THE SWEET pungency of garlic wafting
through the air combined with the aroma of hot and spicy pepperoni with
mushrooms—heaven. Andrew tried to watch his diet, conscious of his carbs and
fat intake, but a weekly pizza was his one weakness. Meeting Tanner at the
Pizza Place gave him an excuse to indulge while catching up with his best
friend.
“Are you going to eat that?” Tanner
indicated the remaining slice on the plate in the middle of the table. “Because
if you don’t take it in the next ten seconds, it’s mine.”
“Hey, hands off,” Andrew said as he
snatched the piece of pizza and placed it on the empty plate in front of him.
Tanner held his hands up, palms facing
Andrew, in mock surrender. “All right. It’s all yours. I wouldn’t want to come
between you and your pizza.” Andrew warmed at the familiarity of the words.
They’d been coming here on Thursday nights for years and the routine never
changed. Tanner always gave Andrew more than his fair share of the pizza, and
Andrew took it, but not without a bit of lighthearted banter.
“You know, you could do with a bit of
fattening up,” Andrew said, taking in his friend’s lean frame.
Tanner just raised his eyebrows and
kept on eating. It was another routine with them—Andrew’s friendly teasing
about Tanner’s looks—but in reality, Tanner’s frame had started to fill out
over the last year, something Andrew had begun to notice. He’d also noticed
other people looking and assumed Tanner wouldn’t have any trouble attracting a
guy, if that’s what he was looking for. Although Andrew knew Tanner’s
preferences, he was relieved Tanner didn’t share any other details.
Andrew gave Tanner a once-over as he
filled his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. At six feet, Tanner had the body of a
swimmer, tall and lean with sleek muscles. Andrew thought he moved like a
swimmer too. He was smooth and graceful, and purposeful in his movements. Even
now, as he brought the pizza to his mouth, he did so with slender hands and
delicate fingers—fingers Andrew found himself staring at while Tanner sucked
the grease from them. Tanner pulled the last digit from his mouth with a soft
popping sound and smacked his lips. “Yum.” He looked at Andrew. “What?”
Andrew tore his gaze away from Tanner’s
shining lips, cleared his throat, and turned the conversation to the trip
they’d been discussing before the meal arrived.
“Dad brought home some more brochures
last night. I think he’s more excited about the trip than we are.”
“Nah. Not possible.” Tanner grinned. “I
can hardly wait. Beginning of summer and we’re outta here, man. Six months. I’m
counting the days. Six months till freedom. Bring it on.”
Tanner’s enthusiasm was as infectious
as always, and Andrew couldn’t help but smile at him. The background music in
the restaurant switched over from a slow track to some Italian mambo track, the
upbeat tempo matching his mood. Andrew stacked the plates on the table and
moved them to the side, making room for the folder he placed in front of
Tanner. He then took the map tucked into the back cover, unfolded it, and
spread it across the red-and-white tablecloth.
“Dad got another brochure on the Grand
Canyon, but we’ve already covered that.” He used his finger to point to
Arizona. It was going to be the destination for an overnight hike that would
test their skills. They were used to hiking around Halls Ridge but not to the
extremes of temperature and lack of water in the canyon. “We haven’t really
spoken about Florida yet.” As he spoke, Andrew took a glossy foldout from his
pocket and flattened it to the table. “See here—”
“Hold up, Drew.” Tanner reached across
and stilled Andrew’s hand as it hovered over the map. “I have a wild idea.
Radical, yes? But how ’bout we don’t plan everything to the nth degree and just
play it by ear.”
Tanner’s hand was surprisingly soft
where he held Andrew’s hand. Andrew expected roughened skin from Tanner’s work
as a mechanic. He blushed as he became aware of Tanner waiting for him. “Huh?”
“You know. Just arrive and go with the
flow. Stop when something’s interesting, and move on when it’s not.”
Andrew dragged his thoughts back to the
conversation as Tanner released his hand. “But how will we know how long we
should plan for? Or what we need to take? What if we’d be best to book
something in advance or we miss it? I’d hate to get all the way home and
realize we should have stopped somewhere.”
“Don’t you ever want to take a chance?
Throw caution to the wind?” Tanner tilted his head and looked at him, but
Andrew knew he’d never feel relaxed or comfortable without some sort of road
map and plan.
“I… ahh….”
Tanner laughed. “It’s okay, Drew, we
can have a plan. I’m lucky I’ve got you to do all the preparation and make sure
this trip is everything we want it to be. But maybe, just maybe, I’m not saying
you have to, but just think about relaxing a bit? We don’t have a deadline and
can take as long as we like to see the country.”
“We can. Take as long as we like, that
is. But the money’s going to run out sometime. I know we’ve both put away a
bit, but it’ll only go so far.”
“And then we’ll be on even more of an
adventure.” Tanner’s eyes gleamed as he winked at Andrew. “Just imagine, we can
camp by the roadside and get laboring jobs. We can pick fruit, sow grain,
shovel horseshit.” He threw his head back in laughter, his full belly laugh
giving Andrew no option but to join in.
“Idiot,” Andrew said as he tossed a
sugar packet from the container on the table at Tanner.
Although he knew Tanner was only
joking, the idea of being stranded in the unknown without any money gave Andrew
the chills.
Tanner eventually stopped laughing and
sat back upright in his seat before taking a long swallow of his Coke and
pulling the Florida brochure toward him.
“Okay. Show me where you suggest we
visit. I assume we need to decide so Josh can put it in the book?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah. I said he could
do it on the weekend, once we’d discussed it.”
“Cool. He’s a great kid. I love what he’s
done with the book already.”
Andrew watched Tanner flip through a
few pages that were a mix of neat handwritten notes and immaculate cutouts from
the various brochures—places to visit, things to see, costs, durations for each
destination, what to pack, and all manner of other information. Information
Andrew had painstakingly researched and written into the book, but Tanner
didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know the countless hours Andrew
spent on that notebook, on their dream. Andrew had taken note of every place
Tanner had mentioned when they discussed the trip and made sure he’d included
activities he knew Tanner would enjoy. The notebook had become a labor of love.
And soon the already full itinerary expanded yet again
as they discussed alligators, beaches, theme parks, and fishing.
