23. Jamie
twenty-three
Jamie
I used to think that sex in water always sounded better than it was.
Pool sex? Too open, frequently risky, very chlorinated.
Hot tub sex? Too many horror stories about bacteria, too warm, too… Man, I wanted her in a hot tub despite all of that. I had problems.
Now shower sex …
In a cottage-style communal shower building in flip-flops.
That was surprisingly where it was at. I was being mostly facetious but more appreciative than anything.
This was the last full day before we left on Thursday.
There were already rare moments where Autumn and I had face-to-face time, but with our limited time frame until camp was over, it meant even fewer opportunities to come together. So I took what I could get.
And time inside of a gorgeous camp counselor with shared baggage was exactly what I enjoyed.
I covered her mouth as she moaned against my fingers.
She used the wall to hold herself up, her back arched as I thrust into her from behind.
I ran my fingers up her sides, across the goosebumps I caused, and wrapped my hand around her breasts, tweaking her nipples .
She pushed against the wall to give her leverage as she ground against me.
It felt amazing. She felt amazing. I’d spent all day yesterday thinking about her naked and in my arms. I’d jumped at sleeping with her again last night, and when she offered to go to yoga with me this morning, I was the one who’d convinced her to first take a shower after a very dirty night that left us with a four-hour window to sleep.
It was just enough time to feel like a too-long nap with a sleeping hangover, but it was worth it. She didn’t even complain.
The showers were empty except for us, thankfully, since the stalls weren’t soundproof. Autumn’s breaths started to ramp up, indicating she was close. I kissed the tattoo on the back of her shoulder, a sunflower, just like I’d hoped when I’d seen her tattoos at ax throwing.
When we were teenagers, she’d told me that was her new favorite flower after we’d made out in a field lined with them.
I’d given her the nickname to commemorate that special moment and now I wondered if it still held significance or if it was just a piece of art.
But I didn’t want to get distracted. Instead, I wrapped my arm around her and rubbed circles into her clit until she lost it, clawing for purchase against the shower tile.
There was no sound like her whimpering as quietly as she possibly could in an echo chamber like the one we were in. She moved my hands to her hips and squeezed them against her love handles. I gripped harder and thrust home, stiffening as I lost myself in her.
We both panted until she drew back. I listened for any sounds around us and rushed out of the stall, listening to her giggle.
Her head peeked out from the door as I threw our condom into a garbage can and covered it with several crumpled paper towels.
I rushed back inside, reveling in her beautiful ear-to-ear smile, and pulled her against me roughly.
“You think me running around this place butt naked is funny?” I kissed her ear. “Next time, it’s your turn.”
She lifted her chin so I could kiss her neck, my hands moving up her ass to her back. “Yeah right.” She planted a kiss on my lips, grabbing my hands and placing them over her pebbled nipples.
“So it’s like that.”
She still had her eyes closed when I pulled her under the water, letting it wash over her until her hair covered her face.
Her lips sputtered into a smile as she leaned away, pushing her hair behind her ears, pouring a liberal amount of bougie-smelling shampoo from the dispenser before lathering it into her hair.
That was when we heard the footsteps from heavy hiking boots.
Then there was a chuckle.
She turned away from me as if the small amount of distance would keep someone from noticing the four feet in our stall.
“I only know one person who has black sparkle crocs in this place, missy.”
Her whole body shook as she held back her laughter. “Missy?”
“You’ve been caught.” Jack chuckled. “In the communal showers? Really? You have your own shower.”
“You have your own shower?” I mouthed.
Her cheeks turned a whole other shade of red than they were under the warm water. She turned her head toward the curtain. “It was too far away from your cabin,” she whispered, before speaking loudly. “Don’t act like every corner of this camp hasn’t been christened already, Jack. Move along.”
He burst into laughter. “You haven’t woken up this early since I’ve known you. Did you even go to sleep? Never mind. I don’t need to know.”
“That’s right,” she proclaimed, as if she’d won the upper ground.
“You’re lucky I get stage fright, but if I didn’t have to pee this bad, I’d steal your clothes as punishment for dirty deeds, Gardner.” Jack’s rushed voice alerted us to his departure, but Autumn listened until she was sure he was out of earshot, ignoring the shampoo bubbles dripping down her face.
When she came back to me, she was rolling her eyes through laughter. “Aren’t you glad we don’t have to listen to him peeing?”
“What are you talking about? That sounds hot,” I joked.
“Gross.”
I kissed the corner of her mouth.
“Please tell me—”
I kissed the other side.
“We do not need—”
Then the other.
“To invite Jack into our bedroom so you can hear him—”
I stopped her right there, kissing her straight on the mouth. She melted against me, and I forgot what we were talking about. Every moment with Autumn was better than the one before.
“You putting that image in my head makes me feel a little bit violated,” I teased.
She kissed my jaw. “Leave it on a comment card.”
It was unspoken that we spend as much time together as possible during this days-long casual hookup of ours.
She told me last night that my body would need some decent stretching if I was going to bring my A-game today, but it was probably because she knew how important my routine was to me, and we’d already skipped yoga yesterday.
It was easier to leave the shower building than I’d thought it would be. No one seemed to be up for a shower at five in the morning.
She did surprisingly well during yoga—only falling twice, which was an improvement.
When we arrived for early morning bird-watching, I nearly lost it.
Jack had a comical bucket hat on his head, binoculars around his neck, and a neckerchief tied under his beige polo shirt.
He looked like a Boy Scout who was also pushing thirty and could grace the cover of a men’s health magazine.
Autumn dramatically rolled her eyes, which pleased him, clearly eager to play the part.
He probably needed the distraction after everything with Gia.
“He acts like this is a costume, but he loves bird-watching day,” she whispered. “He’s such a nerd.”
“I heard that,” Jack spoke under his breath without looking at her before turning to the crowd.
“Hello, friends, and welcome to bird-watching.” He was practically bouncing in his hiking boots.
I tried to remember the last time I was that excited about anything.
“Do we have any fellow bird-watching enthusiasts?”
A couple of people raised their hands, and he looked thrilled.
“That’s wonderful. There are binoculars in the bin over there.” He pointed. “Make sure to grab a pair because much of this can’t be seen by the naked eye. They don’t usually just fly up to us unless we’re really lucky. I feel good about today, though. Let’s go.”
I tried to ignore the fact that the word naked only made me think of Autumn with water cascading down her body. She seemed perfectly normal next to me. I guessed only one of us was a horndog.
“We’ve got a bit of a hike to get to one of my favorite viewpoints,” Jack started. “It looks like everyone took a Birds of the Pacific Northwest guide. If you see something, you can ask me or look through your book and venture a guess at what you’re seeing.”
The group took off en masse, and I bent down to tie my shoe. “You go ahead of me,” I told her. “I’ll catch up.”
“If you think I’m going to let you use those binoculars to watch my ass, you’ve got another thing coming.” She was too smart for my own good.
“Don’t ruin this for me.”
Autumn playfully bumped her hip into me, nearly knocking me over.
It took about twenty minutes for us to reach the point Jack was looking for, and he stood on the solitary bench telling us to spread out.
It was a majestic overlook, a perfect view of trees, the mountain, and the sky.
I reveled in the feeling of being a speck in this natural landscape.
There was nothing like this in the city.
We all spread out across the vista, with Jack being the farthest away from us.
She pulled something out of her pocket and showed me, whispering, “He just got this thing. He was so excited.”
“Then why do you have it?” I already knew the answer.
“I stole it.”
I looked at the bird call, a wooden cylinder with a brass tip that twisted. “Autumn Gardner. Are you secretly a dick?”
“It’s no secret,” she deadpanned. That wit always got me. Trying to be as covert as possible, she put the binoculars to her eyes, speaking out of the corner of her mouth. “Stop looking at me. Use those binoculars.”
“Fun fact: the migration patterns of birds have been changing due to deforestation and urbanization,” Jack said facetiously.
Then the sound of a bird call came, followed by some shuffling as she shoved the thing into the back pocket of her jeans. I used one eye to see him turn. He turned again. Autumn laughed under her breath.
“Oh, Autumn,” I chastised.
She glared. “Don’t look at me like that. Once, he put all of my individual keys into Jell-O molds. And there was one time he put Vaseline on my doorknob. Oh, and he gave me a s’more that was loaded with toothpaste once.”
I shook my head. “Wow. Are you two twelve?”