-Devin-

The next few days passed by slowly. Even though he was frustrated, he didn't try anything with Avery during work. Part of that was to let things cool down after how Monday night's dinner had gone. Since then, he hadn't necessarily avoided the others, but he'd kept his mouth shut at dinner, ate his food, and left. 

The other reason he was leaving Avery alone wasn't out of any respect for Avery, but because he was gearing up for something bigger. As long as he didn't push Avery too hard, the guy would probably give in if he tried to fuck him. He had noticed the way Avery looked at him. Even a saint like Avery wasn't immune to an attractive man. He chuckled to himself, wondering if Avery had jerked off while thinking of him. He probably had. He'd thought of Avery once or twice while he jerked off, mostly imagining what it'd be like to dominate him.

That thought was interrupted when his phone vibrated with a text from his dad. "Happy Birthday!"

Annoyed, he tossed the phone into his lap. "Ugh, don't remind me," he said under his breath.

"Is everything okay?" Avery asked, looking over at him.

He sighed. "It was my dad, texting me Happy Birthday."

"Today's your birthday?"

"Yeah. Pretty fucking lame birthday if you ask me. There's no point in even acknowledging it. I'm stuck at this forest camp when I should be in a club with my friends."

"I'm sorry," Avery responded, sincerely meaning it.

"Not your problem."

Avery didn't say anything else, but he could tell Avery was looking over at him once in a while. While they were working, Avery let him take a few more breaks than usual and went easier on him. He supposed it was Avery's way of trying to make things better for him, but there was nothing that could make this situation better.

-

He took a long shower after they got back. It was the least he could do to have some part of his day that didn't suck. He was about to go see what food he could find in the kitchen when he heard a knock on his door. He opened it to find Avery standing there, smiling up at him. He tried not to look annoyed, but this was the last thing he needed. He just wanted to be left alone to sulk in his cabin, and he had purposefully waited until everyone else would be done with dinner so he wouldn't have to deal with any of them.

"I'm sorry to ask," Avery said. "But could you meet me by the creek in five minutes?"

"Why?"

"I need your help with something."

"Seriously? Ask someone else. I just told you earlier that it's my birthday. The least you could do is let me relax instead of working extra on some bullshit project."

"Please come, Devin. No one else is available right now and I just need your help for a few minutes and that's it. Then you can leave."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll be there in five."

Although he was getting hungry, he figured he should delay dinner until after he was done with whatever this was. He put his shoes on and slowly made his way to the creek, browsing through social media on his phone as he walked. As he came up to the creek to see what Avery needed, all he saw was Avery sitting on a blanket with a fire going. It looked like Avery had a backpack with him too, and he noticed some food scattered around the blanket, along with a tiny cake on a plate, a single candle stuck in the icing. He was surprised, to say the least. It looked like Avery had set all this up for him, even though he'd just found out it was his birthday a few hours ago.

"Happy Birthday, Devin," Avery said softly, smiling up at him. "I know this isn't where you want to be for your birthday, but I think you should still celebrate it. I brought some steaks we can cook over the fire. I've been saving them for something special and this seems like the right occasion."

He didn't know what to say. Deep down, he was touched that someone cared enough to try to make the day special for him. He still didn't understand how Avery could be so kind to everyone all the time. Once again, he felt guilty for treating Avery the way he had.

He sat down. "Steak sounds great. A lot better than whatever I'd find in the kitchen."

Noticing there was a large log right behind him, he leaned back against it as he watched Avery place the steaks on a campfire grate that looked like it had been put by the creek for this sort of thing. He had to admit that it was a nice spot. The sound of the creek and the popping of the fire helped him relax.

He looked over at Avery, and then motioned to the cake. "Where'd you get that?"

"I baked it before I came over to get you. We always have some spare ingredients lying around. It comes in handy sometimes."

He nodded, suddenly feeling awkward. "Thanks. You know, for all this." He cleared his throat. "What'd you do for your last birthday? Were you here?"

"Mitch sent me home for the weekend, and I had dinner with my family and hung out with a few friends."

He realized he'd never asked Avery about his family. "Do you have brothers or sisters?"

"I have an older sister, Kylie, and an older brother, Ben."

"That must have been nice. At least you had someone else to take the attention off of you."

"You didn't like being an only child?"

"It was okay, I guess. I got everything I wanted, but it also meant my dad was constantly on my ass about everything."

He could see Avery hesitate before he asked the next question. "You've only mentioned your dad. What about your mom?"

"She died when I was eight. Cancer."

Usually he saw pity in people's eyes when he revealed this information, but with Avery, he saw genuine sadness. As always, the guy cared about everyone.

"I'm so sorry, Devin. I shouldn't have asked about that today."

He shrugged. "It's okay. You didn't know." Leaning back further against the log, he watched as Avery turned the steaks. "We can talk about you instead. Do you want to do forest stuff for the rest of your life?"

Avery smiled. "Yeah, I would like to work in forestry. I've always wanted to combine my engineering degree and my love for the outdoors."

He didn't know that Avery had an engineering degree, but he probably should have guessed given the blueprints in the shed with Avery's salmon project. He wondered if he'd ever crossed paths with Avery at college. "Where'd you get your degree?"

"Shoreline Community College. I just have my Associate's right now, but maybe someday I'll get my Bachelor's."

"Why didn't you get it all at once?"

"Finances, mainly. My parents helped each of us as much as they could, but I'll need to work more before I can afford to go back to school. It's a good thing I want to do forestry anyway, since most of the big engineering firms require a Bachelor's."

He felt the guilt creeping back in. His dad had easily been able to afford to send him to the University of Washington, and then he was handed a job at his dad's firm as soon as he graduated. He hadn't even had to try. And here was Avery, putting his personal time into an engineering project and making the most of the resources and education he had.

"What do you do?" Avery asked. "Is your job okay with you taking a few months off for this?"

These were all questions he didn't want to answer. He didn't want to tell Avery that he also had an engineering degree and then explain about working for his dad or how his paycheck didn't really matter.

"Let's talk about something more fun than work," he said, avoiding the question.

"Sure," Avery responded. He pulled one of the steaks off the grate and put it on a plate for him. "What do you like to do when you're not working? You mentioned clubbing and going to cabins with your friends."

"That's basically it. I travel with my friends or with my cousin Carter. We'll go abroad a lot of the time. Carter also drags me along to a bunch of rich person shit like yacht parties and horse racing."

"Your cousin is wealthy?"

"Yeah, his whole family is. Like, ridiculously wealthy. Lives in a mansion and has housekeeping staff."

"That's fascinating," Avery said slowly. "I've never met anyone like that before. What do you do at a yacht party?"

"Hang out on your yacht and on other people's yachts. Drink and eat a bunch of fancy food. Hook up with models."

"How does that work for you?"

He shrugged. "There's usually at least one guy there to hook up with. And I did sleep with a few women when I was younger, before I came out in college."

Avery looked like he wanted to ask a million questions, so he continued. "It wasn't that bad. Just not my thing. You ever sleep with a woman?"

Avery shook his head.

"Was your family cool about you coming out?" he asked.

"Yeah, they were pretty amazing about it," Avery replied. "They just want me to be happy. My mom gets excited about helping plan my wedding one day. My brother and sister have always had my back, and my dad was great about it even though he works in construction and probably got crap for it from his coworkers. What was your experience?"

"My extended family threatened to cut me and my dad off. My dad and Carter were the only ones who stuck by me. It's better now, but it caused a ton of drama for a while."

"I'm sorry," Avery replied. "What's your dad like? None of us met him when he dropped you off."

"Typical single dad. Works a lot, expects a lot of me, is usually disappointed. He's always been on my ass about my grades and work and settling down with someone. I know he cares about me, but I'm still pissed at him for sending me here. He even had the audacity to text me 'Happy Birthday', as if everything is normal and I'm not stuck in some forest prison."

Avery flinched.

"I mean, it's better now," he corrected, realizing he shouldn't insult the place around Avery. "Especially since you did all this nice stuff for me. So it could be a lot worse."

"What did you text back to him?"

"Nothing."

"Devin, he cares about you and still wants you to be happy. You shouldn't ignore him."

Sighing, he picked up his phone and opened his dad's text. He typed "Thx" and then threw the phone down on the blanket. "There. Done."

Avery gave him a disapproving look. "You can do better than that."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, Saint Avery. What perfect line would you text back?"

"I'd call him and talk to him rather than just texting him."

"Are you seriously going to make me do that?"

"I'm not making you do anything. I'm just telling you what I'd do."

"You're judging the hell out of me and making me feel guilty, so I'd call that making me do it." He picked up his phone again and hit the call button on his dad's text.

He figured his dad would be too busy working, but to his surprise, he answered.

"Hey, son. How's everything going?"

"Sucks. Dunno what else you expected," he said, needing to get some of his aggression out of the way first. "But one of the employees grilled steak for me and made a cake. So that part didn't suck."

"That was nice," his dad replied. "Are you behaving? I hope you're not giving them a hard time."

"I'm doing the work," he responded.

"Well, when you get back home I can take you out for dinner. You can invite Carter and a few of your friends."

"Thanks," he said. "How's work?"

"Good. We're negotiating a contract with the state. I'd like to put you on the project, but we can talk more about that later."

"Okay. I should probably go. I'm still hanging out with one of my coworkers."

"I hope the rest of your night is good. Happy Birthday, and I love you."

He grunted in response. "K. Bye."

He hung up, knowing Avery had been right and that his dad had probably appreciated the call. While he had been on the phone with his dad, Avery had finished eating his own steak and had started cleaning up. He smiled at Devin. "I bet he was happy to hear from you. Do you want your cake now?"

"Sure. My steak was perfect, by the way."

"I'm glad you liked it. It can be a little tough sometimes to get it right over a campfire."

Avery lit the candle on the tiny cake and passed the plate to him. "Happy Birthday. I hope whatever you wish for comes true."

He wished he could get the hell out of this camp and back to his normal life, but he smiled and blew out the candle. "Thanks," he said, feeling awkward again. "This is better than sitting in my cabin."

After they finished the cake, Avery packed up the plate and silverware and put it in his backpack. "What would you like to do now?" he asked. "Mitch told us at dinner that we can all have a later start tomorrow morning since it's Friday, so we can stay up for a few more hours tonight. We can stay by the fire for a while, go look at the stars, or -"

"I want to fuck you," he said, the words leaving his mouth before he could even think them through. He didn't necessarily want Avery, but if there was another gay guy here, he might as well take advantage of it and still get laid on his birthday. Besides, it being his birthday was the perfect time to try to move everything to the next level.

"Me?" Avery squeaked, his mouth falling open in surprise.

"Unless you know of any other gay men here, yeah, you."

Avery looked around, clearly nervous and not knowing what to say.

"Look, I know you don't do hook-ups, but it's my birthday."

He knew putting it that way would convince Avery. The guy couldn't resist doing something nice, especially if he was asked.

Avery bit his lip, looking like he was searching for the right words. "Do you..." Avery began.

"I've got condoms and lube. I told you I'm not a dumbass about these things."

"Okay. I don't even know why you brought those here, but um, I'm going to take this stuff back to the kitchen, and then I should take a shower."

"How's thirty minutes from now? I'll meet you at your cabin."

Avery nodded, biting his lip again.

He watched as Avery got up and quickly walked away. He may have gotten Avery to agree, but he hoped he wouldn't back out.