Lost in You

Chapter 23

"Just go already." Maja leans in the door to the room I'm cleaning. Or try to clean if I wasn't so nervous about the afternoon with Marius after last night that I wouldn't constantly drop things. Now I pick the pillowcase up again and shake my head. "I won't leave you alone with this. It's only a few more rooms," I say. Maja rolls her eyes and takes the pillowcase from me. "With which I'll be done faster alone as it is. Promise that you'll own me a dinner or drinks when we're back home and we're even," she says. I sigh and give up the pillowcase. "Thank you," I mumble and leave the room. On the way back to my room, I text him that I'm finished earlier. As if he'd been waiting for the message, I get a thumbs up right away which makes me hurry through the corridor even faster. I'll barely have time to change. Luckily, Maja and I already decided what I'll wear, so I'm ready just in time when I hear the knock on the door. I throw on my coat and open it. He stands outside, hands in his pockets and smiles at me. It looks as insecure as I feel, so I break the ice for both of us by taking a step forward and pulling him into a kiss. It takes a surprised second for him to take his hands out of his pockets and trace his fingers over my cheeks, but when I step back again, the insecurity is gone. "What have you planned for me?" I ask, beaming at him. "After we've already done skiing and ice skating, I thought we could explore the village a little and have a nice dinner?" I take his hand and nod eagerly. "That sounds amazing," I say, very aware of the fact that I would have said the same no matter what he'd suggested. As long as we're spending the day together. Well, perhaps except for if he'd asked me to try out ski jumping. I would not have been thrilled about that. I like my bones unbroken. We somehow make it out of the hotel without anyone recognizing us, or at least without someone trying to talk to him. Only Sophie winks at me when we pass the reception and I grin back at her. Outside, the afternoon sun is already sinking behind the mountain tops and the wind is icy. I pull my scarf tighter around me when we leave the parking place and walk towards the shopping street. "Maybe it's a good thing that we didn't go earlier. They'll turn on the lights soon," Marius says with a glance up the street. It's not Christmas anymore, but from what I can see of the decorations, it still promises to be beautiful at night. We stopped at the beginning of it, taking in our surroundings. It makes me realize that while Maja and I did a lot of skiing around the village, we never really went in it. Our life seemed to revolve around the hotel, the ski tracks and later the ski jumping hill. Perhaps I shouldn't wait with my thank you dinner until we're back in Munich and find something nice for us here. "I can't believe I haven't been here before," I say."You haven't left the hotel to come here before?" Disbelief soaks his voice and I can't blame him. "No. Mainly we've been working and skiing. We got everything we need from the hotel, so there wasn't a need to come here and buy something and the rest of the time I had off was unexpectedly taken by someone else," I say and smile up at him. He shakes his head. "Had I known that, I would have taken you here earlier," he says and starts walking me up the street, slowly so that we can glance into the shop windows. "So you've been here before?" I conclude. "I've already been here a few times. Once in a while we get a day off and I don't like to stay in the hotel the whole day," he says as if he has to defend himself for walking through the village. "I really had no thought of coming here before," I admit. He smiles as if he knows exactly where my thoughts have been instead. "Well, now you're here. And maybe you'll remember to leave the hotel once in a while next time." I only nod and pull out my phone to take a few picture of the traditionally painted houses with the sun sinking behind the mountains in the background. Once in a while, I catch someone look towards us and wonder if they recognize Marius. After all there would still be guests here who attended the competitions and after winning his face was on the screens everywhere yesterday and in the newspaper as I saw when Maja and I helped to prepare breakfast this morning. I almost took a copy for myself. "Smile," I say now and hold the phone out in front of us. I might not have gotten the newspaper, but I can still have a photo. He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer before I click the shutter. It makes me look a little surprised in the photo. "I'll send it to you later," I promise and put my phone away. We keep walking up the street and he pulls out his phone after a while, checking something that he won't let me see before we keep walking. "You do know where we need to go next, right? Cause I completely trust you to know the way," I say jokingly. "Of course. It's not much further now," he says and smiles. We pass a kiosk and I stop. "Look it's you," I say because there's the same newspaper that I already saw in the hotel. He takes a look at the photo, then looks around us and pulls me past the kiosk. I giggle. "You act like they put up one of those wanted posters from the cowboy films instead of praising you for the win," I say. He rolls his eyes at me. "I was hoping we could get through the evening without anyone recognizing me," he hisses back, still having his hand wrapped around my wrist while getting more distance between us and the kiosk. I can only laugh and stumble along until we stop at a street corner. A small alley leads away from the main street and he pushes me into it until my back hits the wall. Before I can realize what's happening, he's kissing me. This time I'm the surprised one, but my hands wander to his hair, down his neck on their own accord. It's like the kiss last night when the rest of the world ceased to exist and we only break apart when the lights turn on next to us and we jump apart a little before realizing that they turned on the lights in the street. "I told you it would be worth it, didn't I?" he asks when we walk back on the main street and I take a few more pictures, now with the lights on. "I never doubted you," I say, my lips still tingling with the kiss. "I hope it'll stay that way," he says and stops in front of the next restaurant. "We're here," he says and opens the door for me. When we enter, soft music plays from a radio and the smell of fried food makes my stomach grumble. With the work we had to do after a lot of guests checked out this morning and being nervous about tonight, I never really got the chance to eat lunch. Marius takes my coat and when I want to tell the waitress that we ordered a table in German, I find out that he's booked it on my name. I grin at him and he shrugs. "Didn't want to risk it," he explains while we follow the waitress to a table at the end of the restaurant with a view to the street. The sturdy wooden benches are covered with soft pillows and only when we both slide in on it, back to the window, do I realize that no chairs mean there's nothing separating us and neither does he try to keep his distance. The waitress smiles when she gives us the menu and takes our orders for drinks. "Is this okay?" Marius whispers when she's gone and I'm not sure whether he means the restaurant, the table, the fact that he just put his arm around my shoulders or the evening as a whole. Not that it matters much. My answer is the same no matter what. "Yes, it's perfect," I whisper back. He pulls me closer while I open the menu and put it on the table for both of us to see. For the rest of the evening, we don't talk about ski jumping, my work at the hotel or the fact that we'll soon have to go separate ways again. Instead we ignore the glances that a family on the other side of the hotel throws us a few times before starting to whisper with each other and watch the people on the street. I tell him about my studies and my family. He tells me about Norway and what he does when he doesn't throw himself down a hill. The main course comes and goes and he orders dessert against my protests that I couldn't possibly eat more, just for me to end up eating the chocolate mousse as well. By the time we get back to the hotel, it's dark outside and I'm tired but happy. We stop at the corner to the hotel to catch a few more moments alone. "Thank you for tonight," I mumble and he kisses me again. "I'm glad you had fun," he says and wraps an arm around my waist again. We walk into the lobby like that. Sophie isn't at the reception and thankfully the rest of the lobby is empty as well. We meet no one on the way to the lift or when he kisses me goodnight in the corridor upstairs and walks me to my room because it seems that neither of us wants this night to end. When we do have to stop in front of my door, I swallow and take a step away. "You'll leave tomorrow?" He smiles. "I might not have to. I'll text you once I know more, but I might be able to stay a little longer." "That's amazing," I say, but then again,  it doesn't change one thing. "We have to talk then. About what happens next." I don't look at him when I say it. He sighs. "I know. After breakfast?" I run my mind over my working schedule before I nod. "Yes, that'll work." Then I look up to him again and force myself to smile. "But I'm glad we had tonight," I say and he smiles again. "Me too." Then he hugs me like he never plans to let me go again before I have the chance to finally turn to my door where Maja has surely already noticed that we're talking outside. "Good night," I whisper once more before I open the door. He says it back and stands in the corridor, watching me until I close the door behind me and wait to hear his footsteps leave on the soft carpet.