Chapter 62-2

“Yeah but that’s what I want to do and eat,” she countered. “Let’s make s’mores tomorrow. Or you know what? Oh my gosh, I got it!! I know what we should do!” Her hands made a mad grip for him and the tiny tugs on his shirt sleeve followed by her innocently pleading voice forced him to pay all of his attention to her. “Chase, let’s go glamping!” Immediately Chase was thrown back into his confused pose with his face buried in his hands. “Do I even want to know?” He asked. “What the hell is glamping? Is that even a real word?” “Of course it is! It’s like camping, but glamorously. I thought you would know what it is since it’s a hot trend right now.” “Among what? The hippies? I’ve never heard of it.” “Well it’s like when you’re outside like camping, but you have access to electricity and the basic comforts of like, home or a hotel. Like that. People make a big deal out of it. There’s this one glamping place near where I live, and they have these big spheres dangling from these massively tall trees and it’s like a hotel room inside.” Chase made a face, having a hard time following the imagery she was giving. “So it’s like a round globed treehouse that’s fully furnished inside with microwaves and tables and beds.” “Yeah! Exactly!” “Jesus. The stuff you Canadians come up with.” “I think it’s cool!” She said this with a pout that wasn’t even half convincing for Chase to feel the same way. “Anyways, that’s just an example. There’s lots of different ways to glamp. When I was a kid… glamping was just kind of a way for my parents to save money and hassle rather then run away for the weekend to go camping.” “Wouldn’t glamping be more expensive than regular camping though?” Krislynn smiled and shook her head; it’d been a while since the sweet memories of her childhood ventured into her thoughts. Although she only remembered a few where she spent with both her parents, the memories she did recall were immeasurably precious. “We used to do it in the backyard. Camping is actually kind of expensive you know. You have to buy the tents and the sleeping bags and all kinds of things to go on the trip. My dad used to just throw a whole bunch of blankets on our back lawn and we would fall asleep watching the stars. We would make a small fire and roast marshmallows and we would sing camp songs and stuff. Nothing glamorous the way glamping is supposed to be, but… I had a lot of fun.” The feeling Chase had when he looked at her was hard to explain. He didn’t want to do this for her just to impress her like his intentions only moments before. He just wanted her to be able to experience it again, something fun she did with her parents long ago that wasn’t possible anymore. Not that he could ever replace her parents, but even if just a little, he wanted to fill in that gap in her heart. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s do it. But I have no idea how to do this. I’m just going to put that out there.” “That’s fine!” She heaved happily, pounding a fist to her chest dramatically. “Just leave it to me!” “Fine.” Of course, when he agreed to this, he had thought what could possibly go wrong; all that Krislynn wanted to do was basically have a sleepover in his backyard and his backyard was more than spacious enough. It didn’t register in his head that kid Krislynn and grown-up Krislynn had very different ideas about how glamorous glamping should be. When he woke up the next morning, Krislynn had already started her day by wrecking havoc in his second guest room. He heard the noise and followed the sound only to find her inside with fabric everywhere and the mattress thrown off the bed rack. “What the hell?!” He shouted, his eyes on her limp ponytail dangling on the back of her head. “Why is… What are you doing in here?!” She didn’t answer him. “Quick! Grab your tools. We have to unscrew this.” She pointed at the metal bed frame and Chase didn’t have to hear any further to understand what her outlandish mind had planned. She obviously wanted to take it apart and set it out on his back lawn in full scare glamping glamour, but too bad for her, Chase Evans was not into these kinds of things. “What tool?” He muttered leaning against the wall. “Krislynn, you should know by now that the only tools I use are the ones in bed.” “Well this is a bed,” she snapped. “No, I didn’t mean it like… you know what fine!” Scrunching his face, he stormed in and took a look at the bed frame. He had no idea how to uninstall it because he always hired people to do these tedious things for him, but it couldn’t possibly be that hard right? He was Chase Evans after all. “What do I need? Like a screwdriver or something? I’ll just go out and buy one.” His remark was apparently outrageous to her. The fact that he didn’t even own a screwdriver was parallel to not knowing how to use a phone in this modern age to her. “You must be so happy,” she murmured, shaking her head at him with disapproval. “Your mom really raised you like a princess didn’t she?” “Don’t even start! You haven’t even fed me this morning yet, and you’re already sending me out on an errand. I’ve never met my biological parents, but I’m such a nice person, there’s a good chance they’re probably related to Mother Teresa.” Stifling a laugh, Krislynn shouted to him as he stomped out of the room and down the staircase. “Come on, don’t be mad. I just got overly excited about glamping okay? Look on the bright side, after this experience you can officially call yourself a real man!” She had no idea if Chase heard her last comment, but judging by his loud slamming of the front door moments later, he probably did. *** Jace hated the weekend. He never realized it before, and he never hated the weekend before either, but he realized suddenly that he started hating the weekend just recently. After a long week of burying his head inside law files or preparing for court, the weekend should be something to look forward to: spending time at home relaxing, or with his beautiful fiancée; however these things weren’t attractive to him at all. He used to enjoy his weekends. He liked to help out at the animal shelter or at the children’s hospital or catch up on his reading list, but since he moved to L.A and LaCienega moved in with him, his weekends primary consisted of spending time with her and doing whatever she fancied. It was a guilt reflex – he was aware of that much. During the weekdays, he spent unimaginable amounts of time at work because he didn’t want to go home early. Sometimes, he even spent the night in his office altogether. During the weekends however, he repented. He felt apologetic that he even had feelings of avoiding her so on the weekend, he glued himself to her and did whatever made her happy. It was an endless cycle. Spending the weekend with LaCienega wore him out and made him avoid her on the weekdays, but then the more he avoided her on the weekdays, the more he felt the need to make it up to her on the weekends which in turn, wore him out even more. The funniest thing of all? He didn’t even know about any of these feelings; he never even realized why he overworked himself when he didn’t even need to. They had always been subconscious to him… until now. Now the truth didn’t want to be encompassed by him anymore. It wanted to be spoken and told. Jace had always thought that accepting LaCienega’s love was the right thing to do since he didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but maybe Chase was right after all. Maybe by accepting it, he was not only suffocating himself, but he was hurting her even more by causing her ceaseless amounts of loneliness and heartache. They had only been in a relationship for a few short years and he had already been subconsciously avoiding her. How much longer will he last before he completely broke?