The Long Winter #53
Previous Engagements part one
The winds delayed Maddie’s arrival at the lodge in northern Maine by two days. It had been snowing, it had been cold. Had Gravenreuth finished a day earlier, she would have beaten it, but it did not so she stayed in Bangor with her mom while they waited. Her dad was already there. So was Travis and his family. His dad was Maddie’s dad’s lawyer and confidant, and his mother and Maddie’s mother visited the spas together.
Occasionally during their wait Maddie would wonder if her mother was spying on her. Since it was just the two of them in the rented townhouse, it could not be anyone else’s eyes she felt on her. But why? Was she acting strangely? Gravenreuth had a reputation for being tough and changing people, but her mother was an alum herself, and besides Maddie knew nothing she had experienced that semester had been out of the ordinary. And as she watched her mom in return she saw the older woman acted like she noticed nothing unusual and besides, Maddie mostly felt it the most when she showered or changed so she shrugged it off as nerves. She was used to living with Penny Stark the PMer lesbian, after all. Used to trying to get that girl’s eyes on her in that state, and sort of looking forward to that again. Moreover, she was more than a little anxious about seeing Travis again. What would he be like? How would he act? Would the previous three and a half months of arguing on the phone turn out to be an aberration? But those damned winds and the damned snow delayed her finding out and she sat fidgeting and trembling and paranoid in a boring rental while winter engulfed the state.
When they flew out it was brilliant and clear and so cold Maddie could barely breathe. The flight went by with no drama beyond a warning lamp flashing two thirds of the way there, and when they landed it was somehow even colder. Layered beneath coats and sweaters and hats and mufflers Maddie hoped before exiting the aircraft that she would be sufficiently protected, but that was not the case. The wind hit her like a solid wall of ice. It bit her skin through those layers and it drew tears from her eyes and made the fabrics all crackle like wrinkling paper. The helicopter pilot ushered them from the landing pad to a waiting SUV and once they were inside the blessedly warm vehicle they were on their way.
The drive from the landing pad to the lodge took less than ten minutes. The lodge squatted on the side of a hill. It overlooked a lake and a river that flowed into it and a river that flowed out from it. There were cliffs to behold and trails through the woods and a barn in the valley held snowmobiles and Jeeps and Land Rovers and cross country skis and snowshoes. On another side of the hill were the slopes. While not nearly as grand as Leah’s Swiss Alps might have been, the slopes at Maddie’s family’s Main getaway were respectable enough, aided with extra dirt and rocks on top of their little mountain from the excavation made for the lodge. The slopes wound through trees and over hidden crags and posed a serious challenge for anyone not used to them. The driver pulled the black SUV into the garage beneath the lodge and then he let Maddie and her mother out and went to fetch their bags. Maddie dashed ahead of her mother through the door and up the stairs. Trav was in there. Waiting for her. And her heart slammed against her chest, propelling her through the house, faster, past her smiling dad, to the bedrooms, the study, the dens, and finally, at the very top of the house, there he stood in the finished attic, looking out across the valley.
He turned and smiled at her and without a word he swept her into his arms and kissed her and she kissed him back and then she rested her head on his shoulder and finally, for the first time since the end of summer, all was right in the world.
“I missed you,” she said.
“Apparently,” he chuckled. His grip tightened. She squeezed him back. “I have a few things to talk to you about later.” He set her down and she gazed up at him, a lovesick smile on her face.
“Anything, anytime,” she said.
“Later. Let’s get downstairs. You didn’t greet your dad, did you?”
She laughed and he led her downstairs and she gave her dad a proper hug, as well as Travis’ mom and dad, and Travis’ brother and his uncle and Maddie’s two cousins Sara and May who played soccer with her through high school. And when that was done she braved that frigid cold and hit the slopes. Trav chased her down. She chased him. They matched esses through the trees. And finally they retired to the lodge for hot chocolate and dinner, breathless and red-faced and laughing about the sting of the cold.
In truth, Maddie had not even felt the cold. Being his his physical presence again kept her warm. Feeling his smile kept the wind off her cheeks. And even as snow blew back over the valley as they made their way back to the lodge his strong arm shielded her not just from harm, but even discomfort.
Sara, an impish little brunette attending school at William and Mary, joined them at the hearth, a grand brick structure in the middle of the room. Fine, polished hardwood spread out in rays from it, and the outer wall of the house was windows, the snow pelting them hard enough to be heard even over the crackling hickory. The adults were elsewhere, and a servant puttered in the kitchenette behind them.
“So have you two set the date yet?” she asked.
“The sooner the better!” Travis said with a laugh.
“Probably this summer, but every moment gets us closer!”
“Hell, I’d elope with her right now if I wasn’t afraid of my mom murdering me for it!” He gave Maddie’s hair a kiss and squeezed her. “But that is one of the things we need to go over this break.”
“You want to decide before we head back to Gravenreuth?”
“I’d like to decide before Christmas.”
Maddie nodded and then rested her head against his chest.
“I’m so jealous of you,” Sara said. “You and May both. She’s engaged now too, did you hear? Some football player at Yale.” She snickered and cast a covetous smile at Travis. “Probably not as good as you were. Are you planning on trying out for the Harden team?”
“No, they have some five-star guy running things for the next three years. I’d rather not ride the bench, so I’ll focus on my studies instead.”
“You were a five-star guy,” Sara said.
“I considered Florida and Tennessee, but that would have taken me too far away for too long, and Maddie’s the jealous sort!”
They laughed but Maddie felt the comment like a wedge driven into her heart. Was he not the jealous one? She did not even remember having the merest chance to call his loyalty into question, while all he did was disparage her honor. And for months! As her smile slipped from her face she caught a haughty look on her cousin’s that, if she were the sort of classless bitch Sandra Young was, would have put a scowl on her face. Instead she smiled and laughed with them and filed the look away for investigation at a later date.
Before she could respond a servant appeared at the spiral staircase and beckoned them up to the dining room for the night’s repast. They carried their hot cocoas up to the roast pheasant dinner and shared an hour laughing and drinking with family as snow piled ever farther up outside. They talked business. They asked Maddie about school, and Travis about his adventures in the south, and Sara and May about their own faraway studies, and then Maddie’s and Travis’ mothers began setting up their wedding.
“Terry was talking about how good the weather is year-round in Beirut. Ever since they got over their troubles and rebuilt it’s turned into one of the Mediterranean’s top locales. Very picturesque. We could get some lovely photos—”
“Beirut is only on your mind because you spend too much time with Terry,” Travis’ mother interrupted Maddie’s mother. “Besides, we could use our villa in the Azores. Travis loves the Azores, don’t you, honey?”
“Mom, I don’t want to get married in the Azores. I was thinking something a little simpler, like maybe back home—”
“Absolutely not,” Maddie’s mother laughed and sipped, or rather, chugged her wine. “No way are you getting married in Detroit of all places. You might as well just set up your home in a car factory if that’s all your ambitions are! I just know that my daughter deserves better! Laney’s right. The Azores is lovely, and the villa—”
“What about a chapel in the Seychelles?” Maddie said. “Or the Maldives? We could even honeymoon right there!”
“Have our wedding on a private island in the Maldives and then kick everyone else out so we can have our privacy—”
“Hah! If you think I’m going to allow that to happen you have another thing coming, young man!” his mother said in an alcohol-soaked shout. “Both of those places are so far away from everything, I’m not flying there only to be booted after a day or two!”
“There are other islands, Laney—”
“Cassie, you feel the same. We’re not our men. We’re not the ones putting those miles on the jets. If it’s the Maldives or the Seychelles we’re choosing the Seychelles and YOU can fly out somewhere else if you’re so dead-set on “privacy” for your honeymoon.” She frowned at Maddie. “You hardly look like a screamer.”
They laughed. Maddie’s face burned red.
“I wonder if you would even moan,” Travis’ mom said to more laughs, and as the wave crested she smirked at her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. “Maybe some heavy breathing and a stray “Oh Travis!””
“Mrs. Hartner, I am really too innocent for this conversation!” Maddie said, her playful tone betrayed by her red face.
“I don’t know how we can discuss this without even having a date,” Travis’ father said, scowling at his wife’s glass of wine. “Sometime in the summer, I imagine.”
“We’ll choose a date when you can get away from your work, Mr. Hartner,” Maddie said.
“Very good. Very good—”
“June, early June, at the villa in the Azores,” Maddie’s mother said.
“That first Saturday. What’s the date? Randy, have Trace check if your calendar’s clear,” Travis’ mother said.
Travis sighed and looked at Maddie. “The Azores it is, apparently…”
Maddie shrugged and rolled her eyes and they began talking about the villa, and who to invite, and who to get as a florist—oh, and who could cater? Diane? No, she’d be busy then, maybe Carol or Bunson’s or La Agualina or or or…
Maddie excused herself from the table and went up to her suite. It was similar to her rooms at the Institute, only instead of having a common area she shared with an adorable half-Japanese lesbian she had her well-appointed bedroom and a tile-and-glass bathroom with more square footage than most plebs’ houses. As she loosened her clothes and pulled fresh panties and pajamas out of her dresser she felt a tightening between her shoulders. She looked around. The light was on in the room and no one was there. She saw herself reflected in the big windows that looked out over the valley which was invisible behind her reflection. But as she cradled her fresh clothes and stepped towards the shower she felt it again. That twinge. Like someone’s lustful gaze burning at her back. One last once-over of the room and she sighed and shook her head and stepped into her bathroom.
She thought of Penny as she stripped. She thought about how fun it was to tease her, to see the innocent blush on her innocent face, and then she thought about the not-so-innocent things the PMer girl had gotten up to with other girls and shook her head again.
I hate to think it, but she’s a slut, isn’t she? Sex with that girl back home, sex with that redhead at school. Who hasn’t she had sex with? And there’s that girl she’s texting. Surely she’ll have sex with her, too…
Maddie turned the water on and stepped in, imagining it was Penny’s eyes on her. Penny and, Maddie smirked to herself, Sandra. Now there was a slut! Sandra Young who, as soon as Clark agreed to be her boyfriend, spread her legs for him and invited him inside—and not even without a promise of marriage! Just wham! Right on her back and… Maddie wondered how it felt. She wondered if it was really as good as people made it out to be. She enjoyed making out with her boyfriend. She liked his broad shoulders and sinewy muscles and when they touched each other it did not feel bad. But she did not yearn for it. That was part of the reason why she let their parents discuss her wedding. Once the wedding was complete she knew Travis was going to take her. She finished washing and began drying off.
I don’t want to be taken…
She glanced at herself in the mirror. It was starting to fog and she could not clearly make herself out. And then that twinge and some shadow moved in the room behind her.
Maddie yelped and jumped. Whirling around, she leaped into her bedroom and looked around, looked under the bed, in her closet, even in her dresser but—
“Nothing…”
She sighed and, clutching the towel around her, returned to the bathroom to finish drying and get dressed. Still, that feeling of being watched persisted. She glanced over her shoulder at every movement. Pull on undies, glance. Pull on pajama pants, glance. One arm in pajama top, glance. Other, glance. One button at the bottom of her pajama top, glance. One glance per button, but as she reached her collarbones the feeling waned and she left the top button open and picked up her brush and went to her bed to sit down and untangle her blonde locks. Not that they were tangled in the first place. Her hair was only so long—
A knock on her door made her jump.
“Maddie, it’s Trav!”
“Oh! Come in!”
She jumped up and opened the door and he smiled that winning smile at her and came in.
“So I mentioned a couple things I wanted to talk to you about.”
“You did.” Maddie shut the door and followed him to her bed. They sat down beside each other and she went back to tending to her hair. “And you have such good timing! I’m decent now!”
They shared a laugh.
“The wedding is only one of them…”
“I know. Seems like it’s out of our hands though, isn’t it?”
He shrugged and chuckled. Suddenly his phone was in his hand and Maddie felt her back slick with sweat.
“It is. But I have something else I need to ask you…”
Maddie brushed her hair and hoped she was not trembling. Why did that phone make her so nervous? She had nothing to be nervous about, but there was something unnerving about him sitting there, something unnatural about the way he radiated heat. This was not a calm heat. This was anger. He swiped his phone open and she saw an image of Worxx. Her brow beaded over with sweat and she stopped brushing her hair. There was that sudden twinge between her shoulderblades again, but not because of a paranoia of being watched.
“Is this you?”
The image jerked into motion. There were dozens of people dancing. She could barely make anything out—at least until the cameraman (cameragirl?) worked his way through and found her. Her with Penny. Dancing. Rubbing their hips together.
Was I really doing that? I don’t even—
“Is it?”
He looked at her. She reluctantly tore her eyes away from herself and Penny and met his gaze.
“I’m not—”
“This is a simple yes-or-no question, Madison Lenore Carter.”
Maddie swallowed hard and felt sweat gather between those shoulderblades.
“Yes. It is.”
She looked down at the image. Penny was pressed close up against her. She looked like she wanted to kiss Maddie. And Maddie looked like she did not want Penny not to—
“Did you two fuck?”
The word hit Maddie like a glass of cold water to her face and she gave a start.
“No! I didn’t even get to kiss her, let alone—”
“You don’t necessarily kiss when you’re fucking someone, you know.”
Maddie swallowed hard again. Sweat trickled down her spine.
“I wouldn’t… would never. I didn’t. I did not. Nothing. Not even a kiss. Not ev—”
“You look like you were awfully close to her there.”
Maddie felt her face go drawn with despair and she could not help but look back down at his phone. The movie had stopped and the screen was a blur of shadow and light at the last frame. Tears gathered in her eyes and Travis laughed. At her.
“Come on, Maddie, you’re not really going to try to cry your way out of this, are you?”
Maddie sniffled and held it in, held her eyes wide and kept those tears from breaking free. Travis chuckled good-naturedly but he was still so warm, so angry hot and his body radiated tenseness and stress. She touched his shoulder and he grabbed her wrist, gently pulled her hand away from his shoulder and pulled her up into his lap.
“So now that we have this between us,” he nodded down at his phone glowing between their bellies without breaking eye contact, “what are we going to do about it?”
She felt pressure between her legs. She did what her slutty roommate would have done and angled her hips forward to give him some friction. Thinking about that slut made it a little easier to kiss him and she sighed with feigned pleasure.
“I forgive you, of course,” he said, his voice husky and his breath invasive in her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered back, surging forward to press against him like she had against that slut back in Detroit.
“I believe you.”
She nodded and they kissed again.
“But you’re not going to room with her anymore.”
She jerked away from him. “What?”
“I’ve been thinking about this. Even before you went up there I was thinking about this, about me moving up there to go to school, too. We should be together, Maddie. What I mean is, we should live in the same place. We’re practically married as it is, the wedding itself will be a formality—”
“If this is a way of trying to get into my panties before—”
Travis laughed at her and grabbed her hips and edged her back from the solid rod in his pants.
“All this time we’ve been together and you still don’t trust me?”
She giggled in embarrassment and felt her anxious sweat subside.
“Okay,” she said. “All right. I’ll move out of the dorm, out of Aspen Hall. But to where?”
“I closed on a house up there, well, my dad did, two weeks ago. I wanted to surprise you when I got up there, but that video I saw, and knowing that your roommate is a fucking dyke—”
“She was very respectful, I’ll have you know. That night was a total anomaly.”
Travis’ eyes narrowed but he kept his lips in a smile. Maddie shivered.
“That girl is nothing but trouble. I heard about what happened at that Halloween party, too. She almost got that kid kicked out of school. Now we’re not going to argue over whether or not that kid deserved it, but you need to know, PMers are nothing but trouble. Trouble follows them everywhere you go. I don’t want you near her. I certainly don’t want you living in the same room as her. She’s trouble. She’s dangerous.”
Maddie’s heart surged at that word and she was immediately in bed with Penny in her mind, having high-risk, high-reward adventures, forbidden lesbian sex in exotic places… and then she thought about Clark. Strange to think about him, but he was friends with Penny and Penny was friends with Sandra who was his girlfriend, that bitch, she did not deserve him, a boy with a sense of fun and adventure and style who was destined to, very soon, be king of his world—
“Do you understand?”
“Yes. Completely. Where is our house?”
Travis helped her sit down next to him and swiped and tapped through his phone. And while she looked down at her new home all she saw was the adventure she wanted to have with someone else…
Follow The Long Winter into #54 Previous Engagements part two.