AN: In this part of the story, and maybe from this point on Philip will be referred to as Odin, since that is the image he is projecting to people. If for some reason, it seems he needs to be called Philip for a chapter or two, or whatever. I will let you know.
The author's dad helped with some of the hotel construction projects, so by remembering about the time he worked on some of them, and also from double checking on the internet, The Polynesian was being worked on in 1978, which since this takes place about 20 years before "Ties that bind" it fits right into the time period. But unfortunately, not having been born in 1978, I just realize that some of this stuff might be inaccurate. So, sorry for that. I should have probably written that earlier in the story, but it didn't cross my mind…oops Unfortunately, I can't ask by dad about Orlando at that time period. And my mom wouldn't know, because she wasn't in that area at the time.

Melinda and Odin end up in Orlando. He seems to like it. She is not happy. She is expecting a place of sunshine and oranges, and not rain and hurricane season. She doesn't understand him. They have both decided to get odd jobs, and while he seems to have found a construction job helping with an expansion of the Polynesian resort at Disney world, which was actually considered in Lake Buena Vista, so, he would conveniently steal her car every day. She spends the day pacing around the motel room where they have holed up.
In the afternoons, when it is raining she doesn't understand why he just goes outside. He seems very comfortable playing in the rain. He sits out there for hours. She can't figure out him at all. Especially, when it starts lightning. Something attracts him about the lightning. And since it usually rains after a long day of work, he comes in after the lightning almost electrically charged. His blue eyes bright with danger, and arousal, and his body statically charged. This is not the adventure she had set out for, and he scares her. More and more it seems he easily takes her, she struggled at first when she was not in the mood, but now, she doesn't. He seems to have this animal energy about him.
As the days go by, she also begins to question more and more things about him. His eyes give the impression he is much older, than he seems, especially his dorky glasses, but his very chiseled body, seem to make him seem younger than he is, and if she didn't know any better she would wonder if besides the glasses if he couldn't have gotten into that one magazine she had secretly looked at awhile back with the half nude men. Also, his fumbling ways at time when it came to the sex, made her question. She wouldn't had been so shocked if the glasses hadn't come out after they had gotten to Orlando. They were thick glasses, and it surprised her how she had not noticed his squinting, and such before. They were obviously a big prescription.
He also seemed to be making a lot of friends on the construction night, and would hang out with them for hours. She went with them a few times to some of the bars, and it made her wonder if he had ever had friends that excepted him as one of the guys. Though for the most part he seemed to pretend that he was a strong construction man, one of the boys, like everyone else, there was something about his personality that made him stand out from them, and seem out of place. But the other guys seemed not to notice, because there was a smaller man in the group whom they had dubbed Ping. A small set man from Puerto Rico whose eyes were slightly too close together, and whose black hair always fell in his eyes. He was a bit clumsy, and apparently had to redo things that he did at least three times. He also has very small feet, and seems to walk at times like a penguin. Odin seems to take great pleasure in taunting the poor man, and Ping seems to adore him for it.
Melinda wanted to leave, and was getting impatient. She tried not to but almost every day she found herself gripping to Odin about the way things were turning out.
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Three weeks into their stay, Odin goes out to drink one night. He doesn't even look at her, when he comes in, just changes shoes, and then, heads out to the bar, not even telling him where he is going. Melinda takes that he is preoccupied, and decides to be good and not push it. She doesn't want to have a fight with him. She decides to head to bed, early.
An hour later, she hears the door open. She expects it is Odin, and just rolls over in bed, not seeing the short frame in the doorway.