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“How many people are trapped out in the snow?” I asked. “How can we drink cocoa when we need to be out there rescuing them?”
“Oh no,” she chuckled. “Everyone here is just fine. It’s the mountain down the road. Happens all the time. No rescues necessary.”
Thank goodness.
“We need to book two rooms,” Gabriel said. “Ideally adjacent.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that,” Jane said. “I only have one room.”
“That’ll be fine,” I said, telling myself as much as them. Better than no rooms. I preferred not to sleep in the janitor’s closet. “We’ll have our own beds and?—”
“There’s only the king.” She cringed and looked between us.
“What else can you offer us?” Gabriel asked.
“That’s all I have. You could sleep in the common area?” She pointed to the floor where we were standing.
That was worse than the janitor’s closet.
“We’ll take the room,” I said.
Gabriel’s face was white.
It would be fine. I’d had roommates before. It was survivable, even if not pleasant. This was going to be just like that…I lied to myself.
TWENTY
GABRIEL
“Overpacking doesn’t look so foolish now, does it?” Layana’s smug words were at conflict with the tightness in her shoulders and in her expression.
Perhaps she was trying to mask her unease with conflict. I wasn’t interested in fighting.
“I never said you were foolish.”
“You implied it.” She shifted her weight, and her attention from the door to me.
Why was this elevator taking so long? The lodge was only three stories tall. If Layana hadn’t brought so much unnecessary clothing along with her, we could have taken the stairs. Perhaps we should have taken them anyway.
Finally the doors opened. She stepped out and I followed, both of us toting her luggage.
We went down the hall and found our room.
Inside was far too much flannel—flannel curtains, flannel bedspread, flannel pillows, flannel wallpaper.
Unfortunately, there was no sofa for me to sleep on, only a small desk, the accompanying chair, and the four-poster bed that took up half of the small space.
Layana threw her arms wide. “It’s a lumberjack fairytale.”
And my downfall.
She hoisted one of her bags up onto the bed. Then another.
I wanted to ask what she thought she was doing. Civility was the only thing keeping me from spiraling. So instead, I held my tongue.
She unzipped her bags and spread her belongings across the comforter, immediately ruining the neatness of the room.
Tomorrow the road would be cleared and we could leave this place. It was only a limited amount of time, and order would be restored.
