(LIE) "He's not coming"

SHANE

“Yeah,” I lied. “He can’t make it.”

RIA

“You’re positive Tracy won’t be there?” Connor asked.

“Positive. It’s just gonna be the three of us. Come on, please? It won’t be the same without you.”

I still hadn’t gotten used to seeing Connor in his police uniform. He’d always been such a goof about everything, the thought of him as an actual cop felt like a prank or something. But the job seemed to be the one thing in his life he really did take seriously, and I was happy that he’d finally pulled himself out of the professional tailspin he’d been in throughout his twenties.

At the same time, I didn’t like the fact that one of my best friends—a guy I considered part of my surrogate family—had decided on a career that required him to go to work every day equipped with body armor, handcuffs, a gun, a Taser, pepper spray, and a German Shepherd. Connor swore to me that movies made his job seem way more dangerous—and way less boring—than it actually was, but I still constantly worried about his safety, and that just further compounded how badly I wanted to have sex with him every time we hung out.

A year had passed, but the memory of my bachelorette party—his fingers inside of me—was still as vivid as ever.

“Alright,” Connor said, at last. “I’ll be there. But I’m bringing my noise-canceling headphones and the Xbox to keep myself busy while you and Shane get up to your icky married-people stuff.”

Shane and I took off from work early on Friday, hoping to give ourselves enough time to get the cabin as cozy and romantic as possible for when our two friends arrived the following day.

Despite the fact that it took us the better part of an hour to get the supposedly “Five-Minute” snow chains around our tires, the drive up to the mountains was an amazing experience. Towering pine trees dusted with fresh snow, cozy towns filled with old wooden buildings, colorful strings of Christmas lights, EVERYWHERE.

Our cabin was about 15 miles away from the nearest town—truly isolated. It was easy to find, but I still couldn’t help but imagine the perennially absent-minded Tracy getting lost on her way there, stranded and alone in the woods, utterly helpless without cell phone reception.

Sometimes, my brain is kind of pessimistic.

When we arrived, the view was even better than Shane’s boss had promised. On either side, the Sierra Nevada mountain range stretched out as far as the eye could see. The colors of the sunset painted the white landscape like a canvas.

“Whoo!!!” Shane hollered, jumping and screaming like a little kid. He didn’t wait more than five seconds before belting me with a handful of white powder and instigating his very first snowball fight. “After this, we gotta build a snowman!” he shouted.

“Whatever you say, sweetie.” I knew that this was all new to him, but I still hadn’t expected my husband to behave quite so adorably.