Ache With Me

I stepped out of the car, my boots crunching on dry leaves and gravel. The air up here always felt so much cleaner and fresher than in the city, probably because we were on top of a mountain. I’d jumped at the chance to go check out a camp ground for the newspaper and dragged Max along with me. We’d even borrowed Hunter’s SUV so we could transport all the gear we’d need for the weekend we’d be up here.

“I hope you know I’ve never been camping before.” Max commented, coming to stand next to me.

“It’s a good thing I have then.” My parents used to take Avery and me camping every summer when we were growing up. Most the gear was my family’s, carefully labeled and sorted by my perfectionist mother. “Let’s figure out where we’re going to put the tent before we start unloading things.” He trailed behind as I started checking out our campground. It was a pretty basic set up: picnic table, fire pit, and a spigot for water.

The ground was relatively flat in a shady area, so I decided that’s where we’d put the tent. It wasn’t until we’d pulled it out that I realized Mom had given us an A-frame tent instead of the one with shock cords I’d been expecting. The A-frame poles had to be put together in a certain order and formed a rigid frame on the outside of the tent.

“Christ, what is that?” He asked, staring over my shoulder at the poles I was sorting.

“This is an A-frame. I haven’t put one up in a while, but we should be able to figure it out.” The instructions were still in the battered box, something I was very grateful for. Once we had the poles sorted by number and color, we started putting them together. There was some sort of method to the madness even if I couldn’t see the pattern yet.

Then came the hilarity that was us trying to put the poles in the appropriate slots on the tent. Every time we got one pole into place, it would knock another one out and send the whole tent crashing down. One time I had to dive out of the way or be impaled by one of them.

“I hate this fucking tent.” Max grumbled, arms straining to hold the tent up long enough for me to jam another pole into the slot.

“Do you kids need some help?” A man called from the next campsite over. His site looked immaculate, with all sorts of high tech equipment lying around. He looked like the kind of guy who would survive being dropped into the middle of the forest with only an axe.

“Yes!” I yelled, drowning out Max’s angry “No.” The man came over and within minutes had our tent put together nicely. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem.” He smiled at me, nodded at Max, and returned to his own campsite, probably to whittle something.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, let’s bring in the bags.” I was halfway to the car when I noticed the sulky look on Max’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I fucking had it.” He grumbled, tugging at the duffel bags violently.

“Love, it’s fine.” I made him stop yanking on the handle and kissed him, frowning when he still looked grumpy. “We were struggling, he came to help. That’s all.”

“I had it!” I sighed and took out the box of cooking equipment. He was going to be grumbly and sulking for a while, but he’d get over it on his own. While I was setting up the cooking stove and locating the lanterns, he unrolled our sleeping bags. When he’d seen that Mom had given us two, he thought it was pointless until he saw just how narrow the bags were. Both of us were pretty slim but there was no way in hell we’d manage to fit comfortably.

After we’d gotten the site pretty much set up, we went into the tent to play cards. There was little conversation aside from the calling out of numbers and the occasional “BS!” As the game went on we got more heated and at one point I actually yelled at him, “Fucking take it!” when he called BS on my four queens. This is exactly why Eden refuses to play cards with me.

By the time we started making dinner, his mood had lightened considerably and he was back to his normal jokey self. I was glad to have my Max back. I took several pictures of him lighting up the fire pit and of our tent, and even managed a shot of the professional camper next door who was in fact whittling something.

We cooked ourselves some hot dogs on the fire pit, using some long wooden skewers Mom gave us and devoured them as the sun began to set. We’d put our chairs close enough to lean up against each other as we talked and laughed. When he noticed me shivering slightly, he brought me my sweater and then tossed a blanket over the two of us. The stars were much easier to see up here than they were in the city and we spent a long time pointing out the shapes we saw. I knew it was time to go to bed when Max said he saw a unicorn riding a bicycle. We packed the food box back into the car and settled in for the night. I figured out that if we left the zippers on our sleeping bags open, we could cuddle up together like we usually did. I could hardly fall asleep without Max next to me anymore.

I woke up as the sun was coming up. I jammed my feet into my boots and took my camera outside to capture the beauty of the mountains in the morning. I took in a deep breath of fresh mountain air, enjoying the silence of the early morning. I was sitting on the picnic table, snapping pictures of the sunrise when the touch of someone’s hand on my back almost made me drop my camera.

“Morning love.” Max hauled himself up on the table next to me, his eyes still half closed with sleep. I let him lean against my shoulder while I took a few more shots. Then, very quietly, I got a few pictures of the way the morning light fell across his face. He truly looked like an angel. He cracked one blue eye open to see the camera pointed at his face and the next picture was of his hand covering the lens.

“Come on, you’re beautiful.” I said, laughing at the way he was scrunching up his nose at me.

“Let’s go back to bed, it’s too early to be awake.” He led me back into the tent and within minutes he was asleep again. I had to pee like crazy so I snuck out again to use the bathroom. The campground had a relatively clean bathroom, although it didn’t have any lights so it was hard to see. I could only hope there were no bugs in the corners. I did my business, washed my hands, and tiptoed back into the tent to find Max spread across the sleeping bags, hogging all of it. I tucked myself into his body the best I could and closed my eyes. My phone alarm woke us up a few hours later so we could have breakfast and make sandwiches for lunch before we left for the lake.

Breakfast consisted of instant coffee and cereal, as neither of us was willing to try and make a full on breakfast on a propane stove. Then we slapped together some sandwiches, made sure all the expensive stuff was in the car, and headed off for the lake.

It was about a ten minute drive, but it took an extra twenty to find a parking spot. On a June weekend, the lake was crowded with families. We found ourselves a spot in the shade and set up, only to leave it minutes later to ride the waterslide. I clutched the clammy yellow foam board to my chest as we moved up to the top of the line. Max graciously allowed me to go first down the slide.

When the attendant told me I could go, I sat on the board and pushed off, whizzing down the slide at an admittedly terrifying speed. It was a pretty long slide, taking many twists and turns until I suddenly shot out into a pool of freezing lake water. I sloshed out of the pool to make way for the person coming down the other side and waited by the steps for Max to come down. I could hear him whooping with joy before I could see him, face split into a wide grin as he landed in the pool.

“That was awesome!” He crowed, grabbing my hand and hauling me back up the ramp towards the top. We rode the slide maybe ten times before we decided to go swim in the lake. As we headed back towards the water, I noticed a sign advertising paddle board rentals for an hour for only $10. I waited in line while Max ran back to our stuff to grab some cash. He came back just in time to pay for our two paddleboards and listen to the safety instructions.

I’d never been paddleboarding before but I’d always wanted to try. I probably would have done better if Max hadn’t kept knocking me off balance with his paddle. I got so fed up with him that I whacked him across the back of his knees with my paddle and knocked him off into the water. He came up laughing and pulled me in with him.

When our hour was up we relaxed on our towels and ate our sandwiches, chugging down juicebox after juicebox. We went on the waterslide again, swam in the lake, and sunbathed while cuddling. All in all, a great day. By the time we got back to our campsite, the sun was starting to go down. We both stank like pond water and turtles and algae and I was almost certain I had plant life tangled in my hair.

We shared a shower, figuring it was easier to go together than wait for two separate stalls. Max managed to keep his hands to himself which made it go much faster. I towel dried my hair the best I could and left it loose, ignoring the wet splotches it was leaving on my shoulders. We were both so tired by the time we got back to the campsite that we decided to skip making the cowboy chili in the Dutch oven that we’d been planning and heated up two cans of Dinty Moore stew on the propane stove. It was delicious and filling and that’s all that really mattered.

Then came the debacle that was making s’mores. I was notorious in my family for charring every single marshmallow I was given to the point that it was inedible. Max ended up toasting them for me and handed them off so I could put them in the graham crackers with the chocolate. It was gooey and sticky but absolutely delicious. I leaned over to give Max a thank you kiss and there was a definite noise when we pulled our faces apart, thanks to all the sticky marshmallow on our mouths. We turned in early, exhausted from our day of fun at the lake. Of course, we brushed our teeth first. Lord knows we’d ingested enough sugar to rot our teeth right out of our heads.

The next morning we had another quick breakfast before we started tearing down the campsite. Taking the A-frame apart was far easier than putting it up and Max did it with glee, practically skipping around the tent as he yanked poles out. I packed the rest of the campsite up and did one last sweep to make sure we hadn’t left any trash behind.

I was a little sad to leave the campground behind. I’d really had a lot of fun, especially with my camping newbie boyfriend. I wished we could stay longer, but Max was in the middle of working on another gallery show and I had work on Monday. I’d volunteered to drive home since I knew Max didn’t like mountain driving. He said all the sharp turns made him nervous, especially with me in the car. Not to mention the car belonged to Hunter and the elusive poet had been very poetic in the way he described all the methods of murder he would use if we scratched his car.

About halfway down the mountain, I noticed that Max was starting to look a little green around the gills. “Max? You okay honey?”

“I think I’m a little carsick.” He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. “It should pass.” We’d just reached the street that would put us back on the freeway to Seattle when he bellowed, “Pull over!” I jerked the steering wheel, cutting off a pickup truck that honked angrily at me, and pulled into a 7-11. He bolted inside before I’d even parked. I followed the sounds of retching to the bathroom, where he was kneeling over the toilet. I held his hair back out of his face and rubbed his back soothingly as he emptied his stomach. Even after he’d finished, he stayed clinging to the toilet, his whole body shaking.

“How are you feeling?” I asked when he finally lifted his head.

“Marginally better.” I helped him up and over to the sink where he washed out his mouth thoroughly. “That’s how you know someone loves you, when they hold your hair when you puke.”

“Of course I love you, you dodo.” I washed my hands, not knowing exactly was on the floor of this bathroom, then bought him a bottle of ginger ale. I even asked for a few plastic bags just in case he got sick on the way home.

The drive home was relatively uneventful. I was still a very nervous driver and twitched every time a car came too close, but I got us back to Seattle without any deaths or damage to Hunter’s car. I’d promised to get it washed for him before I brought it back but I was very glad Max hadn’t puked in it.
I sent Max up to his apartment to lie down while I took out the perishable things and our duffel bags out of the car. When I brought them up he was face down on his couch, one hand hanging off and scratching Sylvester behind the ears.

“Want me to go get you some food?” I asked, rubbing his back.

“That’d be lovely, thank you.” He took his bag from me and rooted through to find his toothbrush. “I still taste the bile.” I made a face and laughed.

“Don’t kiss me until you brush. I’ll be back in a bit.” I blew him a kiss and walked to our favorite burger joint to get us some food. My mom always gave me something greasy after I got carsick so I bought Max a cheeseburger. We devoured our food while we watched an episode of The Tudors that he’d recorded. Halfway through I got up to change out of my clothes that stank of campfire and dust, just tossing them into his hamper, knowing he’d wash them with the rest of his clothes and put them in the drawer he’d given me.

“I love you.” His voice startled me a bit. I hadn’t heard him come into the room.

“I know.” I winked, pulling one of his t-shirts over my head. They were long enough on me that I didn’t need to wear pants, a fact that made both of us happy. I was also happy that the first time we’d said it out loud it was without ceremony or awkwardness. It was easy to love Max, and easy to say it. It had been obvious that we loved each other for a while, we’d just never bothered to say it, because we could both feel it.

“Come on, Natalie Dormer’s about to get beheaded.” He threw me over his shoulder and carried me back out to the couch, where we spent the rest of our afternoon.