~ Chapter 41: Drive a snowmobile and paraglide. ~
The next day, Seth and Jenny had to leave. Luckily it wasn’t in the middle of the night like Mathew because Damon and I were exhausted. We met them a little early, after they had given back their skis.
“I want to stay longer!” Jenny whined when she saw the cab arriving.
“I wish you could. But Damon and I will come back home soon so we’ll see each other then.”
The cab parked next to us and took the suitcases to put them in the trunk.
“Alright, this is it then. Thank you for this Damon, we can pay you back if you want…” Jenny offered.
“No need, seriously, it was my pleasure.”
She shrugged and then pulled me into a hug.
“Be safe! And if you guys do another crazy activity, be careful.”
“Yes mum!”
“And you” Jenny continued, pointing at Damon. “You better take care of her and bring her back in one piece!”
“Don’t worry I will.”
After hugs (even Seth and Damon hugged, I think Seth got hit by the news pretty bad.) and reminders to be careful, Seth and Jenny hopped in the cab and waved at us as it was driving away.
“Finally alone!” Damon exclaimed, wrapping me in his arms to kiss me.
“Hey! I liked having them here!” I protested.
“I’m kidding, so did I. But I also love to have you all to myself.”
His words never failed to make me feel all warm inside even though it was freezing outside and we hadn’t bothered to put on a coat. Noticing that I was shaking a little, he took my cold hand in his (much warmer, by the way, how was that?!) and led me back inside. We sat around the table and opened the notebook. We ticked off Go dog sledding and looked at the other things scribbled down.
“Next thing on the list is either drive a snowmobile or paraglide.”
“What? How did you come up with those?” I asked.
“Ok, I’ll admit I added paraglide yesterday when I saw the add but it really tempted me so it made the list.”
“Alright. I’m a little afraid to do it but if it’s on the list, then I guess I’ll just take the plunge.”
“Awesome! You don’t have to do it though if you’re not sure about it, I want you to enjoy it too.”
“I know, but it looks fun. I won’t let my fears stop me.”
He smiled and closed the notebook before calling the number off of the paraglide add. I let him talk on the phone and went in the room to change. Then I took advantage of that little time to write a little on my phone. I had left my story untouched for a little while now and I wanted to end it. Damon came in the room a few minutes later and sat on the bed next to me.
“You’re writing?” He asked, laying his head on my shoulder.
“Yeah.”
I didn’t know why I was so shy about it, I mean, writing was an activity like another, why did I feel so protective and secretive about it? It almost felt like it was a private part of me that I didn’t want everyone to access but surely I could let Damon in.
“When will I get to read it?”
“Soon. I just want to finish it first.”
“Ok.”
He kissed me on the cheek then let me finish writing before talking again. I was very glad he hadn’t pushed it or said something like “better finish it fast because time is running out honey!”. Yeah, Damon never calls me honey anyway, and thank God he doesn’t, I just don’t do pet names and he’s known it since the first day we met. I remember he used to call me Princess because of my long hair and the pink dress my mom had bought me for the first day of class. I loved that dress, even though I wasn’t much of a girly girl and didn’t particularly enjoy pink in general, but Damon made it impossible for me to wear. Every time I would put it on (which was three in total because I wouldn’t anymore), he would call me princess and make fun of me, which little Leah didn’t like all that much, especially coming from the cutest guy of the class. Anyway, after we became friends, then quickly labeled ourselves as best friends, I made him drop the nickname and he never bothered me with it again, except for the one time I made the mistake to show up in pink for his birthday. I guess I had that one coming.
I put my phone down a few minutes later and Damon raised his eyes to see if I was finished. I loved that he had waited, that he knew I needed this time on my own and to write down the words I had in my head right now.
“So, we’re supposed to go drive the snowmobiles this afternoon, and paraglide tomorrow at three.”
“Awesome.”
“We’ll have to get to the highest point to paraglide, so get on a lot of lifts but I think it’ll be worth it.”
“I don’t mind. But I think I will freak out a lot when we’ll be about to fly away.”
“Me too.” He wrapped his arms around me and I felt the warmth of his body heating mine already.
How was it that after all this time, he still had that effect on me? That every time he was around me, that a part of his body touched mine, everything was just becoming goowy inside of me and the butterflies never missed their cue. I didn’t fail to notice his heart was beating fast too, so I guess I had the same effect on him.
“We should probably get ready now if we want to be on time to drive the snowmobiles.” Damon said, although he wasn’t moving.
“Yeah…”
I kissed him slightly on the lips and he pouted when I didn’t give him a little more and just headed for the bathroom to get dressed instead.
“It’s mean to do that to me, you know?” Damon screamed. “It’s like giving a drop of alcohol to an alcoholic, you get the poor guy addicted again without even giving him something to soothe his addiction.”
“What a comparison!”
“Come on, you know I’m not the writer here, I’m not that good with words.”
“You’re very fine with words, now come here, I’m an alcoholic too and I don’t know why I just did this to myself, I must be masochistic.”
He smiled and got closer, cupped my face with his hand and brushed his lips against mine slowly, letting me want it more and more before kissing me fully. The things he made me feel, I could have just melted right there. I’d never known before I kissed Damon that just a simple kiss could make people feel things like this. Or maybe it was just when Damon was kissing you. It didn’t seem like a big deal when my parents were kissing, although they were just pressing lips, but when Damon kissed me… I don’t even have words. We pulled out when we had to reach for air. God I wish we didn’t have to breath sometimes and we would have never stopped.
“I’ll go get dressed.” I said, almost out of breath.
“Yeah. Me too.” Damon answered, also panting.
Three hours later, we had carved our names in a bench on the slopes like we had said we’d do, and we were now standing in front of the snowmobiles, listening to the instructions. I couldn’t wait to drive them, and excited as I was, I didn’t really listen to what the guy was saying. How hard could it be anyway, I had driven a jet ski before and a car so maybe it was a mix between the two. I would figure it out.
The guy stopped talking and told us we could get on our snowmobiles now. I was almost jumping up and down with excitement. I passed my legs around the big mobile and smiled at Damon, who looked just as a kid on his birthday. I guess I looked the same because he laughed when he saw my big smile.
“Ok guys, you can follow me now but remember to keep a safe distance between the snowmobiles.” The guy said, on his own snowmobile.
He started it first and slid/drove away. I started my own and followed him through the forest. God it was awesome!! I was going fast but not too much because I didn’t want to have an accident right way, we had paid for an hour and that’s how long I intended to drive. I heard Damon scream as he passed in front of me and laughed. The cold wind was slapping my face and some snow was falling on my hair but I couldn’t have cared less. Going that fast was exhilarating. We drove past the slopes, through the forest, down some hills, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.
The hour ended fast, too fast to my liking, and we had to give the snowmobiles back. I wished we could have driven home with them but we couldn’t, obviously, so we just took some lifts instead and got back to the chalet.
“Are you ready to jump?”
I opened wide eyes, my heart beating like crazy. I was sitting in the paraglide and attached to Travis, the guy who would guide it for me, and I was about to jump in the emptiness to fly. Needless to say I was about to poop my pants. Granted, I had skydived before, but I wasn’t less afraid nonetheless, I was just as scared and when I turned my head to search for Damon’s eyes, I saw that he was as afraid as I was.
“I’m going to count to three and then we’ll run and jump ok?” Travis yelled over the wind.
“Ok.” I answered back, although my response was blocked in my throat.
Damon looked at me and gave me a thumbs up. Then Travis started to count and my stomach was in knots. When he said three, we started to run in sync and then… we jumped. In the cold air, in the nothing at all. We flew away from the mountain and flew over some others. The landscape was breathtaking. The sun was lighting the top of the snowy mountains and I felt like a bird, even if I was sitting. I couldn’t help but scream when Travis made a sharp turn and I heard him laugh. I saw Damon fly not too far away and screamed “This is awesome!” to which he responded “Told you!”. We were high up in the sky and I wanted to fly for the longest we could. It felt like all of our problems and worries had been left on the ground and for once, I didn’t worry about Damon getting one of his terrible headaches, or him collapsing or puking, I didn’t think about how I would miss him, how the deadline was approaching so fast… I pushed every thought aside and completely enjoyed myself and I saw that Damon was as happy as I was. Travis took a little tape of us flying with a GoPro camera and a little later, we had to land. I didn’t want to but there was no choice. Travis made us go lower, closer to the ground progressively, then we hit the ground and ran to stop.
Once down, I lay down in the snow to catch my breath and realize that, yes, it had really happened. Damon fell down next to me and was breathing really fast too.
“Oh my god.” He just said.
“My thoughts exactly.”
He laughed and we just stayed there, laying in the snow for minutes or hours I don’t know.
“If you think you’re done with those adrenaline type of things, I’m sorry to break it to you but we still have to bungee jump.” Damon said after a while, smiling.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Damon! In the space of months we’ve skydived, paraglide and jumped from a cliff into deep water, I can’t bungee jump!”
“You’ll love it just as much as you loved doing those other crazy things. And it’ll be a funny story to tell your grandkids.”
A silence followed that statement and I felt like the weight of all of our problems just came crushing me back. My grandkids, the ones I didn’t even know I would have, but was sure they wouldn’t be Damon’s grandkids too.
“I’m sorry for saying that…” Damon whispered. “I’m stupid. Let’s go home and have crazy sex to forget I ever said that.”
I laughed a little but I didn’t feel as great as before. He helped me up and lifted my chin so that I would look into his eyes.
“Please don’t be sad. We still have a few more weeks ok?”
“Yeah… I know.”
He kissed me lightly then hugged me for a little minute. It felt good, to have his strong arms wrapped around me, to inhale his familiar scent and to have him this close, when I had just imagined not having him around at all. We went back to the chalet and arrived around an hour later, after taking many lifts to get back down to our station. After taking a hot shower and packing our bags, we watched TV in our PJs before falling asleep in each other’s arms.