Worth the Wait

It had been a year, an entire year, since a mutual friend had set them up on social media. He laughed as he lit the fire "Caveman Style," as she called it, with flint, steel and tinder. They'd originally set a date for the second week following that first on-line introduction, which had been, as turned out, just a week too late.

It had been, to their prolonged agony and dismay, exactly how long it had taken for the world to lose its mind. The next year had been the hardest he'd ever had ever endured as a Paramedic, and between that and the fact that she lived at home with her diabetic, emphysemic mother, meeting in person had been a no-go for the duration. Mind you, that didn't mean they hadn't gotten to know one another. In fact, they were both pretty sure at this point, that most people got married knowing far less!

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This was the very thought that had Paige giggling mischievously as she made her way down the trail, walking stick in hand, shaded by her wide sun hat. Between the long, late night phone calls, Skype, and later Zoom conversations, virtual dates where they watched the same movie at the same time while on the phone, or split screen on-line, and so on, they had come to an amazing realization. Through no planning of their own whatsoever, they had asked and answered every question they could think of, all the questions you usually wished you'd asked of someone you were getting in deep with, but were usually too busy getting naked to ask.

That isn't to say that there hadn't been any nakedness, she thought to herself as she checked the GPS device in her other hand. As things warmed up between them, as trust had grown, there'd been plenty of "show and tell," late at night, and a couple of glasses of merlot in. She knew nearly everything there was to know about the man who had programmed the destination she was approaching as quickly as she safely could, with the exception of how good it was going to feel to finally get her hands on him.

#

The sense of anticipation was keeping close pace with the fire as he laid the kindling onto the burning tinder and watched it catch with undisguised satisfaction. James could not drive from his mind the images burned into it by her birthday present to him. It had been, without question, the hottest striptease he had ever had the fortune to witness, and he hadn't even been in the same room. That it had come from a woman he now knew and understood better than anyone in his life previously had thrown on a layer of heat he hadn't believed possible.

He continued adding ever more substantial pieces to the fire until he could split it off. One fire for cooking and another just for warmth. In very little time at all he had the coals he needed to lay down the two bone-in ribeyes onto the portable grill over the fire, well timed too. He'd gotten the message that she was making her way to the campsite and would not be long at all, shortly before evening twilight. She had no idea that he'd not only set aside this weekend, but had consumed two more vacation days in preparation for tonight in preparation for her arrival. Bushcrafting, his hobby of creating shelters and so much more from available materials, was something she knew about, but the remained I the dark regarding how much prep time he had invested or how wisely, and lasciviously, he had invested it. If she thought she was spending the night in a sleeping bag, under a backpacker tent, she was in for the most pleasant of surprises. The merlot was already open, breathing.

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Merlot...she could almost taste the familiar woody, herby flavor it as she thought about their many late-night conversations of their shared passion for this dark red pleasure. For him, there were memories of friendship, gaming with his friends, getting hopelessly hammered and cackling like mad scientists at the character names that had resulted. "Lord Severed Pong" would live forever in their memories, and now was stuck in hers as well. For her, there were memories of friendships that had withstood the test of time and adversity, and loves that had not, but had nevertheless failed to sour her taste for the nose of a full glass, the way the light played through it, and the taste itself, rich and heady.

Newer memories, very warm memories urged her to step with more urgency toward her destination. His voice, his words, the many truths they had shared between one another had woven a tapestry of desire within her that no description would do justice. The many "bedtime stories" he had whispered from her earbuds as they prepared to go to sleep so far from one another, and the many warm promises she had offered in return were now so close to being kept that she could taste them on her lips as the scent of a nearby campfire teased at her mind along with something else. Was that, steak? As she made her way around the bend in the trail her eyes grew wide. The longer she looked the more amazing the vision before her became.

#

"I'll take that for a 'Yes, this will do.'" James chuckled as he plated their dinner and made his way to the makeshift table and stools already set and waiting alongside a bottle of her very favorite merlot and a pair of goblets. Paige was still struggling to find her voice as he poured for the two of them and proceeded with all due haste to close the distance between them. It hadn't been the fire, the steak, the improvised dining room set, nor had it been the long awaited physical presence of the face she had already come to know so well that had stolen her ability to form words. Instead, what she had at fist mistaken for a small mound behind him was...there was no other way to describe it. The man had built an honest-to-God, Swiss Family Robinson hut for her around what a second look confirmed to be an air-bed fully dressed in linens and strewn with rose petals.

She succeeded in recovering her command of spoken language just, and only just, in time. "You are the undisputed king of all weaver birds," she informed him as she took the glass of purple red comfort into one hand and his face into the other. His arm closed around her waist as they melted into a kiss that was, in every way possible, worth the wait.