I reach into my coat pocket and text my mother.
Nigel: Love you, Mum. Happy Christmas to everyone. I’ll call later.
That’s enough of that. For now.
I open my van door and rummage in the back for my cordless drill and the auger bit, and one of the slender cylinders of wood that used to be the leg of the table in the nursery. It’s smooth and honey oak.
It’s not enough for her. But it’s a promise of better things to come.
Humming and whistling in turns, I clop up into the back, strap on my woodworking goggles (which promptly fog up), and start boring out the center of the leg.
I hope she likes this... I hope she understands...
“THIS PLACE IS AMAZING! And fresh powder!”
“Sick!”
“Why is there smoke coming out of the chimney?”
I heard the car before I heard the voices. I had just finished with Briana’s little gift when they arrived. I left my van parked around the back, drill and present still in hand, and crept quietly through the snow.
“Are you sure you can get in?”
“Yeah, she forwarded me the email. I have the lockbox code.” A handsome young man with an artificially white smile slams the door of a dinky black car.
“I don’t see her car, so I guess she didn’t show up,” the other young man says, pulling a cap on over his black ponytail.
“She didn’t have a car. I left her at the side of the road. Guess she got an Uber back to Dayton.”
Josh. I grip the drill tighter as murderous thoughts build.
The girl creeps forward, a pale, tall figure with pink curls and a hesitant look on her face. “You just left a woman alone on the side of the road? Hundreds of miles from home? That’s horrible.”
“Oh, come on. Girl power! She didn’t need me to be some protector,” Josh scoffs, unstrapping skis from the roof of the car.
“She needed you to be a decent human being. Kyle!” Miss Pink hits Kyle’s arm as he takes their bags from the car. “There’s smoke! Someone is here!”
“What if it’s Briana? She paid for the place. Doesn’t she have the right to it?” Kyle asks, hesitating and hanging back with the woman I assume is his girlfriend.
“There are three of us, and one of her. She can stay in one room, we can take whichever one has the biggest bed,” Josh shrugs.
“I’m not staying if she’s here. Kyle, this whole thing...”
“Look at the scenery, babe! Isn’t this what you wanted for Christmas, Shay?” Kyle hugs her and kisses her cheek. “Snow. Undisturbed land. Peace. Time to commune with Mother Nature and lose the commercial crassness of the season.”
“If she’s not here, someone is.” Shay apparently has more smarts than the rest.
“Maybe the owner heard from Briana that we weren’t coming and decided to pop in. I’ll just tell him we changed our minds and we’re here until the 30th. Simple.”
“But... She paid for it. And you dumped her.”
“So?” Josh’s voice is getting impatient. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“It’s not cool!” Shay shakes her head. “You’re using something your girlfriend bought that you then ruined.”
“Ruined!? She’s the unenlightened one. She’s into monogamy.”
Shay glares and tucks her arm possessively through Kyle’s. “Monogamy is a valid choice. It’s what lots of people want. You can’t bully them for their beliefs and choices any more than you’d want to be bullied for yours!”
