Page 47 of The Triple Play

I open my mouth, not sure what exactly to say but unable to let it go. “Liv, I⁠—”

A loud knocking on the door stops me from saying more. Then the voice of one of the volunteers filters in.

“Voss? Foxx? You guys in there?”

20

OLIVIA

If I had to sum up the trip out from the cabin and back to Cedar Creek, I could do so with one word: awkward.

Griffin barely looked at me and Denver didn’t stop chatting and cracking jokes with their fellow search and rescue team members who came to get us. Aside from answering a few questions about my ankle, I stay quiet as we bump our way out of the woods, my samples clutched tightly in my lap. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that I should say something, right up to the moment we pull up to my apartment.

"Guys it's fine, I can manage from here," I say, the first words out of my mouth in an hour. I sound chipper, I think. At least, that’s my intention. Something has to break this awkward tension simmering between us.

What happened to having fun? Isn’t that all it was?

“Just let us help you get your stuff inside, Pix,” Denver says in far too gentle of a tone.

“If you insist.” I shrug and hobble my way inside my building, Griffin a silent wall behind us.

I draw the line at letting them into my apartment.

“Well, thanks for coming to get me,” I say brightly after Trip heads inside to roll around in his dog bed. “Five star rating for the rescue.”

“Liv.”

I shoot a glance at Griffin after he says my name in a low rumble, but when he doesn’t follow it up with anything else, I paste on a bright smile.

“I don’t know about you, but I could use a shower and a nap. Hope you don’t have too much paperwork to do. Thanks again.” I start to inch my door shut on the two men staring down at me. “It was…fun.”

Griffin makes a sort of strangled noise, but Denver just dips his chin. I manage to get the door shut before leaning in and resting my forehead on it.

“Fun,” I whisper to myself. “That’s all it was. A great story to share at the nursing home in fifty years.”

I hear muffled footsteps in the hall and exhale slowly. They’re gone, it’s over, back to reality now.

I turn around slowly and glance over at Trip, who’s happily gnawing on a bone on his dog bed. “It’s just the two of us again, bud.”

He doesn’t even lift his head to acknowledge me. I limp over to my couch and sit down, letting my head flop back as I lift my arms up to cover my eyes. Unfortunately, the position brings my armpits close enough to my nose that I get a whiff of myself and… “Oh, ew.” I immediately but carefully push up to stand and hobble my way down the hall to the bathroom.

Standing under the hot water does wonders for me physically, but by the time I’m done, my ankle is throbbing from gravity, making the swelling that much worse. The only benefit to the pain is that it distracts me from thinking too much about everything else.

Wrapping my hair up in a towel, I pull on some comfy clothes and make my way back to the living room where I pull over the bin that contains my samples and field notebooks.

This, my research, makes sense to my brain.

Unlike the two men who…

No. Stop. Don’t go there, Olivia.

I don’t realize how tightly I’m gripping the plastic sample container until I feel the corners cutting into my palm. Giving my head an internal shake, I glance down to see which sample I randomly picked up.

“Oh,” I sigh as a smile creases my cheeks. It’s the Cladonia lichen sample that I feel in my gut might be more special than it appears. I bring it closer, but without a microscope, I can’t possibly determine exactly what it might be. Still, it’s exciting. My trip may have ended prematurely but at least I have this. My mind goes straight to the grant proposal I have to finish. This could be exactly what I need to secure funding.

I nerd out over my samples for a while longer, only lifting my head when Trip comes over and nudges my knee to tell me he’s hungry.

I stretch my back, lifting my arms overhead with a slight groan from being hunched over for so long. Work can wait till the morning. Right now, the physical and mental exhaustion from the last several days is catching up to me, and all I can think about is feeding my dog and going to sleep in my own bed.