Chapter 3
Zach watched as Kendall made her 27th lap around the the main room of the cabin. He tried to muster up some inspiration from the late Bogey as to what his character would have done to seduce his doe-eyed prey. Of course, Kendall was no Audrey Hepburn. The fire in her was more akin to Katharine Hepburn. In fact, a lot about Kendall reminded him of Katharine. He remembered that when he ws young, he watched a lot of old movies to escape his reality, and that Katharine Hepburn was his favorite actress. A lot of his, er, dreams as a young man were of Hepburn – a fact he never related to his Brooke Shields-obsessed friends, else they beat the shit out of him.
Kendall paused, staring at something over his head. She made a beeline towards him, continuing to stare above his head. He looked up, and saw that a shelf was above him, but from his perspective did not see what was on the shelf. When he looked ahead again, he was staring straight at her torso. He realized that she was reaching above him for whatever had caught her attention. She put her foot on his chair, right between his legs. This caused Zach to twitch and grab the aforementioned torso. She immediately shoved away from him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He stood up and glanced at the shelf. "What the hell do you mean? You were the one about to stomp on my assets." He saw that there was a radio on the shelf. Kendall laughed. "Considering that you and I are going to die in this cabin, I wouldn't say your assets are worth anything." He gave her an exasperated look and took the radio off the shelf. "Is this what you're trying to reach?"
Kendall snatched it from him. "I want to see if I can get some Christmas music. I'm badly in need of some holiday cheer right now." She plugged it in and started fiddling with the antenna. He stared at her in dismay. He was stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a blizzard with a woman that hated his guts, and now she was about to torture him with Christmas music? He had liked such music as a boy, and many of the songs reminded him of Rosita, the housekeeper, who played it endlessly each year. But year after year his father continued to suck the life out of him, until the warm memories of Rosita were replaced by resentful memories of asking his father if he would be home on Christmas morning, only to be laughed at for being such a sap.
Kendall finally found a slightly fuzzy station that was playing "Jingle Bell Rock." She smiled and tapped her fingers on the radio. He remembered Rosita would wiggle her matronly hips to this song, then giggle with the upstairs maid as if she knew she looked silly, but didn't care. Mercifully the song ended, only to be replaced by "Let It Snow." Kendall stared at the radio, not sure whether to smash the thing or laugh as it cheerfully played "Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful…" She turned off the radio and stared at the empty fireplace. There was a knock at the door. Zach answered, and saw that it was the landlord. "Here's the wood you wanted, and I found the key to the pantry so's you can eat. There was a message on the voice mail from that Ramsey fella. He made it back okay. Nice of him to call. Too bad you missed him. He'd been gone maybe 15 minutes when you showed up." Kendall glanced at Zach. "Which means we must have passed him at some point. You sure you didn't see him, Zach? You had your eye on the road." Zach looked at her impassively. "Yes, on the road in front of me, not the one opposite." She gave him a speculative look, then took the key to the pantry and disappeared into the kitchen.
The landlord left, and Zach efficiently transferred the wood from the doorway to the fireplace. He glanced at the kitchen door. Was Kendall really going to make them something to eat? He wouldn't have figured her for a cook. Or maybe she wasn't, and she was now busily chowing down on crackers or some other food that didn't need to be cooked. He could just see her eating it all herself and not leaving any for him. He went to the kitchen. She was staring at a small jar of what looked like caviar. He wasn't sure, but it seemed as if she was thinking of Ethan. Irritated, and not quite sure why, Zach spoke up. "If you want that jar to yourself, feel free. Always thought that stuff tasted incredibly nasty." Kendall looked up at him, her eyes unreadable. "So I guess the craving for raw fish eggs didn't pass down from father to son?"