I shook my head and tried not to think about it. I couldn't rely on Easton’s or anyone else's relationship to restore my faith in love. I was too far gone anyway and I didn't need to poison Easton and Missy's happy life because I was a fuck-up. It was no use being that negative too. If he was happy then what right did I have to have reservations?
I was going on vacation, now wasn’t the time to whine about things that had nothing to do with me. I couldn’t wait to get to the resort.
Maybe while I was there, since everyone else was going to be loved up with their significant others, I could talk to a couple of people and hook up with a bored wife that was there on a ski vacation with her much-older husband who had erectile dysfunction. I worked way too hard anyway, this was going to be nice. We were going to get excellent pictures for the editorial, and business would boom as soon as the story was out.
I left it at that because I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I wasn’t a child who was jealous that his friend had a girlfriend and he didn’t. The mountains were beautiful and they wouldn’t look different just because he had a woman there and I didn’t.
It sucked, but if Easton had a lesson to learn and Missy was the way he was going to learn it, then I had no right to stand in his way. All I could do was be there just in case he needed me on the other side.
The plane touched down at the airport near Vail, where we were heading. I had traveled with the bulk of the drone equipment that we were going to showcase up in the cabin. Transferring it from the plane to the vehicle waiting for me at the airport would have been easier with an extra set of hands, but then I remembered that I was going to stay out of Easton’s business.
The original plan was to use a cab service to take us to the resort. After everything changed the way it did, I decided to rent a car and go to the cabin instead of the resort. I was going to be alone no matter where I was, so why not go there? It was a nice, isolated place up in the mountains with a private owner. It was going to be good to have some time with my thoughts.
Vail was a one hundred and eighty-degree shift from New York City. It was still a little bit too early for snow, but the mountain peaks were covered in it, and that was what scraped the sky instead of huge, tall buildings. It was silent and there was almost nobody around versus the nonstop activity of the city. I meant that in a good way, as much as I liked living there.
I was going to be on the road for a little over an hour, so I turned a podcast on to keep me company and followed the directions on the GPS. I snaked up into the mountains, the signs of impending winter apparent in the bare trees.
It was nothing I would want long term but the quiet was going to be good for me. This was for work after all and the shoot was going to result in a lot of publicity which meant more work. More work meant I wouldn’t have to think about anything else.
Wow, I never thought I’d be the guy who relied on work to take up all my time because I was lonely. That was who I was now. The realization was sobering. It was a little pathetic too, I couldn’t lie. I hated that guy. He was lonely, had unresolved childhood issues, and probably bad breath in the morning. I didn’t want to be him. That needed to change but it wasn’t my first priority.
The GPS chirped at me, telling me to turn off the road in a few yards. I did and ended up on a short driveway to the cabin. I saw a car up ahead, parked in front of the cabin. It matched its pictures, large and all wood with stone chimneys. There was a patio in the front and there was meant to be a verandah on the side too for the living room. The property was bordered by evergreens and probably looked stunning in the snow. I wondered whether I’d be able to see it that way.
Maybe the person who owned the car could tell me.
That was unexpected. The shoot wasn’t today which was exactly why I had come up here, but I figured it was probably the people who were doing the shoot. Maybe they came up here to set up and scope out the area. Whatever, hopefully, they weren’t thinking about staying the night.
If they were, it was no problem, I would just spend the night at the resort, but I was really hoping for some time alo
ne out here. I didn’t even know who was in there, so I decided to go and check before I jumped to any conclusions.
I climbed the steps up to the door and tapped in the entry code, unlocking it. I left my suitcase in the entryway and walked in, turning into the kitchen.
“Hello?”
“Oh my God!” she yelled and spun around with her hand on her chest. It was a woman standing in the kitchen holding her phone in one hand. Her face only slightly registered in my memory but that red hair was unmistakable. I felt my chest clench and my breathing went short.
“Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was here,” I said. She was in a loose sweater and leggings. Her hair was piled up on her head and she was wearing little if any makeup. She was stunning. I thought the flashbacks to the night together were bad before but now they were about to be worse. I realized that she'd likely be on the trip being Missy’s assistant but I thought they'd be traveling together.
I was banking on being able to avoid her if I needed to and generally not seeing much of her. I was fucked up over her and I knew that without needing this encounter for confirmation. My palms started to sweat.
“I thought so too,” she said. “Why are you here?”
Wait a minute.
She was Missy’s assistant. A glorified coffeemaker. I was the reason the shoot was even happening and she was asking me why I was here?
No, something wasn’t right. Come to think of it, I didn’t like the way she was looking at me. I didn’t like the way she was talking to me either. Her stance and outrage seeing me told me that she hadn’t been masturbating every night thinking about our night together like I had and that irked me.
I had been ready to be cordial and treat her with restrained consideration during this trip for as much as we had to see each other but now, I was pissed.
4
Maggie
How. Fucking how was this happening?
I stood there like I had just been cornered by a bear. Honestly, a bear would have been preferable to who had just walked in. He was more imposing than I remembered. He had been in the suit the night that we had gone home together but today, in jeans and a leather jacket, he still cut an impressive figure. In addition to that, it might’ve been the fact that in the few seconds that he had been in the room with me, he had gone from shocked, to mildly apologetic, to now angry.