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- 02/12/2022
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Timothy - 99. Chapter 99
The rest of the week, I claimed as our time. We were walking to work, holding hands, having lunch together, and walking home, holding hands.
Morning runs, breakfasts with me in my favorite seat, showers with a little extra attention. All seemed to put me back on course. Stephen was the most important person in my life, and I made a pact that nothing would come between us. I won’t let my lawsuit occupy my time to the exclusion of my attention to Stephen.
Friday, Andrew met us at work and walked home with us. Stephen took him to the basement to let him review the information we had from Stephen’s searches. I prepared dinner, and I cheated a little. We had bought roasted chicken which I reheated in the oven. The trick was to baste the chicken while it heated, which kept the meat moist. Stephen’s mom taught me that.
By the end of the evening, Andrew was ready to go. We agreed that any information he needed, we would get for him. Most of that would be the searches Stephen did.
Now I could focus on our vacation. I looked at the brochures the travel agency sent over to my office, and I chosed a boat tour starting in Vienna and ending in Bucharest. We would fly to Vienna, where we would embark on our ship and enjoy a few days of sightseeing and relaxing. The company that operated this river cruise had an outline of activity that we could enjoy when they docked along the river. I called the travel agency and booked the cruise. Now I needed to go and tell Gramps.
Gramps was all for it, but there was a condition. We could go on this cruise, but he wanted to go along the next one we took. I agreed, and we decided I wouldn’t tell Stephen about our agreement.
I didn’t tell Stephen until two days before we were to leave. He was surprised and was concerned about the legal case that Andrew was handling. “Stephen, Andrew is a competent lawyer, and he has all of the information he needs to file the class action suit. We’ll be back before anything happens that would require us to be here.” That seemed to satisfy him, he relaxed, and I got some special attention.
Gramps drove us to the airport, we took a hopper to an international airport, then flew overnight to Vienna. We made one stop in Denmark, and we didn’t leave the plane. The stopover was for only 2 hours before we flew on to Vienna. The smile on Stephen’s face was worth the cost of this vacation.
We spent two days in Vienna. Stephen was taking pictures, and I was posing. I told him I wouldn’t pose in the nude, and he said he didn’t need nude photos of me. He had the real thing. Leaving Vienna, we would follow the Danube river until we reached Bucharest. From Bucharest, we will fly home.
These seventeen days will allow us to relax, and more importantly, we will have no distractions and can concentrate on just ourselves. There were other people on this riverboat, but I didn’t see them, the only one I saw was Stephen. He had my total attention and devotion, and I felt I needed to do that as payment for not putting him first when I was involved with bringing justice to Bruce for Ann Marie and Tom. Donnie said I had a treasure, and I believed him.
Our first stop was at Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia. Here we had the chance to view the Hapsburg castles. “Tim, think about heating this castle.”
“I guess that is why they had that huge fireplace in the main room. It’s no wonder why they built this castle close to the woods. They would need a forest to provide logs for these fireplaces.”
We only had one day in Bratislava before sailing to our next stop, Budapest, the capital of Hungary. We would spend two days here. The captain recommended we view the castles in this city. Stephen and I agreed that seeing one castle was enough. We spent the rest of the time walking through the city. We came to a park that had benches along the river. We sat there and watched the river flow by. We enjoyed the peace and quiet. I looked at Stephen, “After all of the hustle and bustle I put you through, it’s nice to sit here and watch the river. It’s peaceful and quiet.”
We had dinner at a small cafe in the main square. Walking back to the boat, I held Stephen’s hand. I didn’t care who saw us or what anyone thought. Stephen liked holding hands, so that was all I cared about.
On our last day in Budapest, we stayed on the boat. We watched the river and the few boats that passed us while sitting on the deck. Some waved, and some blew their horn. “I could sit here all day. The movement of the river is hypnotic.”
The next day we were on the river heading south. Our destination was Budapest. Sitting on the deck, we enjoyed the quiet. At dinner that evening, they served some of the local wines. “Go easy on the wine, or you will sleep all night.” He looked at me, and then the light came on. He opted for water from that point on.
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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