Chapter 5
The black dress wasn’t her favorite thing to wear, but Aurora loved the way she looked in it. It held her in all the right places. Aurora took one last look in the mirror, and then turned to head out the door. Once again, she didn’t make it all the way to the door. There was a hesitation, a fear building in her legs and stopping them dead in their tracks.
“You can do this”, Aurora told herself.
“You can, and this time you’re going to pay attention”, Lance said as he opened the door to the adjoining room. Aurora was so embarrassed when she realized Lance was standing there. She had said as few other things aloud, and wondered how much Lance had heard. Aurora was hoping Lance didn’t hear all the grumbling she did about the last time they had talked.
Lance was treating Aurora like a child and she didn’t like it. Still, she didn’t want him to know how upset she was about the whole situation. Aurora was upset about everything, the cold treatment, the sex, even though it was great, and the abuse of privilege that had brought her here in the first place.
“I will do my best”, Aurora sighed. She knew that she looked like a petulant junior high student. Her arms folded tightly, and the intern had rolled her eyes so hard it felt like she pulled something. Lance didn’t say a word. He just walked out of the room.
Aurora took another look in the mirror beside her bed, and then she walked out the door. Closing the door behind her, Aurora took a quick peak to make sure she wasn’t going to be sharing an elevator with Lance. She couldn’t deal with seeing him again so soon.
The elevator doors opened as soon as she pressed the call button. She got in and started frantically punching the close button. She breathed a heavy sigh as the doors sealed in front of her. She was safe for the next 5 seconds as she travelled to the lobby.
“Tonight” the sign read. It had a picture of tonight’s dinner speaker. He looked as slimy as the rest of them. Lance had been unimpressed with Aurora’s afternoon notes as well. She had filled three pages, but it still wasn’t enough.
“You are just recording the notes verbatim”, Lance complained. “I want to know more about the speaker and the presentation. I want you to explain the notes in a more in-depth coverage of the topic”.
Is this some sort of torture? Aurora had wondered to herself. She looked over the notes and tried to make some adjustments, but she couldn’t understand the point of this exercise. Lance wasn’t even listening to the presentations. He had skipped the entire afternoon session to go skiing. That was the afternoon session. Tonight, Aurora promised herself she would do better.
Crossing through the lobby, Aurora was still taken by the beauty of the mountain resort. The tiny white lights that decorated the ceiling and walls made the room seem much more spacious. The dark oak trim and the gigantic stone fireplace all made Aurora feel like she was walking through an enchanted fairy tale land. There was so much to look at, and so many people moving about that Aurora felt like she noticed something new every time she entered the lobby.
This time she noticed a moose that was staring right at her. Aurora went to get a closer look at the giant antlered beast. Even though only the head was left, the trophy was about the size of the couch directly beneath it.
“Where’s the notepad?” Trevor was sitting under the moose head. Aurora decided she could sit beside him.
“My hand is starting to cramp”. Aurora rubbed her right wrist as she let her hand go limp. “I am just typing a transcript of the speech into my phone”. Aurora held up her phone and waved it around dramatically.
“Okay”, Trevor looked like the cat that ate the canary. Aurora wasn’t sure she understood the look. She sat for a minute and studied Trevor’s face. “Alright, I asked one of the other interns to tape the whole speech for you. I thought maybe you’d want to hit the slopes with me”.
“I don’t have any gear here”, Aurora explained. She really wanted to go, but she only had the one winter jacket, and no snow pants.
“Don’t worry”, Trevor laughed. “They have everything you could need right here”. Trevor took Aurora’s hand and led her out of the lobby and down a long well-lit corridor. Aurora hadn’t done much exploring in the hotel yet. Trevor clearly knew his way around the hotel.
Trevor found an attendant in the ski shop and sent Aurora on her way. “I’ll meet you at the top of the black diamond run”. The words struck a chord with Aurora. She wasn’t sure on the terminology, but she hadn’t been skiing since high school and that hill sounded like it was a little out of her league.
“I can’t afford that”, Aurora said as the attendant walked her into the clothing section. She hadn’t seen a price tag yet, but she knew that even the mittens were too pricey for her non-existent salary.
“Mr. Austin said to put it all on his account”, the attendant’s smile faded. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Trevor Austin”, Aurora knew the name. “No, I just realized that I was…never mind. Let’s find something really expensive”. Aurora and the attendant shared a laugh as the intern was led to an entirely different part of the store.
There was a distinctive smell in the air as they walked into the expensive section of the store. The clothing on the other side had looked expensive, this clothing even smelled expensive.
“Real Canadian Goose down”, the attendant bragged as he passed Aurora the jacket. It definitely had the weight of quality to it, and Aurora checked the price to make sure she was getting Trevor’s money’s worth out of it.
Getting on the chairlift, Aurora was suddenly filled with a bit of fear. This was by no means the tallest hill, but it was high enough for her. There was a sudden rush of adrenaline as the bench seat lifted off the ground, and the earth fell away from her skis. Aurora took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and looked out at the setting sun.
Aurora had been worrying about missing the dinner speaker, and about what Lance was going to say. She had been worrying about the price of the clothes that she was wearing. She had been worrying about what Sheila was going to do to Max. Aurora felt like a pawn being used in a life-sized game of chess.
As soon as she got onto the chairlift, more than just the earth fell away from her. The world, and everything in it seemed to stop. She was gliding over the world, and all of its problems. It wasn’t until her skis touched down on the powder at the top that reality seemed to take hold again.
Trying to push off of the bench, Aurora found herself up on one ski heading into a crowd of skiers. She tried to find her balance, but putting the other ski down only made things worse, and suddenly Aurora had a face full of snow.
“When was the last time you were on skis?” Trevor laughed as he tried to help Aurora out of the powdery imprint she had created.
“When were you going to tell me that you were Lance’s brother?” Aurora asked when her feet were beneath her again. She tried to stare at Trevor angrily, but it was too hard to stay up on her feet and stare. She was sliding toward the edge of the hill, and she needed to stay focused.
“Whoa”, Trevor said as he grabbed Aurora, “Turn your left foot and dig in a bit”.
“Okay, okay”, Aurora kept saying that as she edged closer to the slope. She was trying to turn her foot. She was regretting skipping leg day, and core day. The life of an intern left little time for the gym. Not that Aurora had ever spent much time in the gym, but right now she was wishing that she had.
“Get your butt back”, Trevor said as he tried to stop Aurora, but she was already too far gone. Trevor was now trying to show her the proper form. “Curve your skis, do not just go straight down!”
Trevor was yelling as Aurora sped down hill. Trevor started down the hill after her. “Sit down!” He yelled, but Aurora was too scared to listen properly.
Aurora was focused on trying to turn, and cut a slow path down the hill. She got her skis turned finally and then she veered across the hill. Other skiers were turning and falling, Aurora could hear their screams, but she was too focused to see them.
Aurora finally got turned back the other way, but this time her skis came right out from under her and they fell off as she crashed against the hill. “Ummphf!” All of the air in Aurora’s body came flying out at once. She rolled until she hit a small mound in the snow.
“So, you can’t ski”, Trevor teased as he came to a stop in front of the snow-covered woman. She glared at the rich man as he leaned over her. “And I’m sorry about not mentioning the family connection”.
“So, is that why you’re being nice to me?” Aurora asked as she got back to her feet. She could feel bruises forming all over her body. The fall had not been kind. She was glad that her new snowsuit was so well padded. “Are you trying to get under your brother’s skin?”
“That’s not fair”, Trevor sighed. He took a second to scan the horizon. Aurora figured he was trying to come up with a good lie, but he seemed to be reflecting on something. It looked like the question had wounded him. Aurora tried to keep her guard up. This man had lied to her, even if it was just an omission, and he couldn’t be trusted.
“How is it not fair?” Aurora asked as she tried to stay on the offensive. She wasn’t going to let Trevor weasel out of this situation. “You should’ve told me, and you didn’t so that you could use me. What you did wasn’t fair!”
“All right”, Trevor nodded. “I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to think that I was using you…”
“Ha!” Aurora laughed as she got up and charged down the hill past Trevor. She was walking and she knew that she could easily be caught, but she knew that he was not going to follow her. Even if his intentions had been pure, Trevor knew that all hope was lost.
Aurora saw Trevor heading wide around on his way back to the chalet. Aurora chuckled to herself. She wondered if she was still going to be able to get the recording from Trevor’s intern. It didn’t seem likely.
Darkness had taken over as Aurora made it back to the hotel. The moon was high in the sky, and its pale light made the snow shine like silver. Aurora took a moment to appreciate the beauty of her surroundings. There were only a few skiers that she could see. It was as if all of this beauty had been set aside just for her.
As soon as she got into the store Aurora got the ski boots off of her feet. It had been murder to walk in them, and now that she was warming up, every part of her body was hurting. Lance was going to be mad, but in that moment Aurora didn’t care. She needed a hot bath and bed.