Colorado Game - 9. Chapter 9

We returned to the chalet, a little after eleven; by then most had returned and we got a warm welcome, with drinks already put down before we'd hung our jackets. For the first time in three hours there was a distance of more than two feet between Ross and me, as he found a free seat somewhere on the other side of the room, crammed between Joey and Janice. I downed half of my beer in one go and Eric, who was sitting beside me, raised an eyebrow.

"Slow down, dude... thirsty? You look like you ran a few miles just now." I hiccupped and grinned.

More people from the other chalets joined us, quickly filling the living room, dining and bar area; I counted at least thirty people. Then I spotted Joey, following Janice outside and both of them were wearing jackets. When Eric saw me looking at the door, he came over.

"There's been a development." I almost choked in my beer.

"Spill... now!" He grinned and nodded to a quiet space. I got up and followed him.

"Joey got tired of waiting, apparently," he whispered.

"Joey?" I echoed. "What do you mean?"

"It happened this afternoon. We were on the slopes and our man Joey tried to show off. He took a little tumble. So we were all going like ‘oh, shit. He's hurt.' Dude, you should've seen her. She whooshed down that slope so fast, my heads' still spinning. When we got there, she was yelling at him. So, and listen to this because you'll be real proud of him, he simply told her to shut it, grabbed her and just went for it, right in front of everybody." I started to laugh disbelievingly.

"You're kidding. Wow, so he finally took the plunge, eh? Good for him."

"Yeah, you couldn't pry those two apart with a crowbar. It was sickening. Well, cute, but sickening. They were both crying, even." He made a disgusted sound.

"Uch," I said, giving Eric a good-natured stump on his arm, "don't be a dick. Look at it this way; we're finally freed from his incessant whining about her."

"I'm not being a dick! It's true... Jack? Get over here." One of the colleagues stepped closer. "Were the two lovebirds crying or not?" Jack nodded.

"Oh yeah... slobbering all over the place," he said. I pried a little more info out of the two and then Joey joined us as well, looking about as happy as I've ever seen someone.

"And there he is; our very own Casanova," I said, winking at him. He blushed but his eyes twinkled. "So you finally did it."

"Yeah..." he answered, stupidly smiling.

"Well, good for you. When's the wedding?" Joey gestured for me to shut up, getting back into his shy shell.

"What wedding?" Ross's voice suddenly spoke behind me. He was quickly informed about the latest developments. "Now, that's about bloody time, Joey," he said, raising his glass. "If I heard your name in my office one more time, I would have fired the both of you. Janice has been talking about you for months!"

"She has?" Joey asked, surprised. Ross nodded.

"Oh yeah, she waited and waited for you to do something. I swear that she drove me nuts about it." Joey once again grinned stupidly, his head as red as a tomato. Then, while the others made some more fun of him, Ross came standing behind me and brought his mouth close to my ear.

"Mmmm... I guess romance was in the air today," he whispered. Then he left, leaving me turning red to the same shade as Joey. I managed to hide it and went to the bar to get another drink.

**********

It was about two in the morning when the last people left. By then, the majority staying in our chalet had gone upstairs, including Ross, who'd gone up about an hour before, leaving a few diehards like Eric, Joey, Joe Lopez and me. I had cut down a little on the speed of renewing my beers and when I finally went up, I was still pretty sober. And apprehensive. But when I opened the door, the room was entirely dark. I slipped inside, closing the door as quietly as I could and tiptoed to the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth and undressed. I dumped my clothes on the sofa in the sitting area and made my way to the bed, slipping under the covers. Because of the movements I made, Ross stirred a little and he mumbled something. Then I heard a soft snore but his breathing came steady and regular, so I turned onto my side and closed my eyes. A few minutes later, I was off to lalaland.

**********

Sometime during the night I half woke and found an arm moving around my midsection, and a warm body being pressed against my back. At first I was a bit disoriented and rose up a bit but then a whispered ‘go back to sleep' sounded close to my ear. I did exactly that.

**********

When I woke up again it was dark outside but the moonlight was streaming brightly into the room, giving everything a soft-blue sheen. I was lying on my back. Ross was still pressed close against me and when I opened my eyes, I found him looking at me, resting his head in his hand.

"Hi," he whispered. I mumbled something unintelligible back and let my head fall back on my pillow. When I opened my eyes again, he was still looking at me, even though his head was now on his pillow. "What?" I asked. It was a little unnerving.

"Nothing, I'm just looking at you. Go back to sleep," he whispered.

I turned onto my side again, my back against him and put my own hand over his, which was still casually draped on my side. I lifted my head to shove the pillow around a bit but for some reason, it didn't wanna go into the shape I tried to get it into. The longer it took, the more I moved, until he spoke again.

"Stop doing that," he whispered.

I did for a small while, but then the pillow sprang back into its old form and the whole thing started over again. Then, when I finally got it right, I moved my leg, only to have it replaced by one of his. It pressed heavily on mine so I worked a little to relieve some of that pressure.

"For god sakes; lie still," he suddenly said aloud, sounding a bit...weird. Then I sensed the cause of it beginning to press into my lower back; slowly but surely something started to press against me.

He softly cleared his throat and moved back a little, probably thinking that I hadn't noticed it but when I moved, I felt it again and it hadn't given up any of its hardness. On the contrary, I'd say.

"Mark... please. Lie still," he whispered. "You're driving me nuts."