There Will Be Blood (not mine)

32. The Revolutionary

I went out into the blistering cold and was thankful that there wasn't a blizzard as I stomped through the snow covered lawn. It wasn't that deep, so I made it easily over the car. Benny rolled down the window with a smile, and I noticed three other men stuffed in there with him.

"Hello, Miss Fell. Are you having a nice holiday?" Benny asked.

"Yes, thank you. I was wondering if you guys were cold." I unzipped the lunchbox and handed him the warm thermoses. He passed them around the car.

"Thank you," he replied enthusiastically.

I watched as the big men in the car opened the tops and sniffed at them. They kept their smiles up, but I could see the apprehension in their eyes.

I took out the small bottle of bourbon from my jacket and handed it to Benny. "Not too much. You're on the job," I laughed.

"Thank you," he sighed happily and poured a liberal amount into his cup before passing it on.

"It's freezing out here. You guys are crazy." I bundled up.

"We would be crazier to disobey orders." He sipped his hot chocolate.

"Well, have a good rest of the day. The sun's supposed to be out soon." I looked up to the dark, gray clouds.

"I don't think I've seen the sun since I've been in this town. What's up with that?" he asked.

"Welcome to Thorp." I held up my hands and walked backwards and waved. He closed the window tightly, and then went back to bobbing his head.

I shut and locked the door, waiting for the day to truly begin.

I checked my laptop; still no call from Justin. I sat on the couch, turned on the TV for background music and dove into reading a copy of Dante's Inferno. I know, pretty morbid stuff for the holidays, but I couldn't help it. Plus, it was a first edition. It was so rare that I didn't even want to think about how much Justin paid for it.

I must have been reading for hours because by the time I looked up, it was darker outside. I looked around like I was in some alternate universe. My stomach wasn't growling, and I didn't feel sleepy. The sun in the sky was just kind of high, but I looked at the clock and saw that it already read five.

"Wow, that was interesting." I closed my book and stretched.

Freddie would be home in about an hour, so I decided to get up and make him something to eat. We still had leftovers from Christmas, but I knew he was getting tired of it. I started pulling things out to make Grandma Fell's famous beef stroganoff.

I had the pasta boiling, the onions and vegetables sautéing and got the beef diced up.

There was a knock on the door and I looked around again, trying to figure out who was coming over so late in the afternoon.

"Who is it?" I called and stood on my toes to see through the peep hole.

"Justin," a deep voice replied.

I could see his face, magnified from the mirror in the door and my mouth hit the floor. A massive smile appeared on my face when I opened the door.

Justin was standing there with his hands in his pockets and his head bowed. There was snow in his hair, and I almost died from how gorgeous he looked.

I shamelessly threw myself at him and wrapped my arms around his neck, almost knocking us both off of the porch.

"What are you doing here?" I buried my face in his neck and took a deep breath. It was pathetic, but I couldn't bring myself to care.