Welcome! This is the third installment of the story Up in the Mountains. I hope you will read the first two chapters in order to have the best experience. However, if you want to jump right in, here is a brief summary of the story so far. The narrator, Mark, met his new girlfriend on a trip to Italy, where they bonded over love of the outdoors. They both realized they wanted their relationship to continue. Mark turned down a position in a prestigious graduate program in order to follow Lindsey to Boston, where she has just accepted a new job.
Lindsey and I knew our time on vacation was not real life. We hiked in the mountains, we ate at restaurants, spent time with friends, and made memories. Our only irritation was a lack of privacy that got in the way of the intimacy we both craved. But even this merely pushed us to be more creative and led to gratifying experiences up in the mountains. Back in the real world, it wasn't going to be the same. She had a job to start, we had to relocate across the country, and I had just blown up my graduate school plans with no fall back.
We made the move to Boston shortly after our return to the States. Thankfully, one potential wrench in our plans resolved fairly painlessly. Lindsey had already signed a lease to share a three-bedroom apartment with two other young women. She reached out to both of them, explained the situation, and offered to pay half of the rent instead of one-third if they would allow me to live in Lindsey's room with her. They agreed, but on the understanding that it was an informal arrangement that could be ended by them without notice if it didn't work out.
My employment situation was more of an urgent problem. I had been expecting to receive a stipend in the fall as a teaching assistant and student loans would have covered my costs beyond that. I had also planned on a local summer job for some additional income. Now, I had to find work in a new city to support myself for the foreseeable future. I also needed to figure out the next step forward in my career. I still wanted to pursue archaeology as a profession and I didn't want to lose more than one academic year in the move.
The apartment we shared with the two other young women was one-half of a house that had been built in the early part of the 1900s and later divided in two. It lay along a quiet residential street in a commuter and university town just outside the city. While it was an old building with worn out wood floors, threadbare carpets, and fixtures scratched and dented from years of use, it was clean and cozy.
Lindsey's first day at work was an important occasion. She had landed her dream job in the field of environmental policy and I took it on myself to mark her achievement. I got our new roommates to join in greeting her with a cheer and a toast with some bottles of a local IPA when she came through the door after work. Megan and Kate, our roommates, were genuine in their good will but probably exaggerated their enthusiasm. That was fair enough, they had just met us a few days prior.
"Thank you!" Lindsey said after she plopped onto the couch next to me. "This is so sweet of you guys."
"How was it?" I asked. "Have you stopped global warming yet?"
"Not hardly," she replied and rolled her eyes. "I've learned that most of my job is going to be helping corporations get a permit from the state so they can pollute just a little bit."
"Well, I mean, they would probably pollute a lot more if you guys weren't there to stop them, right?" I asked.
"Probably," she shrugged and laughed. "But really, you have to start somewhere, I guess." She took another swig of beer and kicked her shoes off on the floor. "What about you? Have you kept the home fires burning while I was off hunting and gathering?"
"Well, I did organize this raucous party," I said gesturing around the four of us. Lindsey laughed. Megan and Kate traded looks and shrugged. Lindsey and I were probably not nearly as funny to other people as we were to each other. "I did some job hunting online and looked into the schools around town," I said. "It's too late to start anywhere this fall, but I need to figure out where I want to go and what I need to do to get in next year. I was able to make an appointment to do an informational interview with a program that looks good. I'll have a better idea where I stand after that."
"That's great!" Lindsey said. "I know you're going to get in wherever you want."
Her support was appreciated, but her confidence may have been misplaced. I found out where I stood at the interview a week later, and it was not reassuring. The admissions officer I met with was very helpful and friendly, but she told me very frankly that their program was probably out of reach for me based on my present record. I had good grades and test scores, but my undergrad degree was only a B.A. in history. While that might seem like a logical choice for a career in archaeology, I had not taken any advanced math or science classes, I had no laboratory work, and no field experience. She made some suggestions of coursework I might undertake to fill in the gaps in my application and politely ushered my out the door.
I was disappointed but not discouraged. I found work in a local book store to help pay my share of the bills, and I registered for some evening and online classes in order to take care of the prerequisites I needed to beef up my math and science bona fides.
Between Lindsey's job, my job, and my classes, we didn't get to spend enough time together during the week. We made up for it by spending every weekend hiking all of the trails within a few hours' drive of the house. Sometimes we took epic hikes up to summits of the New Hampshire Whites. Sometimes we stuck to parks close to home. Once we caught the ferry to hike on Boston's windswept and sandy harbor islands, which have some lovely trails.
Whenever we were in the woods together, we continued the constant flirtation that had started only a few weeks earlier in Europe. It usually began with casual touching like an arm around the waist or a hand held along the way. A sweet kiss while enjoying a scenic spot sometimes turned into a deeper kiss or a hand slipped under clothing to explore smooth skin. No longer forced to sneak around, we could wait until we got back to our private room to release our built-up sexual tension after a day of flirting and teasing up in the mountains. The outdoors had always been an important part of both of our individual lives, but now it was an indispensable part of our life together.
Sometimes I resented the career setback I had inflicted on myself. Of course, Lindsey had certainly not insisted I be the one to make the sacrifice so that we could continue our relationship together. It was not her fault. I had done that myself, and I still knew that I wanted to be with her. Nevertheless, sometimes I let my frustrations get the better of me.
One evening, I came home later than usual from my bookstore job after staying late to help the owner with an inventory. It had been hard work, but the extra hours would help me continue to contribute my fair share. I was exhausted and irritable. Lindsey suggested we unwind with a beer. As we swigged from bottles of a tasty pale ale on the couch, Lindsey tried to lighten my mood with a joke at my expense. Unfortunately, this time she touched a raw nerve.
"I really don't know what you are so tired for lately," she teased. "It's not like you've been working a real job." It was exactly the kind of thing we would always say to each other in a joking way. I know she expected me to laugh about it and probably to agree sarcastically, but it was precisely the wrong thing to say at that moment. Lindsey's mischievous grin turned instantly to a look of concern and regret when she saw the glare that flashed across my face.
