“Oh,” I said.
“Oh? How’s the weather there?” she asked.
“Oh, you know,” I said.
“I wasn’t sure whether the resort was in the way of the storm but Vail is supposed to be affected. How bad is it?”
“It’s bad.”
Silence.
“Maggie?”
“Hm?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m still at the cabin.”
“How bad is the snow?”
“It’s coming down hard, Missy.”
“Do you think you can leave?” she asked. It might have been a possibility even an hour ago but now I had no idea. I drove a regular sedan up here, it would get eaten up in this storm. The roads were going to be completely obscured and they’d make the trip longer.
“I don’t know.”
&nbs
p; “If you don’t leave, you could get stuck and it could take days to get to you.” I was so panicked that everything in my body felt still for some reason. I didn’t want to get stuck up here, of course not but the prospect was so bleak, it didn’t even seem like reality. Get stuck trying to get down the mountain or stay here and have to spend days trapped with Toby.
How were both my options as terrible as each other? Getting stuck in a blizzard and risking hypothermia and death were of course the worse options but I didn’t want to spend any kind of prolonged time with Toby.
The weather didn’t care though.
“Got it,” I said, before ending the call. I cast one more look out the window then left the kitchen, sandwich discarded. I had to get out of here. I only had one bag which wouldn’t be hard to handle and I had a car.
But Toby…
I had two hundred pounds of one-night stand that might not be so cooperative. Couldn’t I just leave him out here? He didn’t have to come, right? This place had water, food, and electricity. There was a television for fuck’s sake, he would be fine for a few days if he was stuck out here alone. That was what he wanted, right? Solitude? Where was he anyway?
I didn’t think he had left because I would have heard him. I looked around the cabin, starting on the lower floor, even trying the garage. Why not? I didn’t know what the hell he spent his time doing. There were a lot of rooms on the lower floor but he wasn’t in any of them. Heading upstairs, I checked each of the five bedrooms. He was in the last one, the master, sprawled asleep on the bed.
He was a lot less intimidating when he was asleep. The thought of just deserting him and trying to get out of here as soon as possible came back but I couldn’t do that. Missy would probably be mad if she found out I had left her fiance’s coworker in a cabin on a mountain during a blizzard. I walked over, then hesitated. How did I do this?
“Toby?” I said in a whisper-shout. “Toby!”
Nothing. I walked over and shook him, then did it again harder. Instead of getting up, he grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I squealed, tumbling into the bed as he engulfed me in his arms.
I didn’t move, partly because I couldn’t but also because I didn’t want to. He smelled faintly of cologne and leather. He was so warm and he felt so good. Like I needed help with my overactive fantasies about him. I wriggled and called his name again, there were more pressing things at the moment than the memories I was trying to repress.
“Toby!”
“Hmm,” he grunted. He opened his eyes and looked around. His arms released and he got up, moving me with him.
“What is it?” he grumbled, rubbing his hands over his eyes.
“Snow, outside. There’s a blizzard.”