A young man of 27 sits by his fireplace in a quaint ski-lodge far up in the mountains. The lifts have fallen into disrepair this year, so there are no customers even in this busy season. He does not really want to see anyone right now anyway, because coming up is the first anniversary of his wife's death. The memories of that event still haunt him.
It was ruled an accident, but he could not think of it that way. The couple had been arguing about something that seemed stupid now. She just wanted her mother to have use of one of the unused rooms in the lodge until a reservation for it came in, but he had been loathe to have to "serve" her mother like he had been forced to in the past.
In the course of the argument, he had yelled something incoherent, and she had turned away from him, furious, at which point she slipped on an icy rock beneath the fresh, shallow layer of snow. She then hit her head hard on a tree, and went tumbling down the hill, which resulted in her breaking her neck. This had happened last Christmas Eve.
The images of that scene replayed in his head, over and over again. He knew he had to get out and do something or it would drive him crazy, but the energy just was not there. If only he had customers, at least he could keep his mind off of it, performing his practiced duties without much effort. A week before Christmas, this place would have been bustling, but nobody wanted to visit an isolated ski lodge with no way to ski.
As 6 p.m. rolled around, he started cooking dinner for himself. He had cooked too much food and was going to end up eating lasagna for days now. This had become fairly common since his wife's death, and was getting worse with the busy season starting and nobody else to share the food with.
Right as he was finishing up preparing, he heard a curious sound. It was the sound of a bell. More specifically, it was the old bell that had been hung by the front door of the lodge. There were no neighbors for tens of miles, so it would have to be a utility worker or surveyor, and yet it was too late in the day for either to be coming around. Driven by curiosity, he opened the door.
"Hello, is this the Hardin Ridge Lodge?" a young, pale, but spritely woman asked on the other side of the door.
"Yes, I'm Michael Hardin. I'm the co-proprietor...actually, proprietor of this place now. How can I help you?" he responded courteously.
"I was wondering if you had any rooms available for the next week or so. Can you fit me in?" her head gave a little cock to the side that reminded him a lot of one of his wife's funny little gestures.
"You can have the run of the place if you want. We're empty right now. Lifts are broken. There should be signs about it everywhere on your way up here." he replied, a little more brusquely.
"Ah, great! Can I come in?" she asked, satisfied with his response.
"Sure, of course. Dinner just came out of the oven. Is it just you or will your family or lover be joining you?" he asked, slipping back into his business mode.
"Just me. No family or lovers to speak of. That's just how things are for me." she said, without a hint of sadness behind it.
"I see. In that case, I'll set places for two. If you don't mind sharing a table with me, I've not really kept up with the world outside. Some catching up is in order, I suppose." he suggested.
She nodded back in affirmation, and he set places for two at one of the small, hand-crafted wooden tables that his wife picked out for its "intimate charm" factor. They had cost him a lot of money, so he tried to get a lot of use out of them when there were small parties dining there. A pair of plates, each with a piece of lasagna was placed on the table, followed by flatware sets rolled in cloth napkins and water glasses. Next came a pair of empty wine glasses and a wine bottle sitting in an ice bucket.
As he finished setting the table and uncorked the wine, he said, "The wine will be on the house. I was supposed to drink it almost a year ago now, but I've never been crazy enough about the stuff to drink it alone. By the way, I didn't catch your name, Miss..."
"Oh, umm...Amanda!" she replied a little awkwardly.
"Amanda...is that a first or last name?" he asked, scratching his head a little at the odd reaction.
"Its my name. Is there a difference?" she looked at him again with that funny quizzical expression.
"Ah, forget about it. As long as you don't mind me calling you Amanda, then we will leave it at that," he responded in a somewhat defeated tone.
"Oh, sure! I'll try to respond appropriately!" she responded with a little too much energy.
He poured the wine and they both sat down to dinner. His hopes of striking up any sort of small talk were dashed as he watched Amanda attack her food with a relentless fervor. Meanwhile, he tried to eat slowly and enjoy the meal and the wine, but something he did not expect interrupted his relaxing meal. With her food finished, Amanda proceeded to drink down her water glass, and then her wine far too quickly.
It should not have been enough wine to get her drunk normally, but the way she chugged it caused it to enter her system far too quickly, so when she attempted to stand after finishing her meal, she collapsed, just barely managing to catch herself before she hit the floor.
"Whew, I've never had that happen before!" she giggled.
"Alright just stay put a second and I'll get you to a room. I'm not one to judge, but you really should be more careful about how you drink. You don't look like you'd be able to hold it well with your figure," he spoke, softly but a little patronizing.
"Alright, I'll wait. Why is it so hot in here?" she asked curiously.
"Well the fire is going, but I think its just the wine in your case. You aren't going to melt or anything and it'll be cooler in your room if you want to leave the heater off."
Michael scooped her slender form off of the floor and carried her to the closest guest room. He set her down gently on the bed and turned back to grab her luggage, but then could not remember her bringing any in. He glanced back over at the bed, and his drunken patron had unbuttoned her knit jacket, panting slowly while laying on her back. She did not look like she was about to get sick or pass out, so Michael figured this was a good time to ask about it.
"Where can I find your bags, Amanda?" he asked.
"Bags? Oh like luggage. I don't have any." she responded curtly.
Redirecting the query, he then asked, "How about a change of clothes?"
"Nope. These are all I have," she responded shortly again.
"I guess there are some circumstances there. I won't pry into them. I think you might fit okay in some of my wife's clothes so let me find some things for you to change into. With how you're sweating right now, you'll want a shower and some clean clothes in the morning." he stated, even as he left the room.