Estelle was stunned as she watched Blaine speed away from the cabins, but she couldn’t let the man throw her off. The whole situation was vaguely overwhelming, and so she knew she would just have to take it a step at a time. It was weird that he had suddenly gotten negative with her like that. She had thought she and Blaine were getting along pretty well.
Oh well, she couldn’t let that kind of thing bother her. Estelle had vowed, a long time ago, to live in the moment. It was the only way she had survived living in a family full of skinny people who thought that having a little extra weight on the body was some kind of grotesque disease. Thankfully, she had worked hard on building up a positive body image, and it didn’t matter to her what anybody else said, especially not assholes like Ken. She was who she was, and there was no reason in hell to apologize for that.
Estelle distracted herself by going into the cabin to explore. It was already stocked with some of the basics; clean linens, soap, shampoo, and the like. But what it lacked was food. And she was sorely hungry.
She glanced at her watch and grinned. Helen wasn’t going to believe what had happened. There was no reason she couldn’t run to town before her first real shift at the company began so she could stock up on food. She didn’t even have spare clothing. Hopefully, they had some kind of retail outlet where she would be able to get at least one or two outfits until she had time for another three-hour drive back to campus.
Estelle sighed. She had many strengths, it was true, but one thing she wished she could change about herself was her impulsivity. It usually got her into trouble, but somehow, this time, it seemed to have done just the opposite.
Her heart fluttered as she thought back to her first look at Blaine. He was nothing but man. Encountering him had afforded Estelle with a rare opportunity to look inside the mind of a man who clearly had everybody’s best interest at heart, even if he didn’t know how to show it. Sure, he was a little rough around the edges, but she knew that with a little nurturing, things could really turn around for him. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she would stake her life on it.
Estelle set to work making her bed and getting settled in before hopping back in the car. Blaine had given her a tourist’s map of the mountain, and she followed the map carefully, driving slowly down the mountain roads, her heart in her throat every time she looked over the edge at the steep drop below.
Thankfully, she had always been an excellent driver and made it to town in one piece.
“Welcome!” a broad, kind-faced woman exclaimed when Estelle found her way inside a little boutique clothing store. The clothing was astonishing, and Estelle looked slowly through the racks at patterns that vaguely resembled symbols that were once rampant in ancient bear cultures throughout the mountains. She had taken a course on the Oak Mountain bear shifters at SU, and now she was beyond glad she had. Every article told a story.
“You guys, you know, bear shifters…you wouldn’t mind if you saw me wearing these, would you?” Estelle asked. She couldn’t stand the idea of offending anybody.
“Oh no! Of course not!” the woman exclaimed. “None of those symbols are particularly sacred. It’s more like random words. The one you’re holding now says ‘mountain dweller’.”
“I guess I am technically a mountain dweller now,” Estelle said with a short laugh. “All right. I guess I’ll take it.”
It happened to be a very fashionable black dress. She also picked up a red skirt and a couple of blouses–the bear shifters were snazzy dressers, apparently. At least, they were if they were women interested in fashion like she was. The miners all wore simple garments, though the sleeves and collars were embroidered and decorated beautifully with simple and natural designs.
Estelle’s stomach rumbled as she paid, and the clerk laughed.
“Do you mind if I leave my car in the parking lot here, so I can explore a little bit on foot?”
“Of course not,” the clerk said. “Take your time.”
“Thank you!”
Estelle loved to walk through new places; it was the best way to take it all in. Everything went by so quickly in the car that it was almost impossible to register it. And so, she went on foot through the town, gaping at the rustic architecture and looking for a nice sit-down restaurant where she could have some dinner before heading back to the cabin.
Finally, the perfect place sprang out at her from the corner of the road and she walked inside, hit by the sudden, intoxicating scent of food in the process of being cooked.
“Hello,” a young wisp of a girl said. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old, and was at least two heads shorter than Estelle. “Just you today, miss?”
“Yep,” she said, wishing, for some reason, that Blaine had come to join her on her first trek exploring Oak Mountain. But he was her boss. That was wildly improper. “It’s just me today.”
“Great! Do you prefer a booth or a window or anything?”
Estelle smiled. “Anything is fine.”
“Right this way,” she said, grabbing a menu from the podium in front of the door and leading Estelle to her table.
The food was unbelievably good, and she left feeling much better than she had when she had gone inside.
“Come again soon!” the young server called.
“I will,” Estelle promised.
Finally, she retrieved her car from the parking lot of the boutique clothing store and got some groceries. Nothing made a house feel like a home quite like a full refrigerator. When she was satisfied that she had gotten everything she needed, Estelle crept down the steep roads once again, until she finally found her way back to the cabin. It was a good thing she had such a good sense of direction, because she had nearly gotten lost in the dense foliage of the trees. Fortunately, she had noticed a landmark; a tree that had been struck by lightning which looked to be about fifty years ago or so, and managed to find the small settlement despite any potential opposition.
It was a lucky break, and she was glad to have had the opportunity she did to have somewhere rent-free to live and a paid internship. She had heard many horror stories from friends about internships gone wrong–people who cared more about saving their company money than creating a future full of competent workers were always being spoken about. Even Helen had dealt with that type of adversity, and she was in the medical field!
Estelle sighed. She would just have to count her blessings. Her first real day of work was going to happen tomorrow, whether she was ready for it or not, and that meant she would have to prepare herself.