Page 3 of Squatch Out!

CHAPTER TWO

OLIVIA

TONY: Hey, Liv, we’re HERE!

I ’m sitting cross-legged on my plush bed, freshly showered, with my hair wrapped up in a towel that smells strongly of bleach. A huge grin stretches my cheeks as I type back.

ME: Sweet! I’ll be right down.

Nervous energy courses through my body as I give my hair a good scrub with the towel and then do a quick run-through with my fingers before jumping off the bed and heading out into the hall.

When I get to the elevator, I remember I’m wearing plaid sleep pants and a t-shirt that announces, I like boys who sparkle.

Shit. My poor taste in pop culture t-shirts is not the first impression I planned to make, but I can’t exactly stop the elevator and go back now.

As soon as the doors open to the lobby, I spot Tony.

His back is to me, but I’d know him anywhere.

He’s standing by a fireplace that’s big enough I could probably stand inside it, if it wasn’t lit and crackling cheerfully.

As if he can feel my eyes on him, he turns around, and a guilty look flickers across his face. It’s there one moment and gone the next, replaced with his familiar wide grin.

He looks just like he always does, wearing his signature black track pants and a matching red and black pullover. He opens his arms wide, his teeth flashing white against the dark scruff that covers his jaw and cheeks, and darts across the lobby toward me.

I meet him halfway with a squeal when he lifts me off my feet to spin me around.

I’m still laughing when he finally sets me back on the ground. “What’s this?” I ask, reaching up to pat the side of his cheek.

“My girlfriend says I look hot with a beard.” Tony rubs at his cheek. I’m pretty sure he’s blushing behind his neatly trimmed whiskers.

“I dunno.” Stepping back, I cross my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes at him. He’s not much taller than me, so I can mostly look him in the eye as I examine him. “I think you still look like a punk. How is Carmen? I was really hoping she would come with you so I could finally meet her.”

His smile turns goofy, and my heart floats a little when I realize he is so in love with her. They’ve been dating for almost four years now, and I make a mental note to pester him about why he hasn’t asked her to marry him yet.

Sometimes I wish I could find my person. Someone to share my life with. Who accepts and maybe even embraces my quirks. Someone I can feel the same toward.

“She was out the minute she learned there weren’t five-star amenities.” Tony laughs. “She sends her love though. I know she really wants to finally meet you too.” His dark eyes dart to the side, and his smile falters. “Uh, Liv, there’s something–”

Before he has a chance to finish, Brian strides up to us. My grin is still in place as I turn to him and freeze.

Brian looks exactly the way I’m expecting, having seen him online and talked to him through video chat.

He’s tall and dark-skinned with warm brown eyes and long, lean arms and legs.

It’s the person behind him who has me stumped because, instead of seeing Ashley coming to stand beside him, there is a strange man.

“Uh, who’s this?” I glance between him and the tall blond man. He’s definitely not the pink-haired woman I was expecting.

Completely unbothered by—not to mention, ignoring—my question, Brian holds his arms out to hug me. “Livie! I’m so glad to finally get to meet you in person!”

“Brian, where’s Ashley?” I ask again, stepping back instead of leaning in to hug him back.

Brian’s smile slips and turns forced. “I’m sorry, Livie. Ash had an emergency at the last minute and had to call off. There wasn’t time to tell you.” He turns and motions to the man beside him. “This is Darren. Since Ashley couldn’t make it, I invited him.”

I look over at Tony. He has the same guilty expression I noticed when I first saw him. “Did you know he was coming?”

Tony starts to shake his head, but then nods and admits quietly, “Not until he came off the plane with Brian.”

I look back at Darren, who looks like a nice enough guy, but–

“Brian, why didn’t you say something?”

“It was literally last night. There wasn’t even time to cancel.”

“But there was time to invite another person?” I take a deep breath to calm some of the panic building up in my chest, not loving the way this is turning out.

“Look, being the only woman camping in the middle of nowhere with three men is not what I was planning. I’m sure Darren is great, but you really should have told me— us— before just taking it upon yourself to change plans like that. ”

“Awww, Livie, don’t be like that,” Brian whines.

I grind my molars at being called Livie for the third time, just as Tony steps up beside me. “Olivia is right; you should have said something instead of going behind our back. Inviting someone we don’t know is a pretty dick move.”

Brian hangs his head, and Darren steps forward, sticking his hand out to me, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. It’s Olivia, right? I’ve seen you and Tony around the boards; it’s nice to meet you.”

He’s handsome, and his smile is lopsided, which gives him a boyish look.

He’s dressed for comfort, in loose jeans and a t-shirt.

His dirty-blond hair is in need of a trim, and bright blue eyes stare deeply into mine as he talks.

It’s slightly unnerving, but not inappropriate exactly.

Still, I find myself giving his hand a quick shake before stepping back with a nervous smile.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” When he mentions the boards, I’m able to put his name with his online persona, and some of the stranger-danger eases up a little.

Darren’s been around the boards longer than I have and moderates several chats. However, other than knowing him by name, I don’t know much else about him, and I’m still pissed that Brian switched out Ashley for this guy without a heads-up.

I glance beside me at Tony, who gives me a sympathetic look that says, I’ve got your back, whatever you decide.

With a long sigh, I give Brian a warning look. “Well, we’re already here now.”

Brian brightens up and then claps a hand on Darren’s shoulder, giving him a see, I knew it would be fine look that makes me want to change my mind.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m dying for some real food,” Brian announces as he takes in my casual outfit before stopping at my bare feet. “We are still planning to have dinner together, right? Or did you want to get room service?”

“Shoot!” I look down at what is basically my pajamas. “I totally forgot we were planning dinner together. After the long flight and drive, I couldn’t wait to get comfortable. If you give me a minute, I can change.”

“I need to drop this off in my room, too,” Tony adds, giving his carry-on a spin. “Let’s meet back here in ten.”

We have dinner in the restaurant attached to the lodge. Tony, Brian and I mostly carry the conversation while Darren sits quietly, only speaking up when one of us asks him something directly. Mostly, it’s a lot of the three of us catching up, since we’ve been friends online for so many years.

We start out by talking about what’s been going on in our jobs and lives, but inevitably the conversation turns to the reason we are all here.

Bigfoot.

Or Sasquatch, if you like. Ape Man. Yeti. Menk. Skunk Man. Whatever you want to call it, to us they are merely variations of the same creatures.

“What would you do if you actually came face-to-face with one?” Brian asks around a bite of fettuccine.

Tony takes a moment to consider his question. “I dunno. Maybe try to get a picture of it. With my luck, my camera will break just as I try, though.”

We all laugh, because Tony always runs into tech problems.

“I don’t even care about getting proof or not,” I respond as I dunk a thick French fry into the puddle of ketchup on the edge of my plate. “I just want to see one again, to reaffirm that I wasn’t imagining it.”

Brian and Tony nod their agreement, but Darren’s expression flickers with confusion. As if the idea of not caring about proof is something he can’t quite comprehend.

“I’ll never forget my first sighting,” Brian reminisces. Pushing his empty plate away, he leans back in his chair and jumps right into a retelling of the first bigfoot he saw as a long-haul trucker.

“It was the middle of the night, and I was just outside Missoula, coming back from South Dakota. There was a rest area coming up, and I was planning to stop there for the rest of the night, since my drive time was up. I was getting tired, but the second that hairy bastard stepped out of the trees and right into my headlights—well, that woke me the fuck up!” His dark eyes snap to me, and he quickly apologizes. “Pardon my language.”

I shake my head and give him a wave, letting him know that it’s fine, and I’m not bothered in the least.

“So, I’m standing on the brakes. My tires are squealing; the trailer is groaning like it’s about to jackknife, and that motherfu— er— the bigfoot doesn’t even glance my way. He just strides on by and disappears into the forest on the other side of the highway.”

We laugh at his retelling, and then Brian turns expectantly to Tony. “Your turn.”

“You guys know my story. I’ve told it a hundred times,” he complains.

“Darren doesn’t,” Brian says, then leans back in his chair to hear it again.

“Fine,” Tony says with a huff, but I know he loves telling it.

We all do. “So, I was just a kid. I think I was twelve or something.” He leans forward on his elbows and looks around the table at each of us.

“My whole family was coming up the coast from Cali to Washington. One of my uncles died, so we were all coming for the funeral. We were somewhere along the Oregon coast, and we stopped at a little motel right off the highway for the night. It was a total shithole but, when you’re a family of nine, that’s what you can afford.

And it was better than everyone trying to sleep in our cramped minivan.