Then You Happened

  “Hello,” I said. Nothing. “HELLO.”

  “Hey. Can you hear me?” Kirsty asked.

  “The service is shit up here. How are you?”

  All I could hear was the breaking sound of Kirsty’s voice as she kept saying my name.

  “I’ll call you when I have better service,” I said and then the call was gone.

  I stared at my phone, feeling isolated from the outside world. I put on my new hiking boots and packed a shitload of Band-Aids in case I needed them. As I walked down the stairs and into the dining room, I saw Cameron sitting at a square table with four chairs, taking a sip of coffee.

  “Look at you.” He smiled as I sat down across from him.

  “Yeah. Yeah,” I said as I grabbed his cup and took a sip of coffee from it.

  “You can have your own,” he said.

  “I know. But I need it now.”

  An older woman walked over to our table and set a cup of coffee in front of me and then proceeded to take our order. I pulled out my phone and held it up in the air, trying to get some sort of fucking signal.

  “What are you doing?” Cameron asked.

  “Trying to get a signal in this damn place. Kirsty called me and we couldn’t talk because she kept breaking up and then the call dropped. I can’t get any of my emails and God knows how many text messages I have waiting for me floating out in text-land until they’re allowed to come through. It’s like they’re being held hostage and I don’t like it. My text messages are gold to me and they need to be treated with TLC, which they are not getting up in these damn mountains!”

  He sat there with a perplexed look on his face. “You’re crazy. You are totally off your rocker.”

  I flashed him my cute smile. “I know. You can blame Delia for my mental condition.”

  “We’ll be back to civilization tomorrow and you can spend the entire plane ride home catching up on everything.”

  I pouted as I took a bite of my toast. The waitress walked by and I held out my hand to grab her attention.

  “Can I get a mimosa, please?” I asked with a pretty smile.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, darling. We don’t have that here.”

  “Of course you don’t,” I said as I looked away.

  Cameron let out a soft laugh as he continued to eat his breakfast. “I’m glad you think it’s funny.”

  “You’ll be fine, Sierra.” He smiled.

  “I know I will be because we’re stopping at the liquor store and I’m buying those little travel bottles of tequila.”

  “No, we’re not.”

  “Yes, we are,” I said as I took a sip of coffee.

  “The closest liquor store is ten miles away. We are hitting the trails that are right here. So hurry up and finish eating. We need to go or else we won’t make it back before nightfall.”

  My mouth dropped when he said that. “Nightfall? We aren’t going to be gone that long, are we? Are you trying to kill me?”

  “Would you rather stop along the way and set up camp?” he asked.

  “Set up camp? As in a-tent-on-the-dirty-ground camp?”

  He chuckled. “Yes, that kind of camp.”

  I lifted my hand and signaled for the waitress. “Can we have our bill please? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Cameron smiled.

  ****

  Cameron

  We started our hike. I was going to go easy on Sierra because she’d never been hiking before. I grew up hiking. My brothers and I went on five-day hikes and explored what nature had to offer. It was beautiful and there was nothing more refreshing and renewing of the soul than hiking. I planned on taking her on a twelve-mile hike. For Sierra, that might have been rough, so I did have an alternate plan. I wanted her at least to get up one mountain so she could view the world from the top. A small mountain, so don’t worry.

  We were two miles into our hike and she was already huffing and puffing. She followed behind me and all I kept hearing her say was “I hate you.” I couldn’t help but laugh because I knew once we reached my planned destination, she was going to love it. I looked behind at her and she kept holding her cell phone up in the air, mumbling expletives. This girl was under my skin, but in a good way. I was falling for her more and more every single day and I knew I was headed for trouble once we went back to L.A. and she was back in her world.

  “My feet hurt and my legs feel like they’re going to collapse right out from under me. I need to stop for a minute,” she whined.

  I turned around. She was sitting down on a large rock. I took a bottle of water from my back pack and handed it to her.

  “You’re doing great, Sierra. You made it a whole two miles already.”

  She brought the bottle up to her lips. She drank from it and flipped me off at the same time. Suddenly, she jumped when she heard her phone beep.

  “OH MY GOD! Yes!” she exclaimed as she looked at her phone. Her smile instantly turned into a frown.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Doesn’t it figure that the only text message that comes through when there is zero service is one from Delia?”

  “What did she say?” I laughed.

  “She wants to take me to dinner tomorrow night when we get home for my birthday. I’m not even going to try and respond. I’ll just tell her that I never got her message.”

  “Have you hydrated? Can we get a move on now?”

  “Yep. Let’s continue this wonderful journey,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

  “Trust me. You’re going to love it once we get there.”

  She walked next to me for the next ten miles. Okay, we had to stop every mile and she wasn’t quiet about it, but she was there and I was happy. Once we reached the spot I wanted to show her, I walked ahead and held out my hand.

  “What?” she asked.

  “We’re going up there.” I pointed to the top of the moderate mountain.

  “The hell I am. I’m not climbing that thing. Are you crazy?”

  “If I didn’t think you could do it, I wouldn’t have brought you here. Now give me your hand so I can help you get started. This is nothing, Sierra. Little kids can climb this.”

  “Have I told you today how much I hate you?” she said as she put her hand in mine.

  “Yes. About a thousand times.”

  I held her hand as long as I could until I had to let go and she had to finish on her own.

  “Just be careful, Sierra. One step at a time.”

  “Easy for you to say,” she growled.

  I made my way to the top with ease and Sierra followed behind. I held out my hand and helped her up.

  “Oh wow,” she said as she stood there and looked at the view.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “This is what you wanted to show me?”

  “Yes. Do you like it? Wait. Don’t answer that. Just stand here for a few minutes and take in all the beauty.”

  She looped her arm around mine. The breeze was a little cool, but it felt good as we both stared out into the distance. The glorious view of the mountains was like none other.

  “The sky looks so blue up here. I feel like I can almost reach it.” Sierra smiled.

  “Are you ready?” I asked.

  “What? Already? We just got up here. What the hell’s the matter with you?” she asked as she smacked my arm. “I didn’t hike all those hours and miles and climb up this thing to get a second’s look and then have you tear me away from it.”

  “Did you just hear yourself? Miles and hours. We can’t hike back in the dark. Unless you’d rather stay up here all night and we can take turns sleeping because one of us will have to be on watch to make sure some stranger doesn’t kill us or rob us.”

  The look of horror on her face was priceless. She walked a little closer to the edge, put her hands on her hips, and looked around. She took out her phone and took a picture.

  “Come here,” she said. “We’re going to take a selfie.”

&nbs
p; I walked over to her and put my arm around her as she held her phone up in front of us and we both smiled.

  “Okay. That was nice, but it’s time to go,” she said.

  I laughed as I climbed down first and then helped her down. We weren’t too far into our hike back when Sierra stopped behind me.

  “Give me your back pack,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “You’ll see. Just hand it over.”

  I removed the back pack and gave it to her. She put it on her back and then jumped on mine and wrapped her legs tightly around my waist.

  “My feet and legs hurt. You need to carry me.”

  I sighed but I didn’t mind. I loved having her on me. Whether it be on top, bottom, or on my back.

  Chapter 25

  Sierra

  I scooted down the stairs because it was impossible for me to walk. My legs had used muscles I didn’t even know existed.

  “What are you doing?” Cameron asked with a smile as he stood at the bottom of the staircase.

  “I can’t move. I’m dying, Cameron.”

  “Come on,” he said as he helped me up and carried me to the kitchen. He reached in the cabinet and took out a bottle of Motrin. He shook two orange pills into his hand and then handed them to me.

  “Take these. You’ll feel a little better,” he said as he handed me a glass of water.

  He went upstairs and grabbed our bags and took them to the car. I walked outside on the patio and took one last look at the lake. It was truly beautiful and peaceful. Jolene came running down the stairs at the speed of light to say goodbye. She threw her arms around me and I almost fell over.

  “It was so great sharing a room with you. Thank you,” she whispered in my ear.

  I wasn’t quite sure what the thank you was for. I suspected it something had to do with her finally accepting she was a lesbian. I felt bad for lying to her, but I’d probably never see them again anyway, so what the hell.

  “Always be you and nobody else.” I smiled at her.

  “Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked just as Cameron walked up to say goodbye.

  “Yeah. Her name is Kirsty and she’s hot!” I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of the two of us from my birthday party.

  “You two are a beautiful couple.”

  Cameron looked at me and shook his head. I shrugged my shoulders. He hugged his little sister goodbye and we walked out to the car where Luanne and Jerry were waiting for us.

  “It was so nice to meet you,” Luanne said as she hugged me. “I wish Cameron would meet someone just like you. Well, except the lesbian part.” She laughed.

  I gave my fake-as-hell laugh and hugged Jerry goodbye. “So long, sugar. You keep making people happy by making that awesome coffee.”

  “I’ll try.” I smiled as I climbed in the car.

  I pulled out my phone and looked at it. Nothing.

  “I need service!” I exclaimed as I shook my phone.

  “Relax, sugar. You’ll have service soon.” Cameron smiled as he looked over at me.

  I held up my finger. “No. No. Don’t you ever call me that again.”

  He chuckled and placed his hand on my thigh. “You don’t like it when we southerners call you ‘sugar’?”

  “Very funny.” Then it happened. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. The beautiful and glorious sound of text messages and emails came through loud and clear.

  “See. Are you happy now?” he asked.

  “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  “You’re not having an orgasm, are you?”

  “YES! I think I am!” I smiled.

  “I’ll leave you alone so you and your phone can get reacquainted.” Cameron smirked.

  “Thank you very much, Mr. Cole. We appreciate it.”

  I scoured through my text messages. Nothing of real importance. Just a few from James and Kirsty pretty much making fun of me. Another one from Delia asking why I didn’t text her back. One from Royce asking for sex the minute I got back and one from Bradly, another suit, wanting me to attend a corporate gala with him at the Ritz-Carlton. The rest were just minor business ones.

  “I’m alive!”

  “Thank God. I missed your sorry ass.”

  “Thanks, Kirsty. Remind me to fire you when I get home.”

  “There’s something you should know.”

  “What?”

  “Ryan moved back to Los Angeles.”

  My stomach started doing sick flips because I had forgotten that text message he sent me.

  “He sent me a text message and told me. I actually forgot about it until you just mentioned it. Why did he move back?”

  “I don’t know. He came by the office and said he needed to talk to you. I face palmed him after calling him a few choice names and told him never to come around again. I think he got the message.”

  I swore I felt a single tear rise up in my eye. But I wasn’t going to let him do that to me again. Enough tears had been shed over his small cock and I refused to go back to that place.

  “Good for him. He’s my past and the ex-files are staying closed.”

  “Good girl, but you aren’t fooling me. I’ll talk to you when you get home. Have a safe flight.”

  I set my phone down on my lap and looked out the window. Why was I letting this affect me?

  “Are you okay?” Cameron asked.

  “Yeah. I’m just really sore still. Oh, and that reminds me,” I said as I sent a text message to Kirsty.

  “Book us both massages tomorrow during lunch.”

  “Awesome. I love massages.”

  We reached the airport and turned over the rental car keys. We slowly walked to our gate, which was on the other side of the airport, since the goddamn tram was down. Of course it was.

  “I can get you a wheelchair if you want,” Cameron said as he walked next to me.

  “Ha ha. That actually sounds nice. Or how about one of those scooter things?” I smiled.

  We got to our gate and they had just started to board the plane. Cameron and I took our seats in first class and I immediately ordered a glass of white wine, then two and three.

  “Don’t you think you should slow down?”

  “Don’t you think that you should not pay attention?”

  The truth was that I was trying to forget about the fact that Ryan had moved back to Los Angeles and the chances of running into him were greater than ever.

  “I’m not carrying you off this plane,” he said.

  As I sat there and looked at him, I couldn’t help but smile on the inside. My whole body felt alive when I was with him.

  “You won’t have to.” I smiled. “Do you mind if I lay my head on your shoulder and close my eyes?”

  “Not at all,” he said as he kissed the top of my head.

  ****

  Cameron

  I couldn’t help but stare at her as she slept on my shoulder. I had a great time and I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. I still wasn’t sure what she really thought of my hometown. I got the impression that she still pretty much hated it, even when we left. But I’d never forget the look on her face when she got to the top of that mountain and saw the view. Just like I’d never forget the look on her face when she caught her first fish. She probably would never admit it, but I thought she had a great time. Soon, we’d be back in Los Angeles, back in her world and, to be honest, it scared me a little. I didn’t know where this was going or even what this was. Was it more than just sex for her?

  ****

  Sierra

  I opened my eyes and let out a long yawn. As I lifted my head from Cameron’s shoulder, I cringed from the pain in my neck.

  “Oh my God,” I said and I took my fingers and rubbed the cramped area.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My neck has a cramp in it.”

  He smiled as he told me to turn my head and he massaged the back of my neck with his strong builder hands. I couldn’t help it, but I felt turned on. Soon my panties were going to be in
need of changing.

  “Okay. Stop! Sorry, but you’re turning me on.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” He laughed.

  “Right now, yes.”

  “How much longer until we land?” I asked in anticipation of finally being able to touch the ground of Los Angeles.

  “We have another hour.”

  I held up my hand and summoned for the flight attendant. “Can I please get another glass of white wine?”

  “Sure,” she said with a friendly smile.

  Just as I was about to say something to Cameron, I saw Lowen walking up the aisle. I gasped.

  “Sierra Adams.” He smiled as he stopped in front of my row.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Long time no see, doll. Where have you been playing?” he asked.

  “Lowen, it’s nice to see you again. I didn’t know you were on this plane.”

  “I saw you earlier and I was going to say hi, but you were sleeping. I didn’t want to wake a sleeping beauty.”

  Lowen was a freak. He was a suit that I fucked a few times but stopped returning his calls because he just got way too freaky. He wanted to do things that I didn’t even know existed. One night, I went to his penthouse on Park Avenue and, when I walked in, he was standing in the middle of the living room, completely naked, with a pair of handcuffs around his balls and penis. What the fuck was that? I instantly sent a text to Kirsty, telling her to call me immediately. I told Lowen I had a family emergency and I high-tailed it out of there really fast, never to look back. And now, on this plane back to L.A., I looked back and I didn’t like it.

  “That’s very kind of you, Lowen.” I wanted him to go away. I didn’t want him saying anything in front of Cameron.

  “Who’s this?” Lowen asked.

  It’s none of your fucking business, I thought to myself. “This is my friend, Cameron.”

  “Boyfriend?” he asked.

  The nerve of this perv. “Did you hear the word ‘boy’ in front of ‘friend’?”

  He sighed. “Still a smart ass. That’s what I love most about you, Sierra. You haven’t returned my calls since that night you had a family emergency. I hope everything was all right,” he said as he looked at me from his black-rimmed glasses.

  “Oh yeah. Delia just had a nervous breakdown and I had to commit her to a mental hospital,” I said with the wave of my hand.