Olivia
“Jeez, this wind is crazy.”
We’d had a windstorm a couple of days ago, but today’s storm was looking to be way worse. Hurricane force winds and torrential rain was a bad combination, especially after we’d had heavy rains all week.
It was a common misperception that it rained hard all the time here in Seattle. The reality was, while it rained more days than it didn’t, it was generally misty rain, or light rain. Torrential rain was something that happened only every once in a while. But we were currently in the middle of something called an atmospheric river’ and it was raining cats and dogs.
“I’m gonna send you guys home a little early,” Sam announced at four o’clock. “Traffic’s gonna be a nightmare, and with the windspicking up, it might be good to get home and start your weekend a little early.”
There was a chorus of ‘thanks Boss’ as everyone began to gather up their tools and clean up their workstations. I was last in line for the sink, waiting to clean up before I left. I found myself lingering, hoping to talk to Sam.
I did that a lot, I noticed, and it was totally pathetic. I took every opportunity to be near her, talk to her, work on a project with her, hoping for a few minutes alone. The more I worked with her, the more I was falling for her. Well, we’d past falling. I was head over heels in love with the woman, but she seemed determined to keep me at arm’s length.
The guys were all gossiping about us. I wasn’t sure if they were picking up on the vibe between us or making assumptions based on the way I kept bringing Sam gifts and making moon eyes at her. When she wasn’t around they’d tease me about how we had such obvious crushes. I didn’t mind, none of their teasing was mean-spirited. In fact, I had the distinct impression that at least some of the guys were invested in getting us together.
“Oh. You’re still here?”
I turned around as Sam came into the kitchen, already wearing a raincoat.
“Yeah, sorry, this plaster is really dug into my skin.”
“No problem.”
I finished washing my hands, then hung around while Sam closed up the back of the house, figuring I’d walk out with her. I did that whenever I could, trying to prolong our conversations, although with the way it was raining, we wouldn’t be doing much talking today.
We’d just stepped out onto the front porch when we heard a cracking noise, followed by a sound that was somewhere between a crash and a thud.
“Holy shit!”
Through the pouring rain we watched in horror as one of the huge old growth trees at the end of the private road came down – right on my convertible. Flattening it. I should have been upset about the loss of my car, but my first thought was that I was glad Sam was safe. If we’d left a couple of minutes earlier, that tree might have come down on her truck, no doubt killing her.
We walked outside the look at the damage, both of us immediately soaked anywhere our raincoats didn’t cover. My car was mostly flattened, and steam was coming up from the hood of my car, presumably from the smashed radiator.
“I’m glad no one was driving past when that happened,” Sam said. “But it looks like your car is toast.”
“Yeah, but there’s a bigger problem. The tree is totally blocking the road.”
Even laying on its side the tree was taller than either of us, and it had fallen diagonally across the road. We’d have to hike into the woods to get around it, or climb down a ravine on the other side, neither of which was a good option.
“Let’s go back inside and call for help,” Sam suggested.
When we got back into the house, she hit the light switch. Nothing happened.
“Oh no.”
“Well, either that tree took down the power line too, or we’re part of a larger blackout.” She tapped on her phone, navigating to the power company’s app, then shook her head. “Power’s down all over the county. It’s going to be a while before they get out to the unincorporated areas like this, I’m sure.”
“I’ll ask my assistant to check on our options to get out of here,” I said. “I don’t want to call emergency services when we’re not injured or in any imminent danger.”
“Good idea.”
We sat down to wait, and ten minutes later I got the message from my assistant that she’d reported the tree being down, but all of the local companies were on storm duty so it was likely no one could get out here until tomorrow. The company pilot had told her it was much too windy to send in the Laurent helicopter, so we couldn’t leave by air. She asked if I wanted her to ask my father to try to pull some strings to find another solution, but Itold her to just put us on the list – it didn’t feel right jumping the line when we’d be perfectly fine here.
“I guess we’re stuck here for the night,” I told Sam. “The earliest someone can get out is tomorrow. It’s too windy to send in a helicopter.”
“Shit.”
“We’ll be okay here,” I said brightly. “We have everything we need here. It’ll be an adventure.”
