Page 10 of Bed of Roses

Marley reach across and took my hand in hers so quickly my brain couldn’t process its feelings fast enough. The feel her warm fingers wrapped around mine sent a bolt of electricity I wasn’t prepared for down my whole spine. Simultaneously, my head was likethe fuck? Why are you touching me when I don’t know you?

At least she looked contrite when I pulled it back.

“That’s my hand?”

“Sorry! I’ve just never seen so many tattoos up close before. I can’t stop staring at them. There was one on the inside of your finger…”

“Given that you live in this Podunk town, I guess you don’t come across too many of us heathens covered in ink, but newsflash—tattoos are really fucking personal. They aren’t something—kind of like stage names—discussed with random entitled strangers.”

The air between us had been kind of—warm, congenial even—but it was as if the entire mountain face eliminated its accumulation at once and barreled through the inside of the restaurant.

“Entitled?”

With the way she had her eye makeup all fancy, and those wing things at the corner with eyelashes for days, the withering look she threw my way was amplified to a million. Marley gathered the napkin from her lap and tossed it onto the table, “I may have made a mistake in asking, my bad.” She stood up, gesticulating into the air as punctuation. “But acting like an asshole to someone is classless. Lower than.”

She collected her purse and stomped out of the restaurant faster than I could stop her to even try to apologize for snapping at her. Could I have handled that better? Sure. Should she go tearing through someone’s personal business asking them to dig up skeletons long buried just to feed her curiosity. Fuck no.

Motherfucker. I threw money on the table for a tip, since the cost of dinner was covered by the station, and darted out the front doors to find her. While we were inside being wrapped in the blanket of good food, and what had been reasonably harmonious conversation, outside the world had been buried in snow. When I say buried, I mean I had no idea which of the SUVs parked alongside the curb were mine. It was then I spotted her at the end of the awning, visibly shivering and in the midst of a heated conversation. I only caught bits and pieces butpay you extraandstuck at the restaurantcame through loud and clear. It dawned on me then, that of course she didn’t have a car. It was at the shop…getting fixed…because that was how this whole thing between us started in the first place.

“I can take you home!” I called across the expanse of the parking lot, jingling my keys in the air to get her attention.

Phone still held to her ear, I could see even from across the parking lot her squinted eyes and scowling mouth broadcasting rather loudly that she’d rather freeze to death.

“It’s cold, your Uber obviously isn’t coming.” I engaged the fob on my car to start the car, and with the engine the lights also came on, disseminating which of the SUVs were mine.

“I live way out by Cobble Lookout. If the Uber’s aren’t picking up, it means they’ve closed the 431.”

“I have an SUV.” I pointed towards the direction of my purring car.

“You have a status symbol with fancy tires. Not what is needed to get up the mountain.”

Was it possible for anything to come out of her mouth that wasn’t some kind of veiled barb? With a deep breath, I trudged through the snow towards where she stood.

“You’re shivering. I can see it from way over there.” I took off my coat and handed it to her. “Please, just put it on. I have a pair of snow boots in my car. They’ll be a million sizes too big, but your feet have got to be icicles in those neck breakers.”

I extended my hand as a bridge between our two positions, internally hoping she’d take it.

“I’m sorry that I called you entitled. My ink tells my life story and I don’t open my veins and bleed for strangers. But that is no excuse for me snapping at you, and I’m sorry. Now would please come in my car and let me take you somewhere?”

I’m certain peace treaties between warring nations were negotiated faster and with less resistance. I watched her send two texts before finally making the decision to get in my car.

“Karl isn’t responding. There must be a lot of wipe outs, as he usually is Johnny on the spot for me. And Bernie, who owns the Inn, isn’t picking up on her cellorthe Inn line, which is really strange.”

Her legs sunk into the drifts of snow with every step towards my car. It was amazing how fast snow accumulated here. It was my second winter in upstate New York and I still hadn’t gotten used to it. When her butt made contact with the heated leather seat, the sound she made was almost a mewl. Completely adorable.

“It’s possible that side of town might have a power outage. Is there anywhere else?”

She pulled at her lip while considering her options.

“I could go and sleep at the shop. Winnie has a cot in the storage room.”

Like hell I’d like anyone sleep in a storage room in the middle of a snowstorm. Even someone I barely knew. I’d lived that life and it was not a fun one. I made a split-second executive decision, pulled my car out of the spot and did a U-Turn.

“Wait—town is the opposite way. Where are you going?”

If I wasn’t already just generally annoyed at the progression of the last forty minutes I would have snickered at the panicked look in her face.

“I’m taking you to my house. I live less than ten minutes from here. I have a spare bedroom, and I’m sure I have something that you can change into, so you get some normal color back in your face instead of looking like you’re auditioning forThe Smurfs.

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