Timothy - 100. Chapter 100

On the eighth day, we stopped at Vukovar, where we visited an 18th-century baroque palace, and then we sailed on to Ilok, where we sampled the wine and food of Croatia’s easternmost town. I noticed that Stephen wasn’t drinking a lot of wine.

From Vukovar, we stopped at Novisad, where we toured the Petrovaradin Fortress. “Tim, look. From here, you could defend any attack from the river.”

“I wonder if this is the only fort we will see. It seems that there should be more, and it would be easy to land an army from the river.”

Our next stop was Belgrade which is the capital of Serbia. Here we saw another Fortress. “We were just talking about fortresses being built along the river, and here is another one.”

We walked around the town square, checking out the shops and the Cathedral. Stopping for a coffee, we had some of the local sweets. “We shouldn’t eat too many of these, or we won’t be able to walk.”

I bought some sweets that Stephen and I liked to take back to the boat. Back on the boat, we headed south, stopping at Novi Sad, and here we viewed the archaeological site at Lepenski Vir. From here, we sailed south to Vidin, where we saw another fortress.

At Pleven, they had a local man come on board and talk about the 1877 Siege of Pleven. When he finished, he took a small group of people and toured the city’s historic site. Stephen and I didn’t go.

Our next stop was at Constanta, where the attraction was the Old Town and the art nouveau casino. We left the group when we finished the tour of the Old Town.

Our next stop and our final stop was Bucharest, the capital of Rumania. Here we left the boat and checked into a hotel the boat captain had recommended. I had one more surprise for Stephen. In the morning, after breakfast, I had arranged a tour of Transylvania and especially Dracula’s Castle. We would be gone two nights before returning to Bucharest and our flight home.

“Tim, we must do this again.”

“What the boat tour or visiting Dracula’s Castle?”

Then with a face and accent of Dracula, “Be careful, or I’ll suck your blood dry.”

That evening he kept his promise.

In the morning, we packed and checked out of the hotel. We took a taxi to the airport and flew to Berlin and then home. Gramps was there to meet us. “How was the trip?”

Stephen took over, and I just listened. According to Stephen, it was fantastic, and we had to do that again. It was nice, but what was nice for Stephen wasn’t the trip as much as the attention we gave each other. I made sure we wouldn’t talk about Andrew or family. I devoted all of my attention to Stephen, and I think he did the same, focusing his attention on me.

That night, sleeping in our bed, Donnie came into my sleep. ‘Your vacation has put your life with Stephen back on track. Remember he’s the most important person in your life, don’t forget that. Andrew will carry your project, and he will be successful.’

I awoke in the morning feeling like I did before I began going after Bruce and getting Ann Marie the help she needed. I woke Stephen with a kiss that resulted in what we once called a quickie, but now there were no more quickies. You can’t express your unconditional love in a quickie. You must take your time and enjoy the trip.