The Hike Read Online Free PDF Page A

memories before they were gone, but it was no use.
Business dinner? There’s no business dinner. Lost? You’re not lost. Your wife and kids? You don’t have a wife and kids. Job? You don’t have a job. Men with knives chasing you? No one’s chasing you. Don’t be silly.
    Ben looked down at his knee. The scars from his ACL surgeries? Gone. His skin felt softer and smoother. There was no longer a wedding ring on his hand.
But
why would you have a wedding ring on your hand? You’re twenty-one years old. You’re not tired. You’re not lost. This isn’t a crisis. This is exactly where you want to be, Ben. Isn’t it? Alone, with
her
?
    â€œDo you want a beer?” she asked.
    â€œYeah. Yeah, definitely.”
    She stopped playing the guitar and reached over for a lukewarm can of cheap beer. Ben drank it all in one gulp. Any beer was good beer.
    â€œWhy are you here?” he asked her, stifling a burp.
    â€œFor the party.”
    â€œWhat party?”
    â€œThe party!”
    â€œWhere are we?”
    She gestured to the trees. “In the woods, dummy!”
    â€œBut . . .”
    â€œMy favorite part of the party is when the party is over. When I don’t feel obligated to have a good time, and I can just sit and chill with whoever’s left to chill with, you know?”
    He nodded like a simpleton. “Totally.”
    The last time you saw her, she was a senior, wasn’t she? One class ahead of you. Remember how nice she was to you? Nicer than girls usually were. She had that boyfriend, remember? Dave. Dave was all right, except for the fact that he had her and you didn’t. And then, her final week at school, she ditched that boyfriend. Remember that one night? She was out at a party, now single and available. You stood near her that night as the stereo blared out through the frat house living room, and she scooped your hand up in hers. You never expected her to make a move. You never expected something that good to ever happen, did you, Ben? And you never expected to be so shitfaced at that exact moment. You could barely stand. So nothing happened. When you woke up the next morning, you had to go back home while she stayed on campus for graduation. That wasn’t long ago. You remember her hand, don’t you? Why don’t you take her hand now? Why don’t you get a taste of what a second chance feels like, kid?
    He took her hand. She gave him a playful squeeze to let him know she liked it. She was wearing a friendship bracelet and the frayed ends tickled his wrist.
    â€œDid I fuck up with you?” he asked her.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou took my hand that one night, and I didn’t do anything with it. I think I fucked that up.”
    â€œOh, I’ve fucked up worse. I was in a bar once, and I saw this cute guy, so I went to drag him out to the dance floor without realizing that his leg was in a cast. I dragged him ten feet before letting him go.”
    â€œNo, you didn’t.”
    â€œHonest to God.”
    â€œWhere are you living now? Do you have a job or something?”
    â€œNo, I’m just hanging out.”
    â€œThat’s cool.”
“That’s cool”? That’s all you can think to say, you idiot? Stop talking before you fuck up again.
    Ben felt so hot next to her and the fire, but it was that wonderful, toasty kind of body heat that never gets uncomfortable. It was like sinking into a feather bed that only gets softer and warmer and more pleasurable to lie on.
    â€œHow did we get here?” he asked her.
    â€œThe path.”
    A brief silence. All he could think to say was, “I wish I hadn’t fucked up with you.”
So typical. Guys always get too serious too quickly, and they never realize it until it’s too late.
    But it was all right tonight. Annie wasn’t scared off. “You didn’t fuck up anything,” she told him. “Sometimes the