Friday, June 22, 2007

Chapter 3 - Episode 3

Two weeks later the four of them were on their way to the cabin, Benjamin was excited from the point he got to sit next to his neighbor and asked him if he had taken hotdogs along.

When they arrived at their destination they unpacked and Benjamin and Mathew took the little boat and went fishing, to catch the first meal of their trip. Half an hour later they returned with their catch, three big trouts. While Kate was preparing dinner the men would start a fire. After dinner Benjamin fell asleep in his lap and he put the little boy to bed. Kate came in the little bedroom while he was tucking in the boy and looked at him. He turned around and she told him it was a shame that he didn't have children of his own, as he was so good with Ben. She couldn't understand why didn't have a woman in his life, as he was a handsome man with a decent amount of money in the bank.

They discussed this further while returning to the living room where Mathew was shuffling the cards. Kate continued to explain to him how attractive the other mothers at Benjamin's kindergarten thought he was. Mathew asked her if she was among these mothers which made her turn red and she went off to get them some more coffee. Mathew was dealing the cards when she came back and they played some poker, he mainly lost that night, but did think that loosing money amongst friends was a bad way of spending your time.

The next few days Mathew took his son on to the lake fishing and they'd set some rabbit traps as well as they liked to eat something else but fish as well. Kate went hiking everyday and he would come along with her. Everyday they would take a different route through the woods and everyday he thought they were lost, but Kate always seemed to find her way back. One day they came to an open spot in the woods, close to a small canyon. Kate instantly named it 'Small Canyon' and they enjoyed the view. They were standing side by side as they saw a deer on the other side of the canyon, staring at them, knowing that they weren't any harm to it. Then they heard a shot and the animal ran away, searching for the safety of the forest. He hoped that the deer would find shelter to whatever wanted to harm it. He felt a warm hand taking his and looked at Kate. She asked him if it was okay that she would hold his hand, as the gunshot had scared her a bit. He didn't mind.


She sat down and asked him to join her. As soon as he was with her on the ground, she asked him if he would be honest when she would ask a personal question. He replied that he always tried to be honest, and would only not tell the truth when he thought it would hurt somebody. She then asked him why he was still single. He told her he was to occupied with his business and that the right woman hadn't crossed his path. He told that in high school there had been a girl, Carla, that he liked a lot, they even went out a couple of times. He hadn't had a serious relationship after that, mainly because he had always found a good reason to break up with a girl. Kate started laughing, explaining that men always found a perfectly good reason to break up. But he explained that he actually did have perfectly good reasons and told her that if she knew them, she would agree. She dared him to give an example and he told her that once he had a Jewish girl he dated for 4 months, but once they started talking about moving her in with him, she insisted that he would convert to become Jewish as well. Another girl turned out to be homophobic, and refused to go anywhere she thought there would be gay men or women. He told Kate that all together, he had dated 7 girls that were marriage material but turned out to be just the opposite. And ever since he started his own business he didn't look at women anymore. After his confessions, Kate agreed that these sounded like very legitimate reasons to break up. She then asked him if she could ask another personal question, and he agreed but demanded that he was allowed to ask her a personal question as well, and she had to be completely honest, just like he had been. She told him it was a deal and asked him if he thought she was attractive. The question startled him and he told her that he didn't want to answer her, because of his friendship with her husband. She replied by calling their deal off, and got on her feet. While she was brushing the sand of her jeans, he told her that he thought that she was very attractive and that were she still single he would probably make a pass at her. She turned around, visibly flattered and told him that she was among the mothers at Benjamin's kindergarten that thought he was very attractive. She turned around and walked back to where they came from. He stayed for a while, but realizing that he would get lost without her, he went after her. That night they played poker again, and he won most of his lost money back.

The next few days all four of them stayed around the cabin, he was spending most of his time playing with Benjamin, babysitting the boy while Kate and Mathew were preparing dinner, although he found that they were making strange noises while cooking. He guessed that the stove wasn't the only thing that heated up while they were in the kitchen. Every now and then he caught Kate staring at him and every now and then he caught himself staring at Kate.

To be continued...