Page 52 of Heartland

I almost hope he says yes. I’m in a weird mood.

Nope. Already built the fire and reading Kant in my sleeping bag by candlelight.

Chastity’s house phone rings. Chastity climbs off the bed to answer it. She tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear, and I find myself admiring the smooth skin of her neck. Our pizza has arrived, and the front desk is calling to let us know.

My heart is beating a little too fast as I pull out my wallet to overtip the delivery person for working during the storm.

We’ll eat some pizza together. We’ll watch some John Oliver. And then I’ll get the heck out of here.

* * *

An hour and a half later, I’m still lying on Chastity’s bed like the lazy hedonist that I really am. There’s sleet peppering the windows, and this place is too cozy to leave. The room is lit only by a dim lamp on her desk. I’m on beer number four, while Chastity nurses her first one.

The pizza has been reduced to crusts and crumbs, and Chastity is laughing at an SNL skit, her head on my shoulder.

Without even meaning to, I sift my fingers through her hair. Right after she moved to Vermont, she got it all buzzed off and dyed it pink. It was her way of striking out against the assholes who never let her cut it and forced her to dress like a Victorian virgin.

It’s grown out a bit now, and it’s super soft and smells good. And I feel well-fed and lazy. Like a dog in the sun.

A horny dog, honestly. Kissing Chastity flipped some kind of switch on my libido, and now my friend’s proximity fills me with a hum of desire that wasn’t there before.

Or, at least, I never let myself acknowledge it before.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. I can watch videos in a pleasantly turned-on state without making a big deal out of it. I’m not an animal.

The skit ends, and Chastity hits pause. “That was a funny one. I never get to do this.”

“Do what?”Torture me?

“Watch TV in my room.” She shrugs, and finally drains the last of her beer.

“We have got to get you a computer.”

“If we sell a lot of caramel, I’ll have to decide between a computer and a phone. The computer will probably win. And at least email will get easier. Hey. Speaking of email.” She lifts her head. “Is it eight? You said we could look at eight.”

I did say that. But Chastity is in such a good mood that I don’t want to ruin it if there aren’t any orders. “I’ll look in a minute.”

“Please?” she begs. “I need to know if all that work was for nothing.”

“It wasn’t,” I argue. “If nobody placed an order yet, it’s just because they were busy.”

“Fine. I won’t be disappointed if there aren’t any orders. Just check, okay?”

I open my mouth to argue, but that’s when the lamp on the desk cuts out. My brain ponders the reason for this just as the video seizes on the laptop screen.

And that’s when I realize that the power has gone out here, too.

“Uh-oh,” Chastity says.

I close the laptop, because it’s not doing us any good anymore, and we’re plunged into darkness. “It’s a good thing we already got our pizza.”

She laughs. “You could survive anything as long as there’s pizza and beer, right?”

“Basically.” In the silence that follows, I feel our proximity like a physical thing.

“My key card won’t work in a power outage,” she says. “If I leave my room I might not be able to get back in. I read that in the student handbook.”

“There’s no backup power?”