What They Don't Know - 6. Las Vegas.

Ethan’s and my mind were almost totally focused on our trip and not on work, and it remained that way all day long. When it was finally time for us to leave, we rushed out the door, headed for Ethan’s car and took off for the airport. When we got there, we quickly checked in and went to the appropriate gate to board our flight. We would be flying on a small plane, at least compared to modern standards, but it would get us to where we needed to go.

I was very excited about this trip, because I thought it was kind of like the two of us going on a honeymoon. Even though we hadn’t gone through a ceremony of any sort, we would still be enjoying the best part of what might be considered a typical wedding weekend. Maybe that’s what I subconsciously had in mind when I made up the fairy tale about why we were taking Monday off.

During the flight, I mentioned to Ethan about my recent fantasy concerning this trip and how I thought this was like going on a honeymoon. He merely chuckled and said he would do whatever he could to make my wish seem as if it were reality. I’m not certain how he managed to do it, but Ethan had a way of always saying the right thing for the moment. I also think it’s really sweet that he is so willing to do whatever I want or need at the time, in order to make me feel better.

Maybe I should clarify my last statement. I wasn’t implying that this was the only, or even the primary reason to explain why I loved him. I just felt it was really sweet that he always did his best to consider what I wanted much of the time. The real reason I absolutely adored him though was because he was just so thoughtful and caring. Yes, it also happened to be true that part of this manifested itself in the fact that he always seemed to be willing to consider my feelings and believed my needs were important too. It seemed as if his love for me was why he was so willing to take my feelings into consideration before making any decisions.

I also didn’t believe he agreed to make this particular fantasy seem like reality solely because he knew I was looking forward to having sex with him either. After all, we’ve had sex before and we planned this trip so we would have time alone to do things like that anyway. Therefore, when I told Ethan that I was fantasizing about this being our honeymoon and hinted that I was looking forward to being intimate with him again, my announcement should not have come as a surprise. Instead, I believe he agreed to it because he knew it would make me happy and reassure me that this would be a spiritual coupling too, not merely a physical one.

Once our flight landed, we quickly disembarked, collected our luggage and took a shuttle to the casino where we would be staying. As the shuttle drove away from the airport, I was temporarily in awe of our surroundings. I’d never been to Las Vegas before and had only seen pictures of it in magazines or got glimpses of it on television or in an assortment of movies, but seeing it in person was definitely far more impressive. From the air, Las Vegas appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, so seeing it from this vantage point made the various casinos appear as though they had sprung up out of the dry soil like gigantic monuments that now spread across the flat terrain. However, my first impression of the area was nothing when compared to what it was like after it began to get dark and all the lights came on. The view then was absolutely breathtaking.

Ethan had made reservations for us at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino, because it not only offered a great deal on the price, but it also featured a couple of shows that Ethan wanted us to attend. We planned to check in as quickly as we could, hustle up to our room to clean up, change and then go out to eat.

The room we were given was very lovely and had a king-size bed, which we intended to put to good use. There was also a floor to ceiling window that afforded us a fantastic view of the mountains in the distance and this scenic panorama would provide us with a very romantic backdrop for our activities later. It not only gave us a wonderful panoramic view during the daylight hours, but it also provided us with another perspective of the impressive light show, once it got dark.

After we finished checking out the rest of the room, we then made our way into the bathroom and took a shower together. God, I just love washing Ethan and having him do the same for me. It’s just so sexy. Needless to say, this activity also forced us to take care of some other business before we were done, but we did it quickly and focused solely on the end result, not the journey – at least that’s how we approached it for now.

As soon as we finished up in there, we dressed and then went down to the lower level to have dinner. Of course, the restaurant was elegant, the food was excellent and we enjoyed the time we spent there, but then Ethan took me to the first of the shows he wanted us to see. This performance featured the comedian Bill Engvall and I thought he was extremely funny. I’d seen him on TV before, with Jeff Foxworthy and ‘Larry the Cable Guy’ doing all of their blue collar humor, but I thought he was even funnier in person. I’m not so sure what he would have thought about a gay couple being in his audience, but I really enjoyed the show and was glad that Ethan had planned for us to attend.

After Engvall finished up his set and left the stage, Ethan and I went back to our room. I wasn’t exactly sure what Ethan had planned for us next, but I could barely wait to see what he came up with either. As soon as we were in the room, I raced off to use the bathroom quickly, and when I came out Ethan was just hanging up the phone. When I asked whom he had called, he merely told me to wait and I’d find out.

In the meantime, Ethan reached out and pulled me closer to him, until our bodies were pressed tightly against one another. Then, he wrapped his arms around my neck, leaned his head forward and brought his lips against mine. I immediately welcomed his move and opened my mouth slightly, as an invitation for his tongue to explore inside. The kiss was warm, passionate and tender, which let me know there were deep feelings behind it. This wasn’t just about the prospect of lustful sex.

Unfortunately, our kiss was interrupted by a knock on the door. Ethan gave me another quick peck and then went over to answer it. When he did, one of the hotel staff wheeled in a cart, had Ethan sign the bill and then left us alone, after Ethan slipped him a modest tip.

“What’s this?” I asked, once we were alone again.

“Just a little something special,” was his simple reply.

As soon as he said that, he pulled a bottle of champagne from the ice bucket, popped the cork and poured two glasses. Then he pulled the silver cover off of the next surprise and revealed a scrumptious looking dessert, made with chocolate, strawberries and covered in whipped cream.

Ethan then picked up the dessert, scooped up a forkful and brought it to my mouth. It was absolutely delicious and I savored the delightful titillation it brought as it washed over my taste buds, before I reached over and took the fork from Ethan. I then scooped up another forkful, which I fed to him, and we continued alternating back and forth until the last of the dessert had disappeared.

At this point, Ethan picked up one of the glasses of champagne and handed it to me, before picking up the other for himself. He then reached his glass toward mine, let them touch gently and offered up a toast.

“May this evening fulfill your honeymoon fantasy,” he began. “I also pray that tonight is the first of many that we will enjoy together and that our happiness as a couple will last forever.”

“Absolutely,” was my simple reply.

After we’d enjoyed the champagne, Ethan took my glass from my hand, set both of them down on the cart again, and then came back so he could wrap me up in his arms. We were now picking up from where we were before this cart was delivered, as we began to kiss once more. This lasted for several wonderful minutes and then Ethan reluctantly pulled his lips away from mine, looked me in the eye and spoke.

“Since you are the one who first thought of this weekend as being our honeymoon,” he began, “I’ll offer you the choice. Would you prefer to give or receive?”

This was definitely a difficult decision, but I truly wanted to make love to him first.

“I want to do both, eventually,” I began, “but if it’s all right with you, I’d prefer to give first. I really want to be the one to make love to you first.”

“That’s fine with me and we can do it the other way tomorrow night, if you are agreeable to that,” Ethan replied, and then he flashed me that sexy grin of his, which made me melt.

“Oh yeah. I’m definitely agreeable to that,” I replied.

After saying this, I grabbed him around the neck and kissed him again. This kiss was more aggressive and more lustful than the one we had shared earlier. This one let Ethan know that I not only loved him, but I wanted him. Hell, I needed him. He was my lifeline and the one who made me feel complete. I didn’t know what I’d do if I were to ever lose him or his love, but I never wanted to find that out either.

While we were kissing, I unbuttoned Ethan’s shirt, unbuckled his belt, undid the snap on his pants and lowered the zipper. He was also doing the same to me, so before long we had each other totally naked and then I pushed him onto the bed. As we continued to make out, our hands, lips and tongues were busy exploring every inch of the other’s body, as we attempted to bring as much pleasure as possible to each other. I loved Ethan and he loved me, so this was just another way of expressing that love.

I made love to Ethan that night with more passion and abandon than I thought possible. As we joined together and became one, we did much more than merely enjoy the fantastic sex and share the physical aspects of our bodies. During this time, we also shared our hearts and souls, while giving each other everything we had to offer and holding nothing back. It was one amazing night, during which we completely offered our bodies and souls to one another. Even though we had made love before, this time was far more intense than any of those other occasions. Tonight, we were lovers, in the truest sense of the word, and I was totally fulfilled.

I slept that night with my arms wrapped around Ethan, and he had his arms wrapped around me. I don’t think I’d ever slept more contentedly or woke more refreshed than I did the following morning. It was a glorious culmination of our commitment to each other and fulfilled my honeymoon fantasy to even my highest expectations.

After having a quick breakfast, we decided to see the sights and walked around some of the other casinos while we were at it. We felt there was no sense in coming all this way and then not go out to visit some of the other fabulous resorts in the area while we were here. After all, we didn’t come all this way just to have sex.

We started out by going to Caesar’s Palace first and reveled in its marvelous design, which made us feel as if we were taking a tour around ancient Rome at the height of its glory. After we walked around for a while and got to see most of the public areas, we decided to go into the casino area next. We started out by making our rounds from one activity to another, but then chose to stop and watch the patrons try their luck at the baccarat table.

We were fascinated by this game, since it was James Bond’s game of choice, and even though we were told it was easy to learn and fun to play, our observations told us it would be very tricky to win at. Not only could you bet on your own hand, but you could also bet on the dealer’s hand or even bet that it would be a tie. We quickly decided the nuances of this game were too complicated to pick up in a short period of time and didn’t feel as if we wanted to risk our money at this activity, so we moved on to look for something else.

After perusing our other options and talking it over, Ethan and I decided to play a few hands of poker before we left. We both felt that we understood this game well enough to risk a few dollars playing it, so we found one of the lower stakes tables and sat down. We opted to do this because we felt we might regret it later, if we didn’t try our hand at the gaming tables and do more than just meander through this marvelous location.

After we finished up at the poker tables, we left Caesar’s and headed over to the Luxor next. If you haven’t heard anything about this casino before, you’d immediately recognize it as the large black pyramid that rises up out of the desert floor. As you might expect, the theme of this establishment seeks to reflect the glory of ancient Egypt and includes a replica of the Great Sphinx that welcomes visitors as they arrive. In the lobby, you’ll also find a huge obelisk and a step pyramid nestled within, which are there to help enhance the experience.

While we were at this location, we became intrigued by how the rooms were arranged. They were all built into the outer walls, which left an extremely large, open atrium. You were able to get to these rooms by taking the ‘inclinator,’ which is an elevator that runs on a 39-degree incline along the inner surface of the pyramid. This entire structure was very unique and we found the engineering that went into its design to be extremely fascinating.

While we were there, we also spent some time in the casino and watched what was going on at the craps and roulette tables, but decided that these weren’t very good options for us to try our luck. Instead, we took some time to play a few of the slot machines that took up so much of the floor space and were simple to operate. Again, we did this just so we could say that we did something other than just walk around there as well.

The last stop we made was to see the Excalibur. Many of you might recognize that the name of this casino is based on King Arthur’s famous sword, so it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that this place had a Camelot oriented theme. As we approached this location, our attention was immediately drawn to the large castle and its collection of very colorful roofs, which highlighted and capped the numerous spires.

We quickly discovered that traveling toward this structure made us feel as if we were medieval royalty, either returning home or going to visit a neighboring kingdom, and temporarily whisked us to another time. While we were at the Excalibur, Ethan and I decided to play a few hands of blackjack before we left, just to vary the types of activities we tried.

As we left to return to our own hotel, we marveled at how the wonderful mixture of architectural designs and styles used when constructing the various casinos made this destination so intriguing. The various themes that each of these places invoke and cater to is what makes Las Vegas the truly exquisite and magical destination that attracts numerous visitors every year. There was something for everyone and each place tended to stir the imagination, no matter your tastes or private fantasies.

Ethan and I had been so absorbed in what we’d been doing while we made our rounds that we never bothered to stop for lunch. Therefore we were starved by the time we got back to the Treasure Island. Before we filled our stomachs though, we hurried to our room, so we could clean up and change quickly, before we headed back down to the ground level to eat.

After we silenced the rumblings in our bellies, we walked around for a brief time, but we also stopped for about a half hour to play a few more of the slot machines. When we grew tired of doing this, we returned to our room and quickly calculated how we had done while gambling at these various locations. After adding everything up, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we had come out slightly ahead, although it was by less than $100, but it was certainly better than losing.

A short time later, Ethan took me to see the next show. This one took place in a rather large theater, which I later discovered had been specifically designed for the Cirque du Soleil to put on its presentation of ‘Mystere.’ This show proved to be a fascinating combination of acrobatics, gymnastics and dance, but I was also intrigued by their use of bright colors to draw attention to the wonderful sets, intriguing costumes and varied props. Each of the acts was accompanied by music and I thought the entire production was very tastefully done.

The theme running through the performance revolved around the origins of life in the universe, and we were introduced to a wide variety of characters, some of which were mythological in nature. This production literally began with a ‘big bang,’ as a group of performers pounded on various size Japanese drums. Over the duration of the show, we watched as a small group of participants performed on Chinese poles and observed another person manipulate an aerial cube, followed by two other men showing off a masterful exhibit of hand-to-hand strength and balance, as they worked with each other.

We also saw an assortment of others performing on bungees, a trampoline and being catapulted into the air off of something that looked like a huge, reinforced seesaw. In fact, it looked very similar to one of the devices you might have spent time on at a playground as a child, except this one was much sturdier and larger. There was also a point when we watched a group of men soar and spin forty feet above the stage on a symmetrical metal structure, which appeared to be based on a gymnastic high-bar.

When the show ended, Ethan and I decided to walk around for a while first, before we went to have dinner. When we did finally stop to eat again, it turned out to be a lovely and romantic affair, as we sat at a table for two, enjoyed a wonderful meal and washed it down with another bottle of wine. While we dined, we also shared our thoughts about everything we had done throughout the day and reaffirmed our desire to be together always. It might not come as a surprise to anyone if I were to inform you that I was figuratively walking on air as we made our way back to our room

Once the door had shut behind us, Ethan swept me into his arms, carried me over to the bed, undressed us both and then made love to me. It was very similar to what we had done the previous evening, except this time our roles were reversed, but it did not diminish the love and passion that we shared. It was a truly remarkable experience, filled with intense pleasure, and it brought us both to a level of satisfaction far beyond anything we had previously enjoyed. All I can say is that it was an absolutely wonderful way to end a truly fantastic day, but it also served as the prelude to another refreshing night’s sleep, as I cuddled with my soulmate.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed down to the main level for breakfast. Once we finished eating, we gambled for a little while, before we returned to our room and spent some more quiet time alone. We were scheduled to leave for the airport a couple of hours after lunch, so Ethan and I decided we wanted to spend our last few hours together just cuddling and being close, before we had to catch our flight home. Our affectionate time together also led to us enjoying another round of oral sex and gave us one more wonderful memory of our ‘honeymoon’ trip.

Later, after we’d finished our lunch, we returned to our room and collected our belongings, before we checked out and took the shuttle to the airport. As we waited to board our flight, I thanked Ethan over and over again for coming up with the idea to spend the weekend here and for making the arrangements. I told him that I really loved the time we’d spent together and had enjoyed everything we’d done. He merely smiled and said it had been his pleasure, before adding that he’d enjoyed it just as much as I had. He also jokingly asked me if this had been the honeymoon trip I had envisioned, and I assured him it had been all that and more.

We hit a little turbulence on the return flight home, which threw me into a minor panic attack. When Ethan saw how I was reacting, he grabbed my hand and held it, which immediately made me begin to calm down and feel a little better. When I first felt him squeeze my hand, I looked over at his face, forced a weak smile and thanked him for his concern. When I did that, he leaned over and gave me a peck on the cheek.

Even though I could tell he wanted to do more to help me relax, he refrained from doing anything else. Since we were on a plane and some of the other passengers could see everything we were doing, he figured it might be better to wait until we were alone. I understood what was on his mind though, so just knowing that he cared so much was enough to help and distract me from my other concerns.

When the plane landed, Ethan and I waited until most of the others disembarked first, before we got out of our seats. Once the last of the passengers were a couple of rows in front of us, Ethan gave me a very passionate kiss and then urged me to follow him. After we retrieved our luggage, we took everything out to the long-term parking area, loaded it into Ethan’s car and then set out for his place. Before we got there, he unexpectedly pulled into a restaurant.

“Look, I know it’s still a little early to eat again, but I don’t feel like cooking tonight and I doubt you do either. I think we’ll both be better off if we stop here to get something before we reach my place,” he announced. “I know I won’t want to go out again once we get home, so what do you think?”

“I agree,” I quickly concurred. “Let’s go chow down.”

“Do you want to eat here or get it to go?” he asked next. “If we take it with us, then we can warm it later and eat when we’re hungry.”

“Nah, let’s just eat it here, while it’s fresh,” I answered. “If we can’t finish it all, then we can take the rest home and warm it up to snack on later.”

Ethan agreed, so we went inside, had a nice meal and I did feel a lot better once my stomach was full again. As expected, neither of us was able to finish more than half of our meal though, so we took the rest of it with us in a ‘doggy’ bag. We then traveled the rest of the way to Ethan’s house, and when we got there I took my suitcase, along with my leftover food, and placed it on the backseat of my car.

“Are you going home?” Ethan asked.

“Only if you think I should,” I responded, while hoping he might offer me an alternative.

“We’ve taken tomorrow off and I don’t think anyone will be expecting us back in town until then,” he suggested, “so I think we’ll be safe if you want to stay here tonight. Besides, we can always say we were tired and you just decided to crash here, figuring you still had tomorrow to unpack and get things ready for work.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea, so you’re on,” I agreed.

I hurriedly pulled my leftovers out of the car and moved the suitcase to the trunk, where it wouldn’t be so obvious. Then, I slammed the trunk closed and followed Ethan to his front door.

“I think a dip in the pool might be nice and will help to relieve the spots that are sore from traveling and being inactive for so long,” I suggested, while smiling at Ethan.

“You know, I think you might be right,” he agreed. “Let’s go put on our suits and then head out back.”

“Do we really need them?” I asked, while also winking and giving Ethan the ‘look.’

“I think it would be best if we wear them, unless you don’t mind if a bunch of my neighbors see us in our birthday suits and watch what we’re up to,” he suggested.

Knowing he was probably right about this, because it wasn’t dark out yet, I gave in and walked back to his bedroom with him. Ethan got our swim trunks out of his dresser and tossed my pair to me. We stripped down, put them on, grabbed a towel each and headed out the back door. After we got in the pool, I discovered the water was still fairly warm from the afternoon sun. In fact, it felt about the same as bath water that had cooled down after being in the tub for about fifteen minutes. It was still relaxing though and Ethan and I horsed around a little, as we swam around.

It didn’t take long before we grew tired of doing this and decided to climb out of the pool. After drying off, we went in the house to watch TV for a little while, but before we did that, Ethan stopped to check the messages on his home phone. After listening to them, he had a troubled expression on his face.

“What’s wrong? Did you get bad news?” I asked, concerned.

“You might say that,” he replied, looking slightly annoyed. “There were three messages from Jack. I don’t know why he’s trying to stir things up again and make my life miserable, but it seems that he wanted me to know that he’s been checking up on me.”

“What the hell happened between you two that he won’t let it go?” I wondered.

It was obvious that I hadn’t been told the complete story.

“Jack was one of the guys who gave me grief back in high school. In fact, he seemed to be the ringleader most of the time and I guess he didn’t like the way I got him to stop his immature shenanigans. I was finally able to convince him to leave me alone about two weeks before we graduated,” he answered.

“Why? What did you do?” I pressed.

“I just found a way to make him lay off, although I’ll admit he only did so reluctantly,” he responded, “but let’s not talk about him. We’ve just come back from a great weekend and there’s still enough time left to have some more fun before it ends, so let’s not ruin it talking about the past. By the way, I believe it’s your turn to be on top tonight, if you’re interested.”

His announcement caught me totally off guard, but immediately brought a smile to my face and made me forget about Jack.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I responded, as I got up, grabbed Ethan’s hand and dragged him back to his bedroom.

Making love to him that night was just as wonderful as it had been in Las Vegas and I could see us spending every night together, from now until we both grew old. It would be so nice if we were able to alternate making love to each other every evening and then cuddle together until morning, when we would wake up relaxed and refreshed for the new day. Now, I merely have to find a way to turn this dream into a reality.

The next morning when I awoke, Ethan was already up. He had started the coffee and was getting everything set up so he could make our breakfast when I strolled into the kitchen. When he saw me walk in, he looked up and greeted me.

“Sleep well?” he asked.

“Better than well,” I replied.

“That’s great, so what would you like for breakfast?” he asked next. “I can make eggs, French toast, pancakes or waffles. I’ll also fry up some bacon and sausages to go with whatever you want, so you just have to pick your poison.”

“I hope it’s not poison,” I teased, and he shot me an evil glare.

“We haven’t had waffles in quite a while,” I added, while ignoring the dirty look he was giving me, “but we have had just about all of those other things recently. Since that’s the case, let’s have waffles today.”

“Your wish is my command,” Ethan joked.

Ethan then knelt down to dig the waffle iron out of one of the lower cabinets. When he stood up again, after finding what he’d been looking for, he smiled and then walked over to give me a kiss.

“I’ll be your slave anytime, because you’ll be a wonderful master and will treat me really well,” he teased. “If last night was an example of the rewards you’ll be giving me, I’ll work very hard to please you.”

“I’ll reward you like that,” I agreed, “or I might even let you reward yourself by doing the same thing to me. One thing is for sure though, and it’s that you won’t have to do anything special to earn a reward from me. Damn, I love you so much that I think I would die of a broken heart if anything were to happen so we couldn’t be together any longer.”

That earned me another kiss, but he also began to knead my butt cheeks. After doing that for a short time, Ethan let one of his hands wander between us, so he could grope my package. After he’d done that for a while, he unexpectedly stopped, gave me another kiss and then started to work on making our breakfast. This meant I was left standing there with an erection pushing out my boxer briefs, so I was kind of upset that he hadn’t finished what he’d started.

“We’ll take care of that after we eat,” Ethan added, while glancing over his shoulder and noting my predicament.

“We’d better,” I threatened. “You created the problem, so it means you’ll have to take care of it too.”

“My pleasure, young Jedi master. I will be happy to play with your lightsaber after we eat,” Ethan responded.

“You won’t see any laser beam shoot out of it, but if you do it right then something else will,” I offered, continuing his analogy.

This elicited a mild groan from Ethan, showing he thought my retort was a bit lame. Hell, he started it and what does he expect first thing in the morning? After all, most of the famous comedians do their best work late at night, not this early in the morning, don’t they?

It was only a few minutes later when Ethan began serving me a plate of food, which contained two waffles, two strips of bacon and two sausage links. He also set the margarine and syrup down next to me, so I could prepare my waffles as I pleased.

“Eat up. I can make more if you’re still hungry afterward,” he told me.

Ethan then went back to the kitchen, but returned a couple of minutes later carrying his own plate of food. When he sat down next to me, he asked how everything was and I assured him it was wonderful. We then ate with a minimum amount of chatter, but I couldn’t help but to keep glancing up at him as I chewed my food. I just loved him so much and couldn’t help but think back upon the wonderful weekend we had just shared together. There was no doubt in my mind that I had found the most perfect partner anyone could ever hope for and I just prayed that Ethan felt the same way about me, but I was pretty sure he did.

After we finished our breakfast, we took our dishes out to the sink, rinsed them off and then loaded everything into the dishwasher. As soon as we’d finished doing that, I grabbed Ethan’s hand and dragged him back to the bedroom again, because we had some unfinished business to take care of. After all, he had promised.

Once we stripped out of what little clothing we had on, Ethan began to pleasure me orally. He quickly found the ‘on’ switch to my lightsaber and was rewarded with a sticky beam. As soon as he savored that delight, he filled me up with his own lightsaber and battled a host of invisible foes, as be stabbed one after another until all of their life juices had drained into me. I was definitely both saved and satisfied.

Afterward, we remained in bed and cuddled a little longer, but then we finally got up and showered, before going out to sit next to each other on the living room sofa. Ethan used the remote to flick on the television, but neither of us really watched it. Instead, we cuddled and kissed a little more, before we decided to go out and make use of his pool again.

The day passed by all too quickly and we soon realized it was time for the people we worked with to begin leaving the office for the day. Knowing this, we decided it would probably be best if I went home now. Before I left though, we went over the details of the story we were going to tell anyone who inquired about the wedding we’d supposedly attended. After we finished doing that, I reluctantly gave Ethan a final goodbye kiss, told him I’d see him in the morning and then set out for my place. I was finding it more and more difficult to wait for the day to arrive when we didn’t have to do this any longer and we’d be able to live openly as a couple.

After I unpacked my suitcase, put my dirty clothes in the hamper and got my things ready to return to work in the morning, I sat down to think for a few minutes. As I reflected upon everything Ethan and I had done over the past few days, I could only conclude that it had been a truly marvelous time and I was sorry it had to come to an end. In fact, I was already looking forward to our next magical outing together and wondered when that might be.