Nothing is Ever Perfect

Differences

Only a mere two weeks ago two couples, one married and the other in a continuous state of uncertainty, travelled to The Heights, a hiking trail outside of Sunbury, the town where both couples lived. The plan for this weekend was for a couple who was considerably successful in their communication with their other and married life on a whole to subtly begin to influence the other couple to slowly come to that point in life where they as companions could get along perfectly. But nothing’s perfect is it?

Tonya and Bradley had been dating on and off for about four years now, longer than Nathan and Teresa’s marriage, but could never seem to reach that perfection in the balance of both their lives to attain a perfectly stable relationship.

On Saturday night the two couples planned to hike to the top of the trail, camp out, have a cook out and sleep out under the stars. Romantic isn’t it? Well wrong. During the hike Tonya realised she hadn’t remembered to fill her water bottle and was constantly begging Bradley to share with her so she wouldn’t “die of thirst” so she said.

“Bradley come on man, I’m dying here, couldn’t you just spare me a drop more?” she whined yanking on Bradley’s arm to get him to look at her and hopefully pity her.

“Bradley come on man, I’m dying”, he mocked her quite annoyed, “you’re gonna empty the bottle before we’re even half way up the trail!” he yelled back at his disappointed girlfriend.

“You’d rather me dead wouldn’t you, WOULDN’T YOU?!?!”, she yelled.

Tonya’s temperance was unmatchable. Some even considered her bipolar. A pretty face, not skinny and not fat either, just the right size for some men, but unlike Bradley, most guys considered changing cities to get away from her wrath.

Sighing Bradley handed her the bottle receiving a shake head and a whipped hand gesture from Nathan who loved to tease Bradley especially when he gave in to Tonya. This isn’t to say that Bradley was a soft guy, quite the contrary, but he knew this would be an even longer weekend for him if Tonya was kept on edge.

Almost snatching the bottle a second after giving it to Tonya, the four continued their hike.

Teresa loved nature unlike her other companions. She always found a sense of peace and serenity in it and if left to her devices she would stay there forever. Her love of nature was costly to her husband however as Teresa could never be pleased with living in an apartment where she had no backyard or garden to relax in or to plant something in, so Nathan had to work two jobs to ensure that his wife could live in a house and have the backyard she always wanted. He would do anything to please her it seemed and none of his male friends could ever understand how he over worked himself just so he could give her literally everything. To him, making her happy was his life’s mission as making his soul mate happy would always make him happy regardless of what it took.

“Look at the sunset Nathan isn’t it gorgeous? “ Teresa said peering into the distance.

“It could never be as gorgeous and my beautiful wife” Nathan replied taking Teresa by the hand, pulling her to him and kissing her full on the lips.

She pulled away quickly, holding her head down in embarrassment as she was never one for p.d.a (public displays of affection).

“Come on Teresa they’re grown adults and our friends, it’s not a big deal”, Nathan replied pulling his reluctant spouse back into his arms “Nothing more than they’ve ever seen before, come on, don’t let us miss this opportunity, kissing under the beautiful sunset”

“Seriously Nathan I’m not ok with this and you know it, stop it”, Teresa snapped.

Nathan sighed, knowing it was a lost cause.

Sitting around the camp fire the guys built, Teresa and Tonya began to prepare food while the guys returned back to the trees to get extra fire wood to keep them during the night.

“I can’t wait ‘til tonight I’ve never had sex under the stars before, there’s always time for firsts” Tonya said while turning the pieces of beef hung over the fire.

“Wait…have sex? Out here? Are you crazy Tonya, how can you do that?”, Teresa replied with flaming cheeks from the thought of what Tonya just told her.

“Why not? It’s romantic isn’t it?” Tonya retorted puzzled by her best friend’s response.

“I couldn’t do it, I can’t even have sex on my living room couch! I need a bed. It just makes me feel more comfortable I couldn’t ever do something like that. The thought alone is making me cringe!” Teresa exclaimed.

“You’re kidding me right?” Tonya replied completely confused now.

“Bradley and I haven’t left a stone unturned in my apartment and now he’s moving in to a new apartment we have to christeneverything all over”, Tonya replied smiling to herself possibly imaging the process.

“You’re disgusting Tonya how can you even have this conversation? I would die talking about my sex life”

“What sex life dear, straight up sex is just boring I don’t know how you’ve been married for three years doing the same thing what, once a month?” Tonya jokingly told her friend.

“We don’t need to do anything fancy Tonya, we’re content with just being together, there’s nothing better than that joining with your soul mate, it’s just beautiful. And we don’t have sex only once a month! ” Teresa replied almost sounding offended but also sounding as if she could be lying to her friend.

Deeper in the trees Nathan and Bradley sat having a beer sitting on two tree stumps chatting with each other.

“What convinced you that Teresa was the one Nathan I’ll never understand this soul mate thing”, Bradley asked his friend.

“I don’t know but from the moment I saw her I just knew. She was perfect and I wanted to nothing but please her from that very moment. She was just the one.” Nathan sat reminiscing about meeting his wife five years ago and how her long, straight, black hair flowed freely in the breeze so perfectly framing her small angelic face. How she dressed so modestly without showing much making him yearn to get close enough to discover the true beauty of her body, mind and soul.

“Puss puss puss here kitty kitty kitty”, Bradley retorted mockingly.

“Oh shutup! At least I’m happy dude you’re always so miserable because of Tonya, I don’t know how you put up with that attitude.”

“Takes a man with back bone to deal with a strong minded woman like Tonya, Nathan, and it doesn’t help that she blows my mind everything we..”he trailed of as if in wonderland all of a sudden.

Nathan began to snap his fingers in front his face.

“Snap out of it Bradley, no need to rub your incredible sex life in my face”, Nathan replied almost sadly.

“I don’t know why you don’t say something man, if she loves you wouldn’t she adjust to please you, you know with yall soul mate crap and all”, Bradley replied.

“I try but she’s just not open to anything. I’m not saying it’s bad ‘cause it’s not, it’s just repetitive and boring sometimes. But I love her and what makes her happy makes me happy” Nathan said smiling to himself.

“We should get back though before the girls notice we’ve been gone so long”

“Yeah Tonya would throw an *itch fit” Bradley replied rolling his eyes.

“You should try romancing her more Brad, maybe she would be so uptight all the time if you did and it worked for me and Teresa”

“Not happening I don’t have the time or the patience for that crap” Brad replied before erupting in laughter imagining himself pulling out chairs and buying flowers.