An hour into the game, I was losing, but I was definitely getting my point across.
“So with the triple letter score on the R, Kelsey gets a seventeen for ‘jerk,’ ” Dorie Ann said, hesitantly adding my score to the tally. Bonnie tugged at the collar of her sweater, looking around for Will, who was sitting by the lobby fireplace reading Field and Stream.
Sadie sidled up to the table to check our progress. She frowned when she saw the tiles I’d laid down, spelling “liar,” “cheat,” “betray,” and “jackass.”
“Wow, there appears to be a theme here,” she said, giving Charlie an apologetic glance. Charlie just shrugged, damn his shoulders.
Sadie cleared her throat and failed in her attempt to sound casual. “Hey, Kelsey, Luke says there’s some extra towels in the storage closet by the service elevator. He said you know where it is from your wanderings around the hotel. Could you go get some for us?”
I nodded, pushing away from the table. “That’s okay, I was losing anyway. I forfeit, guys.”
“One down, three to go!” Dorie Ann crowed in an evil villain voice. “Mwahahaha!”
“Really? We need new towels now?” I asked Sadie as we crossed the lobby.
“Not really, but everybody at the Scrabble table looked so miserable, I decided to do something drastic. You managed to suck the fun out of America’s favorite board game, Kelsey. Honestly.” Sadie nodded, pressing Luke’s keys into my hand. “But we have run through the first-floor supply of towels, and it couldn’t hurt to get some more. I have to go talk to Luke about a conference call with the state fair director scheduled for tomorrow.”
“You don’t need me around for that?”
“Nah, all of the logistics are set up. Just get those towels so I don’t have to wander around spooky hotel hallways fetching them.”
“Thanks for making it sound so appealing.”
“Hey, I’ll even start your dish duty shift for you tomorrow. Have I mentioned you have dish duty tomorrow? Because you do, twice, payback for disappearing on us for almost two days.”
“Ew. You just increased my enthusiasm for this task tenfold. I am all about avoiding dishpan hands. I’ll be right back.”
“Thanks.”
I ambled down the hall to the housekeeping storage room, wondering why new towels were such a priority when we were supposed to be leaving this place in a day or so. But considering my recent temporary disappearance, if it made Sadie happy for me to wander around abandoned hallways in search of linens, I would do it.
The housekeeping closet unlocked easily enough. I fumbled around unsuccessfully for the light switch, but I could see that while the closet contained everything a janitorial engineer could possibly need to disinfect and deodorize the lodge, there were no towels on these shelves. “What the . . . ? Sadie? There are no towels in here,” I groaned into the darkness.
Oh, no. I’d let my depression and anger fog me up. I’d walked right into a trap, a trap of my own design.
I heard a footfall near the door and turned to see Sadie standing in the doorway. She smiled sweetly at me, dangling the key ring from her fingertips. “Vengeance is mine, sayeth your boss.”
I knew I shouldn’t have left those keys in the doorknob.
“Sadie, don’t!” I cried just as the door slammed in my face.
Also, I shouldn’t have walked into this closet without questioning Sadie more closely.
I pounded on the door, yelling threats to specific areas of my boss’s anatomy if she didn’t release me from this mini-prison. A warm hand slid over my shoulder from behind and I screamed, stomping backward on someone’s foot and jamming my elbow back into his sternum.
“Augh!” the person yelled, far too close to my ears. I turned to see Charlie hunching over, bracing his palms against his knees. “I can taste my own spleen. Is that bad?”
“Yes, and you know what else is bad?” I grunted, smacking his shoulders. “Hiding in the recesses of closets so you can scare the crap out of girls you’ve recently deceived.
“And you suck, Sadie!” I shouted through the door.
“Turnabout closet imprisonment is fair play!” came her muffled reply. “And I’m going to be nice to you and tell you there’s water and food on the bottom shelf. I won’t hide your supplies from you.”
I heard Bonnie call, “For the record, Kelsey, I didn’t think this was a good idea! I voted against this plan.”
“Well, for the record, Sadie and Josh keep sneaking off to have sex!” I exclaimed.
Yes, I knew I was living in a glass pillow fort when it came to the subject, but I was stuck in a closet. I had to strike out however I could.
“And I suppose the key to finding our way out of the closet is hidden somewhere in here with us?” I yelled.
“Nope!” Sadie called. “I have the keys in my hand. That’s the only way out. And I won’t let you out until you talk through this. I love you both too much to let you continue acting like idiots. I’ll come back to check on you in an hour.”
“This is inhuman!” I yelled as I heard her footsteps retreating. “You are violating the Geneva conventions! And the girl code! And democracy!
“Why aren’t you more upset about this?” I asked Charlie, who was leaning against the wall, still cradling his hands over his sternum.
“Sadie told me what she was planning to do. I thought it was a good idea. Before the sternum injury. It’s like your bony elbows are made of concrete.”
“I would apologize, but I think you had that coming. How the hell did you get here before me?” I asked, sliding to the floor, leaning against the door.
“Luke showed me a shortcut through the service corridor.”
Et tu, Ranger Luke?
“Kelsey, we need to talk.”
I tried to ignore him. I sat against the door, staring at him and not saying a word.
He knelt close to me. “Please, Kelsey.”
“You stay on your side of the closet,” I told him. “I am not above hitting you with industrial-size cleaning products.”
“Fine.” He sighed, leaning against the opposite wall.
“How could you?” I demanded. “I don’t even think I’m mad at you on the jilted lady level—”
“I didn’t jilt you!”
“I feel betrayed as your friend. Friends try to prevent each other from being emotionally sucker-punched. You know what I just went through; how could you let me go through it again?”
“I was wrong not to tell you about Laura. But I was being honest when I said that the relationship wasn’t serious. I stopped dating other girls a while ago, but she’s seeing other people. In fact, she’s seeing everybody but me, because I broke it off with her just before we came up here.”
Wait.
What?
“I broke things off with her,” he said. “She’s a lovely girl, but it didn’t feel right to let things get any more serious with her when my heart wasn’t really in it. The breakup was actually very cordial. Her heart wasn’t really in it, either. There were a dozen or so texts from Laura talking about it—and no, I didn’t break up with her by text, I called her, thank you—and when you said you’d read her texts, I assumed you’d read the ones where she said she was sad to see things end with us, but hoped I found someone really nice.”
“I didn’t see any texts like that,” I told him.
He took his phone out of his back pocket and showed me the text stream with Laura. “I see that. I don’t know how, but they’re missing from my text folder. And considering the texts we exchanged Friday night included me telling her that you seemed more annoyed with Darrell than usual and since I was hoping to have some time with you this weekend, that seemed kind of important. I was hoping that you were on the verge of breaking up with him. I didn’t realize that it had already happened. And if I had known, I would have smiled even m
ore. Shamelessly.”
“You talked to your ex about me?”
“I’ve told her all about you,” he swore. “I told her there was someone else when I ended it between us, and she had questions for me. For the record, she also thinks Darrell is a douche bag.”
“So why did you look so damn pleased with the texts she was sending you Friday night?”
“Because we were still able to talk to each other without it being weird! I really like Laura and I didn’t want to lose her friendship.”
“And why did you send her flowers?”
“It was her birthday yesterday. I arranged for them before we left town. Like I said, we’re friends. And I felt a little guilty for dumping her right before her birthday.”
I pursed my lips. “Okay, why did you change your Facebook status to ‘It’s complicated’?”
“Because clearly I’m not meant to be in a relationship with anybody but you—when I try, I screw it up. Because you and I were about to spend the weekend together and I had my hopes up. Because I prayed that maybe just this once, it was for good and you would look at me and see someone you wanted to be with. But based on past behavior, I knew you probably wouldn’t leave Darrell. And despite all that, I still wanted . . . you. I still wanted you. And I can’t think of anything more complicated than that.”
“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
He rolled his eyes and showed me his screen again as he opened the FaceChat app and searched for “Laura” on his contact list.
“How do you even have reception in here?” I asked as the phone rang.
“I have a special ‘if you get locked in a closet by your insane boss’ calling plan,” he retorted.
“She really is nuts sometimes,” I agreed.
Laura’s perfect, symmetrical face filled the screen and a sweet, smooth talk-radio voice filled the tiny closet space. “Hello? Charlie, are you okay? I’ve been worried.”
“I’m fine, Laura, thanks. Listen, I have Kelsey here with me—”
“Really?” The sophistication of the voice gave way to schoolgirl squeals. “Is she listening?” I waved awkwardly at the phone and she squealed again. “Oh! I’m so excited to talk to you! Charlie talks about you all the time, even when we were togeth— Oooh, I just realized this conversation is potentially very awkward.” She pinched her lips together. “Sorry.”
Charlie laughed. “Sorry to drag you into it Laura. But Kelsey would like to know if we are still dating.”
“And why would she want to know that?” Laura asked, grinning at the phone. “You know, this is the perfect time for me to play the crazy wronged ex-girlfriend.”
“Laura.” Charlie sighed.
“No, we are not still seeing each other,” Laura said. “Charlie broke up with me in a very gentlemanly fashion more than a week ago. He was so nice about it. And I actually think the two of us can still be friends.”
I closed my eyes and winced.
“Did I say something wrong?” Laura asked.
“No, but I did,” I groaned.
“Thanks, Laura,” Charlie said.
“It was great talking to you!” she cried. “Charlie’s crazy about you! He really—”
Charlie closed the call with an abrupt beep. “You don’t need to hear that,” he said.
“So, I was wrong,” I admitted. “I am sorry, but you can see why I drew the conclusions that I did.”
“I will take your halfhearted apology. I never meant to keep anything from you. And I know this is not the best time to do this, but I want to tell you that I love you. I have loved you ever since the moment I met you and saw that Post-it stuck to the back of your skirt.”
He kissed me and I swear I felt my heart grow two sizes. Charlie loved me. He was a bit of a dumbass, but he loved me. Someone I could actually envision spending the rest of my life with loved me. I kissed him back, hard, and pushed him to the carpet. His hands swept up my back and pinned me to him. His lips traveled down my throat to my collarbone, and he buried his face in my neck, breathing in the scent of my skin.
“I’m so sorry that this fell apart so spectacularly,” he said.
“It’s okay,” I promised him. “And I love you, too. I’ve loved you for such a long time, and I’m sorry that I was too scared to leave Darrell. I should have trusted my feelings for you. I should have trusted you, period. And I promise to come to you with problems in the future, instead of storming around like a crazy person.”
“And I promise that you can see my phone, my Facebook page, my e-mails, anything you want, anytime you want. Total transparency.”
“That’s very sweet. And I will try not to take you up on that,” I told him, kissing him. “But when we tell our friends this story, we are going to tell them that you fell in love with me while I was rescuing injured puppies from a runaway go-kart or something.”
“I can do that.”
“And we’re going to wait until after I spend some time alone and get my head together, so we don’t end up crashing and burning after our first date. I know that sounds pretty backward, considering that I engaged in pillow fort sex with you just a few days ago, but I think we need to take things slow.”
“You’re right,” he conceded. “You’re right. I don’t want to be your rebound. When you’re ready, I want us to have one of those epic relationships that leads to shared living space and spoiled pets and embarrassing Christmas cards sent to our friends. I want all of that, when you’re ready.”
He kissed me, nibbling at my bottom lip, and it took all the strength I had to push him away and catch my breath.
“When you say time alone, do you mean not seeing me at all?” he asked.
“No, we can see each other, just not naked.”
Charlie’s face fell just a bit, but he was man enough to nod his assent. “All right.”
“This is going to be the longest six months ever.” I sighed.
“Six months?” he exclaimed. I shot him a significant look and he grimaced. “You’re right. Six months sounds reasonable.”
“Are you always going to be this agreeable?” I asked.
“Only when we’re locked in a closet.”
“Fair enough.”
He kissed me again, breaking free of my mouth to wonder aloud, “Why would those texts disappear from my phone?”
And that was the moment I remembered walking into the office and finding Gina unattended, with all the phones, including Charlie’s, which didn’t have a password lock.
“Sonofabitch.”
12
In Which My Friends Butter Up My Ex
It was amazing how quickly our last twenty-four hours at the lodge went by, now that we had electricity and I had some insight into Charlie’s misguided distance.
After Charlie and I had a very long talk proposing revenge scenarios for Gina—and eliminating the ones that would get me arrested—Sadie let us out of the closet. And then she ran as fast as her little booted feet would carry her, because she didn’t know what sort of weapons I had improvised during our imprisonment.
After Charlie convinced me that running Gina over with a snowmobile would be an obvious and ham-handed reaction, we went to bed, separately. I plopped my head on my pillow with a sense of lightness that was completely alien to me. I believe that happy people call this sensation “hope.” I would be cautious, but I would trust Charlie. I would give him a chance to prove himself without lying down and waiting for him to hurt me, as I had with Darrell. This time, I would be smarter.
In the morning, we woke to the sound of chainsaws. Now, under normal circumstances, this would be a little alarming, but in our position they were as welcome as the Hallelujah chorus. As the day went on, the noise of the chainsaws grew louder and louder. Luke reported that the road crew was working its way down the lane tow
ard the lodge. Our access to the highway would be clear by the afternoon.
We were going home.
A strange mania swept through the lodge. The symptoms included frantic packing, thorough cleaning, and giddy laughter for no particular reason. It was like the last day of summer camp. Yes, we’d had a good time, but we were sick of the people we’d bunked with and were all anxious to get home.
While we ran about the hallways like the proverbial headless chickens, Luke made himself useful, helping Josh and Will clear the van of snow and jump-starting it when the long-dormant battery wouldn’t turn the engine. I collected our work materials and meticulously sorted them into Sadie’s plastic storage bins so we’d be able to find what we needed when we got back to the office. Slowly but surely we built our mountain of bags by the front entrance.
I was running through Sadie’s “get out of Dodge” checklist when Luke stomped into the entryway, knocking increasingly slushy snow from his boots.
“It’s sort of sad, but I’m really going to miss all of you,” he said. “I’ve never had to bunk down with guests for weeks at a time.”
“Well, those lovey feelings may disappear the minute you see the giant pile of towels, sheets, and blankets we left by the laundry room entrance.”
“That’s okay,” he assured me. “The overtime form I’m going to submit will more than make up for laundry duty.” He cleared his throat. “So you and the Professor worked things out, huh?”
I gave him a winsome smile. “Not entirely, but we’re working on it. And thank you for helping Sadie orchestrate the closet ambush.”
“Well, it’s obvious that he’s what you want, so I wanted to help you get him.” Luke gave me a sad little smile. “I’m rooting for you. Of course, if he screws it up, I will jump in and sweep you off your feet faster than you can say ‘highly aggressive possum.’ ”
“That’s good to know.”
He wrapped a companionable arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “Keep in touch, Kelsey.”
“You know that I will.”
“Wait,” Josh yelled from the lobby.