“Really? Don’t lie to me. You know that’s not good.”
“I’ll come visit you sometime. I promise. But you know you could always come back out here and visit. The summers are beautiful.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Really?” she questioned me.
“Yes. I promise.” I laughed as we remained in the snow.
It felt good to be there with her. She felt so comfortable to me. Not just her physical comfort, but talking to her, getting to know her. It wasn’t like any other woman from my past and I liked it. I liked whatever it was that we had going on between the two of us.
Maybe we wouldn’t be able to maintain what we had. It was highly likely we would lose touch after I went home for one reason or another. It probably wouldn’t be either one of our faults specifically, but that was just how life worked out sometimes.
Without thinking, I pulled her to me and kissed her right there in the snow. I didn’t care who saw me. I didn’t care at all. I wanted to kiss her, so I did. Luckily, no one was nearly close enough to see what was going on.
“Come to my room tonight,” I whispered as I pulled her up from the snow bank.
Melanie was close behind us now, and we had to pretend like everything was perfectly fine. I stood a couple feet away from Cassidy and waited for her answer. She had to say yes, I needed to have her.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Kaitlin is working tonight; it will be fine. You’re not even working. Just come to me,” I practically begged.
It wasn’t like me to beg a woman to come to my bed, but I was a new man. I wasn’t above a little begging if it would get me what I wanted. Ideally, we could have waited until I got out and found ourselves a cozy little hotel to hold up in for a weekend. But Spencer would be coming for me in the morning and I couldn’t let him down. I had to go with him to the contract signing with the new movie studio.
“I said I’d think about it.” She smiled as we both looked up at Melanie.
“Looks like you two took a spill,” she said as she kept walking past us.
“It’s all my fault,” Cassidy said. “I’m a total klutz.”
Melanie continued to walk down the hill and we followed. It was my last, big hike. My last few hours at the treatment facility. I had so many goodbyes to give people and so much to pack up to go home.
I was actually excited to head home. Not necessarily to be in my big house alone, but I was excited to be movi
ng forward. Spencer and I worked really well together, and this new business venture would give me something to concentrate on.
There were plenty of AA meetings in my area, and I had agreed to go to them. It would be a good way to keep my focus on my sobriety, and Spencer had even offered to stop drinking with me. He was a pretty damn good friend.
His friendship was better than I had even imagined. He kept my house up while I was in treatment and even worked out a plan to come stay with me if I needed him to when I got home.
There was clearly no way I would ever be able to truly repay the man, but if I stayed sober, it was a much better option than letting myself go back to drinking. I seriously doubted that he would stick around with me if I couldn’t keep sober once I returned. It was motivation for me to do the work I needed to do.
“Come see me tonight,” I said again as Cassidy and I walked down the rest of the trail back to the building.
“If you say another word, I’m going to say no,” she said with a serious expression on her face.
Does that mean that she is coming if I don’t say another word? I smiled from ear to ear at the possibility of getting to have the night with her before I returned home. It would only be one night, but that was enough for the moment.
And as much as I wanted to make love to her all night long, I would do anything she wanted. I would sit and play board games if that was what she wanted to do. I just wanted us to have time alone without any interruptions. Without her parents, or staff, or anything that could keep us from getting to know each other more.
We had to go our separate ways for the rest of the afternoon, and Cassidy didn’t even say goodnight when she left after her shift. It gave me hope that she was planning to come in.
When Kaitlin arrived at ten o’clock that night, I felt my heart flopping around like crazy. I waited until the other staff member was busy helping people with their nighttime rituals, and I went to talk to her to see if she knew what the plan was.
“I don’t approve of this at all,” Kaitlin said as soon as I was in front of her.
“So, she’s not coming?”