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When we were done eating, I used my foot to pull the bag towards me. Then I rummaged through it, my fingers closing around the cold bottle of wine. I tossed the bag onto the floor and wrestled with the screw top, using my teeth, until it opened with a pop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Martha sit up straighter and wipe her hands on the front of her jeans.
“Are you sure you want to drink that?”
I took a long sip, and it burned a path down my throat. “It’s going to help warm us up. We need it unless you have a better idea.”
Martha shifted closer to the fire, and her expression turned thoughtful. “We could just stay by the fire. That seems like a better plan.”
“I like my plan better.” I took another long sip, and it settled in the pit of my stomach. “The wolves are not going to get in here, you know. And I hate drinking alone. Why don’t you have some?”
Martha turned her head in my direction and pressed her lips together.
Silence stretched between us.
Chapter 3
Martha
I cleared my throat. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Albin shrugged and took another long sip of his drink. “Suit yourself.”
With a sigh, I turned away from him and stared at the flames of the fire, crackling and dancing as they cast long shadows across the wall. The hut smelled damp, and it wasn’t long before the smell of ashes filled up the space between us.
Why had I thought that driving to a snowy mountain by myself was a good idea?
On the heels of a humiliating breakup, no less.
What was I thinking?
It was clear I hadn’t been thinking at all.
As I sat there starting at the fire, I kept picturing Louis bathed in the light of the moon, with his arm around the cheerleader’s waist. No matter how hard I tried, I kept going back to the moment I saw the two of them together, and the ache in my stomach grew stronger when I recalled how passionately he kissed her.
Louis had never kissed me like that.
Even when we were first dating, and he was trying to win me over.
I was an idiot.
The redheaded cheerleader was everything I wasn’t, and I couldn’t stop seeing her face in the flames, taunting and mocking me. Outside, the blizzard grew stronger, and the wind rattled the windows again, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, but it didn’t do anything.
If anything, I felt worse.
Slowly, I linked my fingers together, brought them up to my lips, and blew on them. “How’s the wine?”
Albin threw a glance in my direction before he lowered the bottle. “It’s pretty good. Want some?”
I knew I shouldn’t, given how sensitive I was to alcohol. But I couldn’t help but yearn for the bottle and the sweet release it would offer me. Considering the two of us were stuck in the middle of nowhere, in an abandoned hut, there was not much else for me to do.
Unless I wanted to spend the entire night wallowing in my grief.
And unable to escape the thought of my ex.
Another tremor went through me as a fierce wind rustled past. Before I could change my mind, I reached between us and snatched the bottle out of his hand. Albin raised an eyebrow as I touched the bottle to my lips and took a long swig. Once I was done, I lowered the bottle and coughed. It burned a path down my throat before it settled in the pit of my stomach. Using the back of my hand, I rubbed my eyes.
“You might want to take it easy,” Albin suggested, his bright eyes watching me intently. “We don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I thought you wanted me to drink.”
