Chapter 8
8
S pring in DC was truly beautiful. The cherry blossoms came into full bloom, creating a picturesque landscape in the capital. Aaron sent me a text one Saturday morning in early April, giving me his “photoshoot” location. I had no idea what that meant. With Aaron, one could never be sure. It could mean anything from he sent me a text meant for a coworker and they were to meet for a work-related shoot or he had some adventure or another up his sleeve. The heart-shaped emoticon, I decided, was meant for me. So I sent him a return text asking if I needed running shoes. The swift reply was “not unless you plan on running away from me!” He added that he would explain when I got there, and to hurry.
I met him at the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Monument, as instructed. The West Potomac Park was covered in cherry blossom trees in bloom. It was stunning. I took a moment to enjoy the scenery while I waited for Aaron to arrive. There were tons of people out and about. The day was overcast, but the sun was making a valiant effort to break free of the clouds. I spotted Aaron near the monument, with a tripod and a large camera draped over his neck. He was wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses and a leather jacket. He looked like a sexy pilot. I laughed at the image I’d conjured and made my way over to my handsome companion.
“Hi, Matty! You’re here! Isn’t it unbearably gorgeous?” He gave a flourishing wave at the trees and pond.
“Yes, you are.”
“Oh, stop. No, go on.” We stared at each other, letting a silly silence pass between us. Aaron broke my stare first with one of his beautiful smiles. “I have decided a day like today is the perfect day to brush the dust off this old, well, not too old, Nikon and take some scenic photos. Please say you’ll let me take your picture!”
“What? No. I mean, it’s cloudy, right? Not a good day to take photos.”
“ Au contraire . The cloud cover makes it perfecto for my purposes, as I won’t have to worry about glare. You look handsome as ever, but I’m actually not planning on doing any close-ups. More silhouette. Okay?”
I begrudgingly agreed. I moaned and tried to suggest other, sexier things we could be doing with our morning, but Aaron would not be dissuaded. He meandered to a quieter part of the park and set up his tripod. I felt a little unsure about what he had in mind here. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, my shoulders nearing my ears as I waited for instruction.
It came by way of “move to the left,” “turn sideways,” “perfect, Matty.” In other words, I just stood around and he took a steady stream of photos. How anyone could be a model was beyond me. I was restless, and the only thing that kept me from running away was the look of utter excitement on Aaron’s face. I hadn’t seen any of his work, but if he simply took joy from taking photos, maybe that was all he needed.
“Okay. Now, let’s maybe find another angle,” the artist mused, looking seriously about.
“No offense, babe, but let’s do something else for a while. How about I take a picture of you?” I whipped out my cell phone and started shooting pictures of him with the built-in camera feature.
“No! I’m a mess! Matt! Oh, whatever, at least I have sunglasses on.”
He hammed it up for me, making me laugh at his silly faces. I kept right on taking pictures until he’d had enough and made a run for me. I’m a pretty fast runner, although I admit Aaron is faster when not burdened with a heavy-duty Nikon around his neck. He dashed after me, but kept missing. When he’d had enough, he literally sat down cross-legged on the grass and pouted until I stopped. He looked like a child not getting his way. It was hysterical. I held up a hand in truce, but the second I got close to him, he pulled me down beside him and jumped on top of me. I halfheartedly wrestled him off me. We were both laughing and breathless when Aaron called uncle.
“Geez, Matty. Pick on someone your own size!”
“Okay. So now, what do you want to do?” I stood up, dusting off my grass-stained jeans. I offered Aaron a hand up. He looked around thoughtfully and a manic light came to his eyes. Uh-oh… another idea.
“No more photos, please?”
“Better than that! Let’s go on the paddleboats!”
I’m sure my blank look said it all. That was for tourists, not residents. I really didn’t want to go on a paddleboat. I looked toward the great pond that President Jefferson’s statue presided over, framed by glorious cherry blossom trees. Oh yeah, and a ton of out-of-towners intent on taking in all of DC’s treasures in a weekend. I turned back to Aaron to tell him exactly what I thought of that idea, but I couldn’t do it. The look in his eyes was all excitement. Once again, he reminded me of an over-eager little kid.
“What about your equipment?” It was my final attempt at avoidance.
“My car isn’t far. I’ll go put it in the trunk and voilà… we’re good to go! What do you say, Matty?” He fluttered his eyelashes at me. Seriously.
“Cut it out. Alright! But you owe me for this one.”
“I’ll pay, don’t worry!”
“I don’t mean money, honey.” I tried to give him a stern look, but his smile was too big for me to hold on to my mock anger.
“I don’t either! Come on, honey. You carry the tripod. I’m this way.”
I found myself following after him, wondering how I got here. He had me doing stuff I wouldn’t usually agree to in a million years. Paddleboats? I was still trying to think of an out when I looked ahead to see Aaron practically skipping to his car. Man, he has a nice ass , was where my mind went. Who cares about paddleboating if you get to be with him? I asked myself.
We stored his camera equipment and trudged back to the Basin. I trudged, actually, while Aaron chatted and ran circles around me, prodding me to move faster. There was a short line for the boats. While we waited, we listened to the safety rules and were told we would all be wearing life vests. I turned to look at my companion. Really? He was either ignoring my annoyance or totally entranced by the safety operator’s speech. I figured it was the former.
We opted for one without the canopy. It wasn’t a warm day, and the canopy was marginally more expensive. We put on our life vests, got on our boat, and began our hour adventure on the paddleboat.
Aaron’s reactions to the experience were worth a hundred times the measly twelve bucks we paid. He was in awe of everything.
“Oh my gosh, you can see the mountains from here! Pedal faster, Matty!”
We had a contest to see who could pedal the fastest. I worked up a sweat trying to outdo my companion, who turned out to be an expert paddleboat pedaler. I had to chuckle at his competitive nature. I called a truce when my thighs started to ache. Aaron grinned wildly and threw his arms in the air.
“Woo-hoo! Paddle pedal champion!”
I laughed helplessly at his exuberance. It was catchy. And once again, I was completely charmed.
We let the boat drift aimlessly for a while and just enjoyed the scenery. It truly was a spectacular day. The sun had beat out the clouds, providing a gorgeous backlight to the cherry blossoms’ pink blush, the emerald greens of the lawn, and the gray-blue hues of the water and sky above us. Aaron, as usual, talked enough for both of us. He told me this was one of those silly things he’d always wanted to do as a kid, but never got a chance to.
“You ever notice that when people live and work in the same city all their lives, they never visit the so-called tourist traps? I mean, you said so yourself, this is something tourists do, but have you ever done it? I bet there are hundreds if not thousands of people who live in Orlando but have never been to Disney World.”
“That could have something to do with the price of admission,” I observed, leaning back in my chair and taking in the way the sunlight shone on Aaron’s dark hair. Fuck, what a beautiful man.
“True. Alright, maybe that wasn’t a good example. Let’s see. Well, how about you? What do you want to see or do in DC that you haven’t done since you’ve lived here? You must have a mental checklist. Name something.”
“Let me think.” I paused, considering what I might want to do that I hadn’t yet done in the city. “Well, I guess I have a few. I want to go to a Redskins game. Not because I’m a fan, per se, but….”
“Baseball?”
“No. Football. And I’m pretty sure you knew that.” He shrugged innocently, urging me to continue. “Another thing is….” I paused, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious.
“What? Tell me! Come on, you’re on a fucking paddleboat with me. Tell me whatever it is, and I’ll do it with you!” He threw his head back, closed his eyes, and sent up a mock prayer. “Oh God, please don’t make it sports!”
I gave him a weak shove and admitted the one thing I was really interested in seeing was Ford’s Theatre.
“You know, where President Lincoln was killed.”
“I know. I went there for a field trip when I was in grade school.”
“I’ve never been.” I shrugged, feeling a little embarrassed for no real reason.
“Let’s go, then! I think we can just show up, but we’ll call and see. We can go today!”
I gave him my “you’ve got to be kidding” look, but he wasn’t kidding. And I started thinking , What the hell? He’s right, how easy is it to put off doing things you’re interested in because they’re almost too accessible? You think you can always do it another time, and then years go by and that box is left unchecked on your To Do list.
“Today?”
“Why not? It’s not even noon. We can leave one of our cars and just go for it. I’m game if you are.”
I couldn’t offer a good reason not to, so I smiled at him and nodded in agreement.
“Yeah! More adventures!”
We got our full hour’s worth of the boat before heading back to the dock. I insisted on taking his picture with my phone to record his first paddleboat jaunt. He posed like a movie star and then asked the employees to take our picture together. I put my arm around him for the picture, knowing this was our first photo together.
Aaron was excited to head out to our next adventure. Once again, I found myself following him, shaking my head at his endless sense of wonder. We chose to take his car to the theater because it was closer. I’d never driven in Aaron’s car, and I found I wasn’t anxious to be his passenger any time soon. The guy drove like a demon. I was working my phantom foot brake and holding onto the door before we were halfway there.
We purchased tickets for an early afternoon tour and set out to grab lunch at one of Aaron’s favorite pizza places close by. He ordered a salad, but kept staring at my pizza longingly. I finally shoved a piece on his plate. He looked surprised and about to refuse, but instead, he gave me one of his spectacular smiles and took a big bite. I watched him closely. He looked like he was performing a sex act, his face a picture of bliss as he licked the cheese from his fingers. When I got caught staring, I gave him a weak shrug. I suddenly wished we’d just gone back to his place. I wanted him. He touched my knee under the table, and we held one another’s stare a moment longer. There was a promise in that look. I just needed to be patient.
The Ford’s Theatre tour was awesome. I admit to being a bit of a history junkie, and I was on the edge of my seat listening to the sequence of events leading to the murder of our nation’s sixteenth president. I was especially interested in seeing the Petersen House across the street, where Lincoln actually died.
I left Ford’s Theatre very happy that we’d gone.
“Thanks.” I nudged Aaron’s elbow in a buddy-like fashion.
“You liked?” He nudged me back and smiled sweetly.
“I did. It’s been a fun day of firsts.” He nodded in silent agreement. “So, I have one more first to request before we go back to your place for hot sweaty monkey sex.”
Aaron took a swift look around us to see if we’d been overheard.
“Shhh! Geez, Matty, this is a respectable tourist neighborhood! Control yourself!” He mock-admonished me with a smack on the arm. “What is your final request? Let’s see if this genie will grant your wish.”
“Give me your keys, please. There’s no fucking way I’m driving with you behind the wheel again. No offense, babe, but you’re scary!”
Aaron handed over the keys but insisted the entire ride back to my car that I was bossy and had an inflated opinion of my own driving skills. When we reached my car back at the Tidal Basin, I leaned across the seat and put my hand over his mouth.
“No more talking. Meet you back at your place. Okay?” He nodded. “And Aaron? Thank you. That was fun. Let’s go have a different kind of fun now. No clothes required. Okay?” He nodded again. The weekend was only half over and there was so much more to look forward to.