Unicorn Trail

The boarding process was rather typical, the gate agent knowing me by name and as we waited for the gate to open we chatted about work and other things. The agent in question was a blonde woman in her late twenties, and there was a hint of a tattoo peeking out the collar of her shirt; otherwise, she was the quintessential professional, looking a little cookie-cutter at first, which was deceiving. Emily had visited me at work and spotted the girl I was currently chatting with (her name was Melissa, I had to struggle to remember for some reason. I bet it had nothing to do with the cute brunette hippie I was with. Nope, nothing at all) and before I knew it she'd been angling for a threesome. Not to Melissa, but certainly with me. Then we forgot about it but there must have been something about the way Emily eyed Melissa that day because the blonde gate agent casually segued into the topic of Alice.

"So, is she someone that Emily picked out for you?", she asked, pointing with a pen towards where Alice was sitting down charging her phone.

"What?" I was thrown for a loop. On one hand, I made no significant effort to hide the fact that Emily and I were, so far, poly-curious. But on the other hand, it wasn't something I was entirely comfortable talking about outside of circles where I could be reasonably certain it wouldn't cause an issue.

But I decided based on Melissa's more curious expression--one that seemed to me to be without judgment--that I could own my shit. "Oh, no, I actually ran into her at the check-in counter."

Melissa raised her eyebrows and chewed thoughtfully on her lip. "Interesting. So what does she think of her?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Haven't told her anything yet. They rolled her into the OR earlier this morning at UPMC. Don't worry, she's fine. But let's just say that I don't know if she wants me talking about the surgery she's having. Not yet, anyways." To her credit, Melissa didn't pry and basically bombarded me with questions about Alice, which I did my best to answer.

When I got to the part about what her ex did to her, Melissa grunted in disgust. "I'm so glad her aunt stepped up for her like that. Perv deserved what he got."

I nodded in agreement and just before I was about to say more, another gate agent got on the intercom and announced the flight was about to board. "Treat her right and I wanna hear all about your trip, okay? Oh, and what's Emily's number?" Melissa seemed a little too eager, but I wasn't about to deny either of them the chance to get to know one another. Melissa could be a little weird sometimes, but it was always in a cute, quirky way and she didn't give off any tsundere vibes (I really couldn't think of an equivalent English term) so I gave her Emily's number before saying good-bye and motioning to Alice to get on the plane.

When we sat down, she clung to my arm. "Thank you, John," she whispered over the din of everyone getting on the plane and shuffling about.

"What for?", I asked, turning to face her and seeing that her eyes were shining with unshed tears, but they were big and bright and I could tell they were happy tears.

"You make me feel safer without even trying than anyone ever has. I know that this trip will be incredible, just because you're here with me." She planted a small kiss on the sleeve of my T-shirt.

I held up a reassuring hand and extricated my arm from her grip only to drape it around her and pull her to my side. "Same, Alice. Same. Now, just sit back, relax and enjoy the flight."

--A FEW HOURS LATER--

The airport in Nashville, Tennessee was somewhere I'd never been before, and it was almost too tempting to treat it like a shopping mall and splurge. But I'd promised myself I'd only buy some last-minute gear for the hike that would have been too much hassle to bring through security. So Alice and I left the airport and took an Uber to the sporting goods store that I'd already arranged ahead of time to pick some things up from.

One of those things, that I was still on the fence about but had brought enough money for, was a Sig-Sauer P226 handgun chambered in.40-caliber. I had gone through the training, spent more time at the range than at home it seemed for about a month straight, gotten all the paperwork and permits and all the rest. But still I hesitated. I'd never really been in a situation where I thought I'd need one, at least not since I became an adult. But it only takes one moment...

"John, you in there?" Alice was knocking on my head playfully as we stood outside the sporting goods store. I'd not realized how in my head I was.

"Yeah, sorry. Just overthinking the whole buying a gun thing, but then again, isn't that the kinda thing you should think long and hard about?" I did have at least one very precious thing to protect. Possibly two, now.

"Maybe," she hedged. "You went through the safety course and all that, right?"

I nodded. "Overdid it a bit maybe, but I wanted to be as comfortable with the weapon as I could."

"Then just go with your gut. That's my advice, anyway."

I shrugged and picked up my rucksack and went into the store.

The place wasn't one of the biggest stores you could go to, sort of a middle ground between Bass Pro Shops and a mom-and-pop store. It was a chain that started in Tennessee and spread to a couple of the surrounding states. So it could carry big brands but still had a more personal touch when it came to customer service.

At the very least, I was gonna buy a can of bear spray with holster, and some camp food. We had both, thankfully, left room in our bags for these things. I just decided to buy the gun after all, reasoning that I could sell it later if I found that I didn't like having it. I also bought two extra magazines and two boxes of ammo, plus a holster. I packed everything carefully in the duffel bag that had all the extra stuff in it.

I felt really nervous walking out of the store, and Alice seemed to notice because she said, "Hey, relax. No one's asking you to be Rambo, or something. It's still your choice to use it or not."

I nodded. "You're right. It's just...a lot."

Alice didn't say anything, she just hugged my arm and called the last Uber we were gonna take for a while. It was time to hit the trail, and I couldn't wait to get started.