Owning Our Part-4: A Hug Unlike Any Other

Some moments pass quickly. Others echo through the rest of our lives.

After I got back from the Canyon, Gavin reached out.

We hadn’t talked much since the stare. Since the bear garden. Since the "bitch" and the banter and that wild undercurrent neither of us knew what to do with. But here he was, texting me, asking if I wanted to meet for coffee.

We agreed on Farmers Union—the one next to Skinner Butte Park. I had to work that morning, so we landed on 7 a.m. Gavin was in the middle of an intense six-week session, and I figured he'd cancel, or not show up at all as he had done on multiple occasions in the past.

I got there first. The place was quiet, still waking up with the sun. I was standing at the counter when I felt someone behind me. I turned, and there he was.

He smiled—softly, not the usual smirk—and pulled me into a hug.

It wasn’t long. But it wasn’t nothing. There was something steady in it. Something I hadn’t expected.

“Are you getting coffee?” I asked.

He hesitated. “I don’t know, I haven’t decided. I may just go home and go back to bed.”

I laughed. “Okay, no worries, but I am going all in.”

He chuckled.

We sat, we talked, we lost track of time until I finally had to leave for work. As we stood to go, emotion flooded through me. I looked down at my hands, feeling unexpectedly shy. “Thanks for coming, Gav. For getting up early and all, I mean.”

Instinctually, as if to comfort me, he pulled me into his arms.

I had hugged men before, but never like this. This was different. Simple, yes, but also intimate in the extreme—completely unguarded, entirely natural, and effortlessly beautiful.

When we pulled apart, he looked at me. “Are you going to stay in Eugene?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“Well, you should,” he said, “and if you don’t, just make sure you come back.”

His tone was full of tenderness. Something inside me shifted. A spark that lit a flame deep inside. Barely able to breathe, I whispered, “Really!?”

He looked genuinely surprised at my reaction. “Yes,” he whispered back.

I blushed, my shoulders contracting like Bashful's. Feeling special in a way I hadn’t known was possible. I beamed at him. “Okay, we’ll see,” my throat thick with emotion.

In that moment, it felt like the flirtation had softened into something else. Something quieter. Something worth the risk.