Tea - Chapter 20

Thursday was the second of the only two official days off that Miles and Sophie had the third week of May. They started on a rare weekend group at three in the afternoon the next day and worked with them off and on through Sunday afternoon. By that point they were thrilled to get the hours since neither of them had seen a workweek pass thirty hours for almost a month. They already had twenty hours in the books with a rough estimate of fourteen more coming after a day of respite.
Not that they needed it. Sophie was slumped against Miles’ legs on one of the couches in the lounge. She was braiding the tassels of a shabby gold pillow that, had it been a dog, would have been euthenized long ago. Miles was tossing a cell phone-sized foam football straight above his head and catching it before it bounced off his nose.
“We should go camping,” Miles ventured. The effort of conversation caused him to lose focus on the football, which bounced off of his shoulder and rolled with a wobble underneath the opposite couch.
“What are you talking about?” Sophie did not lose her focus on her pillow braids.
“Do you remember when we hiked up to the top of that hill this winter? Where you could see camp like one of those Christmas postcards? And we said it would be a good place to camp?” Sophie nodded but Miles could not tell whether it was in recognition of the event. “Anyways, it’s pretty warm at night now. We should get one of those big tents from the camping room and some supplies and stuff and go on an overnight. I bet we could get Scott and Kyra to go. It would give us something different to do than spending money in town or…doing whatever it is you’re doing there.”
“I don’t know.” Sophie said of her pillow project. She tossed the accent to the couch the football was hiding under. “That could be fun. I mean, even if it rains or whatever, it’s what, a fifteen minute walk back down here?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m not talking about trailblazing or anything. Just something quiet and different. Campfire, jug of wine, hotdogs, all that good stuff.”
“What kind of Boy Scout troop were you in?”
“Troop Point-Two-Oh,” Miles laughed.
“What am I going to do with you?”
“Tame my wild ways and make a good husband out of me.”
“You wish. I don’t have that kind of time to spend.”
“Well then you’re lucky I started out so perfectly.” Sophie found another pillow to throw at her lot in life.
“I’m game to camp out. It’s not as though we’re going to be here forever, are we?”
“Hardly any time at all.”
“I wish we would hear something about the visa and all that.”
“You can’t worry if I’m not allowed to, babe. We just have to get married. We’re not trying to pull a fast one or anything. It’s legit. This is why the system is in place. It’ll go flawlessly. Don’t worry.”
“I know. And I know that if it doesn’t, you’ll run away with me to an island somewhere forever.”
“No question. Come here.” Sophie joined Miles at his end of the couch. Miles kissed Sophie’s head in reassurance as she got situated. They watched dust float through the sunbeam in front of the big glass windows that lined the opposite wall of the living room until they heard someone kicking mud off of boots outside the door. Jabari came through the door shortly after his ruckus gave him away.
“Aawwoooww, look at you two. That’s sooo cute.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Layoff, we’re getting married. What are you up to?”
“Shit. Just seeing if anyone was down here, maybe grab some Jack. I’ve been playing Madden in my room all day.”
“Well, hey, man, while you’re here, would you be down to trek up to the top of that hill and camp out Sunday night?”
“Sure. Who’s going?”
“Hopefully not too many people, not to sound like a bastard, but the four of us, you and Emma?”
“The gang, huh?”
“Yeah, the gang. One last time? Get some hotdogs and marshmallows, some Jack, whatever?”
“That sounds a hell of a lot better than what I’ve been doing the past few weeks. I’m in.”
“Hey, keep it kind of down huh? There are some undesirables lurking about.”
Jabari knew the singular person Miles was referring to. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, man.” Jabari continued into the kitchen, poured himself a drink, and left Miles and Sophie on their own again.
“That’ll be a good time,” Miles sighed, curling into Sophie.
“Yeah, but until then, what are we going to do?”
“How abou-“
“Not that. I swear, I shag you entirely too much I think you’re an addict.”
“It seems like I’ve heard you say that before. How did you even know I was going to say that?”
“Oh, please. The only thing that’s a mystery is what you did with your time before you had me.”
“That’s quite simple, really. I thought about what it would be like to shag a woman just like you.” Miles brace himself for an elbow to the ribs.
“I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.”
“Then just kiss me.”
“Ok.” After a long intermission Sophie spoke again. “Can you imagine what it will be like to be doing this in our own living room? Even if it’s some dank flat in a run-down part of town, it will be ours, you know?”
“I think we’ll do pretty well, with the money we’ve been saving, and my assistantship. Without you, though, I’d be living in the crack district.”
“Don’t you forget it, either.”
“I think it’ll be great, Sophie.” Miles added to his mental cobwebs for a moment. “Sophie, what are you going to do in Chicago?”
There was a pregnant pause before Sophie spoke. “I don’t know, Miles.”
“I just…I just hate the thought of you working some crappy job because of me.”
“If that happens it’s because our decision has already been made. Worst case scenario, it lasts a year, maybe two?”
“I know, but I want you to be happy-“
“Miles, quit. We’ve been through this before. I told you to stop once. I’m not going to tell you again.”
“I don’t want to hold you back from anything you could have been without me.”
“Then be the best you can be. Take care of your obligations, and then we can worry about mine. That’s what long-term means. We may have to go about it one person at a time, but we’ll both get what we need in the end. I told you to trust me about this.”
“You’ll get everything you want. It’s just a timing thing, right?”
“Right. You got an assistantship to graduate school. It’s paid for and they pay you. How often is that going to come up?”
“Thank you, Sophie.”
“I love you. I wouldn’t take any other option even if there was one.”
“Just promise me you’ll hold me to my end of the deal.”
“Agreed.”

After a late morning of slothful cuddling Miles and Sophie reported to the office to get their schedules for the weekend group. Their first assignment was to walk around camp unlocking the cabin and program areas together, which was an easy way to earn an hour’s pay. They could not help smiling as they held hands and jingled keys; being paid to take a stroll.
Miles finally sat Sophie down on a couch in a random cabin.
“What is it, Miles? You look like you’ve got something important to say.”
“I do. I love you.”
“I love-“
“No, no. I love you. And every time I say that, the meaning changes. Every single time I love you another way. I don’t want you to do this. It’s not fair to you. I want you to go back to England and forget all this.”
“You’re out of your goddamned mind.”
“No, Sophie, I’m not. I love you. I will always love you. But you’re going to grow to despise me if I make you stay in Chicago for two years. I don’t want you to do that. I want you to remember some stupid trip abroad where you met a guy or whatever.”
“It’s too late for that, you fucking twit. Fucking dump me or don’t.” Sophie stared at Miles for ages. He had never seen her so furious. “I thought so. What the fuck was that about?”
“Sophie, you’re going to hate me.”
“And you can’t bear the thought of me being slightly less than thrilled from time to time because that doesn’t fit into your storybook romance eh? Well get used to it, because this is fucking life and that’s the way it goes. We’ve sucked one another in and that’s just the way it is so you had better learn to fucking live with it. I am so disappointed in you right now, Miles. You need to pull it together or we’re never going to make it.”
“Fuck. You know what? I’m done with this.” Miles hoisted himself off the couch and out the door.

“Get up, man.” It was Jabari at Miles’ door. Miles propped himself up to answer. “Man, what were you trying to pull yesterday? Your girl’s been crying her eyes out all day, both of you are worthless right now.”
“Jabari, sorry-“
“She told us what happened, man. She told us. I’m your friend, you know that, man. I’ll help you out whenever. But you fucked up. You need to get your shit straight, and now. You need to go talk to Sophie.” Miles got up and pulled some clean clothes on.
Sophie’s cabin was dark when Miles entered, but he could smell her even before his eyes and ears adjusted.
“Sophie?”
“What?”
“Can I come in?”
“Miles, don’t even ask. You know you can get in this bed any time you want to.” Miles exercised the privilege.
“I want you to run away, you know that?”
“I know that would make it easier for you. But it’s not going to be easy, Miles. I don’t know how many other ways I can say it. But I’m tired of it. I know that little stunt you pulled is not you. I know you better than that and I know exactly what you were trying to do.”
Miles curled close to Sophie and she let him. He could not think of anything to say. They slept.
“You won’t do that again.” Sophie said as soon as they both woke up. Miles nodded. Sophie felt it against her cheek. “You scared me. I thought you were going to do something crazy.”
“This whole damned thing is crazy, Sophie. I got overwhelmed.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t go get pissed on top of it all, but you still need to come to me, not run away from everything.”
“I’m sorry I made you cry.”
“I’ll get over it. It was a good way to relieve some stress, if nothing else.”
“I barely remember working today. Not that sitting at the archery range for hours is anything worth remembering anyways.”
“I had dishes after dinner with Paul and Gerri.”
Miles chuckled weakly. “Always topping me.”
“Somebody’s got too. What time is it?”
“Almost nine.”
“Let’s just sleep here tonight. I don’t feel like moving.”
“You want to go to bed already?”’
“I’ve had a long and very emotional day, miles. I’m bloody tired. You can watch me sleep or something cheesy like that. I’m sure you’ve said that before.”
“You like cheesy stuff.”
“Ugh, I bloody hate it, you twit.” Miles could hear the smile in Sophie’s voice. He kissed the side of her head.
“If you want to go to bed then we can go to bed. I probably owe you big.”
“There’s an understatement.” Sophie drug Miles’ arm with her as she curled up. Goodnight, Miles. I love you.”
“I love you too, Sophie girl.”

“I didn’t even ask Scott and Kyra about camping yet,” Miles realized as he put on the same clothes he had worn the day before. It was Sunday morning and he and Sophie were getting ready to finish out the weekend group. “We should go up today if it’s nice out.”
“It was warm yesterday. You and Jabari are coming too,” Sophie said, switching her comment from Miles to Emma in mid-sentence.
They all left the girls’ cabin together for the dining hall. It was still a bit chilly in the mornings and soon Miles had two shivering girls around his arms. He shook his head with a smile and gave the fair-haired one a kiss.
All-too familiar sounds and smells greeted the yellow-bricking trio when they entered the dining hall. Miles sat next to Scott and after checking for eavesdroppers wasted no time in telling him of their plans for the evening.
“Just get one of those big ass expedition tents that weigh, like, forty pounds?”
“Why not? It’s just a night and all we’ll be doing is passing out after the campfire. It’s mostly just in case of rain. I might just sleep out if I can get Sophie to go along with it.”
“What the hell. I’ll run into town after work and get that five liter jug of Carlo Rossi-“
“Piasano.”
“Of course, and some hotdogs or something. That should be about it, right?”
“Yeah, that should be fine. If we get up there at around eight or so we should have just enough time to set the tent up and get a fire going before it gets too dark to see anything.”
“Sounds good, man.” Their conversation filled the duration of the campers getting their breakfasts so they were just in time to stand in line for their own meals.

“Oh, I don’t feel like cleaning cabins today,” Sophie sighed as she flopped onto the couch of her and Miles’ assigned cleaning detail. Miles sat beside her a bit more gracefully.
“So, let’s do something else first,” Miles ventured.
“What are you talking ab- Oohh…” Sophie’s words were cut short when Miles leaned over and slowly kissed her neck. His arms were around her waist almost simultaneously.
“Miles! Here? These couches are probably-“
“We’ll leave our clothes on.”
“In the middle of the day?”
“We won’t have a chance tonight. And we’ve never done this before.”
“Getting paid to have sex, eh? What kind of girl do you think I am?”
Miles was still kissing Sophie convincingly. His hands had also joined the debate. “Exactly the kind of girl I want to marry.”
Sophie’s answer was more sounds than words by then. She let Miles slide her down onto the couch.
“Ok, but we have to do this quickly. And you don’t get to tell anyone about this ever,” Sophie cooed, arching her back for Miles’ embrace.
“Agreed,” Miles answered, before ending their conversation with the kiss he knew Sophie wanted. She relaxed and encouraged Miles in her own ways.

With a renewed vigor for their task, Miles and Sophie still ended cleaning at around the same time that everyone else did.
The clock stated four in the afternoon when one of them finally bothered to look after taking a quick shower in Miles’ cabin.
“What do we do now, Love?” Miles was still in his underwear in the main room and Sophie had not even made it that far yet, both having decided that Scott and Kyra had left for town. Sophie took advantage of the privacy by sliding her hands down the back of Miles’ shorts and squeezing his cheeks smartly.
“Ow! You got frisky all of a sudden?”
“I guess I ended up having more fun than I thought I would this afternoon?”
“Hmm, you had fun?’ Miles pulled her into his arms as much to keep her from getting grabby as wanting to hold her.
“I had fun twice,” she giggled, biting his collarbone lightly. Miles chuckled.
“Good, good. I had fun, too.”
“Well, it’s pretty obvious when you have fun. I still feel a bit full of you. And you make a face.”
“Sophie! That’s…uncouth. And I do not make a face.”
“It’s calling it what it is, and you do too make a face. It’s a cute face, though, not like a porn star painful face.” Miles just shook his head.
“Ok, nymph, let’s get dressed before anyone sees our asses again.”
“Agreed. Except I don’t have any clothes over here.”
“What? You must.”
“I don’t. Remember? We did laundry last week and cleaned everything I had out of here. I haven’t left anything since then.”
“Well, then, you’ll just have to shrug into something of mine and go get something to wear.”
“Ok, but you’re coming with me.” Miles shrugged. He found a shirt he knew Sophie liked and a pair of pajama bottoms. They stepped outside to greet most of the staff coming up the row from signing out at the office.
“Oh, my God, you two are ridiculous,” Jabari guffawed, pointing at the both of them when his hand wasn’t clasped over his mouth. Christopher and Sergio were giggling like middle schoolers, and Gerri and Emma were as red as Sophie.
“Shut up!” she squeaked, “We’re getting married!”
“What does that have to do with any damn thing?” Jabari asked, taking a short break from his laughter.
“We love each other!”
“Oh, my God! Just Go! Whatever you were about to go do, just go do it. You two crack me up!”
Sophie took Miles’ hand and ran into her cabin with him. As soon as she shut the door, as she had in the dining hall the morning she had dropped her breakfast tray, Sophie started laughing uncontrollably.
“We are ridiculous!” She finally managed to say.
“So be it. That’s probably why it all works for us.” Miles kissed Sophie with gusto before she shed the pajama bottoms to find some warmer pants that fit her more snugly, which Miles did not mind the look of at all. They finally sat on the bed for a moment and Miles let his mind wander.
“You know what I like the most about you?” He finally asked of Sophie.
“No; is this going to be cheesy?”
“I don’t think so. I like that I never, even for a second, felt like I needed to pretend to be something I’m not to impress you. I guess I did impress you after all, but I never put on an act or anything with you.”
“I would have seen right through it.”
“And you would have had nothing to do with me. I think I got that from you even from the beginning. And you never pretended to be anything else for me. I don’t like that. Because then when the person starts acting like themselves they act disappointed that you don’t like them anymore when you never really knew what you liked in the first place. And I know I’ve done that before with girls. I’m just glad I didn’t do it with you.”
“I’m glad as well.”
“It’s strange, though. You’re by far the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever dated, let alone your personality and everything else about you. I should have been making an ass of myself to try to get to you. So maybe we are ridiculous. But that’s who we are, and it works, so what the hell?”
“Well put; and only mildly cheesy.” Sophie leaned over, which turned into rolling on top of Miles, and kissed him. “I love you.”
“You’re so cheesy.”

Miles and Sophie procured a tent from the expedition room and hike it up to the top of the hill they planned to spend the night on. There was still no sign of Scott and Kyra, but if anyone knew that anything could happen to a pair of star-crossed bumblers, it was the two people experimentally setting up a massive canvas tent on top of the highest hill in the area.
Before too long Jabari and Emma came huffing up the trail and tried to lend a hand. With a few more hands their temporary home was finally erected. They had no sooner set about the comparatively easier task of finding wood and building a fire than Scott and Kyra ambled up the hill with a pair of large brown paper bags.
“There they are; after we’ve set everything up!” Miles exasperated sarcastically.
“Hey, back off. We brought the food. As soon as you get that fire made there, we can cook some of it.” Scott started laying out the spread, which included hotdogs, Jiffy Pop in the foil pie pans, S’mores stuff and booze, along with some odds and ends.
“Why did you buy these big ass cans of beans?” Jabari asked
“Well, they seemed like something we should have at a campfire meal. I dunno; it was an impulse buy.”
“Well, YeeHaaw! This is a real cowboy state of affairs, now, isn’t it?” Jabari cajoled, throwing an invisible ten-gallon hat into the wind.
“Something like that?”
“Whoever eats that stuff is sleeping outside tonight,” Kyra groaned.
“Oh, no, that’s for in case it gets cold,” Scott reasoned.
Things worked out pretty much as they had planned during breakfast that morning, which by sunset seemed a million miles in the past. They had food cooking and cheap wine warming their bellies by the time the last of the orange in the sky left the hills their campsite looked out over.
They upped the wattage of the fire when night fell and finished off the main courses before the night temperature could do its worse, which wasn’t really all that bad at the end of May.
“This was a good idea,” Scott said, as he positioned himself in front of the fire with one of the pans of Jiffy Pop. Soon the pan was rumbling and everyone was listening to the activity within it as much as they had been watching the flames slap the sky. It was as though an entire season of exhaustion, satisfaction, and good times were reminding the six people under the stars of why they went on adventures like the last five months of winter camp in the first place.
“Yeah; it was fun.” Miles didn’t think about whether he was talking about that evening or that season. He felt Sophie move closer to him on their log and was reminded of how fortunate he was to be taking something so wonderful away with him from the whole experience. Miles looked around the campfire and hoped he could stay in touch with the people caught in the glow. He had a feeling that with Sophie to back him up the connections would be a lot easier to maintain.
The popcorn finally signaled that it was ready by silencing the hailstorm inside the bubble of foil extending from Scott’s hand that the fire’s heat had formed. The finished product was passed around the ring of log seats and the conversation resumed.
“Do you know how much nasty shit I threw out of that fridge?” Emma cried, picking up the empty hotdog package for illustration. “There was orange juice in there with mold growing out of the top of the carton, I swear to God; and your raw chicken!” She punched Jabari’s shoulder as hard as she could, which hardly phased the six-foot-five point guard.
“Yeah, that place is gross.”
“We tried to clean it for a bit,” Sophie said, “But we just couldn’t keep up with it.” Miles nodded his agreement. He remembered more than a few frivolous arguments about the state of the lounge with Sophie and others over the months.
“Ah, well. We’ll clean it up one last time maybe before we leave. Or leave it for the new staff that have to live there,” Miles laughed. They Cheered to that.
“We took a lot of trips in the first part of the season, didn’t we?” Scott commented.
“Yeah, we did.”
“We used to all hang out together a lot more.”
“I guess people just started showing their true character a little more as the months wore on.” Miles nudged Sophie to help her recollect their earlier conversation. She squeezed his hand in acknowledgement.
“Saw a lot of Stuff, though. New York, Boston…”
“I’m really glad I got to see a lot of that stuff,” Emma said. “We can’t all stay in the U.S. forever.”
“Ugh, who would want to?” Sophie joked.
They were on the verge of making B.F.F. pacts, but fortunately the wine caught up with them before anything so dramatic came about. They decided it would be more fun to wake up in a crowded tent than scattered about and chattering around the site and sequestered themselves inside the canvas walls they had erected none too shabbily.

“Oi, it’s bloody freezing in here, itn’t it?” Emma was serving as the group’s alarm clock the following morning. Miles was inclined to agree with her but he also figured it to be quite early and despite the nip in the air he was not feeling bad at all. Sophie was curled into him under the sleeping bag they had opened up to share so that only his exposed parts felt any chill, and none of them had drunk enough to be hung over that morning. Miles remembered seeing the three liter bottle being over half-full when they had finally called it a night, which was really only about midnight, so Miles supposed that being up at seven or eight or whatever time of the morning it was was most likely the natural cycle of things. Ah, Nature.
Miles ignored Emma and buried his head under the sleeping bag with Sophie.
“I have to pee,” She whispered.
“Ok.”
“I want you to come with me.”
“To pee?”
“Yeah. Well, not right with me, but come out with me.” Miles chalked it up to one of those things a guy just has to do without any questions and crawled outside of the tent with Sophie. He followed her to a point until she wanted him to act as a lookout. When Miles assured Sophie that he could night see her she disappeared behind a tree.
When Sophie finished she sprung up from the scenery and trotted back to Miles. She mumbled something about being cold but Miles knew by then that it would do no good to go back into the tent because he had heard rumblings from inside the dew-stained walls as he waited. When they turned to look they saw that Scott had already made it to the fire, which had not been hard to resuscitate, by the looks of it.
“Breakfast will be up in just a second,” he said, motioning to an old tea kettle half-buried in a pile of glowing coals at one end of the ring. By the time Miles had scrambled and found the jackets he and Sophie had come up the hill with, Scott was holding a steaming tin cup of…Miles smacked his lips and thought.
“Wine?”
“Yeah, man. Mulled wine. You’ve never had it? My parents do it all the time at Christmas. Usually it’s with better wine, but it’s supposed to bring out the flavors more.”
Miles took another taste. “A hot drink is a hot drink,” He concluded. Scott poured cups for everyone as they made their way out of the tents and soon had a second pot warming to serve a second round. In between courses everyone pitched in to pull down the tent and clean up after themselves. In less than a half an hour everyone was on their second hearty mug of mulled wine and had forgotten all about the cold weather that had created them a little over an hour before.
There was really no reason to make haste back to camp since everyone at the morning fire had at least that day off. They were starting to get more school groups in by the looks of the schedule some of them had picked up from the office the afternoon before so there would not be as much slack time as there had been during the low point in the season that had run from the last half of March to the end of April.
“Schools must be doing their end of the year field trips or something,” Miles commented on what most of them viewed as a fortunate amount of hours. He himself only had that Monday off and the coming Thursday, which would have been unheard of six weeks prior. He was looking at a schedule of doing jobs all day until everyone jumped on board for an enormous weekend family camp, which was a weekend where families got to stay at the camp for free in exchange for working a few shifts doing assorted chores to get the place ready for summer camp. Miles did not like the fact, however, that his next day off was scheduled for Thursday, and Sophie’s other day off was Friday.
“And it looks like we’ll both be working late with groups on the day the other one has off,” Sophie added. It was the first time that they had not been scheduled the exact same way. It did not bother Miles too much, surely they could both handle a day or two apart, but he hoped that it would not become a trend with whoever was doing the scheduling.
Miles decided to let it go and enjoy his unexpected and by that point quite heady wine buzz. The schedule, after all, had shown him what could shape up to be a forty hour or even longer work week and for that he was thankful.
“Well, it looks like we’ll all have a busy week this week,” Miles concluded, putting an arm around Sophie’s side to beckon her closer.
“Good timing for this trip, then. Who knows if we’ll all have the same block of time off again?” Scott wondered. Everyone nodded in agreement and continued watching the camp below.
“What a random place,” Miles said.
“What a random group of people,” Kyra added.
“What a lot of fun,” Sophie finished. Everyone nodded.