Page 112 of The Boyfriend Experience

“You bought this?” Oaklee says, looking up at me.

“I did.”

“Because…”

“Because I’ve always wanted one. And now I’ve got all this money… so… why the fuck not?”

She sighs. Smiles her secret smile. Which makes me smile mine. And then she says, “Well, this is a nice surprise.”

But this isn’t the surprise.

“The money transfer went through this morning,” Spencer says. “So let me tell you all about my little princess here before you take her away.”

“Shoot,” I say. “I want to hear all about her.”

“She’s a little temperamental in the mornings. So you gotta warm her up properly. And she likes to be clean, so make sure you give her a bath after you’re done riding her. And her paint chips easily, so you need to bring her in for refurbishing often. I don’t want my baby girl to go without her pampering.”

He goes on and on like that and the whole time I’m just smiling. Because all these instructions sound a little bit like the deluxe boyfriend package.

It takes hours to get Spencer Shrike to hand me the keys to his baby. But eventually Oaklee and I have it outside, new matching helmets purchased and on our heads. Leather jackets on our backs, boots on our feet… ready to begin the road trip to our future.

And by the time we get up to Indian Hills and pull down the dirt-road driveway to the mountain mansion I closed on last week…

We are fully ourselves.

When we get off the bike I take her hand and lead her around the outside of the property. Showing her the barn, and the confiners that surround the house like a wall. Then I take her inside and show her that too.

The kitchen where we’ll cook dinner.

The dining room where we’ll eat it.

The master bedroom where we’ll sleep at night.

The master bath, where a claw-foot tub awaits our first bubble bath together.

And all the other bedrooms, empty for now, but which one day, hopefully, will be filled with kids.

It’s a weekend house. For now.

I sold my condo and moved into the Bronco Brews penthouse with Oaklee. I’m finishing up the condo renovations on the lower floors and getting ready to put them on the market.

I know. I know. I said I didn’t want to be a real-estate agent anymore.

But I do for this. Maybe I’ll quit after I’m done. Maybe I’ll sell my half of the business to Zack.

But then again, maybe not.

I don’t have that feeling anymore. The one that demanded I make a change. The early mid-life crisis is over.

So I decide to just live the life I’ve been given with the woman I love.

Maybe Oaklee and I didn’t get the experience we signed up for a few weeks ago, but we did get an experience, didn’t we?

The deluxe version, for sure.

The Shrike Bikes show has me on as a guest four times this first season and they’re talking about making me a recurring regular next season.

And Oaklee is back, better than ever now that Hanna is out of her life. She’s already thinking about the label design for her fall and winter seasonals.