He stirred and turned over, intending to gather her into his arms and woke fully when he realised she wasn't there. Assuming she'd just gone to use the bathroom, he let his mind wander to revisit the events of the last two days in the meantime. A smile crossed his face when he recalled their telephone conversation Friday evening.
"I've never seen snow like this before!" he'd exclaimed.
"Desert boy," she'd teased. "It sounds like the perfect time to stock up on wine and cheese and crackers and just stay warm inside playing Settlers of Catan or-"
"Are you inviting me over?" he'd asked, instantly preferring that idea to a night at home alone just reading. Not that there's anything wrong with reading, he thought.
"Absolutely!" she'd enthused, making his mind up for him almost immediately.
"Well, as long as they don't shut down the metro, I'll be over in- Oh hell. Even if they shut down the subway, I'll walk!" he'd vowed.
It hadn't been a pleasant walk. Trudging through the ever-deepening snow, it had taken him over an hour to make the journey that by subway would only have been about ten minutes. By the time he'd arrived at her apartment, he was chilled to the bone.
"Oh dear. I think you could use a coffee rather than wine for now," she'd said and scurried off into the tiny kitchen to make it. He'd stood shivering as she'd handed it to him, then watched as Dory had disappeared into the bathroom momentarily and come back out, bath towel in hand.
He smiled again as the memory of the next few hours washed over him. "Get out of those cold, wet clothes!" she'd commanded. Helping strip him of the offending articles, she had taken care to hang them to dry and wrapped him in the towel. She'd rubbed him vigorously with the towel and initially he'd concentrated on drinking the coffee and surveying the apartment. The coffee table in the living room had been set up with the Settlers game; a tray with cheese and crackers and a pair of wine glasses sat beside it. As his body stopped shivering in cold, he'd come to realise he was now shivering with something else. Her hands had stopped moving along his body, he noted. Right around the same time he'd established she was undressing herself, it had also become apparent to him that he was aroused. His previous record for speed downing of coffee was shattered as he'd gulped the remainder hurriedly before dropping the empty mug onto the couch and bringing his hands up to help her undress.
They'd adjourned to the bedroom for their first session. Over the course of the night, they'd started a game of Settlers; eaten all the cheese and crackers; drank the entire bottle of wine and made love once again in the bedroom, once on the living room floor partway through the Settlers game-he'd had to pay for some of the resources he needed and this was her preferred currency- and again in the shower at about 3 am. At some point in the night, he'd retrieved his now dry clothes but she had immediately confiscated all but the socks.
They'd had the TV news on briefly at eleven pm and had learned the city was virtually shut down. "As if the subway being closed and me having to walk here wasn't indication enough" he'd remarked, and as they'd finally settled into bed –to sleep this time—the power flickered briefly then went out.
When they'd awakened around nine on the Saturday morning, the apartment bedroom was quite cold. Dory had suggested moving into the living room where the gas fireplace would afford them at least a little heat and they'd moved the mattress from her bed, along with all available quilts and blankets. He'd noticed the contents of the glove box and emergency kit from his car were piled up on the little table by the apartment entrance. The blanket from the kit had been added to the pile currently heaped in the center of her living room.
"Oh. Yeah. That," she'd started, when she noticed his discovery. "Um. Spencer, first of all, thank you again for lending me the car to go upstate to see my mom the other day. It's parked out in the lot across the street. And this is gonna sound stupid, but, I brought almost everything in. I couldn't get the key out of the ignition. It was stuck. I didn't wanna leave any valuables out there, so I just brought it all in. God, that sounds lame, since the car is the actual valuable-" she trailed off. He'd laughed and shrugged it off, enveloping her in a hug and kissing her.
"Don't worry about it. Car's not going anywhere in this storm anyway. We'll deal with it later. Tomorrow even."
"Okay, and now for the worst news of all. There's no electricity. I can't make coffee."
"My life is over," he'd said, deadpan, trying to keep a straight face but failing utterly and collapsing into a fit of laughter.
"There's more wine."
"It's nine o'clock in the morning!"
"Cereal and milk it is then, everything's closed," she'd retrieved milk from the refrigerator and cereal from a cupboard and set out breakfast.
He heard the key in the lock and realised that Dory hadn't been in the bathroom while he'd been reliving the previous day. He got up out of the blankets, wrapped himself in one and met her as she entered the apartment, bearing a carrier with two enormous coffees in it. He took the tray from her as she shrugged off her coat and boots.
"Still no electricity," he told her.
"But there is coffee. All's good in your world again?"
Kissing the top of her head, he replied "All's good in my world right now anyway, coffee or not. But coffee's good, yeah. Coffee shop's got power?"
"Generator. But they aren't staying open. They were just making up coffee to give out to the plow operators and emergency services people. I got two because I told them you were law enforcement."
"I don't know whether to be impressed by your ingenuity or disappointed by your underhandedness."
She reached out and whipped the quilt away from him, leaving him standing naked, save for his mismatched socks, before her.
"How about stunned by my insatiability?" She gave him a minute to absorb this then continued, "Drink. That. Coffee. NOW."
