Lorella fastened her seatbelt as they rode down the drive. “Did you have a good day?” she asked Noelle.
“Yeah, it was okay,” Noelle snapped.
Lorella glanced sharply at Noelle. “My God, Noelle, I was just asking. You don’t have to snap at me.”
“Well, it’s just that I stopped in to see you during lunchtime. Not something I’m able to do very often. Yet you weren’t home, and so I was rather disappointed. I was looking forward to surprising you.”
“I’m sorry,” Lorella said, softening. “If I’d had any idea you’d be stopping by, I’d never have gone out walking.”
“I thought you didn’t like to go out by yourself in the first place?” Noelle said suspiciously.
“I don’t go very far. In fact, I’m surprised I didn’t hear or see you drive up.”
“Well, these woods are pretty dense in most spots, so we won’t worry about it. Let’s just relax and enjoy our dinner.”
“I’d like that,” Lorella said with a forced smile.
“I’ve got to stop by the little gas station first to get some cash. You know this diner doesn’t accept cards.”
“Yes, I remember.”
Noelle pulled up to the gas station a moment later. “Back in a sec.”
Lorella observed Noelle through the store window for a moment or two, then fished out her lip gloss from her purse. In doing so, she spotted the local paper rolled up and wedged in between the driver’s seat and the center console. She reached over and pulled the paper out to settle her curiosity, then inhaled a quick breath of surprise upon reading the front headline and viewing the picture just below it.
“Man Still Missing From Bly Mountain,” the headline read, showing a picture of a young man who looked exactly like the man they’d seen in the woods. The one who claimed to have been in a fight in which Noelle claimed to have then led to the cabin to call his brother to come after refusing medical treatment.
Noelle could see the look of surprise on Lorella’s face even before she got into the SUV. But she didn’t have to ask what was wrong. The paper Lorella was holding told her all she needed to know. Damn! Why did she have to be so careless? She would simply stick to her story. That was usually the best policy anyway. Just stick to silence or stick to your story if you’d given one, to begin with.
“I don’t believe this!” Lorella exclaimed with shock. “Didn’t you see this? Doesn’t this look like that guy?”
“Yes, I’ve been meaning to show it to you, but I keep forgetting. I thought he sort of looked like him.”
“Sort of? He’s a spitting image. Besides, how many people go missing from the mountain? I take it you told your fellow cops about what happened, right?”
“Right.”
“But I thought he was picked up by his brother?”
“That’s who he said he called and who he said he was waiting on, but Lorella, I just wanted to get back to you in a hurry, knowing how scared you were to be alone. Therefore, I didn’t actually see the guy get picked up, so anything could’ve happened.”
“You think maybe his injuries could’ve caused him to become disoriented and that he might’ve gotten lost somewhere?”
“Again, babe, anything’s possible.”
“Anything on us?”
Noelle looked at her a moment as if she’d forgotten their little crime spree. “Oh, no, not at all.”
“Thank God for that much.” She focused once more on the article. His name was Fred Withers. He was a thirty-year-old plumber who lived with his girlfriend and their infant son on the mountain. The girlfriend, Ginny, stated that he’d stormed off in a rage following an argument, assuming he’d gone to a friend’s house. The following day, his boss called wanting to know why he hadn’t shown up for work.
She glanced up at Noelle and said, “My guess is that it was really the girlfriend who beat him up, and he was too embarrassed to say so.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Noelle agreed with a nod, eager to go along with Lorella’s theory. “He probably still is too, and is no doubt off somewhere licking his wounds in private until they heal. The article also mentioned that the girlfriend stated the argument was about the guy’s lack of concern for their child, so that’s probably another reason he’s disappeared. Like too many of them, he just doesn’t want to do his part or pay child support.”
Lorella briefly skimmed through other articles and shook her head grimly. “There’s so much disaster going on in the world that I don’t see how people can believe there’s a good God up there. Who are they kidding?”
“Themselves.”
“Why would they do that?”
Noelle shrugged. “People do whatever works for them in tough times. Some resort to their hobbies in times of need. Some resort to drugs. Others find it reassuring to tell themselves there’s something good up there and that they’ll have it sweet and fine in the end.”
“What do you think?” Lorella asked.
“I think that if there is a good God up there, He’s just selective as to whom He blesses. I know He was definitely smiling down on me the day we met.”
Lorella folded the paper and wedged it back in between the console. Had He been smiling on her too, the day they’d met? she wondered.
The diner would’ve been deserted had it not been for the very loud party of six that sat a few tables away from Lorella and Noelle.
It was obvious to Lorella that Noelle was becoming increasingly annoyed by the party’s loudness.
“It never ceases to amaze me how rude people can be,” Noelle said. “Off in their own little world, totally oblivious and without a care for those around them.”
“I agree,” Lorella said.
“Just utterly disrespectful,” Noelle said loud enough for them to hear. Yet they couldn’t hear. They were too loud to make that possible.
They were only halfway through the meal when the political discussions began.
“So what do you think about this same-sex marriage crap they gonna have us votin’ on?” one heavyset and ugly woman asked.
“I think it’s sick,” answered an even heavier and uglier man.
“Tell me about it!” said a younger woman, though still heavy and homely. “I’m sick of these fucking gays trying to weasel their way into the straight world and destroy what’s so rightfully ours. They don’t belong in our world!”
Lorella could see the fury building in Noelle’s eyes. If looks could kill, then the loud – and also bigoted - party of six would be dead in a heartbeat.
“If this shit keeps up,” another man said, “them damn things are gonna rob us of everything while they spread their filthy diseases…”
The man’s hateful words were cut off by the falling of Noelle’s chair as she shot up from it. All eyes were upon her now. “That’s enough!” screamed Noelle. “I will not sit here another minute and listen to this bigoted bullshit!
“Then get the hell outa here!” the man who had been interrupted shouted.
“The hell I will!”
The man rose, challengingly. “Hey, lady, who the hell are you…”
“I’m a Bonanza police officer. Name’s Noelle Hutchinson, and I don’t need this shit, and neither does my lady here,” Noelle gestured towards Lorella.
“Oh, yeah, lesbo?” the man hissed, walking over to Noelle. He was about the same height as her. “You just try to interrupt us again and I’ll…”
He was cut off for the third time when Noelle shoved him with such unbelievable force that he was literally lifted off his feet and onto the table. The others tried to scurry back from the table as he crashed upon it and tipped it over. The cacophony of shattering plates and glasses hitting the floor seemed to go on forever.
The manager, or possibly even the owner, shouted for everyone to leave. He was a tall, wiry man who trembled with either anger or fear, or perhaps both.
Noelle grabbed Lorella by the arm and quickly began to guide her out of the diner. As they were getting into the SUV, another man approached Noelle. “I’m gonna kick your sorry ass to hell and back!”
In the instant he went to lunge for her, Noelle reached behind her and pulled her gun from her waistband. She whipped it around in front of her and held it straight out towards the man with both hands, elbows locked. “Whoa, buddy, you just hold it right there! Assaulting an officer on top of disturbing the peace is nothing you want to have to deal with, trust me.”
The man stopped dead in his tracks, a foot or two in front of the gun which was aimed at his chest.
The diner’s door was slammed shut and locked. Then the OPEN sign in the window was abruptly flipped to CLOSED. Sirens could now be heard in the distance.
The man looked toward the sound, then back at Noelle. “Oh, fuck you, lesbo,” he said, backing away. “You ain’t worth it anyway.”
“I’m sure I’m not,” Noelle said with a smile of sarcasm as the party loaded into the two vehicles they had come in.
“Let’s go, Earl,” said the fat lady. “You’ve got warrants, and so does Harry. Lucy and I don’t need to be dealing with that shit now, then bailing you out. Come on!”
With a final round of cussing and hateful statements, the man named Earl joined his fellow loud, rude friends and left, the tires of both vehicles kicking up gravel as they went.
Noelle tucked the gun back in her waistband just as a squad car pulled into the parking lot.
Lorella had simply watched, too stunned to speak.
A policewoman and a policeman emerged from the squad car.
“What happened, Hutchinson?” asked the woman.
“Oh, just a bunch of mean, rowdy bigots.”
“Yeah?” asked her partner.
Noelle nodded and continued to explain as the owner unlocked the door and stepped outside to join them. “They were incredibly loud, rude, and obnoxious. I tried to get them to quiet down so we could eat in peace when one of them stood up and went to put their hands on me. That’s when I shoved the guy, though I didn’t intend for him to fall onto the table,” Noelle said with a slight chuckle, trying to lighten the situation.
The owner eyed Noelle, slack-jawed. That wasn’t the way it had been. But he was afraid to challenge a cop in front of her own.
“You the owner?” asked one of the other cops.
The man nodded.
“Anything else you can add to Officer Hutchinson’s statement?”
“Uh, well, no, not really. Basically, what she says is true. They were a very loud bunch.”
“Okay, then,” Noelle said with a pleasant business-like smile. “If that’s all, then we’ll just be on our way.”
She turned to Lorella. The others seemed to notice Lorella for the first time, who smiled weakly.
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” they told Noelle. “You can take off now. We’ll call if there’s anything else.”
“Okay, guys. See you around the station.”
Lorella and Noelle got into the SUV and pulled their seatbelts around them.
“Well, that’s one place we won’t be able to return to,” Lorella said as they pulled onto the main road.
Noelle glanced sharply at her. “You really know how to stand by your woman, don’t you?”
“You didn’t have to do it, Noelle. They weren’t talking to us.”
“Would you have preferred to have sat there and listened to their shit?”
“No, I wouldn’t, but like I said, they weren’t talking to us. The bumper sticker is different. That’s pretty much making a statement to anyone who sees it, so I can see taking that personally. You do kind of ask for it, after all, when you’re openly bigoted.”
“Listen, lady. You have what you take personally, and I have what I take personally, okay?”
“Fine,” Lorella said with a sigh, knowing better than to argue with Noelle. After all, Noelle was right. She was who she was, and Lorella couldn’t change that. If anything, maybe these people would think twice about openly discussing their bigotry the next time around, allowing someone else to be able to eat in peace.
Try as she would, Lorella was young, and she had a very skilled lover, so she couldn’t delay the orgasm that rippled throughout her. A moment later, as she lay alongside Noelle, she said, “So much for holding out longer.”
“It’s okay, babe,” Noelle assured her. “As long as you enjoyed yourself, that’s all that matters.”
There was just enough moonlight streaming through the window of the loft for Lorella to make out the forlorn expression on Noelle’s face. “Hey, what’s wrong? Didn’t you enjoy yourself, too?”
Noelle glanced at her through the darkness. “Sure, I did. I always do, don’t I?”
“Then what is it? You can tell me.”
Noelle sighed deeply and said, “It’s just that I hate to see you go in a few weeks. Each day you’re here, the more attached I get to you. The more used to having you around I get, the more I love you. Think about the position I’m in, Lorella. I know you don’t feel the same way about me as I do about you, but think about how I’ll feel when you leave. Don’t you think it’ll be hard for me to come home from work every day to a quiet, empty, lonely place with nothing but memories to live on?”
It was Lorella’s turn to take on a gloomy expression. As much as she hated to admit it, Noelle had a point. Just because she knew she herself could walk away easily enough didn’t mean she wouldn’t be hurting Noelle.
“I wish you’d just give things more of a chance,” Noelle continued. “What have you got to return to that’s so important in Nevada anyway? Is returning to warmer weather and a place where Madison’s memories are so prominent going to do you any good?”
Lorella remained silent as Noelle spoke.
“You may not love me now, but I think one day you can, and you will. So, what’s more important? To be alone in a warm place, or to be loved in a place that’s not as nice as you’d like? Hell, girl, I’ll keep you warm. You don’t even have to go outside. You can stay wrapped up in here in cozy sweats by a blazing fire, and while you’re at it, you won’t have to worry about money. I can provide for you and give you all the security you could ever need.”
Lorella’s hand reached out to gently graze Noelle. “That’s really sweet of you, though I couldn’t possibly hide indoors for eight months.”
“Okay, so you’ll only go out when you absolutely can’t stand the cabin fever anymore.”
Lorella finally relented. “Well,” she began with a sigh of her own, “the last thing I want to do is hurt you in any way and leave you all alone and lonely, even though I can’t believe some other girl wouldn’t be quick to snatch you right up as beautiful and as generous as you are, so we’ll see, okay? We’ll just wait and see where we stand a few weeks from now. Sure, I’d love to be taken care of, but I also wouldn’t want to take advantage of you like that.”
“You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me at all. You keep the place clean, you do the laundry, you cook. You do a lot for me, not to mention provide me with hours of fun in bed.”
“Well,” Lorella said hesitantly, “I guess it couldn’t hurt to give it a little more time, though I do need a bit more than just being a homemaker.”
She lay in the dark long after Noelle’s breathing became soft and regular. She thought about things for hours as she watched the moonlight slowly fade away as it moved over and past the tiny cabin. Life really could be simple here, and she knew it, despite the inevitable cold and snow she dreaded. Many would envy her position, she supposed. She just wished she felt the same amount of love for Noelle as she did lust. However, the words affection and appreciative would be more appropriate in her case.
The days grew shorter and the temperatures cooler. Lorella found most of September to be pleasant enough, like most people said it would be, but by early October, the weather had turned cold, and by the time November neared, it was miserable.
“How do you stand this?” she asked one late, frigid Saturday morning, shivering, rubbing her arms, and then pulling her robe tighter around her as she paced in front of the fireplace.
Noelle laughed from her spot on the couch, fire crackling as she spoke. “You get used to it. Just think how special the summers will be for you from now on.”
“From now on? Oh, I don’t think there’ll be a from now on where I’m concerned. You’re a real hottie and a good person too, when you’re not furious about whatever, and well, I’d hate to lose you, but you’ll just have to follow me down south where it’s nice and warm if you want to stay together. Either way, this isn’t just going to be my first winter here, but my last one as well.”
Noelle got up abruptly and stomped over to where Lorella stood. Lorella leaned back away from Noelle as she shouted, “You and your damn ultimatums! I’m sick and tired of you expecting everything to be on your terms only.”
“Hey, I’m not expecting…”
“Shut up!”
Lorella started to go into the kitchenette. She wouldn’t listen to such rudeness and screaming. Yet Noelle grabbed her arm and roughly yanked her around to face her.
“Ow!” shrieked Lorella.
“You listen to me when I’m talking to you, and don’t you rudely walk away like that.”
“You’re calling me rude? You’re the one screaming and then telling me to shut up. And secondly, I’m not the selfish person you think I am, and don’t tell me what to do. You don’t own me!”
“The hell I don’t!” Noelle hissed, again grabbing Lorella’s arm as she attempted a second time to leave the room.
Lorella shrieked even louder with pain, as Noelle’s long and strong fingers dug even deeper into the tender flesh of her arm. “Let go of me!”
“Then stick around when I’m trying to talk to you!” Noelle demanded, holding tight to Lorella’s arm.
“I only wanted to leave because you were screaming at me and making unfair accusations. What’s the point of staying in each other’s company if we’re not going to get along? Now, please let go. I don’t want to fight and you’re really hurting me!” Lorella eyed Noelle desperately, amazed and terrified at the sudden change within her. How could an individual be full of laughter one minute, then so full of rage the next?
Finally, Noelle released her arm and her mood changed yet again. Gone was the rage to be instantly replaced by an expression of regret. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Really.” She reached for Lorella, but Lorella backed away. “I–I’m sorry, babe. I don’t know what got into me.”
“I don’t know either, Noelle, but I’m getting really sick of it. Everything will be okay for a while, then you get paranoid or take something I say totally out of context and you…”
“How could I take an ultimatum such as follow-me-or-get-dumped-by-me out of context?” Noelle asked, hysteria again rising in her voice.
Lorella’s mind quickly searched for the best words to say. “Look, I’m sorry if what I said upset you. Let’s not argue anymore, okay?”
But Noelle wasn’t giving up that easily. Shaking her head she said, “You don’t get it, do you?”
Lorella said, “No, I don’t get it. I don’t get why I stand here arguing with someone whose moods change more often than I pee.” She wished she could take back the words as soon as she’d spoken them.
Noelle’s eyes blazed with fury and her face was flushed red hot. “You really are one spoiled, selfish, ungrateful little bitch, aren’t you?”
Lorella spun around with lightning speed and lunged for the loft’s ladder. She scurried upwards as quickly as she could without slipping off the rungs. A trail of ear-piercing obscenities followed her as she went. Her heart pounded wildly as she jumped on the bed and crawled toward the wall by the window, the side she slept on. Then she became utterly terrified at the thought of Noelle chasing after her and then tossing her over the rail and back down into the living room. She sat huddled against the headboard near the back wall and watched the top of the ladder in fearful anticipation. However, the shouts didn’t grow any closer.
“After all I’ve done for you, this is the gratitude I get for it? I give you a place to live while you do nothing but complain and talk about how wonderful your precious Madison was, and now you want to leave me? Well, you just try to walk out on me, bitch! I’m sick of assholes like you who think you can stick around for some fun, then simply take off when the mood strikes without giving a damn about anyone but yourself! All you want is for your feelings to be considered, but to hell with mine, right? Well, I’ve got news for you, bitch! If you think you can walk all over me just because you can’t handle the way I am and because you get a little cold at times, you’re going to find out real fast that you had me all wrong. All wrong!”
Lorella continued to remain still and silent. She was afraid to even breathe. Noelle was screaming so loud that it hurt her ears even up in the loft as the sound bounced up and then off the ceiling. She covered her ears and fought back the urge to scream herself, but after a while, Noelle’s shouts lessened and eventually stopped altogether. She still wouldn’t dare go downstairs for fear of saying the wrong thing and setting her off again. Besides, it was warmer up there with the heat of the fire rising upward. She had too much thinking to do anyway, and a very tough decision to make. One that would become easier and easier to make each time Noelle’s temper flared.
Later that night, as was her usual weekend custom, she emailed her friends and family. She told Shalinda and her brother about Noelle’s paranoid and misconstrued outbursts and urged them not to mention them to her parents so as not to worry them. Just minutes after the messages were sent, she received an instant message from Trevor.
“Hi there, sis. Sorry to hear things aren’t going well with you two,” he wrote.
Lorella’s fingers flew over the keys in response. “Me too,” she wrote back.
“What do you suppose sets her off?”
“I wish I knew, but frankly, I don’t have a clue as to why she goes off so easily. It’s like I can never seem to say the right thing, and she’s always getting the wrong idea. I can’t even be open about my friendship with our neighbor because she gets jealous. I don’t know if I can take much more of this or the cold.”
“Noelle always did seem to be a feisty one, but I didn’t realize it was to this degree. Shayla said she didn’t think you were happy when we visited you guys up there, but hopefully, things will still work out. The first year of a relationship can be rough, but once Noelle gets to see that her jealousy is unfounded, maybe she’ll change.”
“I hope so. God knows I just want to be happy and to be able to make her happy as well.”
Yet Lorella was filled with doubts as she said goodnight to her brother and proceeded to shut down her computer.
A shadow fell over the table she sat at.
“Did you write nasty things about me?”
Lorella jumped, then glanced up at Noelle. “I – uh – I just said we weren’t doing as well as I’d like.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Noelle responded in an accusatory tone, as she went into the kitchen and began to prepare a cup of hot cocoa.
“I just wish I could say the right things, and that you wouldn’t misunderstand my intentions so much of the time,” Lorella added softly. “All I want is for us to be happy.”
“Would you like a cup too, Lorella?”
“No, thanks. I think I’ll take a hot bath now if you don’t mind.”
“No, go right ahead,” Noelle replied, voice still hardened with bitterness.
As Lorella sank down into the steamy, fragrant bubbles a few minutes later, she eyed the bruises on her upper arm where Noelle had grabbed her earlier. Each of Noelle’s fingertips, including her thumb, had left a nasty purplish-blue mark. She felt her fear turn to anger as she rubbed the bruised skin gently. She would leave if it ever happened again, and she wouldn’t care if it hurt Noelle’s fragile, eggshell feelings!
She had lain as far as she could possibly get from Noelle the night before, almost up against the wall, despite the cold that seeped through it. She was grateful that Noelle hadn’t wanted sex, for she knew she couldn’t have engaged in it, and wouldn’t have wanted to find out just how mad the rejection might’ve made Noelle.
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