I found Hunter smiling to himself when I came back out about fifteen minutes later. I didn’t question him on his thoughts about why he was smiling, as it was a good sight to see. I changed from my big, comfy shorts and t-shirt into a pair of tight black shorts and a dark red t-shirt that hugged every curve on my body.
Hunter watched me, his mouth gaping open, as I gathered the rest of my things: a water bottle and my cell phone.
If this were what I needed to dress in to get his attention, I would gladly do it every day.
“Ready.” I bounced on my toes, waiting for Hunter to get off the stool and get going. This was the most excitement I had in my day for a long time.
Hunter grabbed his keys off the counter and walked towards the front door. “Let’s go.” He waved me through and closed the door behind him.
We spent almost three hours walking around, looking at every open exhibit. On a warm day like this, many of the animals were lying about in their constructed natural environment, making it hard to see them as they hid.
Hunter was able to point out most of them for me, and I squealed with delight when I finally saw them. The train ride that we decided to take for the second trip around let us off at the primate enclosure.
“This is what I’ve been waiting for.” Hunter leaped off the train and held his hand out to help me off. I didn’t pull away, so he kept my hand with his as we entered the dim, humid area.
I didn’t know if I was more excited about seeing the monkeys or the fact that Hunter was holding my hand. We stopped at every display, and I watched as Hunter’s fascination grew with each one. It was like this was his first time here, not mine.
“I’m going to guess that visiting the monkey place is your favorite.” I watched as Hunter played through the glass with a small, long-tailed lemur that was following his hand along the window with its own.
“They’re just so much like us.” Hunter watched as his little playmate for the moment jumped off the edge and swung back over to the others in the tree. “You have to come see my favorite.” He took my hand once again and eagerly pulled me along.
It seemed Hunter’s favorite was the gorillas. He pulled me in front of him so that I would have access to see them at the large glass screen. He let go of my hand and put his arms around my waist. He leaned his chin on the top of my head as we watched the gorillas eat, play, and wrestle around with each other.
Being so caught up in watching these animals interact, I didn’t see the large male that had snuck up along the side until it was too late.
“Ahhh!” A scream erupted from me, and I scrambled backward. I turned and buried my face into Hunter’s chest as the big gorilla pounded on and yelled through the glass.
Hunter busted out laughing over my reaction. He kept me wrapped up in his arms and turned me around, so I could face the one who scared me.
This huge male was the obvious leader of the family, and he was watching me intently.
Hunter pointed to the gorilla, who had finally moved away from the glass. “I think he likes you.”
“Uh, yeah. I doubt that.” I never pictured these cute animals to be so big and loud until one was right up in my face. I wiggled just a smidgen backward, so I was closer to Hunter.
Instead of letting go, which I expected him to do, Hunter squeezed me a little closer to his body. He chuckled again and whispered into my ear, “I think he was saying, 'Bama, come join me.”
I just scrunched up my nose and shook my head over the supposed proposal.
A group stood behind us, trying to see what was going on, which sort of ruined our close moment. Not wanting the others to miss their opportunity, Hunter took hold of my hand, and we moved along.
“Where are we going now?”
Hunter was pulling me along, going past many of the merchandise shops. “It’s lunchtime.” He pointed to the large clock that was standing above all the other attractions. The food court had a place that served whatever type of hoagie, burger, or chicken sandwich someone would want. He grabbed a tray and motioned for me to follow him.
We sat next to each other as we ate our burgers and fries. We talked about what we’d seen during the day, and he still laughed about my harrowing experience with the gorilla.
It was a comfortable situation with no one around to bother us…no outside distractions to interrupt our time together. That was until we both noticed the group of girls that were seated two benches away. They looked to be around the same age as us, and all were giving us secret glances towards our table.
“Seems you have visitors.” I noticed two of the girls giggling with each other as they walked in our direction.
Hunter turned his head a bit to see what I was referencing. He let out a large sigh as we both knew that our special bonding moment was about to be over.
“Hi.” One of the girls waved her hand once as they approached the bench. “Aren’t you the lead singer from Skyway Bound?” She questioned Hunter as she looked him up and down.
The other girl stood a step back. She was all wide-eyed and star-struck that they may have just met the hottest thing out there in the local music arena.
“Yeah.” Hunter tried to be as nonchalant as he could. If he was like me, he was hoping that if he just answered their question, they would sort of disappear. He wrapped up his uneaten food and set it back on the tray.
I did the same, as it seemed we both had lost our appetite.
The long-haired brunette, beauty let out a loud squeal. “Oh. My. God.” She wedged herself in between Hunter and me. “I think we…” She motioned to herself and the other girls. “…have been to almost every concert that you’ve done.” She waved her hand to the other two girls who’d decided to join in on the escapade. “Can we get a picture?” She held out her iPhone to one of the other girls and wiggled closer to Hunter. She leaned her head on his shoulder and smiled brightly for the camera.
Then the rest of the girls all chimed in that it was their turn, and each sat as close as they could to Hunter.
“Let’s get a group photo.” The girl who had followed the first girl looked around for someone to take their picture together. I was standing off to the side, and she motioned for me to come over. “Can you take the picture?” Without waiting for an answer, she handed the iPhone over and smiled pretty for the camera.
“Smile, Hunter.” I snapped one picture of Hunter with all four girls.
He sat stone-faced without any sort of emotion showing.
The girls repeatedly said ‘thank you’, gave him a quick hug, and finally went on their way. With every other step, one of them would turn around, giggle, and wave goodbye again.
“It looks like you have fans everywhere.” I tried to make light of the situation, but I was a little upset that our time out was disturbed.
Hunter looked downright angry as he nodded once in agreement.
I knew the band had fans in all the surrounding states, and it wasn’t uncommon for him or one of the other guys to get mobbed by a group of girls. It was just that today he seemed irritated by it all. I know both of us just wanted to get away from our hectic life schedules and maybe just enjoy ourselves for once, but these girls just had to go and ruin it.
“Guess it could’ve been worse.” I took his hand this time and led him on the pathway that led out of the restaurant area. “They could’ve declared their undying love for you and said they wanted to have your firstborn.” I laughed at my comment but quickly stopped when I saw that Hunter had an expression of pain on his face. “Did something like that happen before?” It wasn’t any of my business to know, but he looked so tormented by what I’d just said.
Before he could answer that personal question, the sound of his cell phone rang, saving him.
“Oh, no.” Hunter groaned when he saw the number. He didn’t answer right away, like he was letting whoever was on the other end sweat it out for a minute, thinking he wasn’t going to answer. After the fifth ring, he clicked the ‘on’ button.
“Hey.”
Even though Hunter was standing a couple of feet away from me, I heard Joshua’s voice through the phone.
Hunter told him I was standing right beside him and held out his phone for me to take. “He wants to talk to you.” He sat down on the nearest bench. He knew, as well as I did, that once his brother got started on something, he could go on forever.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Joshua started straight into the reason he called his brother’s cell as soon as I said hello.
I took my phone out of my pocket and checked the settings. “Oops. I had the ringer on off, sorry.” I rolled my eyes at Hunter in response to Joshua's behavior. “What did you need?” I just wanted to get on with the reason Joshua had called in the first place, then I could get back to my day with Hunter.
“I was just checking to see how you were doing since you were still sick when we left. You didn’t answer your cell, so I automatically thought you may have gotten worse and gone to the hospital.”
I felt bad for putting Joshua into a panic like that. “I’m feeling a lot better. Hunter and I are at the zoo right now. It’s been a great day so far.” As soon as I heard the sigh and long pause, I knew I probably had said the wrong thing about me and Hunter being out.
“That’s cool. I guess I’ll see you on Sunday. Put my brother back on the phone, please.” Joshua sounded pissed that Hunter and I were out for the day. It wasn’t like we were at some hotel and having a wild sexual orgy. My gosh, we were at the freakin zoo.
I held the phone back out to Hunter.
He stood up and leaned against the railing. His eyes dropped to the ground as soon as Joshua started his rampage. I heard Joshua yelling about something and Hunter saying a lot of ‘uh-huh’. About a minute later, Hunter said ‘later’ and hung up the phone.
“Ready?” He didn’t even wait for an answer. He started walking towards the exit that would lead us back to his truck.
I followed his lead. I had to lightly jog in some parts as his stride was longer than mine and it didn’t seem like he was going to wait.
We finally got back to the truck. Hunter got in and started it even before I had the chance to climb in. We rode the thirty-minute trip back home in silence.