“Who cuts it?”
“One of Margot’s friends.” I tense a little, not really wanting to bring up the name of the last girlfriend to the woman I slept with last night. Then again, I’m not talking to Iris right now.
This is just fucking confusing.
“Does she have a salon in town?”
“No, Amanda is a nurse at the clinic, but she cuts hair out of her house for people who need it. Friends and family, mostly.”
“I suppose in a small community, a lot of people have double-duty.”
“True. Most have a summer job and a winter job, but there are a lot of people with more consistent jobs as well, like Amanda.”
“You said Margot has a fishing lodge. Does she do that all year?”
“She doesn’t own it, but she manages the place. In the winter, she focuses on getting equipment repaired if it needs it, mending nets, and keeping up the lodge in general. A lot of the people who work for her have other jobs in the winter.”
Again, we’ve gotten off track, and I try to think of a way to steer the conversation back to her sister again, but I fail. I’m not used to having such extensive conversations with people, and I don’t know what kind of questions to ask.
“I was thinking about taking a bath,” Seri says, “but maybe I should wait until after we get wood. Do you think the weather is good enough for that?”
“I think we’re low enough that it might have to be.” I get up and look out the window. The sun is shining through thin clouds. “It should be okay.”
“Shall we, then?”
“Yeah.”
It occurs to me that I just said “we” were running low on wood, not “I.” When did I start thinking about her in that way? I’ve always been a very solitary thinker, and probably a little on the selfish side because of it. I never thought of Margot and me as “we,” and we were officially a couple. What is Seri to me, and what am I to her?
What am I to the others?
I’ve grown used to Seri’s presence here. I’ve even started to enjoy it. I’m not sure how I feel about the other two. Netti is somewhat unsettling, and Iris is kind of frightening. I’m pretty sure when I said “we” that I meant just Seri and me, but where does that leave the other two?
How am I supposed to keep it all separated in my head? As I gather up my outdoor gear, I try to sort out my relationship with each of the three and come up with the simplest description that I can.
Seri is the woman who lives with me. Netti is the woman who only appears when the situation is too intense for Seri to handle, and Iris…Iris is the woman who fucks me.
I stare at the solitary figure by the fire, feeling completely outnumbered.
Chapter 15
“It feels good to be outside!” Seri smiles broadly from inside her fur-lined hood. I can barely see her eyes behind the goggles.
“It is a lot warmer than I thought it would be.” I smirk. “I’m just glad I didn’t throw out my old parka. Once you’ve been outside for a few minutes, you’ll appreciate the cabin more.”
“I’m sure that’s true,” she says as she looks around. “Right now, I’m enjoying the view from out here.”
“Just watch your step,” I tell her. “The top of the snow is pretty crunchy, and you should be able to avoid falling through it as long as you walk slowly, but you never know. The snow drifts a lot, and you can’t tell from the surface just how deep it is. You could be on top of six feet of snow or just a couple of inches with ice underneath.”
“Step carefully. Got it.”
I lead Seri back to the barn, walking slowly and purposefully. It’s bright outside, and I squint my eyes against
the whiteness. I only have the one pair of goggles and figured Seri needed them more than I did. I look over my shoulder to check on her progress, and she’s smiling and looking up towards the bright sky. When we get to the barn, I notice that the sunny side of the roof has a long row of icicles. Below each icicle is a pile of wet ice.
“It’s a lot warmer than I thought.” I point at the dripping icicles.
“That’s good, isn’t it?”