Chapter 14 #3
Luke and I don’t waste time getting everything unpacked from the truck and setting up the area we’ll be staying at for the next three nights.
I have a decently sized tent and a king-sized air mattress that still doesn’t manage to take up all the floor space inside, so there’s no question whether Luke and I can coexist in the cramped quarters.
Experience has taught me that if I don’t make the bed early, it only leads to regrets and back pain later.
I make it up with all the blankets and pillows so it’ll be ready to fall into when I’m too drunk to function later.
When it’s done, I can’t help but beam with pride at how cozy it looks. I’m sure Luke will appreciate it, too.
Suddenly, my eyes go wide, and I freeze, feeling like I’ve been hit by a ton of bricks as the realization that Luke and I will be sleeping together in this bed grips me in an unexpected state of paralysis.
My brain immediately jumps to the image of the two of us lying side by side underneath the blankets, in such close proximity that we’ll practically be touching.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have known that this would be the outcome.
After all, I didn’t have the gear to give us two separate beds, and I’ve never had any issues sharing with my guy friends in the past…
But I’ve also never been sexually inclined toward any of them either, so this somehow feels entirely different.
It’s like my brain decided to leave out the most essential aspect of this situation, ignoring that Luke and I would be sleeping next to each other the entire weekend.
Alone.
In the one fucking bed.
It’s like some kind of tropey romance novel shit, where the unwitting couple is forced to share the only bed available at the inn, forcing them into their inevitable romantic entanglement.
Oh, god.
Despite my hopes that something would happen this weekend, it’s not like I was trying to set this up as an elaborate ploy to trap Luke, but now I’ve gone and trapped us both. I can’t even believe it never crossed my mind before now. Am I stupid?
He’s going to think I’m a creep who was angling to sleep with him this whole time, giving him no other alternatives, and taking advantage of him when he didn’t have any gear of his own.
He’ll be so pissed that I assumed this would be fine and never want to speak to me again, demanding that I take him home for being so insensitive. I wouldn’t even blame him.
Maybe I should volunteer to sleep on the ground right now and get the awkwardness out of the way. That’ll salvage this train wreck.
As if Luke can hear the gears grinding in my head, he suddenly appears behind me at the tent entrance and looks at the freshly done-up air mattress over my shoulder. “Oh my god, that looks so comfy,” he says instantly.
Gliding past me, he flops face-down on the covers in a grand, sweeping gesture, letting out a dramatic moan of contentment as he buries his face in his pillows. Then, he settles in like he could easily take another nap.
My eyes widen, and I quickly school my expression to something more neutral in case he turns around to look at me.
My brain feels tingly as it processes what just happened and how it didn’t match my negative expectations.
It was such an easy movement for Luke, done without a second thought.
No worries, no concerns. Not even a single remark about it. He made it look so…natural.
Jesus, it must be nice to have a brain that doesn’t overanalyze every little thing.
Even though it’s a king-sized mattress, Luke still hangs off the edge a bit. There’s more than enough room next to him for me to lie down without us touching, and I debate for a split second about doing so. It was easy enough for him, so why shouldn’t it be for me?
I crawl up next to him and lie on my back with my arm under my head, trying to make it look as effortless as he did, even though I feel wound up like a spring.
The bed is more comfortable than I thought, which helps me relax a bit.
Now I just have to tell my heart to stop thrashing around in my chest like a canary trapped in a too-small cage, trying to break free.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t take long. After a few minutes of lying here, exhaustion hits me as if all the energy I’d expended on the drive and unpacking has depleted me. It lessens the pressure of having the hottest man in human history beside me as I feel my body settling.
The bed moves as Luke rolls over onto his back, mimicking my pose with one arm under his head, and he sighs serenely. “It’s so peaceful up here,” he muses.
I only have the strength to grunt in affirmation as I lose the battle to keep my eyes open.
I listen to the sound of the nearby lakeshore, the water lapping up along the pebbly beach, and aside from the wind and the occasional birdsong, there’s hardly any other noise.
The sun beating down on the tent makes it warm and cozy, and the longer I lie here, the more relaxed I feel.
I get the strangest sensation that my body is floating as I drift in and out of consciousness.