A Kiss Under The Kismet Tree

Chapter Eighteen - Lake Winni-something On A Tuesday

After spending most of the morning putting the rest of the lights on The Kismet Tree with Cary, I'm now feeling a little anxious about having to go to Lake Winni-something with him.

All morning, things between us have been much like they were yesterday—pleasant, whilst keeping a polite and physical distance away from one another.

Sure, we still chatted, we still laughed about some things; but the chatter and the occasional laughter were all about light and generic things—our favourite food, our guilty pleasures in music, our least favourite places to go in the world, our likes and dislikes of Christmas, our adolescent fashion disasters—all jovially discussed whilst we finished wrapping the fairy lights around the rest of The Kismet Tree.

The only thing that we didn't talk and laugh about...was us.

"Have a lovely time, you two." Dorothy is happily waving us off from the front door of her beautiful colonial home.

"She absolutely loves what we've been doing to the tree." Cary quietly tells me, before playfully nudging his shoulder with mine.

My heart literally leaps at his sudden closeness. "I'm glad she does. Tomorrow, I'll complete dressing the old boy with strips of organza." I somehow manage to calmly reply back to him.

In his gentlemanly way, Cary escorts me to his car. With a smile, he opens the door for me, and I nervously seat myself into the passenger seat. Looking to my left, Dorothy is still watching us from her pretty porch, wanting to see us both off with one last wave and a smile. Waving back to his mum, Cary then slides himself behind the steering wheel. Even in a hat and a thick, padded jacket, he looks so ruggedly handsome beneath all of his warm layers.

And our warm layers are very much needed.

I think today has to be the coldest day yet for me in Woodstock. In my knee high boots, I am wearing two pairs of thick socks. Along with my thigh length Parka coat, I am also wearing my less than flattering beige bobble hat—but at least my wintry combo will keep me warm today.

Waving one last time to the lovely Dorothy, who herself is now hugging away the crisp chill of the afternoon air, I try to relax about being in the enclosed company of Cary. As we drive off, I look back to the house and am glad to see that Dorothy has taken herself back into the warmth of her lovely home. "Your mum must worry every time you go out in your car now." Behind her maternal smiles and her casual little waves, I think I saw Dorothy's fear of something happening to her last living child back there on her cold but pretty porch.

"Yeah, she does. But I bought this car because it's solid, has a high safety score and grips to the road like it has teeth." Cary is grinning now. "And it has really nice heated seats, too."

Smiling at how nice they really do feel, I nod with my approval. "What car is this again?" I ask, curious to know the model.

"A Tesla." Cary quickly tells me. "What sort of car do you have?"

More than happy to keep the flow of our light chat continuously flowing, I happily answer him. "I have a little Volkswagen Up, it's probably about half the size of this car." A little laugh happens to escape me.

"When you get back to England, will you be returning to work, or just wait for the new year to begin?" Cary now asks with easy-going interest.

Glancing at the snow-tipped scenery from my passenger window, I'm again happy with my reply. "I've got two weeks left to work, then I'll break for Christmas, leaving me to go into the new year all refreshed and ready for what's ahead." A new year is always just that to me...a glittery and hopeful new year. "What about you? Once the Portland job is finished, what's next in the professional pipeline for you?"