World renowned writer, Molly Tulip, moves up to Northern Montana, hoping to escape the busy city life and a cheating ex. After years of stress and toxicity from her previous relationship, Molly needs to focus on healing herself through her writing...
"So exactly where are we going?" I ask Carver for the seven hundredth time since I climbed into his pickup truck. And for the seven hundredth time all he does is chuckle and tell me it's a surprise. It's a surprise didn't help me to plan out an outfit, so after trying on about a dozen or so dresses or top/pants combos I settled with the first dressed I tried on. The one I ended up with is a long, crimson spaghetti strap dress with a belt fastened around my waist and I accented the dress with a pair of brown faux suede booties and a set of small diamond earrings I bought when Brigette and I were on tour in L.A. Nothing too fancy because Carver never clarified if this was a date or not, and I didn't want to show up overdressed expecting to be swept off my feet by a man willing to fall in love with his sister's friend.
"You really don't know how to be patient, do you?" Carver sighs and I shake my head anxiously. I always hated when people took me to surprise locations or gave me surprise gifts. In my mind, surprises always felt like secrets that I was only granted access to if I did something special or waited for someone else's permission, so for someone with pretty big trust issues, especially after being cheated on by my ex, I'm understandably nervous to be going on a non-date, possibly date with someone I met just last week.
"I tend to like to know what my destination is when I hop into a strangers car." I've taken Lyft enough times that being alone in another person's car doesn't necessarily freak me out, but I do trust Carver more so than some random Joe trying to hustle some money on the side.
Carver fake gasps, feigning offense before speaking, "Well I never! I was your skipper on the boat and I'm still just a stranger to you? What does it take to win over at least an acquaintanceship?" He rolls to a stop as the light in front of us turns red. Carver takes one of his hands off the steering wheel and turns his torso towards me. "All I'm saying is I'm a nice guy that deserves a chance to become friends with a nice girl like you."
"Most guys that say their a nice guy aren't actually nice and want more than to be just friends with a girl." I roll my eyes. He doesn't break eye contact with me as he thinks for a second.
"Fair enough. Would bring a decent human suffice?" I can see the plea in his eyes and I smile as I shake my head yes. "Stellar." He grins and turns his attention back to the still red light in front of us. I notice were the only people sat at the intersection and have been since we got here. "I always forget this light takes forever to activate." He starts to nudge the truck up closer to the line then does this weird maneuver that automatically turns the light green for us.
"How'd you do that?" I'm astounded by how simple Carver made that look and a bit frustrated at how I'd been stuck at that same light earlier today for about twenty minutes with no luck until someone else rolled up next to me.
"Would you believe me if I told you I was a magician?"
"After seeing that? Absolutely." I'm in awe and my emotions must be readable on my face because Carver's grin widens. We drive another ten minutes before pulling into the driveway of our destination. "Hidden Key?" I read the sign above the building and Carver nods his head with pride.
"It's the escape room company in Whitefish." Carver parks the car and we both hop out of his tall truck, "I thought since you were a writer and all it would be a fun way to test your creative brain and possibly give you some inspiration for the book you're working on!" I stare at him as he finishes talking, astonished at how thoughtful he was when planning an outing for the two of us to do.
"That's really sweet Carver, thank you!" We walk into the warm building and are met by the eyes of at least seven other people.
"You must be Mr. Hollis and his guest, Miss Tulip." A small, wiry college aged man steps out from behind the reception desk at the back of the room. I can only assume he's the GM for our escape room and will be helping us if we get stuck during our attempt to solve the puzzle. "Now that everyone's here, we can finish filling out the necessary paperwork before you are locked into the mad scientist's experiment chamber."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
