Bad Decisions

Chapter Four

-Avery-

Once they were back at camp, he went straight to his cabin to take a shower and change into dry clothes. He was flustered and he didn't want anyone else noticing that his clothes were wet. The last thing he needed was someone asking questions. 

As he stood under the hot water, he thought back to what had happened with Devin in the truck. Right as Devin had started rubbing his arms, he had felt that familiar warmth pooling in his lower body. He hadn't wanted Devin to notice that he was turned on, but given Devin's advances from the other day, he shouldn't have been surprised when Devin's hand wandered lower.

He hadn't been lying when he told Devin he'd never hooked up. It's not that he didn't like sex, because he loved it, but he'd rather do it with someone he cared about. Just as important, he'd rather it be with someone he trusted, and he definitely didn't trust Devin. Despite that, he couldn't get the encounter out of his head. He hadn't had someone's hands on him in a long time, and it had felt amazing.

He shook his head and turned off the water. He shouldn't be thinking of their new volunteer like this - the volunteer he'd be training for the next few weeks. He got out of the shower and quickly got dressed, pushing thoughts of Devin out of his head.

He met everyone else in the main building for dinner. They all sat at one long table, talking while Peter finished making fajitas for all of them. They had just started piling food on their plates when Devin walked in.

"Come and get some," Peter called out. "We missed you last night."

Devin sat down at the table, a bored expression on his face.

"How was your first day?" Amanda asked.

Devin shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

"Where are you from?" Sam asked. "I don't think Mitch mentioned that."

"Bellevue."

The conversation continued in that manner, with Devin giving mostly one word responses to his coworkers' questions while shoveling food into his mouth.

"How are your prototypes coming along, Avery?" Peter asked, switching the conversation to someone else.

"Slowly, but I'm over halfway done."

"What prototypes?" Devin asked, finally making an attempt to participate in the conversation.

"They're for the salmon project I was telling you about today. I can show them to you later," he offered.

Devin nodded and went back to his food. Avery was surprised he'd asked at all after Devin had brushed him off earlier. But he should have known better, because not five minutes passed before Devin spoke again during a brief lull in the conversation.

"So, Avery, do you eat salmon?" Devin asked casually.

"I do. Why?"

"If you love them so much and you're so obsessed with them, then why do you eat them? Shouldn't you be against that since it's animal cruelty or whatever? What's the point of helping them out if you're just going to eat them?"

Caught off guard, he opened his mouth to respond, but all he could manage to say was, "I can still want to help them even if I eat them once in a while."

Devin rolled his eyes. "Makes zero sense."

"Maybe Avery does his best to make sure salmon get where they need to go and reproduce so that he can eat more of them," Marc joked.

He found himself chuckling now that the mood was lightened. They moved onto another topic, but he noticed Devin put his plate in the sink and slip outside.