Comfort and Style

I had agreed to come with Ethan because I needed a new life. I needed to get out of the rut working 8-5 had me in. I had been getting antsy for something different and when Ethan brought up the idea of living in a cabin in the woods, I jumped at the chance. My mother and I hadn’t spoken in years, ever since I originally moved to Texas to escape our constant bickering. She saw it as a betrayal of trust, of our relationship and everything she had done for me. Which, at the end of the day, wasn’t much.  There was no family holding me back and my bookkeeping job was leading nowhere, so in reality, there was nothing holding me back 

I met Ethan while I was living in Dallas and fell head over heels for him almost instantly. He was the rugged cowboy I had always wanted. He was straight out of the romance novels I so often checked out from the library and read in secret. I was embarrassed that I read them so I never paid money for them and always hid them in my underwear drawer where I had known my mother would never look. She would never look at a lady’s ‘delicates’. If that kept her out of my things, even better. I had dreams of writing my own novels and had enough money saved where I felt comfortable getting away for a few months to finally try. 

“So this cabin,” I had started one night after work. Ethan had just gotten home from the gym and had instantly changed into a different pair of sweatpants. If I had only known then what I know now, I never would have started asking more questions.  “Tell me more about it.” 

Ethan had brought up this crazy idea of living ‘off the grid’ for the winter to save money and ‘get back to himself’.  His idea of ‘getting back to himself’ should have been my first warning sign. But he had seemed so excited about the possibility of change, that I got caught up in the excitement with him. 

“Here’s my favorite picture. It’s barely outside of town and it’s in Wyoming! I know you’ve always wanted to live there.” Ethan went on excitedly about the cabin showing me picture after picture and talking faster and faster with every word. How could I not be excited as he was? It is true that I had long dreamed of moving to Wyoming, but I’m not sure I wanted my first experience of living in Wyoming to be in a cabin that was just outside of a small town. In the middle of winter. I thought winter in Dallas could get cold so I knew I would have to try and mentally prepare myself for Wyoming. If that was even possible. 

Barely two months later, here I was. Living a life that was not all that it was cracked up to be. A life that I loved and hated all in the same breath. With a man I felt like I didn’t know anymore even though we have dated for four years and lived together for three. 

“What do you mean there is no electricity?” I exclaimed when we walked in the door of our new cabin for the first time.   

“Oh, we talked about this. I remember specifically telling you there wasn’t electricity,” Ethan said nonchalantly. He looked like he was in heaven as he started to wander around the one room cabin. I, on the other hand, was horrified. This cabin was filthy. Disgusting. I was waiting for the mice to come out from every crack I saw.  And this was definitely not the cabin Ethan showed me. 

“No, we definitely did not,” I said, feeling my face flush with irritation. “I am supposed to be writing a book. That’s the main reason why I decided to move here with you.” I cringed internally at my choice of words. I knew he wouldn’t miss the obvious state of ‘the main reason’. 

“I thought I was the main reason you decided to come.” He tried to make light of his words, but I could hear the definite edge in his voice. He continued to look around the tiny cabin. I didn’t know what he could possibly be looking for as I could see everything I needed to see from the door. I was just hoping the door on the other side of the single room was a bathroom and not a closet. If this cabin he’d hyped up for several months did not have electricity or a bathroom, I was out. I was definitely not staying here with him.   

“You are why I came. The main reason why I came. Obviously. But this cabin isn’t quite what I was expecting...” My voice trailed off as I started to shiver. The initial shock was wearing off and I was realizing just how cold it was. 

“Is there any firewood? It’s a little chilly in here.”  And by ‘a little chilly’, I really meant freezing.  I started to wonder how big of a mistake I had actually made by moving to this remote cabin. I guess it was good I had not moved here by myself, but then again, I would have been moving to a place in town with lights and a heater.  Though the fireplace looked like it had been used fairly recently, but who would have had the occasion to use it?  Had someone else been living here before us?  What happened to whoever it was?   

“Yeah, there should be some firewood here in this closet.” Ethan headed for the one other door in the entire ‘cabin’ and my heart sank.  Again. There was obviously no indoor plumbing. Ethan initially struggled to get the closet door to open. Which again, didn’t surprise me. I kicked myself again over the fact I had just sold my house to live in a broken down cabin in Wyoming with no electricity or running water. I'm not sure what else could go wrong. I had just followed a man I thought I knew to a remote cabin in Wyoming in the middle of winter. My decision making skills were obviously not up to par recently. As Ethan continued to struggle with the closet door, I almost laughed when I thought about what my mother would say about my current predicament. But this wasn’t a time for laughing. If we didn’t get a fire started soon, I was worried we might actually freeze to death. 

When Ethan was finally able to get the door open, the dead body fell out of the closet and almost knocked him over, I wasn’t surprised at all. When he ran out the front door screaming, all I could think about was the fact it would make a great opening sequence for my first book.