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Typically, she was on her way out of the office when I was making my way in, making it so we rarely were around each other for more than a few minutes. Even when we were, though, she was always on the move, always doing something, rarely stopping to talk to anyone that I could see. Then, quietly, saying goodbye so low that only the people nearest to her could hear, then rushing out of the building.
It would be interesting to spend a little time with her actually. We'd worked at the same place for years. I'd maybe only spoken a handful of sentences to her. And she, even fewer to me.
I imagined once everyone else showed up, she would cling to her closer friends, and we wouldn't speak again.
So I was going to go ahead and take advantage of the couple of minutes of privacy.
"Alright," I said, nodding, when we made it into the great room where the walls were decorated with the heads of hunted animals. "You're right," I added, looking over at her. "It's creepy," I concluded.
"I hope we don't have to do a lot of the team-building exercises in there," she said, backing out of the room, eyes sad. "I don't like that. Heads on the wall," she added, grimacing.
"Can't say I'm much of a fan either," I agreed cringing at the endless glass eyes, leading her into the next room, a game room of sorts with a pool table and a stack of board games. "More up your alley?" I asked, waving toward the board games.
"I, ah, no. I don't, you know, have a lot of friends. And you kind of, well, need them to, you know, play games. Oh, a hot tub," she declared, desperate to steer the conversation away from her personal admission. As though it was any kind of shock.
I barely knew the woman, but it didn't surprise me that she tended to be alone. Everything about her suggested she was introverted and shy.
I had a sort-of in-law, Dusty, who was similar. Kept to herself, riddled with anxiety, getting overwhelmed easily in family gatherings. She was someone who thrived in small groups where she didn't feel judged or pressured.
While nothing about Katie suggested she was agoraphobic, there were hints of those same anxiety issues that had her tripping over her words, avoiding solid eye-contact, changing the conversation away from anything personal if she bothered to speak at all.
It wasn't like I imagined she hosted a weekly game night or went out drinking and singing karaoke with her closest friends.
"Did you bring a suit?" I asked, following behind her to look out at the hot tub on the back porch, big enough for six people comfortably.
"I packed for five days in Washington state in mid-fall, so, ah, no," she said, shaking her head, seeming to notice I had moved in behind her shoulder, jerking away like a startled rabbit, moving further to the side. "I, ah, I wonder what is keeping everyone else," she said, making a wide arch around the room, going back into the hall.
From there, we went up the stairs, peeking into all the rooms, each of us deciding the two toward the back of the cabin were the best, overlooking the woods out back instead of the driveway and what appeared to be an old outhouse out front and to the side.
Having her space, Katie seemed content to curl up there and never leave, going around the space, tidying up, setting extra blankets on the bed, then carefully putting away all her belongings once I'd brought her things up.
Not wanting to insert myself in her space, I went over into my room, a simple space just big enough for the queen-sized bed, a single nightstand, a closet, a small bathroom with a stall shower I was seriously worried I wouldn't be able to fit in, and a fireplace. The only one, it seemed, in any of the bedrooms. Each of the rooms in the floor below had them, making me wonder if power outages were common in this area, if we were going to have any issues on this retreat with keeping warm and entertained. Especially since the wifi seemed nonexistent.
I guess that was the reason for the board games as well as the collection of books on a shelf in the great room.
I didn't plan on spending much time indoors anyway. But at least I knew how to build a fire so I could keep warm, if necessary. The women, if needed, would likely all have a giant sleepover in the great room. Though how anyone would be able to sleep with all those glass eyes glaring down at them, I had no idea.
After putting a few basic things into the bathroom, leaving most of my shit in the suitcase since that was how my siblings and I had always lived—out of suitcases—so it was what was most natural to me, I decided to follow my growling stomach to the kitchen, hoping someone had stocked the fridge and pantry for us.
