13. Zach

Chapter 13

Zach

The following Tuesday night, I went to a meeting with The Lactin Brotherhood. They had a representative from some travel company that was organizing tours in areas that allowed public lactation. I figured it was worth a listen. I certainly had never been very public about feeding or pumping, but Devin was much more carefree about such things, and I was confident he would lie down in my lap for a drink anytime, any place if I offered it, so I thought it could be a fun birthday present for him.

The company was selling three different vacation packages.

One was an adults-only kink cruise that would have a little bit of everything, and many members of The Lactin Brotherhood were attending—either alone or with partners.

Another was a mountain retreat that was completely remote and only twelve rooms were available per event, so that offered a lot more privacy.

The third was a trip to Thailand to a small beach town that was very open-minded to adult lactation.

They all sounded pretty amazing, but I wasn't sure I was ready to be chest feeding my boyfriend fully out in public with families and random people walking by. Maybe I'd never be there, and that was okay. The mountain retreat sounded amazing and a bit of a nod to how Devin and I met, but I couldn't get that cruise out of my head. By the time the presentation was over, I had my credit card out and reservations for two in a balcony suite.

The cruise was scheduled just two weeks before Devin's birthday, so the timing was perfect, and although I wanted to wait until closer to his birthday to tell him about it, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it a secret. I was just too excited. Besides, the sooner we put in our requests for time off work, the better.

Just as I was heading out of the meeting, Devin sent me a text. The movie just finished. I'll drop off Pam and be home in fifteen minutes. Should I pick up dinner?

I'm going to pass Super Sushi, so I can stop there if that sounds good?

Sounds delicious. You know what I like.

I hearted his message even though I wanted to type out the words I love you . I hadn't said them out loud yet, but it was time. Maybe a handful of weeks in a relationship wasn't enough time for everyone to know they were in love, but it was more than enough time for me. I'd known from the very beginning that Devin was my one.

He complemented me in every way and made me so damn happy, from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning until I fell asleep at night, usually with his lips attached to my skin, softly sucking out the milk he couldn't get enough of.

I placed our takeout order through the app before I drove away and only had to wait a few minutes for it to be ready when I got to Super Sushi. While I drove, I rehearsed a few different ways to have that conversation with Devin, but when I saw him sitting at the table with a gift bag in front of him, I forgot everything that I'd planned to say and was hyper-focused on what made his eyes twinkle in that way and his hands wring together with nerves that I hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey, baby. Is everything okay?" I placed the bags of food on the coffee table and sat down beside him.

"Yeah. I just have a gift for you."

"For me? That's funny because I have a gift for you too."

"You do?" He looked at me and then at the food. "Oh. Dinner?"

I wanted to just blurt it out, but I pressed my lips together and shook my head. "Nope, something else. But you go first."

He took a deep breath and looked at our food. "Should we eat first? Maybe we should eat first."

I chuckled and leaned down to place a kiss on his lips. "Are you really gonna be able to relax enough to eat first? I don't want you to throw up this delicious sushi because you're nervous."

He smiled and exhaled deeply. "You're right. Okay, but you first."

I wanted to argue with him and make him go first since he had obviously been planning something special, but I was too excited, so I decided to just go with it. "Okay, I didn't expect this when I went to the meeting, but I think it'll be a perfect thing for us. Kinda hot, even if we just sit back and watch, and a nice birthday present for you."

He cocked his head as he looked at me. "My birthday is months away."

"I know." I reached for both of his hands and brought them up to my lips, pressing kisses against his knuckles. "I love you, Devin, and you've made me so happy since you came into my life. I just want to spend every minute with you, and…this is one way for us to spend time together doing what we both love."

"What is it?" he asked quietly. Tears were welling in his eyes, and I knew he had so much more to say, but the anticipation was killing him.

I pulled the brochure for the cruise out of my pocket and handed it to him. "It's a kink cruise. Lots of members of The Lactin Brotherhood will be there alone and with partners…and you can drink publicly, if that's something you're comfortable with." I chuckled awkwardly. "I'm not 100% sure I'm comfortable with it, but if you want to, we can. Anything goes, apparently."

His eyes were wide as he read the brochure, focusing on the photos of past events. "This looks amazing. And we're going? For my birthday?"

"Yep. We have a balcony suite. Seven days on the ocean." I waggled my eyebrows. "And no tan lines."

Devin threw himself against me, kissing me hard and bouncing with excitement. "I can't believe you did this. That's gonna be so much fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

He leaned back and reached for his bag. "Well, this is nothing near as extravagant as a cruise…but…a little bit similar." He bit his lip and sent me with a nervous smile. "I made it for you."

I reached into the bag and felt something hard and flat. I carefully pulled it out and unwrapped the tissue paper, and my eyes stopped on the bright blue heart-shaped plate with the words I LOVE YOU written in the center. "You made this?" I stared at it, unable to take my eyes off the plate. Each letter was perfectly aligned, and it was obvious he took a lot of time to make it perfect. "For me?"

"I love you, Zach. You have no idea how happy it makes me feel to know you love me too. But even if you didn't say it to me, I wanted you to know that I love you so much."

My throat began to ache with emotion that was building there as I nodded and looked up into his eyes. "It's beautiful, baby. I love it. And I love you."

Instinctively, I flipped it over and looked at the back. That's when I saw there was more.

Handwritten with some kind of a paint pen or permanent marker was a note.

You save me every day, and I'll never regret getting lost with you.

Love always,

The boy from the trail