CHAPTER 07 - NAOMI
I had no idea why I gave Alex my sister’s name downstairs. It just tumbled out of me. Something about this guy rubbed me the wrong way, like I didn’t know where he was coming from, and using my real name just didn’t feel right in the moment.
Anyway, it was done now, and I couldn’t change it. “Oh hey, just now, when I said my name was Naomi? It’s not. It’s Avery. Naomi is my sister. Or, uh, was, my sister.”
Yeah that wasn’t going to work, not right now, and not when I had a warm bed waiting for me.
At the top of the rickety staircase Clara stood there smiling, her arms filled with towels. “This room to the right is yours!” she said, handing me more towels than I could count. “The bathroom is in the center, and your, uh, friend’s room is this one to the right.” The way she said, ‘friend’ suggested she thought there was much more to that story, and I was about to open my mouth and correct that notion when she pressed hands against my waist and pushed me toward the door to my room.
“Not another word, young lady, you get in there and relax yourself!” Clara looked out the hallway window. “It’s coming down something fierce out there, you must be exhausted. You rest up and I’ll fix you and your friend something for dinner.”
I nodded gratefully and Clara shut the door to my room behind me. I could hear her singing to herself as she went down the stairs, and I smiled at the brief glimpse I’d had of the life she shared with Marty. They seemed so happy together, so comfortable.
I looked around the small room — the double bed on the right side, piled high with old clothes; old, teak, end tables flanking it, a table and chair on the other side. A big window looking out onto the road to Meridian below, all covered in snow. On the other side, a small set of shelves that held some old paperbacks. I set the towels down on the table and stared out the window.
We’d come from that direction, I pointed out to no one in particular, and we were going in that direction.
We.
It wasn’t just me anymore, it was me and that guy, Alex, the guy I couldn’t quite place, couldn’t quite understand. Once in a while he was nice and caring, but that only seemed to show through when he was tired. The rest of the time he was a complete dick, and he made me so mad I’d thought about storming off more than once during our trek here.
Of course, I knew that wouldn’t have worked - I’d have died in the middle of nowhere, without a doubt.
Then there was also him holding my hand like that the entire way here. I couldn’t say just how comforting that had been, but even now, as I clasped my hands together and closed my eyes I could feel his strong fingers on mine, reassuring me, persuading me to keep going.
Why did that hand have to belong to such an asshole?!
It was just my luck. Meet someone in the craziest, most romantic way possible and then have him end up being a jerk. Infuriating!
I looked around the room and realized my hands were gripped together tight, till my knuckles had turned white. I was mad at myself that I let this guy I didn’t even know bother me so much.
At the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. That look he gave, that one that mixed understanding and just a hint of caring, that look was enough to keep me going.
It had gotten me here. He had gotten me here.
I sat down on the bed and tried to reason with myself. I was only going to be here for another day or two, tops. There was no way this storm would last any longer than that, and if it did, all bets were off. This old inn did not seem like it could withstand a full scale blizzard bearing down on it for days on end, even if Marty and Clara seemed like the strongest people on the planet.
No, I’d be out of here soon enough. A snowplow would come through and clear up the roads and then Alex and I could make our ways, separately, to Meridian, and get back to our lives.
Apart.
That was how it would be. That was all it would be. I wouldn’t let it become anything else.
I sat up a little on the bed, satisfied that I had arranged everything in my mind just so — everything would be OK.
A sharp sound from the hallway shook me out of my reverie on the bed, and I looked around, wondering if someone had knocked on my door. I held my breath for a moment before exhaling sharply, and inwardly laughing — everyone knew I was in here, so I couldn’t really hide.
After a few seconds the sound repeated, and my ears perked back up. What was going on out there? I strained to hear but couldn’t make anything out.
I knew I had to check it out, just to make sure everything was OK. We’d just gotten out of the freezer and for a brief moment it looked like things were going to get better, but I couldn’t be sure.
I slowly opened the door to my room and peeked out into the hallway.
Nothing on either side. The hallway was empty. Looking across the hall at Alex’s closed door, I couldn’t hear anything.
Must have been nothing - I felt myself calming down, letting myself relax.
Just breathe, Avery, just breathe.
The bathroom door was open — as soon as I realized that, the idea of washing my face seemed like the best thing in the world, so I crossed the short distance between the doors and pushed it open.
And then my jaw dropped.
The bathroom wasn’t as empty as I thought.
Alex stood there, his back to me.
Completely naked.
I couldn’t make a sound! Even if I could, he’d hear me, and then I’d have to dig a hole so I could crawl into it and die, without attracting more attention!
I was mesmerized. I could tell from the strength he’d showed since I’d met him that he was in good shape, but looking at Alex’s body without the heavy jackets and warm winter clothing on just made me salivate all over.
The thick cords of his muscles, the tattoos arcing back and forth across them, those broad shoulders tapering all the way down that V-shaped torso.
Yeah, this was a guy straight out of any straight girl’s dreams.
I don’t know how long I stood there trying to reel my tongue back in, but whatever it was, it was too long. Before I knew it, Alex must have realized I was there — maybe the door caused a gust of air to wash over him in his naked state.
I was extremely jealous of that wind. It was as if he’d been carved out of stone by a master craftsman from millennia ago.
He turned around, that sly smirk I’d grown to know so well over the last few hours plastered across his smug but gorgeous face. He made no attempt to hide his nakedness, and his comfort with his body made him even more sexy to me.
“Hey there,” He said. “I was just about to get in the bath.”
My jaw raised and lowered but no sound came out. I must have looked like an idiot.
Moments passed.
“See anything you like?”
I swallowed and realized I was staring directly down below his waist, and what he had down there, well, I hadn’t seen too many of them, but that was definitely…impressive, if I had to attach one word to it.
He took a step forward and held it, his features hardening.
I bolted. I ran as fast as I could, well, maybe running wasn’t the right word for it, cause I was going backward. I backed out of the bathroom, almost tripping over the door in my haste to get back to my room where I could be alone.
Anywhere but where he was. Naked.
Mmmmmm.
I could hear the dull roar of his laughter echoing around my head as I closed the door to my room behind me and leaned against it, breathing heavily and exhaling hard, trying to make sense of all the thoughts bouncing around.
Oh shit, he was hot. How had I not noticed this before?
I mean, yeah, all the clothing, but was that all it took?
I sank to the cold floor of my room, my back still against the door. What was I going to do now? I couldn’t go out there. I couldn’t go out there ever again.
This room at the inn in the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire was now my home for the rest of my life. It was the only way I’d get over the embarrassment I’d just caused myself. This was clearly the only solution that could possibly work.
At the very least I’d have to stay here until the storm ended. From where I sat I could see the top of the window and silently I whispered to the blizzard outside that enough was enough, and that now would be a perfect time to go bother some other state way farther away from here.
Or Canada.
Needless to say the storm decided in that moment not to listen to me, and I decided in that moment that the storm and I weren’t friends anymore.
I don’t know how long I sat there, alternating between fantasizing about Alex’s body and chastising myself for walking into the bathroom without knocking first. Who does that?!
Eventually I noticed that the room had darkened, and I started to feel my stomach rumbling as the late afternoon approached. It had been hours since I’d eaten anything, and this afternoon hadn’t exactly been a walk in the park.
It felt like it had been days since my final and my talk with Professor Stephens, but that had been just this morning. How time flew when you were…having fun? That couldn’t be right.
Nothing about today had been any fun at all. More than once I had wondered whether I was going to wake up from this dream just in time to be late to that final I thought I’d already taken, but no luck there.
Finally, I got up, propelled by my frustrated stomach, and realized I was still wearing the wet clothing I’d come in with. Getting out of it took only a minute, and by now the inn had warmed up enough that I didn’t shiver just standing around in my underwear.
The high stack of clothing on my bed, a temporary gift from Clara, turned out upon further investigation to be a pile of long dresses that must have each been older than me. I picked the most modern one I could find, which wasn’t saying much — a grey high necked and long skirted dress that came to just above my ankles.
I slipped it on and checked myself out in the mirror — well, I wasn’t going to turn any heads in this little number, though, given the company, that might not be a bad thing.
Alex, though, he was going to laugh at this, I already knew it. Visions of the way his eyes had looked me up and down when the lights came on downstairs flashed through my mind, and warmed me up more than it should have, all throughout my body.
As I finished checking myself out and feeling how the dress hugged my curves, there came a knock at the door. For a moment I stayed silent, hoping they wouldn’t notice, before thinking better of it — if I got any hungrier I was going to start eating the leg of my chair.
“You in there?” It was Alex’s voice, deep and rich, even through the old and creaky wooden door. “Clara’s made us some food, a late lunch, if you’re interested.”
I realized then I was holding my breath, and let it out. “Oh, OK, thanks for letting me know.”
I couldn’t hear footsteps leading away. Alex must still be standing there. What do I do now?
I don’t know why he made me so nervous, because whenever we actually talked, he was a total dick to me. It just didn’t make any sense.
He cleared his throat on the other side of the door. “Are you coming?” he asked.
Shit. “Uh, I’ll think about it.” Right then and there my stomach lurched, as if it was objecting to me adding any time between now and it getting filled with food.
“Right, well, it’s gonna get cold otherwise,” I heard Alex say, and then the footfalls down the stairs I’d been waiting for rang out.
Ugh, why I was I so weird around him? Was it going to be like this tomorrow, or till whenever the hell we got out of here? I couldn’t really just stay in my room till the storm blew over.
I just needed to relax. People saw other people naked all the time, and not just on purpose.
It was no big deal. Get a grip, Avery.
Almost immediately after that, I started to smell the familiar aroma of freshly baked bread, and my mouth started to water out of control.
I couldn’t stay here any longer, not when there was piping hot food waiting for me. Even if that food was guarded by a troll named Alex.
Even a gorgeous troll named Alex.
I took one last look in the mirror before opening the door to my room with a creaky flourish, making the door joints whine, and closing it behind me. I started down the stairs, curving to the right away from the living room with the now-roaring fire and toward the dining room off to that side.
As soon as I stepped off the stairs I heard a rush of laugher, and I shook my head but pressed on.
The dining room of the inn, just down the stairs and to the left at the landing, was composed of a handful of small tables that could each sit about 4 very snugly, and two long benches that could accommodate bigger parties or for communal eating.
Alex sat on one of the benches, wearing a red sweat suit that was at least a couple sizes too small for him, clinging to his muscles and accenting every hard line of his sculpted body.
And of course, Alex was the one laughing, and he was laughing at me.
Pointing, too.
He sat before a heaping plate of food that drew my attention immediately — it looked incredible. Mashed potatoes and gravy, some veggies, and some strips of dark meat — pork, from the looks of it. Everything was half eaten and strewn about the plate.
“I, I," Alex said in between howls of laugher, “I didn’t think this storm had actually sent us back in time,” he laughed again. “But clearly your dress suggests I was wrong!” He doubled over, not even trying to hold it in.
“You’re hilarious,” I said, mustering up the right amount of antipathy.
Clara poked her head in from the kitchen. “Is that you, dear? Come right in, the food’s just right!”
I shook my head at Alex, still laughing, and headed to the kitchen, where Clara immediately dropped a huge plate into my outstretched hands and started scooping big heaps of food onto it from the serving dishes she had waiting.
I got the same as Alex, mashed potatoes, gravy, some stuffing, pork, and as many biscuits as I could pile on without falling. “Go out there and sit, dear, and I’ll bring you some more tea.”
Wordlessly, I nodded, almost overcome with both gratitude and the gobsmacking smell rolling off this impressive amount of food. Clara saw the look on my face and smiled. “Don’t worry about it, dear. One of the reasons we have this place is because I love to cook for people.”
She shooed me out of the kitchen and I found myself back in the dining room with a choice to make. I could sit on the bench across from Alex, or I could find my own spot.
It only took me a moment to make up my decision, fast enough that even Alex, watching me from his seat while spooning gravy-covered mashed potatoes into his mouth, couldn’t have seen that I was even thinking about it.
I chose one of the tables off to the side, near the window, and sat down, setting my plate in front of me, and very pointedly staring out the window at the rising snowbanks while starting to eat.
The food was delicious. I didn’t know how long Clara had been cooking, but I had a hunch this place could have stayed open over the years solely on the word of mouth that came from passing travelers stopping by to eat.
Maybe it was the craziness I’d been through today coupled with a near-death experience out in the frozen wasteland, but this steaming food was the best I’d ever tasted. I didn’t think it was possible for me to get full off it, I just wanted more.
After a few minutes I felt Alex’s eyes on me, boring into the back of my head, and I turned to look at him. That smile was still there. “Can I help you?”
“You’re a little far away for that.”
“I prefer this to a bench,” I said, and kept eating, but I knew he was still looking at me with those dark eyes of his, the ones that seemed to alternate between looking right through me and deep into my very being.
Alex chuckled at that, and I heard a creaking noise. I heard speaking in hushed tones to Clara back in the kitchen, and the next thing I knew it Alex stood before me, his plate once again filled with more food. I was jealous, as I was working through my own plate.
Alex set his down and sat across from me, that impish twinkle still in his eyes. “Bet you’re used to that, eh?”
I took another bite and lowered my spoon to the table. Clara came bustling in with two large mugs and a pot on a tray, and made a big show of pouring each of us a mug full of tea that smelled strongly of lemon.
After she left, I picked up my mug and, after testing how hot it was, took a long sip, washing down all the pork and potatoes I’d been gorging myself on.
I was in heaven; well, heaven except for Alex sitting in front of me. He was a…different kind of heaven. He took a swig of his own mug, licking his lips and getting back to eating.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
He shrugged. “I said, ‘bet you’re used to that.’”
I batted my eyes at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He nodded and winked. “Sure, Princess. I meant, you probably have people coming over to sit at your table all the time.”
I laughed. “What is this, high school? Are we really having this conversation?”
He shrugged again. “I’m just callin’ it like I see it. The rest of the world is more like high school than you think, Princess.” The look he gave me suggested he had more than a little evidence of that.
I picked up my spoon and waved it at him, getting right in his face. “OK, I thought you’d get the hint by now, but clearly you haven’t.” I narrowed my gaze. “Do not call me Princess anymore. Are we clear?” He turned his head down and to the left. “I don’t know where you got that idea about me, but it’s wrong. Got it?”
He stayed quiet for a moment, then cracked that smile again. “I saw the patch on your jacket, Naomi. I know where you go to school. That’s a rich kid’s school.” He sat back in his chair, interlocking his fingers behind his head as he stared upwards. “I’ve seen the people at that school. It’s a country club for rich Meridian kids.”
I pulled my hand back, and took a bite before saying anything else; I was so mad I was almost shaking. “Listen,” I fumed. “You don’t know anything about me, alright? We’re strangers. You don’t know anything about my life, and I don’t know anything about yours. Let’s keep it that way.”
Alex pulled back, holding up his hands, palms facing me. “I come in peace, jeez, alright?” That smile again. “Take a cue from outside and chill for a bit. We’re gonna be here a little while together, and unless you want to hang out with Marty and Clara till this storm moves on, we might as well get a little more civil.”
“I have no problem with civil, Alex,” I replied. “Whenever you’re ready for that you let me know. Until then, Marty and Clara are at least more…respectful, than you are.”
Alex gave me a pained look. “I thought I was being pretty respectful when I saved your pretty little ass from that bus. Or when I stopped you from going back inside to get who knows what.”
Again, I saw red, waves of sadness and anger washing over me for not keeping my sister’s diary on me instead of my bag. Now it was gone forever, even though it was still right there. I could feel it calling to me even from this distance away.
Waiting for me to respond, Alex smiled confidently and went back to eating. I sat and kept fuming, unable to put together the right words that I wanted to find to put him in his place once and for all.
“Relax, Naooooomi,” Alex said, drawing my name out super obviously as if to make sure that I noticed he wasn’t calling me princess anymore. “Eat your food, or hand over your plate. I can’t get enough of this stuff.”
I looked down at my food and my mouth started watering all over again; I’d forgotten about it since Alex had gotten me all riled up over nothing. Why did I let this guy have that effect on me? Get a grip. I picked at it, ravenous, but not wanting Alex to know that he was right about at least that.
Eventually, though, I couldn’t help myself, and eating was way better than talking to Alex, so I focused on my plate and we found some blessed silence for a little while.
“What were you doing out there?” I couldn’t resist - I had to know. “Not the best time to be out on the road, you know.”
Alex set his fork down. “I could say the same about you,” he quickly added, before pausing. “I was going to see someone.”
“Sounds serious.”
Alex waved his hand and then picked up his fork and grinned at his plate. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
We ate in silence for a minute.
“So, then, Naaaaomi,” he started again. “I gotta say I’m a little curious. What were you willing to go back all that way for?”
I left my fork stabbed into a mound of mashed potatoes on my plate and gave him my best withering look, despite how gorgeous he was. It really was a shame that such a hot guy was so terrible. “Don’t bring that up again.”
Alex took another bite of food. I’d managed to finish my plate and I was debating going back for more. I still felt like I could eat a supermarket’s worth of food. It was as if the storm outside had amplified my hunger over and over like the driving snow.
“You still won’t tell me what was in there.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “What was so important that you’d risk your life to save it?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said, my appetite suddenly gone. I stood up and gathered my plate, knife, and fork, taking a last sip of my tea before hauling all of it back to the kitchen. I handed it all back to Clara, thanking her profusely for the amazing meal.
And then I went back to my room.
This storm couldn’t end fast enough.
I needed to get out here.
I needed to get away from him.