“Yes I do,” I countered, folding up a pair of thermal pajamas and placing them side by side with a lace slip. “I mean...I could. I’m going to. I’m branching out.” I threw in a couple scarves and a barely there bikini before slamming the suitcase shut. “This is me branching out!”
She pursed her lips but wisely chose not to contest this. Instead, she supported me in her own silent way by running out and getting me a little care package from the mini-mart down the street. Vodka, chapstick, and condoms. The perfect storm. I blushed a little when she handed it to me, but zipped it up without question into my bag. Rose had been on many sex weekends before. I’d do well to follow her advice...
So long story short, here I was, in my finest underwear, under my warmest clothes, drumming my fingers nervously against the handle of my bag, waiting for a town car to whisk me away and the sex weekend to begin.
As it turned out, I was only right about the first part of it. It wasn’t a town car that pulled up against the curb, but a shiny red sports car. At first, I thought the driver must merely be stopping to ask for directions, so when the window rolled down, I was surprised to see Tom.
“Get in,” he instructed, throwing open the door.
I hesitated for a moment before tossing my suitcase in the back and climbing onto the smooth leather seat. It wasn’t the kind of car I’d expect him to drive. In fact, after having lived in New York for so long, I was surprised to see anyone I knew driving. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten behind the wheel of a car myself. But he looked perfectly at home, gunning the engine and shooting us off through traffic like a pro. It wasn’t long before we were leaving the city and winding our way through snowy, mountain roads.
We hadn’t said much in the first hour or so of the drive. I think both of us were too nervous to be caught red-handed leaving the city on our illicit retreat. But when the skyscrapers were replaced with towering pines, I cast him a look out of the corner of my eye.
“So how is this going to go?” I asked in neutral tones. “Are we going to talk at all? Should I have brought a book?”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “What would you like to talk about?”
“Geese.”
He turned to me with an amused frown. “You want to talk about—”
“No—geese!”
He slammed on the breaks and the car went skidding forward, coming to a stop just inches away from a flock of birds, ambling obliviously down the country road. We both sat there for a minute, catching our breath before he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Good talk.”
It was definitely the ice breaker, and we laughed for a good ten minutes. The conversation flowed and I felt like I’d known him forever. We talked about work, and then it got more personal. We were both exchanging stories and before we knew it, we’d reached the cottage. As our tires crunched to a slow stop, my mouth fell open in amazement. Tom’s ‘cottage in the woods’ turned out to be a little slice of wintery heaven. It looked like one of those Thomas Kinkade puzzles my mother would always do. Tidy brick walls, quaint thatched roof, frozen winter garden. There was even a little stack of firewood under the eaves.
“This is cozy,” Jenna said.
“It’s small,” Tom said as we looked up appraisingly. “I apologize for how small. It was never meant to entertain guests...”
I glanced at him curiously before returning my gaze to the house. Small, perhaps. But cozy, picturesque. It looked like a little painting, nestled away in the snow.
“Shall we?”
I looked back to see him offering out his hand.
Alright, Jenna, it’s now or never...
“We shall.”
We headed round to the trunk and unloaded the groceries we’d picked up from a little snow drenched shop on the way in. For the most part, it was fruits and vegetables, with a couple bags of pasta thrown in. But Tom had insisted on making a particular purchase, and the second we walked in the door, he ripped open a package of Oreos. He grinned in anticipation, taking a big handful before offering them out to me.
I couldn’t help but smile. “I can’t get enough Oreos.”