The morning

In the morning, all of Lara’s classy, fancy lady airs are gone. She walks around with her hair a mess, wearing nothing but the big t-shirt that she sleeps in. Yawning, she joins you downstairs, where her butler has made you a nice breakfast.

“Morning, love,” she says, bending to kiss your head as she takes the seat beside you.

You give her a look. “Platonic,” she assures you, stifling a yawn with her hand.

You’ve barely started to eat when the butler brings a large package and hands it to Lara, then leaves. Lara gulps down a glass of orange juice, then opens the package, revealing a bundle of notebooks and documents.

“What have we here?” she muses as she goes through them. You watch her as you eat. “Milda, goddess of love and freedom. Statuette, ten centimeters tall, marble. Said to contain enormous power.”

“Power?” you say. You know that Lara is into antiques and stuff, but this part is new to you.

“Yes. The merest touch of the statue is able to send a woman to the great heights of pleasure,” Lara says, glancing at you. “Or a man, I suppose. Could come in handy.”

“What’s that even mean?”

“Suppose I’ll have to touch it and find out.” She unfolds a map and shows you. “I’ve got a tip about where the statue is hidden. In a temple in these mountains in Lithuania.” She shows you a sketch of a statue. It’s a nude woman, touching herself.

“Is this where you’re always going? Looking for horny statues?”

“What do you do in your free time?” she shoots back.

That’s… fair.

“This looks like a good one,” she says, thumbing through one of the dog-eared journals. “Temples. Traps. Monsters. Very nice. I’d better do it.”

“Do it?”

“I’d better go get this statue,” she says, picking up the sketch again. “I think it’ll go with my collection.”

You’ve seen her collection. Lots of naked women, some with penises. She definitely likes horny statues.

“You’re going to go to Lithuania?”

“Why not?” Lara shrugs at you. “Want to come? Do you like skiing?”

“Skiing?”

“There’s a ski resort in these mountains. We can ski after we get the statue.”

You stare at her. Is she seriously inviting you on one these stupid trips of hers? To the mountains of Lithuania? Does Lithuania even have mountains? Apparently it does.

You look at your phone. No new notifications. No calls or texts or emails from Riley. Nothing from your family, either.

“We’ll have to get you a coat,” Lara says, even though you haven’t agreed yet.

She knows you are going to agree.

“It’ll be cold out there,” she says.