Chapter 8
I woke up the next morning to Caesar shaking me. Oh right. The walk I asked to go on.
I groaned and tried to turn away.
"Get up, Lessa." He laughed a little.
I didn't respond.
He gently shook my shoulder again. "Nooo." I moaned, pulling the covers up more.
He surprised me by pulling them back, all the way off my body. I curled into a ball.
He tried to lift me by my armpits, but was unsuccessful because of my ball formation.
"Greta, it's time to get up. Remember our walk?" I could hear his smile.
"Why can't we go later?"
"It's going to snow."
I turned to him and wiped my hair out of my face. "That could be pretty."
"It could be dangerous. Come on, let's go now."
"Five more minutes?" I pleaded, looking up at him.
"No, five will turn into ten into twenty. Come on Grets, it will be fun." He gave me an encouraging smile.
There was a moment of silence before I responded. "Can I have the blanket back?"
His face dropped when he realized I was not convinced.
"Capretta." He muttered under his breath and quickly grabbed under my body, picking me up like a baby, and standing me up. He wrapped his arms around me and moved me away from the bed, I guess so I wouldn't fall back down. "Now you're up. Get dressed and be down in five minutes."
"What does Capretta mean?" I yawned.
"Get dressed and be down in five."
"It will take me longer than five minutes to pick out an outfit and brush my teeth and my hair and wash my face and get dressed."
"What are you picking out an effort for?"
My impulsive response was pictures for insta, before I realized that didn't apply. If we were gonna fly me around the world in a private Jet for a year, maybe I should start stocking up on vacay photos. So I told him, "pictures for Insta."
He raised his eyebrows, then he looked really confused. Then he looked a little concerned. "For a year from now?"
"Yup. Well a year minus...6 days?"
"About 7. Time changes screws it up."
"Then for 358 days from now."
"Alright, fine. You have ten minutes. If you get back in that bed I will get all your bad angles." He smiled, and turned to go downstairs.
"What bad angles?" I muttered to myself, and went into my penthouse of a closet to pick a fit.
I picked a light purple snowsuit, with matching ear muffs and a neck gator. I picked out white gloves and boots, since I didn't have purple ones. Ugh. Come on Caesar. Lucky him had an all coordinating black snow fit on. No fair.
Our walk was good, even the part where he took my insta pictures for me while I bossed him around.
"Are you zooming? Don't use iPhone zoom I can tell you are!" I had whined.
He had told me we could zoom back to the house and I can read a book all day. And I thought it was pretty corny of him.
The trail just lead to a small clearing, with a pine tree in the middle. I could tell he knew exactly what it was going to be, but he was pretending he didn't.
After lunch, I spent the rest of the day working on my pets proposal in my new office while he was in his office. He came in to say hi a few times, or to see what I was doing.
"What's for dinner?" I asked him, once the sun had set.
"You know, maybe you could learn how to make dinner." He teased.
"But then who would reorganize our closets every day?"
"Mm, thats a good point. I don't know how I would get through my day if my socks weren't put away from darkest to lightest." He came in now and sat next to me on the couch.
I pulled the notepad up to my chest.
"Greta, we're on the same side you know. I want to get you a pet."
I shrugged.
"Alright. Dinner is hot dogs." He said, clapping his hands on his knees to stand.
"Really?" I perked up.
"No." He scoffed. "It's tortellini."
"I like tortellini."
"It is not your baby tortellini from the trader Joe. It is much better than his." He informed me.
I laughed. "Joe isn't just one dude just trading with all of America."
"I know." He smiled at me, shutting the door.
We sat in the kitchen that night, so we could compare notes and such. Well, just my notes, but still.
We went back and forth for a while, and it was pretty calm.
"They don't seem that big." I grumbled.
"I just don't know how these animals act. And it would be hard to find someone who had experience taking care of them." He sounded sympathetic.
"They seem really nice." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat.
"I'm sorry, Caruccia. I didn't expect you to want a moose so bad." He gave me a small smile.
"It's okay."
We did not reach a decision that night.
The next few days, we followed a similar routine. We would both go outside in the morning, usually on the trail or just in the yard. We started to build a snow fort, but it seemed evident one night that an animal had knocked it over. I suspect it was the bear. That's two strikes for him.
I started looking at some of his books in his office and that he had got for me, and even decided to read one. Eventually. I thought about reading one. I read the title.
I tried not to think about the time going by back in America. The car had been put in the garage that stayed locked, and I had not seen a pair of keys since the first night. Without the car, I had no possible way out. Except, ideally, he would buy me a horse that I would have an instant connection with and me and the horse would be really good at horse riding despite my 0 experience, and I would ride away into the sunset. That seemed unlikely, though.
We had no major fights, and nothing that made either of us ever get physical, or even threaten to (although since we got here, he had reserved physical threats for anything he felt was safety-related). Going outside in the morning was good, because I was tired and ready to go in long before I had to. Even if I wanted to go out again, I would usually shower after, and then I was not meant to go out again until my hair was dry.
"What if I just wore a hat?"
"So the hat can freeze to your head and hold more cold in there? No, no."
I had tried to tell him that's not how it works, but he was convinced.
For those few nights, I would usually go to bed after dinner, and he would go in his office more. I was always asleep when he got in bed, and always woke up after he was up. I didn't want to sleep with him, but it made me kind of sad. In a way, it felt a little inconsiderate. But I was not going to ask him to come to bed with me, obviously. So I just tried not to think too much into it.
It was our fourth night at the kitchen table. He had made himself streak, and me a grilled cheese with turkey. I did not request the turkey, but he told me it was that or steak, because it was going to go bad.
You can just freeze meat, but I guess he didn't want to do that.
"I had a kitten named special baby princess." I told him, when the conversation wandered.
He laughed. "I had two Dobermans named Diavolo and Angelo. Devil and angel."
"Were they mean and nice?"
He laughed to himself a little. "God no, they were both mean."
I smiled. "Special baby princess was a bit of a cunt."
He raised his eyebrows at my language, but smiled. "Sounds familiar."
My jaw dropped and I kicked him under the table.
He laughed, and didn't kick me back. "So, what are you thinking for the animal?"
"I'm thinking-can I give you my top 3?"
He smiled and nodded.
"Okay so-three is sled wolf dogs. Two is a raccoon. One is reindeer." I folded my hands and waited for his response.
"I'm thinking reindeer."
I broke into a big smile. "Really? How many?"
"Two. One female, one male?"
"Yes! Yes we can get them coats for all the holidays and we can ride them too I bet! When can we get them?" I was psyched.
"Calm down chaccharrona", he held up his hands and did the 'relax' motion. "We'll need their pen to get built. Then we'll have to find a seller and figure out transportation. I will take care of all of that. You just read up on how to take care of them."
"Wait, what about when we leave the house?"
"I have someone stay here anyways, I'll make it part of their job. They'll be fine."
"Okay. Yay!"
"Yay!" He imitated me.
"Should we celebrate?" I suggested. "With some...vodka?"
First his face turned to stone for a moment, then he thought about it. Then he smiled, "Alright. Alright. But I'm making first round."
"Obviously." He stood up and started getting things out. I could see club soda, ginger beer, cranberry juice...he doesn't know what to make.
"I like vodka crans."
"Mm you can make me one when it's your turn."
"Okay."
We switched back and fourth for a little while, making drinks for each other. We moved to the kitchen island now, conveniently making drinks without standing up. We were sat next to each other on the stools. After round six and two hours, myself decently buzzed, he decided to slow down.
"You know what we could do instead of make drinks?" I tilted my head.
"Hm, what's that?"
"Shots." I gave him by biggest possible smile.
"Uh huh, I don't know." He clearly was nowhere near the level of drunk I was. Not that I was super drunk, he was just lame. In my opinion.
"Come on. We can chase with wa-ter" I sang out.
"Maybe in a little bit. Are you warm enough?" He looked down at my covered feet on the edge of my stool. I was wrapping my arms around my legs, hugging them to my chest.
"Yeah. Oh my god Caesar, just relax. I think you need a shot the most." I informed him.
"Uh huh. I think you need one the least." He told me matter-of-factly.
"Okay." I rolled my eyes. "I don't want one. I want you to do one. Come on, are you being a pussy?" I taunted him.
He laughed. "Greta, you do not want to start challenging me to drink."
"Hm, okay. Sure." I said, suspiciously.
"I'm going to go get you a jacket. I will be right back Caretta. No shots while Im gone." He winked at me.
Sigh. I miss going out. It was so fun. Shots with your friends, shots with strangers, shots with the bartender. Getting kicked out by the bartender, going home with strangers, getting bagels with friends the next morning. In a way, I was not regretting giving so much time to my work and less to me. It's worth it, and it still will be. Ugh, no, don't think about that. Think about something else.
Why does Caesar always go to bed and get up when I'm asleep. Doesn't he think about how I'm in the dark alone? Would he want to go to bed like that? I guess not, since he is the one who makes us share. The closet makes it all worth it. I wonder if in a year he'll let me keep all the clothes. Where would I put them? When would I use fifteen snow outfits? I've got to get back into skiing.
"Greta!" He called out for me.
"Yeah?"
He came in, holding up a hoodie to put over my long sleeve.
He passed it to me and I pulled it on, realizing I had actually been cold.
We stopped drinking, but stayed up for a few more hours talking. I was completely shocked to learn he has 5 younger siblings. I asked where they all are, and he said "around". Weird. It seems like a family business, shouldn't they be around that? Whatever. He was shocked to learn I never felt got bad feedback on my report card. Not the grades, but the little comments.
"You were always a pleasure to have in class?"
It was obvious he didn't fully comprehend how generic the term was, but I wasn't gonna fill him in.
"Yup."
"Wow."
"You don't think I'm a pleasure to be around?" I accused, yawning.
"I do, most of the time. Do you want to go to bed?"
"Just me?"
"No, I was going to go too."
"I don't know if I'm tired." I mumbled. We were having fun and I didn't want it to end.
"Mm, I think you are. Come on." He stood up from his stool, holding out his hand. I took it, and let him lead me up to our room.
I went into my closet and picked out a pink plaid long sleeve and pant pj set, before going to brush my teeth and wash my face.
"Why don't you wear pjs?" I asked him, walking out of the bathroom with my toothbrush in my mouth. "Like don't you get cold?"
"Not really."
"Sometimes I get cold and I wear this." I said, through my tooth brush.
"I think you get cold more than most people, Pupa."
I just shrugged to that and went back in the bathroom. I never understood his nicknames for me. I wonder if he had a dictionary for that in the house.
The lights in the room were off when I came back out, and I could see his body in the bed. I skipped over and crawled in, turning to face him.
"Did you know there's different kinds of reindeer?" I said quite loudly.
He turned towards me, moving towards me a little.
"Really? Which should we get?"
"I don't think it matters. I think they're just different because of where they live. So you should get ones that are from a climate like this." I informed him, turning back to face my side.
We didn't speak for a little bit. I thought he may be asleep. "You know it's been ten days? Give or take 12 hours from the time changes. But it's been ten days."
He didn't say anything for a while, and I thought I had been right about him sleeping. "I know it's been ten days. I'm not going to lose track of our short time." He sounded sad for someone who had 97% of his supposed time left.
I didn't respond to him, I didn't know what to say. I felt something close to my back. He knuckles, in a closed hand, lightly touched the back of me.
"It's been, like, nine nights and this is the first time you've went to sleep with me." I informed him.
"I know. I've been working. I thought you wanted the alone time." He moved closer again.
I shrugged.
"I'll come to bed with you tomorrow night too." He whispered.
I nodded in return, although I'm not sure he saw it.
I turned towards him again, and we were now a foot from each other's faces.
"Go to sleep, Greta. We have a busy day tomorrow." He reached up and stroked my hair.
"What are we doing?"
"Leaving."
I hope you liked it. I haven't had a chapter that didn't need a trigger warning in a while. And honestly i do really like it. But of course let me know if I should have added one. And please comment any other feedback!
