Chapter Fifteen #3
“Figuring out myself and leaving that world behind…it’s the best I’ve ever been.
But yeah, I still need my parents. Even though I have no idea of how or where they are, I still want them to show up and accept me.
Love me the way I should have been loved, I guess.
” Aspen chuckled sadly, turning to give Mo a defeated smile.
“So yeah, while what they did is different, I understand.”
Mo’s focus bounced between each of Aspen’s eyes, her heart tugging her forward. With a little shuffle, Mo leaned her forehead against Aspen’s, pulling her into a slight embrace. They breathed each other’s air for a little while before Mo finally said, “Thank you for telling me.”
“Thanks for listening. I’m sorry I hijacked another—” Aspen began but was cut off by a light kiss from Mo.
“Don’t. It’s all right. Besides, I am glad to finally know the backstory behind your obsession with The Parent Trap,” Mo joked, laughing when Aspen sighed dramatically at her.
“You are infuriating!”
“You keep telling me that,” Mo returned, peppering another kiss between responses. “I’m starting to love hearing it.”
Aspen rolled her eyes before adding, “You must have driven Annie crazy.”
“On the contrary.” Mo leaned back, smiling lazily. “She drove me crazy.”
“Is that so?” Aspen scooted away to grab two granola bars she had stashed in the top of her pack that morning. With an exaggerated flick of her wrist, she offered one to Mo, who gladly received it.
“Ooh, thanks. And of course she did. Annie was the queen of a million tiny annoying things.”
“Like?” Aspen ripped open her treat, doubt clear on her face.
“She would set her alarms to odd numbers, like 7:47 a.m.,” Mo said, remembering fondly. “She liked extra, extra sauce on her pizza.”
Aspen giggled heartily, choking a little before exclaiming, “Eww, what?”
“She ate cereal out of our mixing bowls and would leave them scattered around the house. Including on the back of the toilet. Because she did this horrifying thing where she’d eat in the shower,” Mo declared loudly, pointing her bar toward Aspen. “Like, who eats cereal in the shower?”
“I’ve eaten in the shower…” Aspen replied. “Not cereal, but I’ve done it.”
“Blasphemy!”
“It isn’t that serious.” Aspen huffed playfully, waving her off. “Annie sounds, I’m gonna be honest, really fun.”
“Of course, don’t mistake my annoyance for hate. I loved every little thing. But, like, she’d put milk in everything. Was afraid of getting animals because she couldn’t give them enough of her time. Ooh, she hated cream cheese on everything but bagels. She would do the robot at the drop of a hat.”
“That’s just sensible,” Aspen declared, even as Mo scoffed.
“Do you like Thai food?” Mo suddenly asked. “Annie was obsessed with ordering everything Thai hot but cried profusely into it. Every. Single. Time.”
The towering redwoods just swayed lightly in the breeze as the pair were consumed in conversation, nothing pressing them forward.
The energy was electric. Everything small was important, every joke hilarious, and every memory precious.
But Mo eventually remembered she had been focusing too much on herself for a second, stopping to reel in her steady stream of Annie tidbits.
“You were married. Did Kyle have any weird things he did that annoyed the crap out of you?” Mo prompted, watching Aspen think.
Aspen’s hand dragged down the side of her own face and neck as she considered an answer, driving Mo a tad wild. She squirmed on the stump but leaned in, waiting patiently.
“Weirdly enough, no. I mean, he was pretty terrible to me, but that was more than just a regular annoyance. I never really got to know him like you knew Annie. I only think our marriage worked for as long as it did because I didn’t see him daily, which masked his self-centered nature and traditional expectations.
” Aspen gave Mo a half-hearted shrug before punctuating her reply with, “He was pretty blindsided when I left him, but I am sure he thought everything I did was annoying.”
“His loss.” Mo scooted even closer. She locked eyes with Aspen as the two naturally leaned in toward each other, a familiar yet new magnetism that had Mo utterly hooked.
A thought popped into her head, and instead of squashing it down, Mo whispered it just loud enough for Aspen to hear.
“I want to learn everything about you. Every last idiosyncrasy, even if it drives me mad.”
Aspen launched herself into Mo, claiming her lips instantly.
Mo moaned into the kiss, her hands wrapping around Aspen and grasping firmly to her midback.
This kiss was more intense than the others they had shared, like a hunger had been released between the two of them.
Aspen sucked lightly on Mo’s lower lip, her hands moving from around Mo’s ears down over her chest, where they slowed near her breasts.
Mo knew she was silently asking for permission, so she momentarily broke their kiss to rasp an enthusiastic, “Yes.”
“Fuck yeah,” Aspen returned, her hands moving to cup both of Mo’s breasts through her shirt.
The feeling was incredible. Mo shifted on the stump to get her body closer to Aspen.
As she did so, she trailed her own fingers along the small of Aspen’s back.
With practiced ease, Mo slightly lifted the back of Aspen’s shirt and ran her fingertips lightly over the skin of her back, eliciting a deep moan.
The sound brought a whole new wave of wetness between Mo’s legs, and she moved to straddle Aspen on the stump, hastening their kiss.
But as she did so, Mo noticed Aspen got a tad rigid. This set off alarms in Mo’s brain, causing her to pull away and look into Aspen’s eyes. There in the deep brown of her eyes was a mixture of lust and fear, so Mo kissed her lightly before moving off her lap and asking, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, sorry. I just—I’m not sure, is all,” Aspen replied, following Mo to seemingly kiss her again, but Mo gently grabbed her hands and stilled her.
“Don’t be sorry, it’s okay.” Mo nodded, smiling wide. “And if you aren’t sure, that’s totally fine. We can keep moving.”
“Are you sure?” Aspen seemed pleased but also hesitant.
“Totally.” Mo stood, offering her hand to Aspen. Once she took it, Mo helped her to her feet and added cheekily, “I only want to if we both one hundred percent want to. But I will have you know, I enjoyed every second of that.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.” Mo grinned, turning to meet Aspen’s eyes, where she found softness instead of hesitation.