“Must be like living near the ocean,” Leah surmised.
Avi shook his head. “No, it’s different. Waves lap, and there’s an ebb and flow to the tides. Rocking you to sleep with the push and pull.”
Leah had been landlocked her whole life. She wondered how many oceans Avi had fallen asleep near, and with whom. It was none of her business, of course.
“This…this is relentless,” he concluded. “Not in a bad way, though. All those negative ions.”
“Please don’t make me try to remember chemistry class. Negative in this case is…good?”
Avi pulled back the same curtain she had earlier, beckoning her over. The illumination light show continued to dazzle, even from afar. “Negative ions, positive vibes. Some people call them air vitamins. It’s scientifically proven – being near waterfalls gets the serotonin flowing.”
“Google’s got nothing on you, Avi Wolfson.”
He shrugged. “I read a lot of subreddits online. It gets pretty boring on the road.”
Leah had to admit her mood was elevated – considering all they had been through over the past twelve hours. Shehadfelt a bit of a rush at the Falls, despite the subzero conditions and somber task at hand – even before the mysterious diamond ringand the park police showed up. Her senses still felt heightened, her mind alert.
Perhaps it was the room temperature keeping her on her toes – literally. She bounced back on her heels and up to her tiptoes, trying to generate some more heat. Avi let the curtain drop, huffing into his hands to warm them.
They watched the flames on the candles lick lower and lower to the surface, the wax molding into new shapes.
“Maybe we should’ve lit all eight candles on the first night,” Leah pondered. “You know, start a new tradition, working our way down to one?”
“Ithasbeen two thousand years already,” Avi agreed with a grin, mocking her words from the start of their trip. “Can’t we move on?”
Chapter Thirteen
Avi stayed until the candles had gone out completely, then retreated to his room. He could see how exhausted Leah was from the unexpected detours of the day, starting with him.
At least the place had hot water. The radiators were just starting to trickle out heat, but the water pressure in the shower more than compensated. Stripping quickly, he jumped in. His skin prickled from the warmth, starting at the back of his neck and buzzing up to his skull. The long, low groan he emitted echoed off the tiled walls.
Almost as euphoric as…
No, do NOT think about orgasms with Leah Gellman – and all that rugelach – in the next room.
He squeezed his eyes shut and scrubbed shampoo through his hair. Then moved methodically down his body with the soap bar before rinsing and toweling dry with a thick white towel.
The proprietors certainly had the place well-stocked. Maybe they had more business come summer. But for now, he was pretty sure he and Leah were the only ones occupying the entire place.
Avi tilted his head to one side, towel-drying his hair before flipping it back out of his face. He imagined the long row of locked rooms, ready and waiting. Not unlike parents, keeping unused bedrooms made up in case their adult children journeyed home for the holidays with their own families. Keeping everyone under one roof.
Not that Avi had been home for Hanukkah in the last decade.
He dressed quickly in the lingering steam of the enclosed room. Not jazzed about getting back into his chocolate-smeared shirt and the same boxers, but at least his bits were clean.
A tentative knock came on the adjoining door.
Leah stood there, encased in her entire bedspread like it was a Bedouin robe. Peeking out from beneath it, she peeped, “I’m too cold to sleep.”
“Come’ere.”
She shuffled over to him, and he reached his arms out. “May I?”
She nodded, permitting him to rub his hands vigorously up and down both of her arms she kept pinned to her side. “Friction,” he explained. “Kinetic energy converting to thermal energy.”
“Yay, more science.”
He laughed, letting the motion and effort warm both of them.
