Chapter 3
“There’s been a mistake,” Poppy muttered under her breath, rubbing at her forehead. “Of course there’s been a mistake.”
This whole trip was one big mistake. She’d tried to make the best of a bad situation, but obviously the universe had just decided that she would’ve been better off at home, tucked up in her warm, comfortable bed.
The clearly contrite clerk behind the counter shook her head in confusion. “I honestly don’t know what happened – we’ve never had a booking mix-up like this before. There must’ve been a glitch in the system.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” Poppy sighed. She’d come here with low expectations, so she wasn’t feeling surprised at all.
Her main problem now was working out how to get out of the, ah, charming one-motel town of Gunter’s Gulch, with its sludgy half-melted snow, nearby paper mill, and distinct lack of actual gulches – there hadn’t been any rental cars at Arnott Airport, and so she’d caught the bus here.
There probably wouldn’t be another one for hours.
Days, maybe.
And even if there was, where would she go? At this rate, she was going to have to sleep in the airport for a few days until her flight back.
“I’m so sorry,” the clerk said, picking up the phone. “I’ll start calling around nearby and see if there’s anywhere available.”
Heading outside for some fresh air, Poppy sighed again. She’d pretty much moved beyond anger at this point, and was now hovering somewhere around darkly amused resignation.
This would be a great story to tell my coworkers after I got back to work… if I had any coworkers anymore.
Wandering into the gas station next door, she perused the drinks fridge disinterestedly. Maybe if she bought a pineapple soda, it would almost taste like the pina colada she’d been dreaming of.
“Rough day?”
Poppy spun around, to see an outdoorsy-looking, brown-haired woman smiling at her sympathetically. Just behind her, an extremely – extremely! – tall man was talking quietly on his cellphone, but it was clear they were together.
Poppy laughed, trying not to sound too bitter. “Is it that obvious?”
“That bottle’s going to crack if you squeeze it any tighter,” the woman said.
Poppy looked down at her fingers, which were practically white where they were holding the soda in a death grip.
“Haha… I guess I am a little tense,” she said, trying to sound as breezy as possible whilst prying her fingers off the bottle.
She wasn’t sure where to go from there with their impromptu conversation – she couldn’t say she was in the mood right now for small talk, no matter now well-intentioned it might be.
Right now, she just wanted to crawl somewhere warm and dry and wait for her plane home.
“Are you staying here in Gunter’s Gulch?” the woman asked, cocking her head.
Okay, well, it looks like small talk it is, Poppy thought grimly.
But she had always considered herself a people person. She could do this.
“Haha,” she said again, with her false, bright laugh. “Funny story –”
But she cut herself off before she could get to the funny story of her so-far completely disastrous vacation, mainly because she was worried that once she got started, she’d never stop with her litany of woes, which was probably more than this nice lady had bargained on hearing when she’d just been trying to make polite conversation.
In the awkward pause that followed, the man’s voice on the phone got a little louder. Poppy didn’t like to eavesdrop – well, not too much – but she couldn’t help but hear his next words.
“You just had a reservation cancel?”
Poppy’s head shot up.
A cancelation? What kind of cancelation?!
Well, it was probably someone’s dinner at a restaurant, given her luck so far. But some tiny spark of hope sprung to life inside her.
Even though it would be the biggest coincidence – or stroke of luck – ever, that I just happened to bump into these people in time to overhear a convenient cancelation?
Oblivious to her emotional roller-coaster, the man went on. “Oh, the Thompsons? They were going to check in tonight and stay for two weeks, weren’t they? Man, that sucks. I hope you can at least get someone in for some of that time.”
It was all Poppy could do not to clutch at his arm and rip the phone from his hands.
A last-minute cancelation from someone who was meant to stay somewhere for two weeks? So it is a hotel booking? Or something? At this point I’ll take a shack by the side of the road if it has a proper roof! Or even if it doesn’t!
Instead, she turned to the woman, who was clearly surprised by her sudden intensity.
“I’m sorry to eavesdrop, but what place is he talking about?”
“Oh,” the woman said, looking mildly surprised, but not offended. “That’s my husband, Caleb. He’s just on the phone with some friends of ours – they run a B&B over in Girdwood Springs, just up the mountain. Sounds like they had a last-minute cancelation.”
Poppy tried very, very hard not to heavy breathe through her nostrils.
“Um. Well. I hate to ask, it’s just that my accommodation booking somehow had a terrible mix-up, in the sense that the booking apparently doesn’t exist. And I don’t really have anywhere else to go.
And I really don’t want to get back on the bus – if there’s even another bus – and have to spend my whole vacation sleeping in the airport terminal.
And I know it’s rude and we don’t even know each other, but –”
She trailed off, suddenly unable to bring herself to finish the sentence.
She was very aware she was babbling, and that this nice lady was probably looking for any way she could excuse herself from this conversation as quickly as possible – forget about her asking her friend with the B&B if Poppy could have the now-free room!
But to her surprise, the woman laughed.
“Oh, sure – I’m sure Natasha will be happy to have the room filled up. Give me a moment and I’ll grab the phone off this guy here and let her know we have a guest for her. Looks like it’s your lucky day.”
Her eyes sparkled a little as she said it, with a look that Poppy would have called knowing, if there was anything for her to be knowing about.
Right now, however, Poppy couldn’t say she cared.
“Oh my God, thank you,” she said, knowing full well she was about to start babbling again. Instead, she forced herself to bite her lip to keep any embarrassing words where they should be.
“No problem, it’ll only take a moment,” the woman said. “Oh, and you mentioned a bus – the last bus of the day up the mountain has come and gone, I’m sorry to say. You wouldn’t happen to want a ride, would you?”
***
“Thank you so much – I really can’t express how grateful I am. To both of you,” Poppy said, meaning every word.
Smiling, her new friends Kira and Caleb shook their heads.
“Think nothing of it,” said Kira. “We couldn’t exactly leave you in Gunter’s Gulch without a roof over your head.”
“But this… this…”
Poppy gestured wildly about her, trying to encapsulate all the – the this.
The B&B was gorgeous, not to mention the fact that there was a forest and actual, proper snow.
And just to top it all off, the owners had offered her a discount after Caleb had explained her situation over the phone. It was all beyond her wildest dreams.
“We were headed up this way anyway, if that makes you feel any better,” Caleb said – and, strangely enough, it did. “We live in the area.”
“Well, I still really appreciate it,” said Poppy, as she tried to turn the tiny numbers on the key safe with the tip of her fingernail. “You helped a stranger out – and a cranky one, at that. A lot of people wouldn’t’ve.”
“Well, you know what they say – a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met,” said Caleb, before letting out a gentle oof as Kira dug her elbow into his ribs.
“But seriously, I know what it’s like to have a run of bad luck.
Sometimes, all you need to turn things around is to have someone who’s on your side. ”
He looked down at Kira with obvious love in his eyes, and Poppy had a feeling that there was a story there.
“Anyway, you must be exhausted – we should let you get to your room instead of making you stand around in the snow,” Kira said. “Did you get your key?”
Poppy nodded. “And the owners sent me instructions on how to find my room. I should be okay from here.”
Thanking them again, Poppy saw them off with a grateful wave, before lugging her suitcase up onto the verandah.
B&B sweet B&B, she thought with an almost delirious happiness.
It had been an excruciatingly long day, and it was now past dinnertime – she was exhausted.
She had to sit down on the front step to pull her soggy boots off, before stowing them in the cupboard and slipping her feet into the fluffy slippers laid out by the front door.
Well. That’s the first thing that’s gone right today, Poppy thought, wiggling her cold toes, luxuriating in the softness of the slippers.
Following the instructions on her phone, she went down the corridor, distantly noticing how stunningly beautiful all the wooden paneling and soft, fluffy rugs were, and began the arduous task of hauling her suitcase up the stairs.
She was so tired that she was tempted to just leave it down here and then go crash on her bed, but she knew she’d regret it in the morning.
Bumping and thumping her way to the top, she managed not to do any damage to the stairs with her admittedly somewhat overly large suitcase, and then opened the door to her room, practically stumbling over the threshold.
Oh God. Finally. Oh God, I’m so tired.
She flopped down into the first chair she came to, conveniently located right by the door, as if the owners of the B&B had been expecting her to come staggering in completely exhausted.
Almost immediately she realized that that meant she would have to stand back up in order to go anywhere, but, well, maybe she’d just slither down from the chair to sleep on the floor tonight. The rug certainly looked comfy enough.