“Is it safe?” Maya asked.
“I’m sure it’s fine, besides people work here to ensure safety, right Lil?” Hanna said, and Maya could see she was fighting back a smile for the sake of Maya’s ego.
“I did have this scheme to ruin my aunt’s business and name by having two lovers drown on her property, but I don’t know, I’m having second thoughts,” Lily said, laughing. She rested a hand on Maya’s shoulder, and Maya leaned into her touch: she had called themher lovers.
Interesting.
Before Maya could give that more thought, Lily slid her hand down Maya’s shoulder, and grabbed Maya’s hand, pulling her forward. Hanna grabbed her other hand and smiled up at her, “It will be fun,” she said reassuringly. Maya swallowed her fear.
“There’s a bunch of games and stuff, a basketball court and whatnot inside. Plus a heated pool and hot tubs. Over there is where you can pick up a shuttle to take you about forty minutes to the mountain for skiing and stuff,” Lily continued.
“Do a lot of people go skiing? I thought this was supposed to be a wellness and yogi-like retreat,” Maya asked.
“Yeah, it’s about leisure more than community or anything too regimented. It’s basically rich people paying to feel crunchy and get away for a bit. My aunt building this near the ski resort was really smart.” Lily reached to open the glass door to the single story building. “Shall we? We can grab skates here, and don’t worry, we don’t have to—” Her voice broke off as they were fully inside.
Inside was a bunch of different winter activity equipment: sleds, skis, and, Maya could see behind the counter, ice skates. Behind the counter stood two women: one with pale white skin and fiery red hair, spiral curls spilling down her back, and the other with deep brown skin with red undertones, her black hair cut into a chic pixie. The redhead wore green glasses, a purple patterned top and jeans. She had the most interesting rings on her fingers, Maya noticed, and she was flushed with the heat of the building. The black-haired woman wore no glasses and had a beauty mark below her left eye and a corresponding one on the right side of her chin, right underneath her lips. As they got closer to the counter, Maya caught her eye. She was striking, with obsidian eyes that seemed to pierce into her soul.
“Sruti, you work here now? With Fe?” Lily said, her voice asking the question with a twinge of nerves that Maya wasn’t used to hearing.
Before the woman Lily was talking to could answer, the redhead said, “Felicity, and yeah, I mean I like an equipment shack same as the next girl.”
“As you well know,” the black-haired woman, Sruti, said, not taking her appraising eyes off Maya’s. Her voice was low and sultry, a slight accent punctuating each word.
“Some of us actuallyworkhere, Lily, or did you forget that, too?” Felicity said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Finally, Sruti broke eye contact–her gaze was truly magnetic–and turned her head slightly towards Lily. Mayatracked her movement, noticing a silver cartilage piercing in her ear.
“It is good to see you, Lil, your aunt gave me a job here recently, so I’ll be staying for a while,” Sruti said, her voice even and calm.
“A lot has changed since last winter, since you didn’t come up all summer,” Felicity said, and Maya didn’t miss that there was definitely an embedded accusation in the statement.
Maya heard Hanna scoff just as her stomach began to drop.
“I know that look,” Hanna muttered, and walked right up to the counter. Maya knew that look too. And now when her eyes flitted back to the dark-eyed beauty’s alluring face, she pictured Lily experiencing the same pull, experiencing the desire to lick each one of her beauty marks. The thought turned something inside her so tightly she found herself momentarily unable to speak.
“Hi!” Hanna said at the counter. “Whatever drama aside, we are looking to get some skates. And can you also definitely confirm that other people are skating and arefinefor my friend here?” Hanna indicated Maya.
Maya knew that Hanna was trying to inject some levity into the situation. Neither of them had any right to be jealous, but Mayawasjealous. It wasn’t that Lily had a sex life, it had been made super clear that Lily had a very healthy sex positive mindset, and Maya loved that for her. No, it was that this retreat was supposed to belong to her, to them. She didn’t leave her mother in bed and travel hours to practically Canada to watch Lily get distracted. Maya had never been possessive before, not with any of her past lovers, but she was so close to screaming most days that she needed thisthing, whatever it was, to beonly them.
“Your new girl is not used to skating out here in the wild,” the redhead said, nodding her head over to Maya as she looked at Lily, and Maya felt her face flush.
“Fe—” Lily started, her voice dropping an octave.
“Felicity, only myfriendsandloversget to call me Fe, and you haven’t been one since you stopped picking up your phone,” Felicity said, and Maya could hear the bite in those words.
Maya’s jealousy took a pause to feel a pang of disappointment, so Lily was the type to love them and leave with no explanation? She momentarily thought of her mother in her bathrobe back home. She opened her mouth to share that she was not ‘Lily’s girl’ when she caught the way Hanna was switching her gaze between her and Lily, as if trying to work something out and not liking the result. Maya’s stomach dropped even further because she knew that Hanna would also be put out that Felicity, whoever she was to Lily, had assumed it wasMayawho was Lily’s girl, not Hanna. Not that either of them belonged to each other.
“Can we go skating already?” Hanna said, turning and pushing past Lily. “Unbelievable,” she muttered and walked out.
14
LILY
“Igot you, come on,” Hanna said as she skated backwards, a nervous Maya holding her hands in a death grip.
“Wait, you have skated before?” Lily asked, skating easily alongside them. Lily remembered then that Hanna had done some skating in high school–of course the princess had.
“Yeah, it’s not the skating that has me on edge,” Maya said as she looked around at the dozens of other people skating on the lake. She took a deep breath, and Lily saw her relax her hands in Hanna’s. Lily took off a glove, reached into her pocket, and pulled out the bag of sour gummies. She grabbed one and popped it in her mouth, leaned forward and took Maya’s mouth in hers. Maya took in a sharp breath but didn’t push her away. Lily slipped her tongue across her lips and when Maya opened for her, she slipped the gummy into her mouth. She pulled back, popped another in her mouth, and turned to give it to Hanna, but Hanna had already started skating away.
