Come As You Are Ch. 07

"Hey. What's up?"

The overly smooth voice caused Michelle to tense from annoyance. She reflexively rolled her eyes even as she turned in the speaker's direction. Standing in front of them, surrounded by the same group of friends, was Steve, the young man who had hit on her the previous afternoon. Despite it pushing nine o'clock in the evening, he was wearing sunglasses in place of ski goggles, while his blonde hair sported enough product to keep perfectly in place. He grinned at Michelle, showing teeth whiter than the powder coating the ground. "Laura, right?"

"Yeah, Laura," Michelle immediately answered before turning back to her roommate.

She heard Steve push up closer to her, coming behind her and off to one side. "You girls having fun tonight?" she heard him ask in a flirty tone.

"Absolutely," Irina answered out of politeness. "We haven't been night skiing together in years. We're having a lot of fun, just us two girls." As she faced Michelle, Irina gave her a short nod of understanding. Her roommate knew the game and had recognized Steve for the pick-up artist he believed he was.

As the line shuffled forward, Steve moved up next to Michelle. The biting cold of the night air was the only thing protecting her nostrils from the overwhelming smell of his cologne. "Yeah, we've caught you on the slopes a couple of times tonight. You girls are REALLY good. Like, you're," he said, motioning to Irina, "almost as good as Laura here." Irina raised an eyebrow at his comment, but if Steve noticed he paid it no heed as he turned to face Michelle. "And the way you recovered after clipping that mogul a couple of runs back? I thought you were going to crash and burn like an amateur but wow..."

Michelle had refused to even glance in his direction. Irina, however, forcefully planted her poles in the ground and spun in place. She raised her ski goggles to give him a good and proper glaring. "Negging?" she exclaimed. "That's your move? Every girl knows that move. This isn't the kiddie slopes." Irina gestured towards the ski lodge sitting at the base of the slope. "If that's the best you got, do us all a favor and get that weak ass shit off the mountain."

The end of the line was approaching, but even as Michelle was mentally preparing herself she could hear the snickers of what she assumed were Steve's friends. "Whoa," Steve responded. "Sorry. I wouldn't have said anything if I knew you couldn't take a compliment."

"Well when you think of a real compliment, don't worry about letting us know," answered Irina.

"OK, OK." The contrition in Steve's voice dripped like honey, reminding Michelle of a certain high school queen bee she once knew. "I'm sorry. Look, we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you come skiing with us? We can hang out and get to know each other. No games, I promise."

Irina scoffed. "Yeah, right. Thanks, but we're good."

"You sure? I promise we all know how to ski. At the very least we're better than that beanpole you were out here with yesterday," said Steve. "Seriously, he was all over the slopes. I'm surprised he didn't wipe out and take someone with him."

Technically, Steve wasn't wrong. Still, Michelle, now standing at the top of the run, looked over her shoulder at him. "Maybe," she said, her voice muffled by her gray half-mask, "but at least he understands that 'we're good' means 'go the fucking fuck away.'" With that, Michelle pulled her tinted goggles over her eyes and pushed herself over the edge of Black Spiral.

She immediately found herself in trouble. Thanks to the halogen lights and the tint of her goggles, the opening drop was much steeper than she had believed. Barely managing to get her skis parallel to the slope, Michelle's body bounced from the impact. She immediately tried to shave off some speed, but the tree-lined path was too narrow for her to cut across. By the time she shot out of the chute, Michelle was a cannonball racing down the side of the basin. She managed to get her poles down, but before she could begin swishing back and forth to bleed off velocity the ground fell out from under her as she sailed over a sudden drop. Once again she was just able to get her skis down before gravity brought her slamming back onto the slope.

Whoever designed Black Spiral had been a mad genius. What had appeared to be a smooth slope from the ski lift turned out to be a series of bumps of varying height and length, like a wooden floor warped by years of water damage. Every time Michelle felt like she was about to recover, she would hit a rounded edge or gain an inch or two of air, enough to throw her off-balance.

The slope evened out into a smooth sheet of snow, allowing Michelle to quickly regain her composure. She was still going blazingly fast, but she was able to turn and cut across the slope, using her poles for balance. Each cutback sent a plume of white powder into the air as she sliced through the snow. Underneath her half-mask, Michelle wore a madman's smile. This is what she wanted. To grab hold of a situation and bend it to her will instead of panicking or giving up by going into a safe fall. Sheer exhilaration blazed through her body as Michelle danced her way down the spiral with her mind focused on two things - snow and speed.

One of the ramps was fast approaching. Michelle shot up it, rocketing into the air. She threw out her arms and twisted her legs, indulging in a brief moment of freestyling before executing a perfect landing, immediately tucking herself into a crouch for the final segment of the run. Easily slaloming her way through a series of packed moguls, Michelle hit the bottom of the spiral and, with a spray of snow, brought herself to a complete stop.

Pulling her half-mask down and ripping her goggles from her head, Michelle stared up at the slope she had just dominated. The air in front of her face was filled with vapor from heavy breathing that caused her lungs to ache. Her legs complained about the exquisite torture they had endured over the past several minutes. But she felt amazing. Her eyes and ears were experiencing the world in high-definition while the cold air caressed her cheeks like a lover in front of a roaring fire. Her entire body was a live wire of sensation hovering on the brink of overload.

She drank it all in, unconsciously bouncing on her skis, while waiting for Irina to finish. Soon enough she caught sight of her roommate's blue jacket and tan ski pants. "Oh my God Michelle," Irina exclaimed as she came to a stop, "what happened? I didn't see you! I thought you crashed and burned and I skied right past!"

"I almost lost it in the chute," Michelle admitted, "but once I got out on the slope... whoa!" Her ponytail whipped through the air as she shook her head. "That was my worst AND my best run so far this week!" An exhilarated giggle escaped from her lips before she could stop herself. "Let's do it again!"

"Sure!" Irina laughed. "Come on, let's move before that douchebag shows back up."

X X X X X

The door rattled in its frame.

"Ugh..." Michelle said as her eyes opened halfway. "Go away," she called out. "No housekeeping." She rolled over, wrapping the heavy blanket around her, already drifting back to sleep. The familiar and welcome blackness was settling in when she heard the door swing open. Her brain processed the sound of footsteps on the carpet. "I'm sorry," she said, rolling back over and sitting up, clutching the heavy blanket to her chest to cover herself up, "no housekeeping this... who the hell are you?!?"

"Who the hell are you?!?" The young blonde-haired man was wearing a bright yellow ski jacket with a gym bag in one hand and a suitcase in the other. His skis and poles were tucked underneath one arm. "What the hell are you doing in our room?!?"

"Your room?!? What the hell are you doing in my room?!?" Michelle pulled the covers up as high as they could go. The young man's face turned red as he realized Michelle was in her pajamas underneath the bedsheet.

"Donnie? What's going on... whoa. Who's that?" Another blonde-haired man, this one with hair down to his shoulders, dropped his suitcase on the ground. "Do you like, come with the room?"

"This is MY room," Michelle yelled in response. "How did you get in here?"

"Uh, the front desk gave us the key." The one in the yellow jacket, Donnie, held up a black rubber diamond. A key dangled from the end of the chain. "We're booked in here for the rest of the week..."

"WHAT THE FUCK?!?"

"Dude!" A male voice called out from the hallway. "There's a naked chick in this room! This place is awesome!"

"Oh shit... John, NO!"

The long-haired guy ran out into the hallway. Michelle could make out the loud, indistinct screaming of Irina as she switched from cursing to less-profane words. Donnie turned around, covering his eyes as he set his luggage and skis down on the ground. "I'm sorry," he said. "We just checked in. They told us this was our room. 451."

"No, we're in 451! We're booked through Sunday morning!"

The yelling had died down from the other room, but Michelle could still hear Irina's words through the bathroom doors. "It sounds like there's been a mistake," she said. "Let me get dressed and we'll all go down to the front desk and figure this out."

"I'll wait out in the hall," Donnie offered.

The sound of something crashing against the wall echoed down the hallway. "Actually, would you walk next door and let my friend know what's going on? It sounds like she's not taking this very well."

X X X X X

With a curt nod of thanks to the hotel manager, Michelle turned from the front desk to make her way across the busy lobby. The large room was filled with guests checking out as well as guests checking in. Eager voices mixed as the guests were joined with skiers passing through the lodge on the way to the basin beyond. Michelle ducked, dodged, and weaved through the crowd, finally flopping onto the couch next to Irina. "We're screwed," Michelle sighed. "The travel website only booked us through this morning. Those four guys have our rooms."

"Seriously? Fuck!" Irina's head fell against the back of the couch as she cursed. "I'm guessing the hotel can't do anything?"

"They have to go by what they have in their system. The clerk fucked up when we checked in and didn't tell us we only had until this morning. And all the other rooms are booked solid for the rest of the week."

"We're the only ones this happened to? Just our luck." Irina kicked the couch with the back of her foot. "I bet there are no rooms down in town either."

"Our best chance to find a place would be somewhere out of town."

"And is the hotel going to pay for us to get a rental car, or send the shuttle out that way to pick us up?" Irina sank into the cushion, a look of pure frustration on her face. "What the hell are we going to do?"

"We do have the option of taking the shuttle back to Salt Lake City and spending the rest of the week there."

"No way. Spring Break in Utah?"

"I'm not saying that's the best option, but that might be the only option." Michelle joined her friend in dropping further into the couch. "This sucks. Did you see the powder out there this morning? We could be shredding right now. Instead, we're screwed because of a coding error."

"Seriously. Too bad we don't know anyone who... would let us... crash..." Irina was quiet for a brief moment before, with energy in her voice, she proclaimed, "We should ask."

Michelle sat up on the couch, turning to look at her friend. "Do you think they'll say yes?"

"Gio said the place had three bedrooms. He's in the master and Garrett has one of the guest rooms. As long as you don't mind me sleeping with Gio, you'd have a room of your own."

"And they have a hot tub and a sauna. Yeah, let me call him." Irina watched as Michelle pulled out her phone and punched in Gio's number. "Hey Gio," she said brightly after he picked up. "It's Michelle. Where are you? Brunch? Seriously? Huh. I never took you for a limoncello person. Oh. Yeah, your last name IS Giovanni. Look, Irina and I need a huge favor. The travel website I used to book the hotel fucked up and checked us out this morning. We're sitting in the lobby with our... wow. Just like that? You sure it's not going to be an inconvenience? Garrett doesn't mind? OK. OK. Gio, this is... we owe you. Big time. Yeah, we'll be here."

"They said yes?" Irina asked hopefully as Michelle ended the phone call.

"As soon as they finish brunch they'll drive over and pick us up." Michelle flopped back on the couch, relieved. "Spring Break saved."

Irina reached over to grab Michelle's hand. "Spring Break saved," she smiled. "Good thing we ran into Gio and Garrett that first day, huh?"

"Yeah. Talk about a lucky break." Michelle squeezed Irina's hand in return. "Besides, it'll be nice to be in an actual house instead of a hotel. Don't have to worry about people walking into your bedroom at nine in the morning."

X X X X X

"I'll put your skis in the closet," Garrett said, nodding towards a door off to their left.

"Thanks, Garrett," Irina said, not quite paying attention while she took in the lodge in front of her. "This place is huge." Gio passed by with a suitcase held in each hand. Following behind him was Michelle who joined Irina in looking around their new place, an appreciative whistle escaping her lips as she did so.

The lodge sat at the end of a long ridge that ran along the bottom of the basin just half a mile from the town of Blackcreek. Both sides of the ridge were filled with upscale ski lodges done in a variety of styles to meet almost every possible taste, from "rustic" to "gaudy." The two-story lodge Gio and Garrett were staying in had been built in the style of an old cabin. Dark wooden "logs" were stacked on top of each other, the faux material hiding the brick and mortar underneath. The lodge sat on a small curve at the end of the ridge, resting at an angle to the other houses on the street.

The interior lodge matched the log cabin stylings of the exterior. The first floor was wide open, with the kitchen in one corner and a bathroom in the other. In front of them was a sunken living room with a three-person couch, a two-person loveseat, and a recliner, all of which were turned towards a large stone fireplace. Wooden stairs in the corner led to the second floor, where a long wooden balcony overlooked the living room. Gio headed for the stairs. "I'll show you to your rooms." Behind them, the front door closed as Garrett headed down towards the rental car to grab their skis.

The door at the top of the stairs opened to a large bedroom. Gio's face turned a light shade of crimson when he asked, "Are Irina and I going to share the master bedroom?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. "Believe me Gio, you don't have to ask."

Michelle's comment was followed by a light elbow from her roommate. Both girls laughed as Gio put Irina's bag down just inside the bedroom door. "You're in the middle room," Gio told Michelle. He walked between the two girls, who fell in behind him. The sound of Gio's footsteps filled the cavernous lodge. "Right here." He pushed open another door further down the hallway. Inside was a room just a little bigger than the one Michelle had been forced to recently vacate. Like the rest of the lodge, it had an "upscale log cabin" feel to it with a queen-sized bed, a pair of nightstands flanking it, a dresser, and a table with two chairs in one corner. The table sat in front of a wide window that looked out onto the wall of Blackcreek Basin, a sheet of glistening white broken up by clusters of pine trees. Another door sat next to the window, this one with a wooden blind hanging from it.

"This is pretty nice," Michelle proclaimed as she peered inside. "Where does that door go?"

"I'll show you." Gio set Michelle's suitcase on the bed. Michelle did the same with her rucksack before following Gio to the door, Irina behind both of them. A gust of cold air rushed past the trio as he opened the door. "Everyone's bedroom has a door leading to the deck," he said, turning to the right and walking down a wooden balcony that ran the length of the house. To their left towered a snow-covered slope, sharply rising towards the crest of the basin. At the end of the balcony was a large deck. Instead of a view of the basin, the deck gave way to a vista of the foothills and valleys of the Grand Teton range. "The hot tub's over there," Gio said, "and the sauna's right past it."

A round wooden hot tub was tucked into the far corner where the deck met the house. A small set of steps ran along the rear of the tub to a shelf that curved around the back, flush with the top of the tub. If Michelle had to guess, the tub could hold six people, maybe eight if they squeezed together. To one side was a wooden door with a tall glass frame in the middle. A control panel sat on the wall next to it. "Is that a wet sauna or a dry sauna?" Irina asked.

"Wet," Gio answered. "Garrett loves it. He's used the sauna every day we've been here. He'll go in there for like 15, 20 minutes, then go outside and stand in the cold for a little bit, then go right back inside. I'm talking two, three times in a row. I watched him just stand out here and get covered in snow before going back inside the sauna. I expected him to be sick this morning but he's got more energy than I've seen him have in a long time."

Gio opened the door back into the house, holding it for the two ladies before following them inside. "One other thing Michelle," he said. "You're going to be sharing a bathroom with Garrett. It's a jack-and-jill like the one back at the hotel. I hope that's OK."

"It is what it is," Michelle answered. "We'll make due."

"Good." The trio was quiet for a moment. The only sound in the lodge was the sound of Garrett loading the girls' skis into the front closet. "So what did you guys want to do now?"

"I don't know about you," Irina said as she looked at Michelle, "but I'm starved. We completely skipped breakfast and it's after 12. I could go for some lunch."

At the mention of lunch, Michelle felt her stomach react with a low, quiet rumble. "Yeah," she agreed. "You know what I could go for right now? Grilled cheese right off the stove." Irina responded with an eager nod of approval for Michelle's suggestion.

"We can swing that," Gio said. "I think we have some leftover tomato soup we can heat up."

"Grilled cheese and tomato soup?" Michelle laughed heartily as the trio made their way back towards the first floor. "I haven't had grilled cheese and tomato soup since high school. It was the standard lunch at the Lattimore's house. Damn near every time I slept over there Brenda would whip that up for lunch the next day."

"Did you ever get sick of it?" Irina asked.

"No way. Most of the time the tomato soup came from a can, but sometimes she'd get up early and make it from scratch. Took her about an hour to prep and cook but damn if it wasn't the best tomato soup I ever had." Michelle smiled at the memory, the phantom smell of tomatoes and chopped garlic filling the air for a brief moment.

"All we've got is Campbell's," Gio said as they reached the foot of the stairs. "The grilled cheese will be homemade though. Well, the ingredients were store bought but the sandwiches will be made in a home."

As Gio fished around in the fridge Garrett came into the kitchen. "OK. Skis are put away all nice and neat. So what's on the agenda for this afternoon?"

"Same thing as this morning, my friend." Gio put a pack of cheese and a plastic container filled with red liquid on the counter before shutting the fridge behind him. "We're going skiing, remember?"

Michelle watched as Garrett slowly deflated. "Oh. Yeah. That's right. And you girls are coming with us?" Both Michelle and Irina nodded at the question. "OK. So I'm going to go and unpack your skis. That I just put away." He shook his head, chuckling softly as he did so. "My bad," he said. "I'll get your stuff up on the ski rack."