I watched in silence as Flynn packed his bags. There was a lot of hesitation in his movements as he chose what to bring and what to leave behind. I sensed his nervousness as he avoided looking at me at all costs. This was his way of trying to hide the fact he was nervous, but to me it just proved that he was indeed nervous.

I had packed my bags the night before, and Flynn had tried to pack, but he got stressed about it. I wasn’t sure what the problem was, and when I had asked he said it was nothing.

He didn’t need to answer my question for me to know the answer. Flynn didn’t like change, and he didn’t like new situations. He was about to go on a trip with me to unknown destinations because I had refused to tell him all the stops I had planned to make.

We had roughly two weeks to ourselves before we ended at Flynn’s house. I had talked to Linda about taking her son on an adventure that would end at her house on Christmas eve. She agreed that it would be good exposure for Flynn and wished me luck.

I received their address and planned the road date accordingly. He lived about nine hours away from the campus but I found popular sites to stop at on the way and even found some interesting detores to take that would take up the two weeks before Christmas eve.

While Flynn was packing I decided to take my bags to my truck, hoping that my absence would be enough to calm him down long enough to finish packing. It was also an opportunity to bring my car closer to the dorm building.

I tried to take up as much time as I could doing this, and when I got back to the room he was still packing and trying to decide what to bring. I could feel his anxiety peeking through and debated on whether or not I could use my pheromones to help calm him down. He was in a panic yet, and he wasn’t close to one, but I hated that he felt so anxious about this whole trip. It was almost enough to make me cancel it.

“Are you okay?” I cautiously asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know what to bring. What kind of clothes should I bring? You said this was a date, so do I need nice clothes? Where are we going? How warmly do I need to dress for this?”

I gave a small laugh at his trivial concerns. “Dress however you want. It doesn’t matter.”

He looked at me with his brows furrowed. I laughed again and started pulling clothes out of his dresser and putting them in his bag.

“Hey stop that!” He grabbed my arm.

“I will if you’ll say that you will actually start packing.”

“But I don’t know what to pack.”

“At least two weeks worth of clothes. You’ll be on the road for two weeks, and then we can wash our clothes at your mom’s. Don’t forget your essentials like your toothbrush and your suppressants. You should also bring some of your toys.”

“Don’t say it like that.” He shouted at me as a blush formed across his face.

“Don’t say what like what?” I teased.

He threw one of his shirts at me. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“No I don’t. Maybe you should tell me or show me?” Talking to him like this aggravated him but it also brought him out of his nervous state.

“I’m not showing you my fucking dildos!” He shouted at me before clasping a hand over his mouth.

His face was bright red as he turned away from me and quickly finished packing the rest of his things. By the time he was done packing, he had two bags: one giant red one and a smaller blue bag.

I grabbed the bigger bag and headed out the door with Flynn closely behind me. I locked our door, and we made our way to my truck. I would have liked to grab the other bag too, but Flynn would never let that happen. It was the bag that he kept all of his sex toys in and even though he knew that I knew what was in it, he still didn’t want me doing anything with his bag. I’ve told him over and over that there’s nothing wrong with having sex toys and that he should loosen up a little bit, but he just growls at me anytime I try to talk about it.

I put his red bag in the back seats and watched as Flynn struggled to get the blue bag into my truck. He was short, and I had a large truck. It was comical. Even with a step, he was unable to do it by himself.

I laughed at him as he struggled before offering to help, “just give me the bag, and I’ll put it back there.”

He glared at me. “Not going to happen.”

“What do you lose by letting me hold your bag?”

“Shut up.”

I shook my head at him as I walked straight towards him. I lifted him up so that he would be high enough to get the bag inside my truck any way he wanted. Once the bag was no longer in his hands, I opened the passenger door and placed Flynn onto the seat. I already knew how small he was, but my truck only made him look smaller. I liked this.

He refused to talk to me at the beginning of the trip, and it was probably because I hurt his pride by helping him. Even though I didn’t like when he gave me the silent treatment, sometimes it was best to let him get it out of his system. Besides, I didn’t want to start a fight in my truck or accidently send him into a panic attack.

We had been on the road for almost four hours before either of us spoke to the other. In those four hours, Flynn had fallen asleep, but when he woke up, he requested a stop. “I’m hungry. Can we get something to eat?”

“Funny you should ask that because our first stop is a nice breakfast themed restaurant that I’ve read a lot of good reviews for. It’s only a couple minutes away.” As I said this, I turned off the main road towards the restaurant.

I had to make reservations for this place as it was nearly impossible to get a table otherwise. I was unsure if bringing Flynn to a popular restaurant was a good move when I knew he hated crowds and was easily overwhelmed, but this one had small segmented spaces in which people eat in. I felt like this would make him more comfortable.

Flynn was already tense when we turned into the parking lot and noticed the amount of cars. In fact he didn’t want to get out of the truck.

“Can’t we go somewhere else? This place is packed.” He complained.

“I’ve already booked a table, and I think you would really enjoy this place. Please give it a chance.” I begged giving him puppy dog eyes.

He gave into my wish, and I helped him out of the truck. Luckily, once we were seated at our table, he calmed down a bit. The segmentation of this restaurant seemed to be just the right thing for him.

I had wanted it to be a romantic date, but that didn’t happen. It was no different than when we ate at the school cafeteria. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I tried to make it romantic by using cheesy pick up lines and complimenting him, but I only succeeded in getting glares.

That was one stop down, and even though I wasn’t successful, I still had another destination in mind. It would take three hours after leaving the restaurant to get there, and it was one of the stops I was most excited for.

I got out of my truck and again assisted Flynn out. While I grabbed a bag from the back, he looked around confused before asking, “where are we?”

“Don’t worry about it and just follow me.” I grabbed his hand and started dragging him along.

“Mal, you’re going too fast.”

I apologized to him before picking him up and just running to our destination. The starting point of this stop was a trail. It was an educational trail that talked about the different plants and animals that could be found in the forest.

I put Flynn down at the entrance of the trail and watched as he read the small plaque that would begin this trail. His tail gave a small wag as he started walking down the trail without me. I allowed him to take the lead as he stopped and read every small plaque and raced to find the next one.

I knew this would be a hit with Flynn. He had enjoyed nature and liked learning about it, but he rarely went out because he was scared to go alone.

Although we didn’t speak as we walked the trail, I enjoyed it. Trails weren’t anything new to me because I frequently walked trails, but that didn’t make this any less enjoyable. The sights were amazing and Flynn made them even more stunning.

I didn’t read any of the plaques as we walked through the trail because I was too busy watching Flynn. He tail wagged the whole time which gave me a fuzzy feeling in my chest. I enjoyed it when he was happy like this.

Flynn didn’t know it yet, but the trail ended at a waterfall. I knew this not because I found it online, but because I had walked this trail before. I was excited to see his reaction to the waterfall because according to him, he had never seen one in person.

The trail was a good hour walk. It would have been shorter if we had just walked straight through it, but Flynn wanted to read every plaque, so I allowed him to do so.

It was worth the wait because as we made it to the end of the trail, the waterfall slowly came into view. It wasn’t a huge waterfall, but it was still beautiful. Flynn froze in place as he looked at it, watching the water fall from the cliff  above.

I got my phone out so that I could snap a picture of him looking at the waterfall, but just as my camera turned on, he turned to face me. However, this was perfect. I took the picture as he said, “Mal, this is so beautiful.”

“It’s not nearly as beautiful as you are.” I took my chances with a flirtatious line.

Again, this gained me a glare. “I’m not that pretty.”

“I will never agree with that.” I pulled the bag I had been carrying off my shoulder and removed a blanket. I sat down on it and invited him to do the same with a pat. “Would you like something to snack on?”

“What did you bring?”

“Nothing special, just some granola bars and goldfish.”

“I’ll take the goldfish.”

I pulled the goldfish out of my bag and handed them to Flynn. He was staring at the waterfall, and his tail was still wagging. It made me loathe the idea of leaving this place.

I allowed him to sit there and stare at the waterfall for another half hour before informing him we needed to get back to the truck. While I packed the blanket up, he continued to look out at the waterfall. I really hated to bring him away, but we needed to get back onto the road so it wouldn’t be too late in the evening when we got to our hotel.

“Alright let’s go.” I announced as I watched Flynn’s body slump. The happy tail was gone, and his ears drooped. I felt bad and in response, I pulled him into my body and gave him a quick kiss. “I’ll bring you back another day.”

I could tell he was shocked from the kiss as he looked me dead in the eyes. His eyes were wide open, and he had frozen in place. I let out a small laugh as I picked him up and carried him back through the trail.

I put him back into my truck, and as I was getting into the driver’s seat Flynn asked, “do you promise?”

He wasn’t looking at me when I looked over at him. I almost asked him what he was talking about, but then I remembered I told him I would bring him back. “Yes, I promise.”