I was surprised by his words.
I thought about it the next day when he went off with his fishing rod and his bait box as I went up to the hotel to see if there was something for me to do.
The manager asked if I wanted to go horse riding.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Hiking?”
I looked out at the snowy peaks.
“You have a library here?” I asked and was shown to a large room with bookcases lining every wall. I picked out a few books on mountains and paged through them, waiting for any of them to speak to me. I would not have been surprised if they had shouted “Come here!” or “Visit me”. I was waiting for some sort of metaphysical pull towards the ranges, but instead, all I saw were piles of rock and loads of blue sky and sunny landscapes. I kept thinking how high and unreachable they looked.
I closed the books and wandered into the dining hall.
A few families were having lunch and some pop music was playing over the speakers. It was vibey and atmospheric and I decided to have something to eat.
“This seat taken?” someone asked.
I looked up and saw a very attractive man smiling at me.
“Uh, no,” I said.
“Thanks,” said the man who introduced himself as Donovan.
“I’m here with some friends, but they’re out hiking.”
“You don’t hike?”
“Not when the weather is about to turn.”
“It is?” I looked outside to see only clear skies.
“Oh, yeah.”
We ordered and started chatting. He was here on a stag party, I told him I was here with my brother. He said he had a girlfriend, I said I had a boyfriend. He said he worked in advertising but hated his job and I said I was a nanny and loved my job.
“We have so much in common!” he said, putting his hand on mine.
“Oh?” I took my hand away.
When I decided to go back to our cabin, he followed me and asked if I wanted to grab a drink.
“No,” I said.
“Come on,” he cajoled. “Just one. I’ve got nothing to do all afternoon.”
“Take a nap.”
“Come have one with me.” He grabbed my arm, but I shook him off.
“I said, I have a boyfriend.”
“Then why have lunch with me, talk to me for two hours!” he yelled at me.
“Because there was nothing else to do!” I yelled back, slamming the door in his face.
But there was another reason too. The whole time I was talking to this idiot, I was wondering if maybe he was the one. If maybe, trapped underneath the arrogance and bad manners, there was a Mr. Right desperateto get out. In my attempt to get to my one true love, I was going down every way I could find, even the ones that led to dark corners and bad neighborhoods and dodgy guys with potential axes under the bed.