Page 2 of His Cabin Obsession

What I see makes me stop in my tracks. It’s no grizzled hunter or intrepid intruder – just a girl. A woman. A blonde woman with curves for days, her soft and voluptuous body currently encased in a simple white dress that looks wrinkled and travel worn. Her blue eyes are just as wide open as her full lips, and she’s frozen with her hands on the handle of a suitcase beside her.

It’s not the only thing with her, either. She’s got several bags, all of them looking to be crammed full and heavy.

Alright, now I’m intrigued. What the hell is going on here?

“Hello?” I say, thinking it might be the most logical entry into the conversation.

“Um,” she says.

“Who are you?” I ask her. She doesn’t seem to know what to say. She’s like a deer in the headlights. I can at least give her a prompt here and there. “My name is Aaron.”

“Um, my name is Olivia,” she says. She straightens from her bags, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear uncertainly. “I booked this cabin for the week.”

“This cabin?” I frown, then shake my head. “No, you must have the wrong place.”

Olivia’s face is a gorgeous shade of pink, and when she goes to grab her purse off her shoulder I see that her hands are shaking. She’s nervous – maybe even scared of me. I should go easy on her.

“I – I have the booking here,” she says. “And the key. Look, I just unlocked it and came in.”

That makes me frown even more. She’s right, she was able to unlock the door, which kind of makes me think she might be telling the truth. Which is a bit of a problem, because I’m definitely in the right place, and I definitely have a key – so what’s going on here? The cabin was supposed to be completely private.

I walk over to her in the doorway to take a look at the folded piece of paper she’s pulling out of her purse. After a quick glance over it, I swear under my breath. She’s right. That’s a booking for this exact cabin – in fact, it’s identical to the booking I have saved on my phone. The only difference is the dates – I picked up the key yesterday, and I’m scheduled to leave a day before Olivia is.

“I’ll call the owners,” I tell her. “This is obviously some kind of mistake. They must have double-booked us or something. Maybe they have one of us down for a different property by accident.”

“Oh. Okay,” Olivia agrees, though she still sounds unsure. As I cross the cabin in search for my phone – turned off and stashed in a drawer to give me peace for the week – I look back and see she’s still hovering in the doorway.

“Come in and sit down,” I say. “You might as well relax.”

Despite the fact that we both seem to have an equal claim to the cabin, Olivia seems to take this as permission and enters, albeit still a little hesitantly. She takes a seat on the very edge of the couch cushion as I dial the number. She looks uncomfortable. I don’t blame her – I would be off balance if I came into my vacation home to find out it was already occupied.

I’m sure we can resolve this easily. I turn on my phone and quickly dial the number for the rental company, saved as one of my quick contacts just in case I needed them during my stay.

“Hello, Montana Sky Cabin Rentals,” a bored-sounding woman answers the call.

“Hi, yes. This is Aaron Stoneforth – I’m renting one of your cabins this week.”

“Oh, yes!” the voice brightens in recognition. “Are you having a problem with the cabin?”

“Well, you could say that.” I glance over at Olivia. “Another of your customers has just arrived. She’s also booked the cabin for the week.”

“Is she a guest of yours?” the woman asks. I don’t think she’s quite getting the message.

“No,” I tell her. “I mean, she’s also made a separate booking. We’ve never met before. We were both expecting a private stay.” I suppose, truth be told, I haven’t checked that – for all I know, Olivia is waiting for someone to join her. But from her shock at seeing me, I gather that’s not likely to be the case.

There’s a sound of typing on the line, and then a worried noise from the speaker. “Oh, dear. It looks like we’ve managed to double-book you. I’m really sorry about that.”

I sigh. Just as suspected. “Well, do you have any spare cabins that one of us can move to?”

More typing then the voice brightens again. “Yes! I actually have one cabin left. It’s a bit of a drive away from where you are now, but we could send a car to take care of you. Free of charge, for the inconvenience.”

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