Behind The Mask

Chapter 15

"Okay, so let's get it straight... The restaurant is actually just Annie serving dinner in a dining room where you sit at a table with all the other guests, and you pay for it? Or you can opt for getting takeout, but without a car in this snow and no cabs it's not an option?" E.J. phrases the same question he has asked three times already a little bit differently.

"Yep, and apparently there aren't that many guests. Just you and me, and the other gay dude she spoke about and another couple," I answer.

I got all the information I needed when I went down to see Annie after my bath, my stomach rumbling. I was hoping for a place that could whip me up a quick pizza, but apparently dinner time isn't for another hour or so, although there is a living room with a television, tea, coffee, and rusks all day long, which is free and included in our stay.

"So you want us to go and sit and watch whatever is on the tv with strangers so that you can chow down on some rusks?" E.J. asks, his eyes widening and looking down at his Charmander onesie he snuggled in to the moment he left the bathtub.

"You don't have to come with," I answer. "I could sneak you out a few rusks and a cup of coffee."

"You're sure as hell not leaving me in this room. Now that I'm warm I can actually see what it looks like. No wonder they tried to film for ghosts in this place. I mean, have you seen the bed. I think it actually came over on the Mayflower, and the bedding might have been stitched together in England before then," he says looking over at the heavy quilted pink over the bed.

"Though... I have always wondered what it would feel like to sleep on a four poster," I say with a little bit of a grin.

"Well, I have never wondered how it feels like to sleep on a bed at least twenty people must have died in," E.J. complains pulling the hood of his onesie even lower over his face. "I mean... your stupid idea of sleeping outside is looking like a fine idea at the moment."

I can't help holding my stomach as I laugh at E.J.'s face that is stuck in a face of horror.

"Well I need some coffee and some of those rusks, otherwise I will never survive until dinner," I say as E.J. pouts his lips and crosses his arms.

"Fine," he answers. "But I am going in my onesie and you can't stop me."

I laugh again as I walk toward the door with E.J. right behind me, snuggled up in his Charmander outfit.

"Everyone's going to think you're a creature from another planet," I tell him as we make our way down the stairs.

"At least I'm not wearing a Halloween mask," E.J. pouts again, and as usual his reference to my mask doesn't bother me at all. It actually makes me feel more comfortable.

"It's what's under the mask that seems like Halloween," I answer giving another small chuckle.

I was so sure that after what happened in the bathroom when we had the bath everything would change between us, but in some weird type of way it has actually brought us closer together. It's like we understand each other better now. Like there isn't something between us anymore. We have shared something so personal that nothing can tear us apart, and it's a feeling I enjoy.

"And I present... The sitting room," I say just before we enter a room decked out in the finest couches from the 1960's, along with portraits all over the room of people that must have once lived in this house, but might be buried somewhere outside in the woods somewhere over the last two hundred years.

E.J. smiles as he walks in, and he actually locates and gets to the kettle before I even have a chance to make it there.

"It's been a while since you've had your caffeine fix," I say putting a hand on his shoulder, while turning around two cups standing on the tray. "Want some rusks."