As You Wish, pt3

I fear I will never see you again...

Of course you will.

But what if something happens to you?

Hear this now, I will always come for you.

But how can you be sure?

This is true love. You think this happens every day?


The Princess Bride


Part 1
Part 2


It was late August, and it was Northern BC. We headed back to my tent. In order to fend off the cold while I assumed I was going to be alone, I had put one of those crinkly foil emergency blankets under my air mattress. Someone had recommended it to me. All it did was make it sound like a lot more was going on in my tent than actually was.

After a little more snuggling, we decided to pool our limited body heat and sleep together in my tent. We crinkled around for about 15 minutes, and then vacated the bed, moved the mattress, wadded up the emergency blanket in a corner of the tent and finally settled down to sleep.

I fell asleep snuggled in the arms of a very sweet man and it was my birthday. I was pretty pleased.

We broke camp in the morning, and headed back home in a caravan. Beaker snuggled up to me at Tim Horton's and I glanced at him, a little surprised. I wasn't quite used to falling asleep with guys, and really didn't know what to do with him The Morning After. I shied away a little. In passing, while we were packing up, he'd mentioned that he was going on a three week fishing trip with his Dad in a few days. I figured his interest would wane while he was away and that would be the end of things.

I really didn't want to hope that Beaker was interested. After all, I'd sworn off men.

The first week after the event, one of my best girlfriends arrived back in town after working in Alaska all summer. She heard the rumours that Beaker and I had hooked up and phoned me as soon as she was settled.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"I heard a rumour about you and Beaker?"

"What was the rumour?"

"That you hooked up at the war on your birthday."

"I guess you heard right."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Well, what's going on??"

"I dunno."

"Okay. Well. Keep me updated."

"Yeah."

About twenty minutes later, my phone rang again. It was Beaker. Suddenly Cara's phone call made sense. She was the only person in the university crowd with my home phone number. Cara was calling because she'd given Beaker my number. There was an edge of excitement to Beaker's voice. Would I be interested in coming over to watch the stars?

I flashed back to how romantic it was when we'd watched the stars at the event and agreed. I had visions of us sitting out in his backyard looking at the sky, wrapped up in a blanket.

When I arrived at his house, he was setting up his telescope. He had a book of star charts out and was trying to find some exploding nebula (or something). Not so romantic. And there were no blankets to snuggle under. It was interesting though, in a nerdy science way, so I toughed it out until my teeth were chattering.

"I think I need to head home, Beaker. I'm freezing."

"We could go inside."

"Won't we wake your parents up?"

"Nah, we'll go in the basement."

The basement was straight out of the seventies. Mural wallpaper on one wall, a pool table in the centre of the room. A turntable and about 50 records. I flipped through the records while Beaker got us hot apple cider. They had Boney M's Night Flight to Venus. When I was little, it had been my favourite record.

Beaker chose that moment to come back downstairs, and caught me reading the album notes. He took the record away and put in on. I nearly died. Then he caught me up in his arms, and started singing one of the songs to me. I honestly can't remember which song it was because of a number of things:

a) I am not the least bit romantic, and this was shaping up to be a romantic moment
b) Beaker can not sing. At all.

I cringed inwardly, and kissed him. I had to. I had to shut him up.

A major make out session ensued and in the wee hours of the morning, he walked me back to my place (By some strange freak of coincidence, our parents lived 2 blocks apart. And had for 10 years - while we were both in high school.)

I was starting to become a little smitten, but reminded myself that Beaker was headed off on some fishing trip for three weeks, and that I had sworn off men. I resolutely gave Cara the details, per her request.

"So??"

"So what?"

"Well, what's happening?"

"I don't know. I'm not going to pursue him. I've sworn off men."

"Yeah, but if he's interested?"

"He'll just have to pursue me then."

I settled into my classes, and helping Cara plan her housewarming party. I didn't think at all about Beaker, at least for a few hours every day. But I couldn't help but replay all the kissing again in my imagination when I was bored. Or lonely. Or hungry. Or...


To be continued...



Soap Opera Sunday is the brainchild of Brillig and Kate. This week it's being hosted by Jenn in Holland. Head on over to her blog for more Soap-tastic Stories.