“Be my guest,” Jules said. She folded her arms and watched with an amused expression while I tried and failed to figure out what to do next. I was halfway into hammering the edges of the tent into the dirt when she brought out a vinyl baggie of stakes I hadn’t noticed. “Before you break it, you are supposed to use these.”
I had to admit defeat and let Jules help me with the rest of setting up the tent. It turned out she wasn’t just an impressive personal assistant, she was a natural outdoorswoman. She got our tent going, then set up the cooktop I’d bought.
We teased each other, mostly in the form of her laughing when I failed to figure out how to do something obvious. All my knowledge of plants, animals, and survival techniques apparently didn’t extend to setting up expensive camping equipment that was all far more complicated than it needed to be.
Maybe the process should’ve been frustrating, but all I could do was be impressed. She really was quite the woman, and I was reminded of how I needed to make sure I never took that for granted. I had no idea how this thing between us could last, but I wanted to savor it while it did.
We spent most of the afternoon hiking through beautiful natural trails. Our favorite was a long, upward trek up the mountain. At one point, we had to hop across slick pebbles and an icy stream to continue. Jules managed the crossing, but my foot slid on the last rock, and I fell on my ass in the ankle-deep water. It was worth it to see the way she laughed until her sides hurt.
We were both still smiling about it when we reached the end of the trail, which took us straight to the base of a waterfall. There was a challenging trail up to get a closer look that had us climbing up steep rock faces, but nothing so tall it was particularly dangerous.
By the time we finished our day of hiking and were back to our tent, we were both comfortably exhausted and ready for dinner.
I wasn’t the best cook, but I knew enough to put together a simple meal of pasta with some veggies and a white wine sauce. Jules helped me roast a chicken over the fire, which went poorly. Neither of us apparently knew the finer points of outdoor cooking and we ended up burning the chicken to oblivion when we took our eyes off it for a couple minutes.
But the pasta turned out delicious, and the two of us drank what was left of the white wine we’d used for the sauce.
“Not bad,” Jules said. We were both sitting in outdoor chairs we’d set up around our fire. She set the plate down at her feet and sat back, sighing with relief. It was a comfortably warm night, and we’d gotten lucky with bugs. I knew certain times of year could be miserable, but somehow, we seemed to have dodged them for the most part.
I poked the smoldering, blackened chicken we’d set in the leaves by the fire with my stick. “Not good, either.”
She laughed. “We should probably get rid of that so a bear doesn’t come or something.”
“We can hike out and set it somewhere away from camp. A wild animal would probably enjoy this.”
“Look at you,” she said. “I didn’t take you for the type to care about the welfare of animals.”
“It’s like I said. This stuff used to be a big part of my life,” I said.
“How’d you go from all of this to the business world, anyway?”
“That’s just how things go sometimes, I guess. Life gets in the way of dreams.”
“That’s depressing.”
I got up, sticking my hand out for her to take it. “You’re right. Let’s go donate this chicken to nature and talk about something else.”
It was late and most of the campsites now flickered with fires of their own. Families sat out roasting marshmallows or cooking dinner. Intermittent spurts of laughter echoed into the darkness.
I put my arm around Jules, pulling her into my side as we walked. I held the destroyed chicken with my other hand. I’d speared it with a stick to make it easier to carry and keep from burning my hands. Even though it had been sitting for almost half an hour, it was still hot as hell.
“Is this really going to work?” Jules asked after we’d left the sounds of the campsites behind.
“It’s not that complicated. I’ll just set the chicken down somewhere and an animal will find it.”
“Us, I mean. Like what happens if your plan works, and Coleton goes down in flames? Do we ride off into the sunset together, or do you ride off into the sunset and I’m left waving goodbye?”