Four hundred acres may or may not be a lot where you're from, but I grew up in a city, so it felt like an incredible amount of space. The place belonged to the parents of a friend of mine, named Jessie, and a group of our friends had driven out to celebrate a long weekend and enjoy the latter part of the summer. Jessie was a close friend, and also a total babe. She could ski, surf, climb, and hike as well as anyone in our crew. For good measure, she was short and blonde, with incredible eyes and an exquisitely fit physique. Our relationship had always been a bit... interesting.
We had met at a Glitch Mob show, where we had been drinking along with a few friends. We had flirted pretty aggressively almost immediately, and had a great night. As the night wound down, however, it slowly dawned on me that despite what had passed between us, she already had some relationship with a very good friend of mine, named Charlie. They ended up spending the night together, and I shrugged the whole thing off as a fluke.
As it turned out however, none of those events was entirely a fluke. Jessie and Charlie developed a long-term relationship, I remained good friends with both of them, and Jessie and I continued to engage in behavior that was not entirely appropriate under the circumstances. We would often flirt with each other, more subtly when Charlie was around and more blatantly when he was not. On camping trips that Charlie didn't come on, she would always insist on sleeping in my tent, and we would always end up cuddling just a little more intimately than was proper. It never went past that though, and for a few years, that was a status quo that worked for everyone. As it turned out though, there was quite a bit more simmering beneath the surface.
The drive had been long, but as we bounced up the last bit of gravel road, I was amazed at where we had arrived. The house sat on a low hill overlooking the spread, which included forest and fields, and a pond with a clearing near it. We would be camping in the clearing. We drove our trucks down there and mixed drinks while we set up camp. The whole scene was rather idyllic, and we were soon having a great time adventuring through the trees, four-wheeling along the various dirt tracks that wound through the property, and swimming in the pond.
The day passed very enjoyably, and as night fell we retreated to the beach in front of the pond to build a roaring campfire. My truck was packed with firewood, so I drove it down to the lakeshore so we wouldn't have to carry it all down. With tailgate down and a down comforter tossed in the bed, it doubled nicely as a couch. The drinking continued unabated as we cooked dinner and blazed a few joints. The night was warm, but we had tons of wood to burn off, so we kept the fire pretty well stoked.
As the night wound down and people one by one tottered off to sleep, we found ourselves down to just the three of us, Jessie, Charlie, and I. The clear skies and remote location left us with an incredible view of the stars, and our conversation gradually trailed off, as the three of us reclined on our respective sides of the dying fire and took in their majesty.
Time passes slowly at times like that, but after what must have been fifteen or twenty minutes, I realized that the fire had burned down completely, and I was getting a bit cold. However, I still didn't feel a strong urge to retire, so I stood up and got some more wood off the pile and stoked the fire back to life.
My rustling around brought Jessie out of her reverie. "Thanks, babe," she smiled at me with half-lidded eyes.
"Well, somebody has to keep us warm tonight," I joked.
She smirked. "I don't think this guy is up to the task," she said, looking at Charlie, who seemed thoroughly passed out at this point, and then back at me.
Not quite catching her meaning, I replied, "Yeah, you should probably drag him off to bed. He looks like he's gonna need some help there." I grinned and shook my head at his stupor.
A shadow of disappointment flitted across her face, but she shrugged and shook Charlie awake. He struggled to come around, but eventually realized what was going on, and they slowly, awkwardly crunched their way up the walk toward the main house, where they were staying. I was left with a good buzz, the last beer in the cooler, and a decent fire, and went back to contemplating the stars and wondering how bad the hangovers would be in the morning (As it turned out, they were pretty awful.)
Soon enough, however, I was surprised to once more hear the crunch of someone walking down the path from the house. I sat up to see who, or what, was coming for me, and was mildly surprised to see Jessie emerging from the darkness into the glow of the campfire, having changed into sweats and a tee shirt. She slowed to a stop across the fire from me, and looked at me somewhat contemplatively for a moment.
I chuckled, assuming that we were going to play out our usual routine. "Hey darling! I hope you aren't looking for another beer, because we're fresh out at this point." I joked.
She smirked at me from across the fire. "What are you talking about? You've got a tall boy in your hand there!"
