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“I said I would be,” he said.
His voice was like velvet, rubbing against my skin when he talked. Something about the sound of it made me want to wrap myself in it.
It was bizarre. It was hypnotic.
“I’m Lorraine,” I blurted out. “We never… I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself last night, with everything going on.” I blushed.
“Ash,” he said.
“Thank you for last night,” I added.
“How did you sleep?” He looked uncomfortable with me thanking him.
“Okay,” I said. “Like the dead.”
“You had a rough night.”
I groaned. “You have no idea.”
He didn’t ask what had happened or why I’d been in the forest. He only nodded.
I cleared my throat. “Do you have coffee?”
Ash frowned and it made his blue eyes seem brighter. He turned toward the small, open-plan kitchen. He lifted his hands, hesitating before he opened cabinets and took out mugs. He knew this cabin, clearly, but his movements were uncertain, as if he hadn’t been here in a while.
I sat down on the armrest of the couch and looked around me. The cabin was old. Really old. It looked like it was from a different time. The furniture was rough around the edges, as if it was handmade. In the kitchen, the stove was an old beast that needed a fire stoked in its belly. Ash did that, coaxing flames to life before he put an old-fashioned kettle on the stove so it could boil.
When he opened the cabinet, clay containers were lined up on the shelves. I felt as if we were in a different reality, removed from the world.
“I don’t have coffee,” he said. “I have tea.”
“Tea is okay,” I said.
I ran my hand through my messy hair, my fingers getting caught in the tangles. I tried to smooth it instead.
He nodded and scooped dried tea leaves out of a jar. No tea bags.
“Have you lived here long?” I asked, trying to make small talk.
Ash shook his head. “I don’t live here.”
“Oh.”
He didn’t offer anything else, so silence reigned. I watched him move around the kitchen, making us his ancient tea. His movements were fluid and graceful. It was hard to imagine a body that large and muscular could be so graceful, but there was a sophistication about the way he carried himself.
He glanced at me when he felt me looking, and my cheeks colored and I looked away.
I looked around the cabin again. It wasn’t only old, as if it had been built in the days before modern technology. The small windows let in enough light that the candles weren’t necessary, but the cabin was a little dark and gloomy. It wasn’t just the room, though. The cabin felt like it was alive, with emotions of its own, and our being here disturbed the peace of it somehow.
“Here,” Ash said, appearing next to me. I jerked before I took the cup from him.
“Thank you,” I said.
Ash remained standing, holding his own cup. It looked like a kids’ cup in his large hand.
The tea had a bitter taste when I sipped it, but the warmth rushed through my body. I reveled in the feel as it defrosted me.
“I have to get home,” I said. “My sister needs me.”
