Love You Forever

Chapter 2

Derrick was careful to make sure he kept his Mondays clear, especially when he had a weekend up north with his boyfriend planned. He didn’t have any choice this time, however. This sit down was set up by the brass, no excuses for lack of attendance. He’d apologize to Mary Jane on his way out. It wasn’t her fault.

“Damn!” he said aloud.

Coming back to the present he checked the odometer. Only twenty more miles, he thought, gauging the distance to the four-lane highway where he hoped the driving would be easier than the road he was on now. If not, he would stop at the first motel he came to. He would get up early and try to make the meeting…if the weather cleared that is. If not…screw it.

The country singer on the radio—blissfully unaware of the deteriorating driving conditions—droned something about being grateful for the weekend, but that it just wasn’t long enough. Despite his anxiety Derrick smiled. That’s the truth, he thought. He looked forward to and relished every chance he had to be with Cooper. But the weekends when they were together seemed to fly by, and there never seemed to be enough opportunities to be together the way they really wanted to be.

“Long distance relationships just don’t work,” Ned, his best friend, had warned him. This was shortly after he had met Cooper a little over a year ago when he, Ned and some buds had gone skiing in the northern part of the state.

“They can if you put effort into them,” Derrick had retorted almost defensively. “Besides, you don’t get to pick who you fall in love with. It happens and you deal with it.”

His friend had backed off with a shrug, but deep inside Derrick knew he was partially right. Long distance relationships were difficult. Even though he and Cooper lived only a couple hundred miles apart—235.7 to be exact—it was still a struggle to find time to spend together. Their goal was a minimum of one weekend a month, more if they could manage it. To be fair it was Derrick who had the most trouble keeping his end of the bargain. His work as a junior executive of a major auto manufacturer was demanding, and climbing the corporate ladder required a lot of time and energy, not to mention personal sacrifice. Getting that minimum one weekend a month was a strain sometimes, but so far they had managed it.

Cooper did his part. He came down to Derrick’s end of the state a couple of times, but to be honest both of them preferred Cooper’s rustic hideaway up north. If Derrick was at home he often got calls from the boss asking him to come in for meetings or to handle some issue that had come up. Derrick felt that if he was there he was obligated to do as he was asked. Cooper, for his part, was not a city boy. He definitely was more at home in the woodsy rural end of the state where he worked as a conservation specialist for the DNR.

The glare of headlights from an oncoming vehicle brought Derrick back to attention. The roadway was now completely white with snow, and he hit the brakes, moving slightly to the right to make sure the two vehicles passed unscathed. When he did, his SUV started to fishtail. The snow driving against the windshield cut visibility down to almost zero. He shuddered and gripped the wheel tighter. Checking the odometer again he saw he had about fifteen more miles to the interstate. He took a deep steadying breath.

Derrick hadn’t been looking for a relationship the night he met Cooper. He would have been satisfied with a brief one-nighter or weekend hook-up if the chemistry was right. But when Cooper Jenison walked into the bar something inside Derrick told him this was going to be more than that.

He had been sitting at a table with his buddies having a beer in the Heidelberg, one of the small bars at the ski resort. While not officially designated as such, it was commonly accepted it was the scene for ‘other oriented’ clientele. So when the tall, handsome man in the form fitting cord knit sweater came in, Derrick was pretty sure he didn’t have to rely on his gaydar to get past that first question.

Despite the treacherous driving conditions, Derrick smiled. He recalled that night very well…