1
Lily checked into Wintervale Resort and dragged her oversized bag to the elevator. She stared up at the lights, showing it had stalled on the third floor. She sighed and glanced around her. A couple to her left were holding hands and whispering, sharing secret smiles.
She focused her attention back to the elevator, where the doors finally opened. A different couple holding hands walked out. Her eyes lingered on their intertwined fingers before stepping into the elevator. The couple from the lobby stepped on with her.
Her eyes flicked to them before she focused on the doors closing in front of her. Right now, all she wanted was a long bath with a glass of wine.
Lily stepped off the elevator on the second floor and followed the signs to her room. After unlocking the door to her temporary home, she let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she could breathe. The journey to get here had been a whirlwind, but she suddenly felt lighter.
The door clicked shut behind her and she heaved her suitcase onto the bed and unzipped it.
Her life was packed into this one suitcase.
Mostly, anyway.
Larger pieces of furniture she couldn’t haul across the country in a pinch had been deposited in a friend’s garage temporarily.
The vibration of the phone in her pocket had her pulling it out and finding her best friend’s face flash across the screen.
“Hey Stace. I made it,” Lily said.
“How was the flight?”
“It was good. You know me and flying.”
Stacy chuckled. “Yes, I do. You avoid it at all costs. I was genuinely worried you’d get off the plane and come back to my place.”
Lily shrugged even though Stacy couldn’t see her. “I just don’t see a point in going anywhere when I’m content.”
A beat of silence passed. Stacy knew what Lily meant. Lily rarely traveled, relishing in being happy with where she was in life… until she wasn’t.
After a sudden break-up with her long-term boyfriend of seven years, Lily booked a flight on a whim. She showed up on Stacy’s doorstep within an hour of being dumped. Stacy had called her husband Daniel, who had been out with friends, to explain the situation and only four hours later, with his and several of his friends’ help, Lily’s whole life had been boxed and moved out of the house she shared with her ex. It had been amicable and almost like a business transaction. They split the physical assets in half, each taking the furniture that they had coming into the relationship and dividing up the furniture they bought together.
When Lily walked away from the house and her ex, she felt nothing. They hugged and wished each other well.
That was twenty-four hours ago. Now she was in the small town of Wintervale, Montana, at a resort she saw featured in a magazine years ago.
“Is it at all how you imagined?”
Lily walked to her window, which looked out over the manicured grass to the forest, with a breathtaking view of the mountains as the backdrop.
“It’s definitely beautiful.”
“And how are you feeling?”
Lily dropped into a chair at the small table in the room, still staring out the window.
“I’m okay… It feels weird. I don’t think I’ve quite processed it, yet I have. I guess I’m just waiting to feel something.”
She could picture Stacy nodding.
“You might, but you might not. The break-up may have been sudden, but itwasn’tat the same time.”
Lily pulled a lip between her teeth. She knew her relationship with Scott had ended several years ago. They may have still lived together and called each other their boyfriend or girlfriend, but they hadn’t acted like a couple in a long time. It wasn’t until Scott came home from work early and told her he had met someone and wanted to pursue things with the other woman that Lily realized he had only thought of them as roommates. She wasn’t sure when it had all changed.
She thought they would eventually get married. They already shared a house and furniture. What more did they need?
“I am a little mad,” Lily whispered.
