again. I looked over my shoulder and kissed him.
After a few seconds, Cooper pulled away from me. "What time is it?"
"I'm not sure. I figured we weren't really in a hurry, so I wanted to let you sleep."
"Well I won't say it wasn't nice to sleep in a little."
Cooper playfully grabbed at my ass, and I jerked away, yelping with pain. My skin was throbbing where his hand had touched it. I carefully looked over my shoulder and saw that my. back was slightly reddish in color. After staring at my back long enough to figure out what must have happened, Cooper gingerly pulled my boxers off my ass, revealing skin that was a bright, angry red. I wondered why I hadn't felt the burn sooner, and decided I must not have been moving enough to consciously notice the subtle but consistent pain.
He whistled softly. "I had no idea, Preston. Sorry."
I sighed. "How the hell did I burn so fast? I was nude for less than an hour."
"Well... it was the worst part of the day for UV rays. And being so high makes them more intense. It's something like 8% stronger for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain." He paused, then added, "You need to tan in the nude more often."
"I didn't really expect to be exposing my ass cheeks to the sun, so it wasn't a priority," I responded sarcastically.
Cooper rolled me onto my stomach, carefully arranging the blanket so that it only covered my shoulders and upper back, leaving my sunburned backside in the open air. He then sat up and stretched, groaning loudly. I just stayed where I was, propped up on my elbows, trying to ignore my aching skin. I focused on the way the thin fabric of Cooper's boxers followed the curves of his ass as it flexed and relaxed with his every movement. Then, as he turned towards me, his bulge swung slightly. The sight of it made my mouth water. To my pleasant surprise, the show continued from there. He walked over to his pack and bent at the waist to rummage through it, his ass squarely facing me.
When he straightened again, he was holding a fresh pair of boxers. He turned back to face me, then dropped the underwear he was wearing to his ankles and stepped out of them. After he pulled the new ones on, he winked at me and tossed the worn pair of boxers right at my face. I caught them before they hit me, then unabashedly pressed them to my face, inhaling deeply and loudly. Cooper just chuckled and shook his head slightly. Then he reached down and yanked the blanket off me, rolling it tightly while I complained about how much my ass hurt.
Grumbling, I carefully got to my feet and made my over to my pack to find some clothes. The thought struck me that this was the last time I'd be getting dressed on this trip. It was such a silly thing, but it made me sad.
Getting pants on was a painful ordeal, and walking wasn't any better. I was dreading the hike because it was sure be miserable, but I was dragging my feet for another reason as well. I knew that the sooner we got back to the trailhead, the sooner we'd have to go our separate ways. To make things worse, I was no closer to figuring out whether Cooper was interested in ever seeing me again.
We were on the trail sooner than I had expected, to my dismay. There was only so much I could do to stall, though, and Cooper didn't seem to be making any effort to prolong our time together. In fact, he seemed to be trying to hurry me along. He was moving at a brisk pace down the trail ahead of me, forcing me to either match it or get left behind. I couldn't help but imagine that he was rushing ahead to get away from me. At the same time, I felt disgusted with myself for even caring. Every thought that I considered reasonable was telling me that I was being immature and clingy by trying to make this more than it was: a short fling that had only happened because we were in the same place at the same time. In any other situation, it was unlikely that we would have even become friends.
I tried striking up a conversation with him several times as we descended the final stretch of trail. He wasn't rude by any means, but was apparently not in the mood to talk either. He gave me shorter responses than I was used to, and never slowed down to make sure he heard what I was saying like he would have on previous days. I did discover that he would slow down significantly if I complained that my sun burn was bothering me, but I hesitated to do that any more often than I needed to, because I didn't want to sound totally pathetic.
Eventually, we settled into silence. I didn't notice the scenery around us at all, spending all my time staring at Cooper's back, willing him to turn around. At the same time, I was growing more and more anxious. I knew I was running out of time to talk to him, but I was terrified of the way that conversion might go. I kept telling myself that I'd do it if he gave me some sort of obvious encouragement, but I was really just hoping he'd be the one to bring it up.
When we rounded the final curve in the trail and my car came into view, neither of us had spoken in what felt like hours. Full-on panic set in as I unlocked my car and threw my pack in the back seat. I turned to face Cooper, determined to tell him what I was feeling.
Instead, I said "Do you want a ride to your car?"
"Honestly, I'm so tired. That would be great!"
I started the car, turning up the air conditioning as far as it would go. The sun-heated interior of the car was extremely uncomfortable on my sunburn, so I stood outside the door while Cooper took off his pack and set it next to mine. He opened the passenger door, and started to climb inside, hesitating when he noticed me.
"You waiting for something?"
"No, just hoping the car will cool down a bit before I have to sit in it," I said, wagging my hips slightly.
He nodded in understanding. "No rush," he said, sliding into his seat.
Sighing happily, he added, "It feels fucking nice to sit on a cushioned seat, let me tell you." He glanced at me, then hurriedly added, "Not to rub it in your face or anything."
I smiled, but I was feeling too overwhelmed to respond. I just couldn't get a read on the situation. I shook my head and climbed into the car, steeling myself as a fresh wave of pain hit me. Then, without looking at Cooper, I put the car in gear and began driving towards the lower parking area. It was only about a quarter of a mile further down the canyon, and the car was silent all the way. I pulled up next to Cooper's car, and still neither of us spoke.
I decided to sneak a glance at Cooper. He was staring fixedly through the windshield. He seemed to sense me looking at him, and turned to meet my gaze. He didn't say anything, but leaned over and kissed me on the lips. Then, without saying a word, he opened the door and slid out of the car. As he retrieved his bag, I realized I wouldn't know what to say even if I had the ability to speak. I simply didn't have the words. I watched helplessly as Cooper climbed into his car, sat unmoving for several minutes, then drove away. He didn't look over at me again.
I was doing my best not to cry as I drove slowly out of the canyon. I was being ridiculous, and I knew it. I had recovered from all my relationships with women within days of ending them, and those had actually been official. I would get over this man I'd known for no more than a week.
I powered on my cell phone, and knew I had cell service again as soon as left the canyon, because notifications started streaming in. I was happy to see several messages from Jared. It had likely actually been difficult for him to find the time to text me with his girlfriend around, I thought wryly. His texts were full of apologies for bailing on me. He said he had been regretting it all week, and that we had to hang out as soon as I got home. I smiled sadly, thinking that. It probably wouldn't happen.
It was evening by the time I got back to my apartment, and I went straight to the shower, excited to clean off a week's worth of dirt and grime. I got cleaned up, shaved, and then fell onto my bed and went right to sleep even though it was early. I hadn't realized how exhausted I was.
I slept through the night, and woke up with a start, realizing I needed to be leaving for work. Shaking my head at how irresponsible it had been to fall asleep without setting an alarm, I hurriedly dressed, made breakfast, and left the apartment. My pack was still sitting in my back seat, where I'd left it. I couldn't help but stare at it in my rear-view mirror as I drove. In fact, I was doing so much staring that I nearly ran a red light.
The rest of my day wasn't much better. I was distracted, unmotivated, and struggled to work productively. My boss must have noticed, because he asked me if I was feeling sick. I reassured him that I was fine, and that I was just having a bit of an off day, but he didn't seem convinced. If I was being honest, I wasn't convinced that I was ok either.
Jared invited me to hang out at his place that evening, and looking forward to that helped pull me out of my stupor. He and I had developed an interest in grilling recently, and he said he was buying some ribs for that night.
The day was uneventful otherwise, although I had convinced myself that I had seen Cooper walking around the city on three separate occasions by the time I was on my way to Jared's place that evening.
His girlfriend, Lily, was there, and was sitting in the kitchen gossiping about one of her friends when I arrived. Jared was seasoning the ribs, as promised.
"Preston! You're alive, bro!" Jared was all smiles. "Feels like it's been a fuckin' year since I saw you."
I laughed. "A lot can happen in a week. How are you guys?"
Jared started to respond, but Lily talked over him. "We had so much fun last week! We saw my old friend Emily while she was visiting from California, and showed her all the sites around here."
"All the sites? Like what, the mall?" I knew the mall was one of Lily's favorite places, although it was old, a little run-down, and most of the stores in it were closed.
Lily gave me a long-suffering look. "Yes, actually. But we did other things too." She suddenly seemed less enthusiastic about reporting on their activities, and I felt sorry for being so snarky.
Jared gave me an annoyed look of his own, then asked, "What about you? How was the trail?"
