I had never been so concerned about what another person thought about me in my whole life almost. As a general rule, I never gave people that power over me, but Maggie was making me reconsider.
I heard a sound outside. Instead of looking out the window in the kitchen I went out to the front door and opened it. They were here, the snowplows. I would have paid an ungodly amount of money to see this sight yesterday but today it just felt a little empty. I went ahead and went outside, walking out to the road to talk to one of the drivers.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for you,” I said to the man behind the wheel as he opened his door to greet me.
“Sorry about that, couldn’t be helped. We’re here now. There’s supposed to be two of you right?”
“That’s right. Can we head down immediately?”
The man said there was no problem. He emphasized to me the importance of driving slowly down the road even though it was clear now. It was going to take longer than if there hadn’t just been a huge blizzard. The snow was melting but it was still piled pretty high where it hadn’t been cleared.
I asked whether they could do some work on the entrance and driveway of the property so that the cars would be easy to get out. We would have to shift some of the snow that had piled on top of them and of course, make sure they were running all right before leaving as well. I went back into the cabin and let Maggie know that we were good to go.
“Perfect. I’ve been dying to get out of here.”
“We can use the SUV. Is your bag down already? I can throw it in the car.”
Maggie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I drove a rental up here too and I’m going to be hit with the fine if I don’t return it.”
“A fine? How much could it possibly be? Five hundred bucks?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I swear to God, some crimes are legal if you’re rich.”
“What?”
“Nothing. If I don’t have to pay it, then I don’t want to.”
“You don’t have to regardless. I’ll cover it if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She shook her head again. “Look, you’re not doing me a favor by driving me down off this mountain. I got up here myself. I don’t want to have to think about it anymore.”
“Then ride the SUV with me and I’ll take care of.”
“You don’t understand. It’s not the money that’s the problem. We’re going to the same place anyway, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just meet you a little later.”
“Just because the road is clear doesn’t mean it’s one hundred percent safe. The SUVs going to do better than the car you drove up here in.”
She ignored that one. “Ready to leave?” she asked, and then walked right past me out of the kitchen and out of the cabin.
Okay then, she knew what she wanted. She would rather ride down the mountain on slippery roads in a little sedan instead of in the SUV with me. Okay, I trusted that she was a good enough driver to make it on her own. I didn’t like the fact that she seemed to want to get away from me so badly. I wanted a little more time, alone time with her. In the car, driving when neither of us was looking directly at each other seemed like a good time to bring it up. The situation wouldn’t be too high stress and I could tell her how I felt about her.
I had already psyched myself up to do it and now it wouldn’t be happening. I’d have to start all over again when we got to the resort and had a little bit of time to ourselves. Crap, the ride on the way to the resort really would have been the perfect moment. That was okay, I’d get to talk to her eventually.
16
Maggie
I stared at the road in front of me. Really, it was just the back of Toby’s SUV, moving at a slow cruise down the road. My hands hurt from how tightly I was gripping the steering wheel. We had been driving for hours. Just because the snow was mostly gone didn’t mean the road was one hundred safe and that meant driving at the speed of a fast crawl.
Why hadn’t I just let him drive me down off the mountain?
No, I had to pretend I actually preferred doing this kind of bullshit myself.
My options had been spending even more time cooped up with him in an enclosed space or going through the harrowing event of driving down the mountain myself in a dinky little sedan. Even though I was regretting my choice at least forty-five percent, the rest of me knew that I wouldn’t have stood a chance with him in the car.
Distance.
From here on out, what I needed from Toby was distance. The way that things had been going was simply unacceptable. What the hell was that last night? I fell asleep in his arms like he was my boyfriend or something. He wasn’t anything close to being a boyfriend so it shouldn’t have happened. The more time I spent with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him and that was simply off the table.