EPILOGUE
Maple
Four days later
“Maple! The manager’s been looking for you. You’re in big trouble. I think he might fire you.”
I’ve barely got my foot in the door of the shop and the drama is already beginning. What else did I expect?
“He can’t fire me, because I don’t work here anymore.”
“You don’t work here? Where else are you going to get a job? Nobody around here’s hiring.”
“Maybe I won’t be around here.”
“So I’ll get all your shifts then.”
“Take every last one,” I say. I knew Cory would jump at the chance to double his workload which is why I wasn’t too worried when I was “trapped” inside Forrest’s house these past few days while the snow came down nonstop. I tried to call but there was no reception either. It’s not like I’m trying to be an irresponsible adult, it’s just that when you live in the mountains sometimes your decisions are already made for you.
But I am an adult. I always considered myself so but a few days with Forrest really showed me how real adults live. He’s so patient, caring, and nurturing. Being that he’s older I know there’s a lot I can learn from him too.
He never talks down to me when I ask him a question which I’m sure must seem so elementary to him. He just gives me answers, or even better, he asks me questions that help me come to the answer myself. A true teacher and mentor, and that includes the bedroom.
I can’t believe all the different positions and ways we tried these last few days. We had so much sex that we literally had to come down from the cabin and get food. We ate the last of it just before we left. We consumed everything trying to keep our bodies fueled for long nights that spilled right on over into the day.
But as much as he taught me, I’m glad to know I taught him something too. And it’s something equally as valuable.
You can’t just lock yourself away forever when things don’t go your way. Just like a child when you fall you’ve got to get back up. You have to keep looking for the sunlight through the darkness until finally one day it comes. And it will come, just like I came to him and he came to me.
“Thanks!” Cory says.
“Believe me…it’s my pleasure. Here’s my key,” I say, setting it on the counter. “I guess that pretty much wraps it up.”
“I guess so.”
“Please tell the boss man I’m sorry to quit on terms like this, but I’ve got to get going.”
“Will do.”
“Bye Cory.”
“Bye Maple.”
I step outside the door, but I don’t hear it close right away. I know Cory’s there, standing in the doorway waiting and watching, wondering where it is I’m going and with who. Well, he doesn’t have to wait long.
Forrest gives me a wink and I hop in the passenger side. We pull out of the lot and I look back in the rearview mirror at Cory who’s in desperate need of picking his jaw up off the ground right about now. I’m sure he’ll tell everyone and I’m sure I won’t care.
I might as well be long gone already. I’m off to a different place and away from all the small town gossip that will never escape a place like this, so I had to escape the confines of this town myself.
We locked up the cabin and already stopped by my house to lock that up too. I didn’t gather too many things, because I knew I was moving on to something different. A completely fresh start although Forrest wouldn’t tell me where.
We drove for the next two hours until Forrest threw on his blinker and pulled into…a police station?
“Can you give me a few minutes?”
“Umm, yeah. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s perfect.”
“This isn’t going to change our plans is it?”
“Not at all.”