Think Again

by Isabel Lucero

  Anne looks at the clock. “Just another hour.”

  “Ugh,” I groan.

  “Ready to get home?” Raven asks.

  “Just ready to be off.”

  I walk back into the hall, ready to go into the breakroom before I hear Chris call for me.

  “Aria?”

  “Yeah?” I say, stepping back and looking towards his office.

  His head peeks out. “Can you come here for a sec?”

  I walk down there and lean onto the door frame. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing. I was bored,” he says with a grin.

  “Nice. It’s a slow day.”

  “Yeah, I think I have one more patient to see in a little bit, but then that’s it.”

  “Well, TGIFF,” I say.

  He chuckles but furrows his brows. “Two Fs?”

  “Yeah. Thank god it’s fucking Friday,” I say with a laugh.

  “Oh. I didn’t know it was fucking Friday. Is that what we’re supposed to do?”

  I roll my eyes at him playfully. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

  “But fucking Friday sounds good. What’s Saturday? Sex-filled Saturday?”

  I lift a brow. “Are those your plans for tomorrow?”

  A smile spreads across his face. He gestures with his finger down the hall, and I look to see if anyone is nearby. I shake my head to let him know that we’re in the clear.

  “Do you want it to be sex-filled Saturday?” he asks in a hushed tone.

  “You’re in charge of our plans for tomorrow,” I tell him.

  “Are you going to go along with whatever I plan?”

  I think about it for a second. “Perhaps.”

  “I don’t like perhaps,” he says, wrinkling his forehead.

  “Tell me your plans, then.”

  “Nope. It’s going to be a surprise. How long do I have you for?” he questions.

  “For as long as I’m willing to be out,” I answer honestly.

  I already told Aaron that I had plans with Janna all day Saturday. He didn’t question it.

  “Mmm,” he moans, leaning back into his chair. “So many ideas.”

  I bite my lip briefly. “Can’t wait to find out what they are.”

  He looks at his watch. “Come in. Close the door.” My heart picks up speed, but I do as he says. “Come here,” he tells me, using his finger to point me where he wants me.

  I take the few steps to get to the space in between his desk and the chair he’s sitting in. The chair rolls closer to me and he easily lifts me up and places me on his desk. Holy. Fuck.

  His hands land on my thighs, and he massages them for just a few moments before moving them under my scrub top. They run up my sides, near my breasts, but then travel back down, coming to a stop on my hips. His thumbs trace circles over my skin before dipping into my waistband. I gasp, looking down at him to find that his eyes are already focused on my face.

  “My plans are extensive,” he says, removing his hands from underneath my top. “I plan on getting to know you on a deeper level, because I have this need to know everything about you.” Once again his hands are on my thighs. Thighs that are spread apart before him. “I plan on taking you somewhere you’ve talked about going, because I care about making you happy.” His fingers knead the insides of my thighs, making my breath hitch. “I plan on wining and dining you, because every woman deserves to be taken out and wined and dined,” he says with a smirk. His hands move further up, and I feel like I’m holding my breath, awaiting what’s next. “And I plan on fucking you like you’ve never been fucked before.”

  My lips part, letting out an airy breath while my heart beats rapidly in my chest.

  “I want this,” he says, bringing his fingers to the apex of my thighs, “in my mouth.” He licks his lips while watching his fingers run up and down the length of me.

  This is the first time he’s touched me down there, and I’m already wet. My heart speeds up even more, beating a rapid-fire tune against my chest. My body temperature rises, and I hope my pale skin doesn’t start to reflect the heat I feel within me.

  “I need to taste how wet you get for me. I need to make you realize just how much I want you. My plan is to show you that I’m very serious about making you mine.”

  I gulp, trying to keep myself from grinding onto his fingers. I need more. I need skin to skin contact. It’s been way too long, and I’m ready for some passion.

  The spark between us has been kindled, and the flames are growing.

  The problem with fire, however, is someone is bound to get burned.

  I wake up this morning with a hop in my step. And this time I’m not hopping because I’m hurt. Thankfully, that shit is over. I’m practically skipping to the bathroom to get ready for my day with Chris. Excitement courses through my veins.

  He told me to have two sets of clothes. Some comfortable, outdoorsy type clothes, and then something to dress up in. I set out to find the right outfits in my closet. While I’m pulling dresses from their places, trying to find the perfect one, Aaron walks in.

  “What’re you doing?” he asks.

  “Just looking for something to wear tonight.”

  “What are your plans for today?”

  “Uh, I don’t know. We’ll probably do some outdoorsy stuff, then go and have dinner later or something.” I say that because I assume that’s what Chris’s plans are.

  “Well, okay. I’ll probably be going out with Josh and Elijah tonight.”

  “Oh yeah?” I ask, still looking through my clothes. “What are y’all gonna do?”

  “Not sure. Have some drinks, probably.”

  “Okay.”

  I hear his footsteps as he walks out without another word.

  The dress I decide on is a black midi dress. It has a single off-the-shoulder strap that frames the neck and back as it moves down the seamed bodice, crafting an X pattern. Below the strap is a wide band that crosses the open back for an amazing finishing touch.

  It fits my body like a glove, making me feel sexy. I haven’t worn this in a long time, and I’m excited to bring it out again. I choose some black pumps to wear it with, and put them both in a small duffle bag. With another thought, I run to my underwear drawer and throw in a few sexy garments for underneath.

  Since we’re doing outdoorsy stuff first, I put on my colorful capri-pant leggings, with my salmon-colored racerback workout top. After slipping on my tennis shoes, I grab my black hoodie and drape it over my arm. Once I have everything I need, I climb into my car and start heading to Chris’s house.

  After I pull up into his driveway, I send him a text.

  Me: I’m here.

  Dr. C: Come inside.

  Instead of going straight inside, I knock on his door. It has a section of glass in the middle, allowing me to see his figure as he approaches.

  “Good morning,” he greets with a smile.

  “Good morning,” I repeat back to him.

  He pulls the door open and we walk into the small foyer area. To my right is a bench that runs along the side, curving with the wall, and three windows resting above it. Directly in front of us is a curved staircase leading upstairs, and shiny hardwood floors beneath our feet.

  To the right of the stairs is his living room which he takes me through. I notice the fireplace that rests between two vertical, rectangular windows as he leads me into a dining room, and then the kitchen that sits to the left of it.

  “I’m just getting some snacks together,” he says, putting some food into his backpack. “Are you hungry?”

  “A little,” I say with a shrug, taking in the large kitchen.

  He hands me a banana and a granola bar. “Here. Eat.”

  “Yes, sir,” I reply with a laugh, taking the food from him. “This is a nice place.”

  “Thanks. I like it. I’m still not done with it completely, so don’t judge too harshly.”

  “I’ll reserve judgment.”

  He smiles, putting a couple
of water bottles into the bag. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too.”

  “Once you’re done eating, we’ll head out. I have a lot of things to fit into today.”

  With a grin, I say, “I remember.”

  “Byron glacier?” I ask with surprise. “This was part of your plan?”

  Chris gives me a boyish smile. “I remember you mentioning this place before, so I looked it up and thought we should give it a try.”

  “Wow. Thank you. I haven’t been here in a little while. I can’t wait for you to see it,” I chirp with excitement.

  “Well, let’s get started,” he says, getting out of his car.

  I come around from the passenger side, tying my hoodie around my waist while he does the same. With the backpack slung over his shoulders, we start heading towards the trailhead. We come across signs posted on the bulletin board, letting us know a black bear was spotted in the area a few days ago and to proceed with caution.

  “I’m glad I brought bear spray,” Chris says.

  I choke out a laugh. “Seriously?”

  “Hell yeah! I take bears seriously.”

  “Okay,” I say with another laugh. “We probably won’t see one, but it’s nice to be prepared.”

  We begin walking up the trail, which is about a mile long, but it’s an easy walk with no steep hills to worry about. The forest is lush with ferns at the beginning of our hike, and Byron Creek is to our left. It’s a stunning, whitewater, glacial creek, and it’s so close that you can step off the trail and onto the smooth stones along the bank.

  Chris and I do just that, taking some pictures of the scenery, and trying to skip rocks in the cascading water. As we’re nearing the end of the trail, the forest thins out and the views of the rugged cliffs and glacier become visible.

  Chris lets out a low whistle. “There’s still snow,” he says in a curious tone.

  “Yep. Snow in the summer. We can have a snowball fight,” I say with a laugh. “That’s why it’s good to bring a hoodie, because we can climb up the mountain and towards the glacier. It gets colder up there.”

  “We get to climb up there?”

  I nod. “But be careful because the higher you go, you’ll come across some crevasse’s, and they can be pretty deep. Also, I went up pretty high once, because I spotted a small waterfall and wanted to get up there. Well, that was a bad idea, because once I started to head back down, I realized just how steep it was. I ended up having to slide down on my ass. It was not fun.”

  Chris starts cracking up. “I’m sure that would’ve been fun to watch.”

  I make a face at him. “No. I was terrified I was going to slide into a crevasse and be stuck.”

  He laughs some more. “I know not to go very high now. Thank you.”

  “Whatever,” I say, playfully rolling my eyes. “Let’s go explore.”

  We climb up the mountain a bit, careful to not go too high, but even at our current location, the views are incredible.

  Besides Alaska’s massive size—more than twice the size of Texas—the scenery is unbelievably magnificent no matter where you are. The water here is tinted a bluish color thanks to the silt of melted ice and snow. The glacier-garbed mountains seem to stretch on forever, making any road trip you take a fascinating one.

  No matter how I describe it, it will never be enough to fully explain the dramatic Alaskan landscapes.

  We stand on the side of this snow-covered mountain, Byron glacier behind us, the creek running from underneath the mountain and alongside the green and lush forest, with a view of Portage Lake and Valley in the distance.

  “Will you take my picture?” I ask, wanting to document this trip in some way.

  “Of course,” he says, taking my phone from me.

  Chris snaps a couple pictures before I return the favor and take some of him.

  “Now, we need to take one together,” he states, getting next to me and stretching his arm out to take the photo.

  I glance up at the side of his face. Click. “I wasn’t looking,” I announce.

  “Well, look this time. Come on.”

  I look into the camera, feeling a little strange about posing for a picture with him, but wanting the picture nonetheless.

  He goes to the camera roll in his phone and we review the pictures we just took. The one where I wasn’t paying attention is actually pretty good. The view behind us is great, and while Chris looks amazing with his wide smile, I look extremely happy as I look up at him. I didn’t even realize that I was grinning like an idiot when I was looking at him, but here’s the proof.

  “I like them,” he states, looking down at me with a grin.

  “Me too.”

  He drapes his arm over my shoulder and comes in for a kiss. It’s a brief kiss, but it feels natural. It feels right.

  When we get to the bottom of the mountain, we walk along the stone-covered bank, trying to balance on some of the larger rocks within the creek, and see how far we can get before the water is too deep. We take a few more pictures before getting back on the trail and heading to the car.

  “I’m just now realizing that a bear could come up on this trail, and we have nowhere to hide or run. We’re stuck between forest and the creek,” he says.

  I laugh. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “So, maybe we should hurry.”

  “We’ll be fine,” I say behind a laugh. “Just make plenty of noise as we walk.”

  Chris makes me laugh the rest of the way by suddenly having loud outbursts just in case a bear is nearby and needs to be scared away. I shake my head at his antics, but I’m smiling the entire time.

  “We should do the Portage Glacier cruise sometime,” I say. “It takes you across the lake where you’ll see small icebergs throughout the water, and stops about three hundred feet from the face of the glacier. If you’re lucky, you’ll see some of the ice break off and drop into the lake. Even if we don’t take the cruise, we might be able to see the icebergs near the visitor’s center, because they’ll float all the way down there. It’s pretty cool.”

  When Chris doesn’t respond right away, I look up at him and see that he’s looking at me with an amused grin. “That sounds great.”

  “What?” I ask, confused by his expression.

  “Nothing,” he says, grabbing my hand. “I’m happy to have future plans with you. That’s all. Count me in for Portage Glacier.” He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it. I feel my cheeks warm up and hope they aren’t noticeably red.

  I didn’t recognize what I was doing when I made plans for us. It just came to me. It was something I wanted to do with Chris. I find I want to be with him as he experiences all these Alaskan adventures for the first time. Something else that just feels natural.

  “So, now what?” I ask as we approach his car.

  “Well, it’s only eleven-thirty,” he says, looking at his watch. “We don’t have to go back to Anchorage right away if you don’t want.”

  Anchorage is about an hour away from where we are now, and I know of a place that’s nearby that I wouldn’t mind going to. Plus, I think Chris would enjoy it too.

  “Can I drive?” I ask with a cheeky grin.

  “Sure,” he says, walking to the passenger side and tossing me the keys.

  About fifteen minutes later, I’m pulling into the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. I insist on paying for us to get in, and once I do, we’re surrounded by animals.

  “Is that a bison?” he asks, pointing out the window.

  “Yep. There’s a little bit of everything here. Moose, bears, porcupines, deer, elk, lynx. The animals here either came because they were injured or orphaned.”

  “Do they get released back into the wild?” he asks.

  “Sometimes. It depends on their specific case. Sometimes they may be transferred somewhere else, or they stay here.”

  We drive along the roads, stopping at each animal enclosure, and getting out to look for them. The space is vast—over 1
40 acres—so sometimes they’re far away, but we get lucky and see plenty of animals.

  “I remember you saying you loved animals, so I thought you’d like it here.”

  He smiles, looking grateful that I remembered what he said. “Thank you. I do like it.”

  “Oh!” I shout. “I just remembered. There’s a reindeer farm we can visit too. You can actually go and feed them.”

  “Well, let’s add that to our list of things to do,” he says, wrapping his arm around me as we walk up to the fence that has elk behind it.

  After we’ve seen all of the animals, we visit the gift shop where Chris buys me a T-shirt. I inform him about how he can “adopt” an animal here, and once he hears it about it, he rushes to adopt one.

  With some consideration, he decides to adopt a black bear that was brought here after it was found alone in a hole in someone’s backyard. The hole was dug for a septic system, and when the baby bear was discovered, the sow was nowhere in sight. He makes his donation, and receives a certificate, a large plush animal, and a few other things.

  “I never thought I’d adopt a black bear,” he says with a smirk as he holds up his stuffed bear.

  “I adopted a deer,” I admit with a shrug. “Bambi lives on my dresser.”

  “Bambi?” He laughs. “Original.”

  “Shush. I love that movie,” I say, smacking him on the shoulder.

  He squeezes my side, making me squeal. “Stop, stop. I’m ticklish,” I screech through laughter, running to the car.

  When we get there, he stops at the driver’s side door. “Ready to go back to my place?” His eyes and tone tell me he’s ready to get me alone.

  “Yes,” I answer with a nod, noticing the atmosphere change into one thick with lust and want.

  The side of his mouth lifts up, giving me a crooked smile. His eyes become hooded, and I know he’s thinking about what’s going to happen once we get there.

  The drive back to his house takes almost an hour and a half, and within that time, he accomplishes another part of his plans: getting to know me more. In fact, we both get to know each other a little better. We talk more about our lives when we were younger, we discuss our families and how we grew up, both enjoying being the only child.