8
Lily put her laptop into her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. This would be good. She needed to get out and write, and having the fresh air seemed to be just what she needed to focus.
She topped her water bottle off and tucked it into the holder on the side of her bag before stepping outside of her room and pulling the door shut. Lily made her way down to the lobby and smiled at the lady at the front desk before heading out the back door. She half expected to run into Ethan, but he was nowhere to be found. She wanted to tell him thank you for leaving coffee outside her door these last few days. In the seven years she dated Scott, he never got her coffee. The fact that Ethan got it for herandremembered her order had her softening toward him.
She texted Stacy to let her know she was going to the lookout to work on her book and wouldn’t have service. The last thing she needed was Stacy panicking that Lily wasn’t replying.
Lily walked to the edge of the grass and proceeded up the trail she had gone down on the group hike. Within an hour, she had arrived at the lookout. No one was around, and she took amoment to pull in a deep breath, closing her eyes as the fresh air took over her body and relaxed her.
She moved to a bench that gave her a perfect view of the mountains and pulled out her laptop. She had been in a rut on her books for a bit, but it only got worse the last few days. Lily hadn’t touched her book at all since arriving in Wintervale, and she was in desperate need to get words out in order to finish her book to make her deadline in two months.
She opened up her writing software and stared at the last words she had written. The book had been about a long-term relationship with a couple who hadn’t found the need to get married. They had been content. She only now realized how much it resembled her own life. Her eyes moved over the words, and the more she read, the more she noticed the red flags.
Despite not wanting to agree with Stacy, her own book showed her how jaded her main female character had been. Her own life was truly a grumpy heroine story. But was her ex the sunshine? No. No, he hadn’t been.
But Ethan… Ethan was sunshine through and through.
She let out a sigh and looked at the view. Pulling in another deep breath, she hovered her mouse over the delete button and clicked it, watching as the last few months of hard work disappeared in a flash. Lily opened a new document and glanced at the view before beginning to write.
Lily didn’t know how much time had passed when she finally emerged from her writing haze. Her stomach had growled, reminding her she needed to eat something, only realizing she didn’t bring any snacks with her. She picked up her water and squeezed the last few drops into her mouth, suddenly realizing how thirsty she was.
The sun set behind the mountains and a chilly breeze rustled through the trees. She looked down at her watch, which displayed that it was already 9 p.m.
Had she seriously been writing for six hours straight?
It had been a long time since she had gotten lost in her work like that, and she mentally patted herself on the back for the thirteen thousand words she had written. If it weren’t for her hunger, thirst, the laptop battery flashing red, and the rapidly setting sun, she could easily sit and write another few hours.
She closed her laptop and deposited it into her backpack before slinging it over her shoulders.
“Oh.” She moaned when she stood. Her body was stiff from sitting in one position for so long. Lily raised her arms above her head and stretched before giving the beautiful view one last look and heading down the trail.
Thirty minutes into the walk and the trail was dark. The thick trees blocked the last remaining light from the moon.
“It’s okay,” she whispered to herself. “Just follow the trail.”
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight, lighting the path for her to follow.
Only she came to a fork in the path that she didn’t recall seeing. She looked between the two paths, which looked equally well traveled, but turned in completely different directions.
Her heart hammered in her chest and she tried to recall the walk up the trail and the walk down when she had been with the group. But she had only been following them like a lemming. She didn’t pay attention to the trail… only to Ethan’s ass.
Lily cursed herself and took a deep breath before choosing the trail to the right, since it seemed the most direct path.
“Please let this be right,” she murmured as she walked down the path.
Goosebumps covered her legs as the temperature dropped significantly with the retreating sun. She walked for another fifteen minutes before she felt like she was walking back uphill.
Her heart jumped into her throat as she now second-guessed which route she should have taken. Her phone flashlight shinedup the hill, and she knew in her gut she had chosen the wrong path.
She spun on her heel to head back toward the fork when the worst thing could happen: her phone died, extinguishing the only source of light to get her off the trail.
“Shit,” she muttered.
Lily’s eyes flicked around, seeing if she could make out anything as her eyes adjusted. She pulled off her watch and tried to find the flashlight feature that she knew existed, but couldn’t find it. But within a few minutes, her watch died as well.
Only then did panic really set in.
