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Seeing her reaction was doing little to help me remain composed. I brought my hands to the sides of my waist, slid my hands beneath my underwear, and had just started to force it down when Indy turned on the hairdryer and spun around.
I laughed again, got my underwear off, and got myself in the shower.
By the time I exited with my towel wrapped around my waist, Indy was sitting at the table with her laptop in front of her while she went through her photos. I caught her attention and said, “I just need two minutes to get myself dressed. Then I’m ready when you are.”
She smiled brightly at me. “Okay.”
Before I knew it, Indy and I were seated across from one another at a table in the restaurant. While I liked being able to look directly at her and could appreciate the fact I didn’t need to reheat any food for us, I had to be honest. I liked when I was in the camper and got to sit right next to her.
But perhaps this would be better for us. Maybe I’d be able to focus on our conversation a bit better, and I’d be able to learn more about her situation that had been weighing on my mind.
We’d just given our dinner selections to our server and had gotten our drinks when I said, “So, this job search. Have you really been looking for something for months?”
Indy nodded. “Yes. There were too many interviews to count. It’s kind of sad, when you think about it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand how nobody hired you before the resort. There’s no question you would have been the best choice, regardless of what the position was.”
She tipped her head to the side and smiled at me. “That’s sweet of you to say, and I have to admit, I was a bit bummed about it for a long time. But I’m trying to look on the bright side of it now.”
“Which is?”
“If one of the many interviews I’d gone to over the last few months had been successful, I wouldn’t be sitting across from you right now, because I never would have come to Blue Spruce Ski Resort and gotten stranded here.”
I liked that she could look at the hardship and frustration she’d experienced while trying to find a job as simply part of the process that led to the two of us meeting. I just hated that she’d struggled at all.
And though she hadn’t officially confirmed that was the case, I knew it was the truth. Wanting to know more about it, and hoping she’d be willing to share, I decided to bring it up, doing it cautiously.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or ruin this night, since we are supposed to be celebrating, but I am curious about something,” I started, noting the way her body tensed. Wanting to make sure what I said held true, I noted, “If you’d rather not talk about it, that’s okay. Just say so, and we’ll talk about something else. I was curious, though, about housing. It was impossible not to hear when you were on the phone that you’re planning to live up here.”
Some of the tension she’d been holding in her frame had eased. “Yeah. I wound up learning that quite a few ski resorts not only offer jobs, but they also provide housing to their employees. It’s not free, obviously, but it’s certainly at a reduced rate. I think it’s great for employees, and it works for the resorts, so they’re always sure to have staff on hand, especially when something like what happened the day we met happens, cutting anyone off from coming up that access road.”
While I didn’t disagree with anything Indy was saying, she wasn’t sharing the information I was seeking.
“Can I ask you a bit of a personal question?”
She stared at me, unmoving and in silence, for several seconds. I found myself growing more and more tense with each moment that passed. Eventually, her chin jerked down slowly.
Our server returned with our salads then, and after he set them down and walked off, I spoke quietly. “The day you knocked on my door and asked me if you could borrow a shovel, I noticed something.”
Her brows pulled together, and confusion marred her features. “What do you mean?”
“Your car,” I started. “After I’d gotten the snow removed from around your car, so you could get what you needed out from inside of it, I couldn’t help noticing how many personal items you had in there. I guess I was wondering if you had been living out of your car.”
She swallowed hard, and sadness washed over her.
Not wanting her to feel obligated or embarrassed, I added, “I’m not judging you at all, Indy. I’m just curious how bad your situation was?”
Shaking her head, she revealed, “I wasn’t living out of my car, but it was close to being that. In fact, as miserable as I might have seemed when it first happened, getting stranded here was a good thing. It was a blessing in disguise, in more ways than one.”
“How so?” I asked.
Indy offered a small smile. “Well, I met you,” she began, forcing me to match the look on her face. “But if I’d left the resort, even five minutes sooner, there’s no telling where I would have wound up, because I’d spent the night before at my best friend’s apartment. Unfortunately, it was the last night I could stay there, because her boyfriend, who she shares that apartment with, felt that I’d overstayed my welcome. I can’t say he didn’t have a point, because I was there for a while.”
I didn’t give a crap how long she’d been there. To think that Indy’s best friend could turn her back on her, knowing she had no place to go in the dead of winter was unforgiveable.
I kept those thoughts to myself, though. Indy was sharing with me, and I didn’t think insulting her best friend was going to make her more willing to reveal anything additional.
“How long have things been rough for you?” I asked her.
