Chapter 11
LILY
It was awkward; there was no way around it.
Lily fought the urge to pick at her nails, something she hadn’t done in ages.
She had envisioned things…differently. Currently, she was standing in the kitchen of what her family lovingly called the “cabin” in northern Vermont, a large house that sat at the edge of a winter retreat property her mother owned along with her Aunt Julia.
It was really Julia who ran operations as her mother ran the orchard.
The property included recreation areas, an activity center, actual cabins, and came with a full staff.
The staff tended to stay year-round as there wasn’t really an off-season.
There was never a short supply of wealthy travelers wanting to “escape into the wilderness”—with electricity, plumbing, and amenities, of course.
She drummed her hands on the counter. The house was pretty dark, save for the light of the kitchen, with nothing distinguishable beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room that faced a fair amount of trees.
The house was kept pretty impersonal, since VIP guests sometimes stayed there.
It looked as if a northern Vermont preset design from Crate they’d made up two beds in addition to the main bedroom.
When they had all agreed that a week of their overlapping winter break should be spent at Lily’s family’s retreat property, Lily had been abuzz with an energy akin to winning a game everyone expected her to lose.
She’d gotten there a few days before, spending Christmas at the cabin with her mother and Julia.
Her mother had left after New Year’s, and Lily had spent the interim trying to speed up time by going grocery shopping to supplement the essentials the staff had stocked the fridge and pantry with.
Maya loved raw vegetables (Lily could not comprehend) and she bought a veggie tray complete with dip, though she doubted Maya would use it.
Hanna and she would need it to get through them though.
And Lily knew Hanna needed chocolate and cheddar popcorn (though not at the same time).
Lily, of course, bought herself plenty of sour gummies.
She also made the obligatory rounds, talked and said goodbye to her Aunt Julia who was leaving to travel, spoke to some of the other folks on staff she was friendly with, and subtly but not so subtly let everyone know there was no reason to disturb the house while she stayed with her friends.
She had been embarrassingly dizzy with anticipation at their arrival.
She hadn’t seen either Maya or Hanna since that magical night back over fall break.
Well, not physically, anyway. There had been a few—more than a few—interesting video calls.
Once with Lily on the phone while Maya and Hanna were sharing a bed.
After that, and Lily had wondered if this was for the sake of fairness, the rest had been from each of their respective beds.
They’d become almost habitual. No, they had totally become habitual.
Lily had changed, and everyone on campus noticed.
Lily still went out, she still flirted with the women who wanted to know if the rumors were true (they were), but she always went home alone.
This was incredibly confusing to her circle of friends, who started asking if she was seeing someone seriously.
The question had brought Lily up short but then a realization sunk in: it had been a while since they’d seen her go home with anyone. And that was because it had been a while since she did go home with someone, physically at least. This was unusual, and so of course they would notice.
The truth was though, Lily didn’t quite know. Sure, they texted throughout the week in a group chat about mundane daily detailsand spiced things up over video calls, but things remained how she was used to them: stringless.
Lily had squashed her friends’ suspicions by telling them she had nothing worthy to report.
And there wouldn’t be anything except a steamy romp over winter break, Lily was sure of it.
Sure, she hadn’t been out on the prowl lately, but classes were really hectic for her and she needed her sleep.
Besides, Maya had had a difficult few weeks due to more fallout from her parents’ divorce, and she and Hanna were trying to be there for her.
OK—she had a bit of a fixation on what had happened over fall break. But that was likely because it had been her first impromptu threesome, and it had included Hanna McAvoy of all people. Lily just figured she needed it to happen again. She would use this break to get both girls out of her system.
Lily walked over to the fridge, opened it, and pulled out one of her family’s ciders.
She cracked the lid off and took a long swig.
She wasn’t an awkward person, but she felt a little out of her depth.
Normally, women came to her. Normally, she had all the moves down.
Normally, she didn’t go to bed alone unless that’s what she wanted. And tonight that’s not what she wanted.
“Fuck, I feel drunk.”
Lily spun around at Hanna’s voice and found her moving into the kitchen. Her long black hair was wet, her pale skin was still flushed from the heat of the shower, and her curvy body was outfitted in a stretchy cotton tank and a pair of stretchy shorts. Hanna was also braless, Lily noticed.
“Want help with that?” Lily said, holding up her cider.
“Ugh, actually, that will probably help me double down on the sleep,” Hanna said as Lily moved to hand her a cracked cider.
“What will?” Maya entered the kitchen, her lean frame outfitted in a matching pair of fuchsia and purple striped silk pajamas.
Of course Maya wore matching pajamas. Maya’s voice sounded so tired, and Lily was just thinking that the drive must have been long when she noticed the dark circles under Maya’s eyes and her slightly pale coloring.
In fact, in the relief of the kitchen light, Lily thought Maya looked whatever was a level up from exhaustion.
She felt a slight pang in her chest at the thought that the drive with Hanna had likely not been the only reason.
“Ohhh cider.” Maya’s voice was almost monotone and her brown eyes hardened as she scrutinized the bottle in Lily’s hand.
“I better not, I am already so tired.” As if coming back to herself, she added, “But after sleep I know I’ll be way more excited to be here.
Right now I can’t get excited for anything other than bed. ” She chuckled.
“Same, so excited for this break,” Hanna said, way more upbeat. She held her cider up and Lily followed her gesture before turning to grab a glass, filling it with water, and handing it to Maya so she could join in. Maya smiled weakly at her, and they clinked a cheers.
“To a steamy break so hot the snow melts,” Hanna said mischievously.
“Says the girl sleeping down the hall,” Lily said as she took her sip, the flavor of apples bursting over her tongue.
“Well, after that drive I do need some sleep,” Hanna said, smiling.
“And temptation is a no-go right now, when I have nothing to give but yawns,” Maya said, taking a long drink of her water. “Hanna, be careful with that stuff, we’re already tired,” she cautioned, which Lily found odd. Maya sometimes mother henned, but she didn’t mother hen that hard.
Hanna frowned, caught off guard, then playfully rolled her eyes. “Chill Mom, I’m a big girl.”
“Don’t we know it,” Lily added, trying to defuse whatever small tension Maya had injected into the moment.
They sat in silence, sipping their drinks, glancing at one another like kids with crushes in high school. Surprisingly, the silence wasn’t uncomfortable, at least not to Lily.
“Got it, got it, sleep now, play later,” Lily said finally.
“And play we shall,” Hanna said.
“But sleep now, I’m going to bed before I can’t make it there,” Maya yawned out.
“Same,” Hanna agreed.
“My room is the closest,” Lily said, part playing, part hopeful. She knew they wanted to sleep but she had been waiting so long for them to arrive, the thought of waiting a whole other night before she could have her girls was suddenly so disappointing.
“Sleep now,” Maya pushed on, moving towards her guest room.
“Play later,” Hanna said, following her.
“Fine, fine, let me know if you need anything, but you should have everything in your rooms. Each has its own bathroom,” Lily disappointedly called after them.
“Rich people are so ridiculous,” she heard Hanna mumble and then Maya softly laughed.
“I’m not rich yet, but I will let the older Blake women know how you feel!
” Lily joked—but she wondered if this was something Hanna and Maya had talked about on the way up, if they’d been talking about her.
Lily tried to shake the thoughts from her mind before they could take root, but that was hard to do now that she was once again in her kitchen, alone.
But, she tried to cheer herself up, while she was going to be alone tonight, she doubted she would be for the rest of break.
And that was just fine. She shut off the kitchen lights and made her way to the main bedroom, feeling confident that by the end of break, the girls would have had their fun, and so would she.