What Happened After

Chapter 20

Chapter 20.

          The next time I opened my eyes, light was filling the room, so I knew it was a reasonable time to wake up. Ruesso wouldn’t be able to argue with me here.

          I froze. Ruesso.

          I registered that his arms were still wrapped tightly around my middle, holding me close to his body. It felt familiar, like the time we lay like this in his bed, after his panic attack in his bathroom. It felt nice. Comfortable. I decided that I wouldn’t mind waking up like this every morning, and quickly shook the thought out of my head. He’s Lauren’s boyfriend, I thought. It was true that Lauren was no longer here, but it felt wrong, lying like this with him. He wasn’t mine, he was hers. I had had someone, too, but he wasn’t here anymore either.

          Ruesso’s breathing changed against the back of my neck, indicating that he was waking up. I quickly shut my eyes again, silently praying he wouldn’t know I was awake, and I was positive it was working, until I heard him chuckle. He nudged the back of my head with his nose. “Rise and shine, Rainbow,” he whispered. “Look out the window.”

           I did what I was told and lifted my head, looking out the window. Sure enough, the first thing that met my eyes was snow. Lots of it. I smiled, in spite of myself, and turned around in the bed to face him. “Thank you,” I said. I wasn’t sure what I was thanking him for, but he nodded, so I didn’t need to explain anyway.

          “I don’t want to get up yet,” he told me, quietly. He was looking at me with such fondness, it felt a little surreal. Of course it was surreal. I was lying in bed with Ruesso Van Avery’s arms wrapped around me, holding me like I belonged to him. I was lying in bed in a cabin, alone, with him. I was lying in bed listening to him confess that while he, too, recognized where we were and what we were doing, he still didn’t want to stop.

          “Me neither,” I finally admitted. “Getting up means we have to get ready to leave.”

          “We’re leaving this evening, right?”

          “Yep. Around five, I think. We’ll be home a few hours after that. I guess we should enjoy the rest of the day, then.” I looked over Ruesso’s shoulder at the clock on the wall. “Holy shit.”

           “What’s wrong?” He tried to crane his neck to look in that direction, too, but I stopped him.

          “It’s 1:30 in the afternoon.”

          He barked out a laugh. “Ha! No shit?”

          “Yes shit. We need to shower and get something to eat and return your skis and get packed up to go!” I threw the comforter off my body and took off toward the bathroom. After my shower, I came back to grab some clothes and found him, still in bed, still laughing. “What are you doing?” I asked him. “My parents are gonna be pissed if they realize we’ve spent the entire weekend doing nothing! This is a ski trip!”

          “What do you want to do? Rush out and ski a few runs right in front of them so we can prove we haven’t wasted the weekend?”

          I sat down on the ground next to my duffel bag. “I don’t know…”

          “Okay, I’m gonna make us some hot chocolate, alright? Stay there, you need it.”

         He headed off toward the kitchen and came back with two steaming mugs. “You’re drinking hot chocolate?” I asked. He grimaced.

          “It was quicker than making two separate drinks, and I knew that if I made us both tea you probably would have cried like the whiny little baby you are.”