Remi slammed her laptop shut in frustration as she rubbed the heel of her hands into her sleepy eyes. Two days had passed since she had arrived at the cabin and she had hit the backspace button on her computer so much that she worried the letters on the key would be worn off before she even had a single paragraph on the screen.
"This is ridiculous," she muttered and decided to give up on working for the time being. Instead, she headed into the kitchen for some coffee. She had let herself slip the other day and opened up to Ender but she would not make that mistake again. She had made it a point to avoid Ender as much as she could after he had buttered her up with coffee and pancakes the first morning, "Not gonna work, buddy. You can be charming all you want. You'd have better luck---"
"I would have better luck doing what?" Ender came up behind her to reach around and grab a coffee mug from the cabinet, "Thanks for making some coffee. The smell woke me up."
"Could you please stop sneaking up on me like that. This is at least the tenth time in two days." Remi slid around him and left the kitchen, trying to put some distance between herself and Ender. Unfortunately, it had seemed like as soon as she made her mind up to steer clear of him, he had made his mind up to make sure she couldn't.
"Sorry, just wanted some coffee. My bad." Ender filled up a mug and leaned against the kitchen counter as he blew on the hot liquid before he took his first sip.
Remi turned to make a comment but was caught off guard by the way he looked leaning against the counter with his low slung flannel pajama bottoms on and his hair rumpled from sleep.
"Can I help you with something or are you going to keep window shopping?" Ender asked with a grin.
"Ugh!" Remi stomped out of the room, mad that she had been caught admiring the view, "Can I please just be left alone? Is that really too much to ask."
Ender let her leave and finished his cup of coffee while staring out the window looking at the mountains. He almost felt a little bad that she was so bothered by him, but he was just being friendly. If they were going to stay in this cabin together for 2 weeks, they may as well get to know each other and spend some time together. Also, he had to admit it was cute to see her squirm when he found a way to get under her skin.
The door to the cabin opened and was quickly slammed shut. He walked into the living room which overlooked the back patio and saw her just as she sank down into the hot tub.
Ender knew he should probably leave her alone, but he also wanted the chance to get inside that mind of hers. He had stayed up late reading her first novel and he saw a lot of the same qualities in her female character that he was witnessing in her right now.
A few minutes passed and he had changed into a bathing suit. It didn't take long before he sank down into the hot tub opposite her, "I didn't come to pester you," he said, holding his hands up to show he was not up to anything.
"Fine, but I really just want to lay here and relax. As in no talking. Maybe I can come up with something to write."
They both relaxed in silence for a few minutes. It was probably the longest silence from Ender since they had met, other than when they were sleeping. She could tell he was itching to talk but to give him credit, he did let her relax and stew in her thoughts for a little while.
"So, you have a couple of chapters written of your sequel by now?" He finally broke through her thoughts, "Every time I see you you're staring at that laptop. 5 am.....midnight...."
"Yeah, sure." Remi rolled her eyes, mostly to herself. She wouldn't let him know how wrong he was. She didn't have a single sentence written.
"I would love to see what you have written so far. I can only imagine what kind of inspiration a writer could get from such a beautiful place like this."
Remi wanted to cry on the inside. He was right, although she refused to let him know that. Any normal writer would have no trouble writing up here. The scenery surrounding them just begged for a romantic story to be written and there certainly wasn't much else to do, but she was failing to even come up with anything. She was just failing in general.
"Hey, what's that..." Ender leaned forward and crossed the hot tub, reaching out and brushing something out of her hair, "It's snow....it's snowing!"
She followed his gaze up to the sky and sure enough, big flakes of snow were starting to fall. If she wasn't in such a bad mood, the moment might have been pretty magical.
"This is amazing," Ender sat back down, this time closer to her,"I've never stayed somewhere where it snowed....."
Ender rambled on as Remi zoned out. The boyish look in his eyes had Remi wishing she could enjoy this moment as much as he was. The steam rising around him from the hot tub, causing beads of sweat to form on his bare chest was anything but boyish, however, and she was having a hard time concentrating on what he was saying. Something about his brother and sister in law, but she couldn't be sure, "What?" She asked when she was finally broken out of her trance but Ender splashing some water up onto her shoulders. He was grinning at her, again, which told her she has probably been caught starting. Again.
"Nada. No es importancia." Ender reached out and brushed a piece of hair away from her face, his hands lingering as he played with the curl that had formed due to the steam.
"I'm gonna go inside. It's starting to snow kind of hard." Remi jumped up and left Ender's hand suspended mid-air. She got out of the hot tub so quickly that she almost slipped and Ender had to reach out and steady her.
"Ve más despacio." He warned, getting out behind her. She was right, the snow had started to come down harder now and instead of a serene sprinkling of snow, it was turning more into a storm.
The two hurried inside and Remi ran straight into the room and closed the door. She closed herself off from him once again. Ender knew had probably overstepped some sort of boundary but the way her hair had curled around her face, he couldn't help himself.
"Son muchos años que pasaron sin decir te quiero, y en verdad te quiero, pero encuentro formas de engañar mi corazón....."
"That's it," Remi threw her toiletries in her bag later that afternoon. "I'm done. I can't do this anymore."
For the past hour, Ender had been in the kitchen, singing to himself and banging pots and pans around. She had no clue what he was even singing or what he was up to in the kitchen, but it didn't matter to her. This cabin was no more peace and quiet than her high rise in downtown Miami. At least locked up in her apartment she wouldn't have the added distraction of Ender.
She rolled her suitcase out of the room and right past the kitchen where Ender caught sight of her.
"Wait! Remi, what are you doing?" Ender put down the plate he was pulling out of the cabinet to put his homemade empanadas on, "Why do you have your suitcase?"
"Because, Ender...." Remi stopped in her tracks to turn around and face him. She didn't realize he was so close behind her. Ender grabbed her arms to steady himself when he ran straight into her, not letting go of her as he got his balance and waited for her explanation, "I cannot stay in this cabin any longer. There is no cell service, it's cold, and I cannot write anything here. You're singing as loud as you can, banging pots and pans around. I just want to be alone and you're constantly here."
"Wow. Ok, well this is my cabin so of course, I am here. And I hardly think I'm the reason you can't come up with anything to write."
Remi turned away from him and absolutely refused to let him see that she was upset. She took a deep breath and continued towards the door, "I just need to go home. That is what is best."
Ender followed closely behind her and eyed the storm going on outside through the windows, "I don't think you need to be going anywhere in this weather."
"I'll be fine," Remi stepped off of the porch and immediately the snow came up to mid-calf, "I just need to get to the car and I'll be fine."
"Estás loco," Ender muttered, stuck between trying to help her get to the car and trying to stop her from leaving. He wanted her around. He wanted to get to know her and get her to let her guard down, but he also just feared for her safety. Something told him she had no experience on backcountry, snowy roads.
"I do understand some Spanish," she let go of her suitcase as he came up behind her and took it from her. She was hell-bent on leaving and he hated seeing her struggle in the snow. Whatever she had in this heavy suitcase, it wasn't clothing appropriate for this weather. She was already shivering in her ankle booties and a knee-length dress, the tights covering her legs and scarf wrapped around her neck no match for the storm that had rolled in, "I'm not crazy. You are driving me crazy, however."
Ender threw the suitcase in the car and opened up the driver side door for her, "I'm sorry. I was just trying to make this two weeks enjoyable and not like we were two strangers stuck together. I know you don't care to get to know me, but I was just trying to make the time go by."
Remi sighed, resting her head on the steering wheel. He was sweet and she was being a total jerk, but it was really for the best anyways. Nothing had ever worked out for her before. "I'm sorry, Ender. I know you were just being nice to me. But look at it this way, now you get the cabin to yourself for the rest of the time and you don't have to pretend to be nice to me."
With that, Remi reached out to close the door and turned the windshield wipers on high. She could still barely see out of the window. She sighed and inwardly cursed her stubbornness because she knew now that she had made a big production out of leaving, there was no way she could turn around now.
The snow crunched under the tires of her rental as she backed the car up and turned to head down the driveway. Ender stood in the swirling snow and he watched her slowly pull away. He should stop her. No telling the condition of the roads leading away from the cabin.
"Ella está tan loca, yéndose en un momento como este." He continued complaining about his pretty companion as he started trudging through the snow to try and stop her. All at once he heard a large cracking noise. Thinking it was thunder, he looked up to the sky just in time to see a large tree branch break under the weight of freshly fallen snow. He watched in horror as it headed straight towards the hood of Remi's car, "Remi!" He yelled and began to run towards the car.
She saw what was happening and stopped just in time to watch the large branch fall across the hood of the car. It narrowly missed where she was sitting.
Ender reached the car and threw open the door to find Remi crying uncontrollably, understandably scared and overwhelmed. He gathered her up and rushed her back into the cabin, thankful that it had not ended up as badly as it could have.
"Estas bien," he whispered to her as he sat her down on the couch, her hands still shaking in shock. "I got you, you're ok."