Chapter 8 #3
To the west, the dunes rippled dramatically, looking ancient and almost holy. They were steep, and Drew couldn’t see where they sloped down towards the water, but he could see the endless expanse of Lake Michigan.
It was magical up here. He knew, now, exactly what Gabriel meant about the barrier between the supernatural world and the natural world being thinner here.
“You were right,” he whispered as they left the asphalt of the parking lot behind for the sand. “There’s something mystical about this place.”
“There really is,” Gabriel agreed.
They climbed at a gradual but steady incline up the sand until they reached the crest. The dune spread out before them before sloping down for a hundred feet or so, when it reached the blue Lake, which Drew had to keep telling himself wasn’t the ocean.
“Can I ask another question?” Gabriel said.
“Go for it.”
“Does anyone else know about you and your teammate that you were involved?”
“No one.”
“Is that hard?”
Drew looked out at the beautiful landscape for a moment, letting it all sink in. From this perspective, he couldn’t see the illusion of the giant turtle, but he tried to imagine it. He wondered what part of the turtle’s anatomy they stood on now.
“It is hard,” he said. “I’m glad I could tell you. Thank you for being someone I could trust.”
Gabriel surprised him by touching his arm. “Thank you for trusting me. I hope you know I won’t tell anyone.”
“I know you won’t. That’s why I trust you.”
They smiled at each other. They weren’t the only ones at the Dunes today, but Drew couldn’t care less who else was there.
It looked like a handful of tourists, some families.
He wondered if anyone noticed the two of them, and if so, what they thought their relationship was.
Drew and Gabriel looked nothing alike. They couldn’t pass for brothers.
They weren’t acting romantically towards each other, except for Gabriel’s gentle touch on Drew’s arm, but that could be interpreted in multiple ways. Maybe people thought they were friends.
“Do you want to go down to the water?” Gabriel suggested.
The water was, as Gabriel had warned, still pretty cold.
It wasn’t like the beaches in Florida, California, or any of the tropical or Mediterranean places Drew favored.
It reminded him of the Atlantic and the New England coast, and there was a certain nostalgia to it.
They took their shirts off and waded into the water, and Gabriel dared Drew to get all the way in, which he did because he never said no to a dare.
Drew liked the sight of Gabriel without a shirt.
He had a good body and was tanned from the sun.
Drew could tell that Gabriel took care of himself and liked to work out.
He wasn’t shy about his body and had taken his shirt off immediately.
There may have been some intentionality there—Drew had to be careful not to get too affected by looking at Gabriel all wet and shirtless.
He didn’t want to risk a boner in his wet swim trunks.
It was undeniable, though, that he was sexually attracted to Gabriel.
He was almost sure the feeling was mutual.
There were a few times, when Gabriel didn’t think he was looking, that Drew caught the way Gabriel glanced at him.
He hoped that Gabriel wasn’t intimidated by him.
Drew didn’t want to use his “fame” over Gabriel and didn’t want to pressure or manipulate him into anything.
He was very conscious of the potential power imbalance between them, and he would never exploit that.
That was one of the reasons he tended to prefer anonymous hookups.
In that case, his partner had no idea who Drew was, and it couldn’t be used for or against his partner.
But Gabriel knew, and he didn’t seem to mind.
It made him neither more nor less interested in Drew, and Drew liked that.
He wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to make love to Gabriel.
He imagined they would be compatible. Drew liked playing both roles in sex.
He was athletic, and he liked how sex made his body feel.
His sexual relationships had always been about physical pleasure, nothing more.
He’d rarely hooked up with someone more than once, because things inevitably started to get more personal, and he was always afraid of that.
He worried that it could lead to someone discovering his identity, and he didn’t like to lie to his partners. It was easier to keep it anonymous.
He had had a taste of something more with Quentin.
It wasn’t quite intimacy, but it was close.
They had known each other well, if only because they played for the same hockey team.
That had meant a natural companionship and shared understanding.
But Quentin had always been reticent to share more of himself in an intimate setting.
He was more afraid than Drew about being outed, and Drew figured that was why he hadn’t been willing to go public in the end.
The feelings were there, he was sure, but the fear overpowered the desire.
It left Drew wondering what he wanted in a relationship, or if a relationship was even something he wanted to begin with.
He didn’t want to hide, and he didn’t want to lie.
He thought he’d been ready with Quentin, and maybe he had been.
But it wasn’t enough for one person to be ready. Both had to be.
He and Gabriel were standing in the cool waters of Lake Michigan, and Drew stared out at the horizon. It was blue in every direction, the Lake stretching as far as an ocean.
“You look lost in thought,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel’s words brought Drew back to the present moment.
“Just thinking about the past and the future,” Drew said.
“Light stuff, nothing serious there,” Gabriel quipped.
“Exactly. You get it.” Drew smiled. “Speaking of the past and the future, I definitely want to do that Tarot reading.”
Gabriel matched Drew’s smile. His entire face lit up when he smiled. He was unabashed about his smile, and it was beautiful. “Good,” he said. “I want to do one for you. I’m sad I didn’t bring a deck with me. We’ll have to do that when we leave.”
“Absolutely.”
“How about we eat now and then spend some time on the beach?” Gabriel suggested. “If we start to get sunburned or tired, we can go back to town.”
The hike back up the dune was harder than going down, but they were both athletic, and they weren’t in any hurry.
They got the cooler of food from the car and went back to the sand, though they didn’t go down to the water.
They picked a spot away from other tourists, and Gabriel laid out two large beach towels.
They ate sandwiches on sourdough bread, with thinly sliced grilled chicken, hearty spinach, juicy tomatoes, and aioli.
They discreetly poured wine because Gabriel said he wasn’t sure if it was allowed here or not.
Raising their plastic cups, they toasted to the summer and to each other.
“I’m glad I’ve met you,” Gabriel said.
“I’m glad I’ve met you, too.” Drew was just beginning to understand how glad he was.