Page 54 of Snap Shot

“Me? You're the one who won't leave me alone!”

“Indi!” His voice rises and echoes off the steel walls, hands outstretched towards me. He lowers it in his next breath. “I'mtryingto apologize.”

“I don't give a—”

The elevator doors ding open again. A family of three stare back at us, cutting our exchange short. Landon relaxes and throws them a fake, polite grin as we rapidly walk towards the suite.

His fingers graze the crook of my elbow when I throw open the door and stride across the carpet. It's surprisingly gentle and irks me more. I escape from their loose grasp. “Don't touch me! Don't talk to me, don't look at me...”

“Indi.” Landon puts his bags down, tucks his hands into his jeans, and tilts his head. Why is he looking at me like that? Like he's actually sorry. He's not sorry.

“Didn't I say no talking?” I pace between the bedroom and living area, calming my breaths as Landon studies the floor. Logic kicks in and I huff. “We're stuck on this stupid mountain. You said it yourself: this suite is big enough. Stay over there and out of my way.”

His eyes shift to the right, a pained look in their blue tone. They match the sky outside the window. “Okay.”

“Pretend I'm not here and I'll do the same for you,” I rant on, peering around the bed for my purse. “You use this door” —my hand motions toward the one we walked through, then the one from the bedroom— “I'll use this one. We'll both do our own thing.”

“I said ‘okay,’” he repeats, head slack from defeat.

My jaw softens. My heart, too.

“God, you're annoying.”

Landon adjusts his backwards baseball cap, leaving his hands on the visor. “And you're stubborn as hell.”

“One of my finer qualities,” I mumble, turning on my heel. Kicking my shoes off by the vanity in the corner, I keep going. “I'd be insulted, but I don't give a crap what you think.”

He sighs and plops down. The room goes quiet except for me shuffling around the bed twice and the TV playing elevator jazz. Where the hell is my purse?

“Looking for this?” Landon lounges on the couch, back facing me, holding the gray handles of my bag above his head. He switches channels every few seconds with the remote in his free hand.

“Give me that!”

“Here you go—oop!” He stands and trips on the corner leg of the sofa, lobbing my purse and most of its content across the floor.

“What agreathelp,” I reply, picking up my wallet, sunglasses, and a travel-size pack of facial tissues and tossing them into the open compartment of the rectangular purse. A half-eaten bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk and a dozen folded receipts join them. I eye the black cap of a lipstick by a panel of white baseboards and reach down to grab it. Which lipstick is this for? I frown, rolling the hollow cylinder between my thumb and index finger. Wait a minute.

“Interesting.” The timbre of his voice deepens. Landon leans on the back of the sofa, spinning the item in hand, then twisting it to reveal a silicone rose tip. He squeezes the metal column, the discreet toy buzzing to life under the pressure of his thumb. His mouth pulls into the smirkiest smirk.

I gulp as my cheeks fire up.

“Big plans this weekend, eh?”

I close the distance in three livid steps, snatching it from his grubby clutches. “You know what? I'm not embarrassed. I'm not ashamed. But you know what I am? I'mso fucking tiredof you giving me shit for this. So you saw me.” The vibrating lipstick gets switched off, closed, and thrown into my bag. “Big whoop, Radek! We’re both adults. I doubt either of us are unfamiliar with masturbation. I happen to like it and toys aren’t assholes, unlike every man I’ve had to deal with today.”

He opens his mouth to say something, but I slam the door separating the rooms shut, then backpedal and stoop down until my ass hits the mattress. The man is exhausting. I lie back and stare at the recessed lights, willing this headache to die already.

Hey, universe? Wanna give me a fucking break one of these days?

Ten minutes later, the TV turns off. Undecipherable grumbles subside as the door creaks open, and snaps shut. My fingers massage the gap between my brows.

I somehow nap through the late afternoon, waking only at dusk. A growling stomach forces me out of the room to grab dinner. Hair fluffed and strays smoothed, I head to the village and beg to whatever Supreme Power out there that I don't bump into Landon Radek.

—————

The following morning, I take a ride up the peak, both to get away from my thoughts and Landon. And especially my thoughtsonLandon.

Sun beams on the onyx rock peeking through the sprawling, stark white snow of Horstman Glacier. It isn't as robust as a few years ago, but I'm grateful it's still here, considering how quickly it’s melting.

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