2020-01-26 - Winter Road Trip aka Haunted by Aliens

For her part, Harper chose the always dependably comfortable black yoga pants, a long-sleeved, magenta ‘Life is Good’ tee that has a purple background print of the LIG dog and in white scrawl reads 'Best in Snow'. She stowed her boots in the car but is simply wearing soft purple socks and some slip-ons that she can kick off the moment they get on the road. Atop her head is a knit cap that adorably frames her face and excited smile. She has a list, because she's Harper. The list is double-checked and she climbs into the passenger side -- likely of Geoff's truck rather than her Prius, given the snowy destination – while singing a silly version of 'Let It Snow' as Geoff pulls away from the curb and drives them out of Gray Harbor.

Off come the shoes and Harper tests the limits of Geoff's willingness to drive illegally by never putting on her seatbelt. It would just ruin the cozy set up she builds with a pillow against her door and her back against the pillow so she can press her socked feet against Geoff's closer thigh. She does stop singing to listen to Geoff explain what it is about the open road that does it for him and she smiles. "I'll admit, I always wondered why you didn't travel more. You've got a wanderer's soul, Turner." Listening, she tips her head, nods, and gestures broadly with her deft hands, "Anything could happen, you're right. The possibilities are endless. We could end up in Timbuktu. We could re-unite the Eagles." She adds. "Again." A little smile. "We could realize we can't stand being cooped up in small spaces together for long periods of time. Anything."

It's the last statement he makes that smooths away some of her playfulness and she is quiet for a mile or so before she accuses softly, "You're a romantic, Geoff. And you're out and proud." She'd tell him it's sexy, but that would be redundant, given that she feels that way about him in any sense. "You and Easton drove to Las Vegas the time you went before we -- after you -- when you got married, right? I think I'd pay money to have audio tapes of those conversations. They probably exist at Area 51." Her toes wiggle against his thigh. "Tell me about all your favorites. Let's start with favorite movie as a teenager." Harper glances out the window now and again. And if Geoff is a stickler about seatbelts, she'll grumble and readjust her seat. They reach I-5 within an hour or two, and then it's a straight shot to Portland. The highway speeds past, the quiet hum of the motor and the wheels against the asphalt is relaxing.

The librarian may disagree about conversations between Geoff and Easton, and their relative placement on the H.A. Price Interest Scale. But Harper certainly isn't pushing Geoff for details as if she were threatened. She respects the relationship the two men have. And she certainly enjoys those stories that Geoff shares now and again. But when he shored up her concerns about a relationship between them in the beginning, he shored up all of the worries another woman might have about any sort of marriage between the close friends. He pauses to tell her that the marriage isn't legal and she admits, "I hadn't looked up how marriages were done in Las Vegas. I figured they were legal." And it didn't bother her. Harper is a stubborn woman. When she decides she's certain of something, it's a task to budge her to another perspective. She trusts implicitly in Geoff's fidelity. And comments he's made along the way have only cemented her convictions.

The Favorites Game will go on as long as Geoff puts up with it. Harper's favorite movie from teen-dom? Moulin Rouge, with a new caveat for Speed. Favorite fast food? She argues that carnival food should count because it's 'fast'. Favorite color? Magenta. Because of their conversation, she flips one or the other of their phones' playlist to 'Hotel California' and then way-way back to some Steve Miller Band. She sings along being called 'the gangster of love'.

There is some discussion about the difference between 'Road Warrior' and 'Beyond Thunderdome' with Geoff as the expert. Harper does ask what he thought of the most recent iteration and admit she found Tom Hardy, the lead male actor, to be 'hot'. Yes. Harper. If anyone knows she has a libido, it's Geoff.

She approves of the slower, far more scenic and breathtaking winding trip along Highway 101, now and then pointing out some wildlife she sees on both the driver's side in the evergreen rainforests and on her side near or in the sea. The playlist reverts back to the music Geoff organized and Harper hums along now and again, contentedly quiet between conversations as she takes in the gorgeous vistas. "Can we stop at the pull-out up here and breathe the air and take a picture?" She doesn't ask for that often. Maybe three times all the way between Gray Harbor and Tahoe, but Geoff can tell when she asks, she's antsy to have a moment with him in the fresh air. There might be a few, brazenly physical molestations as well.

Geoff stops them at the famous Haunted House of Mystery. They play in rooms where forced perspective makes gravity feel wrong and they laugh and cavort as if they were teenagers again. By the time they're leaving, Harper has decided that one or the other of them is haunted. And this will be a running joke. The Oregon Vortex convinces Harper that this is why Oregonians are 'the way they are'. It's where hipsters were born, she argues. As for the unending pot of water, she does stand and stare at it for a long time, finally sidelooking at Geoff and dryly stating, "My bathtub is sometimes just like that. It's like the water keeps psychically draining away. Definitely haunted." That's the phrase. Definitely haunted. Harper is quite obsessed with the suggestion that the location in Gold Hill is the site of an alien space-ship's landing. The ball rolling 'uphill' is her tipping point. "Haunted by aliens!" Laughing as they wander the grounds, she swats him on that perfect ass of his and tells him to watch out: aliens like to probe things. She's a librarian, she tells him. She knows things.

As they approach Mount Shasta and the border between Oregon and California, they take a side trip to the little town of McCloud Falls. Because of the snow, they drive to each of the three sets of falls, but there's still a small trail leading in to a closer viewing spot for each. Jackets and boots are required. It feels good to move around a bit, get the heart pumping, and the icy water is spectacular with the looming mountain above. At the second cataract, Harper takes a set of together-selfies, regular and silly. At the third, there are fewer people, so she nudges him backward a half dozen steps until his back meets with a mossy boulder. Then she unzips his jacket and slides her cold hands slowly up the front of his body with that particular look in her brown eyes. Some serious making out transpires, but it is eventually thwarted with four college-aged kids round the bend to see the falls. Thankfully the boulder is off to the side and past a handful of trees. Clothing is hastily dragged back into place, but breaths are heavy for the walk back to the truck for an entirely different reason. After they're out of sight of the falls, nearly back to the truck, Harper's delighted laughter drifts up into the old growth trees. "Still a long way to go before Tahoe," she playfully-mourns. Whenever they pass a rest-stop for the next few hours she points them out with an innocent expression that Geoff knows better than to take at face value.

There are so many things to learn in the many, many hours of their drive, that much longer for the slow, spectacular journey along the coastline. When they headed back inland toward Shasta, Harper made Geoff promise to bring her back to Gold Beach on the coast in the summer so they could go on a jet boat trip up the Rogue River. Geoff finds out that Harper can't stand oysters or clams. He learns that while she adores animals -- and adopting them together -- she isn't sure she could ever have one herself. Fear and loss and yadda. Whenever they come across animals together, she is enthralled. Someone's dog on a walk? She's the first to go right up to them to ask to greet their canine companion. He also learns that she lived a scandalous life over the years after graduating college. She promiscuously dated men she met a few times a year. But after an initial ‘date’, she always tossed them aside. She likes classic rock, but she can't stand heavy metal (with exceptions). And despite her best behavior, she finds a way to touch or tease Geoff with consistent regularity.

Harper won't soon forget the stop at Mount Shasta. It was too good. She promises Sedgwick they will return for visits and leaves the little fella a handful of trail mix after pulling all the bits of chocolate out of it. Geoff's new phone background is better than a surprise flower delivery or an expensive dinner; she positively glows.

Truck stop warnings? Harper is, at first, oblivious to Geoff's cautions, thinking that lizards are much like the tortoise from the trip he took with Easton. She grows more and more disgruntled with each stop they pass until she's crawled over to his side of the truck and tries to be persuasive against the side of his neck and ... other parts of his body. That's when he clarifies the actual anecdotal evidence he has about the places and she settles back to a seat beside him and behaves herself. "That's no fun at all." Ever since the movie, she's found the cab of the truck to be a particularly evocative place to be. Still, she's not petulant. She does grab Geoff's nearer hand to idly play with as the sun sinks past the horizon and the lights of the interstate traffic illuminate their faces.

They cross over to the Sierra Nevadas and the ascend to the pass at Truckee and, just like they'd planned for, there is a requirement that all vehicles stop and put on chains to get over the pass. It's good they planned ahead and brought chains. The trip past North Lake Tahoe and along the curving, narrow two-lane roads past Emerald Bay and to South Lake Tahoe is indeed treacherous. So much so that Harper turns down the music and sits relatively quietly while Geoff handles the stress of navigating the slippery roads. What they can see of the Lake after dark is shimmering glimpses, but those glimpses are beautiful. "I can't wait until we can see it all in the morning. It will be a spectacular reveal."

As they approach the base to the Heavenly Valley slopes, the charming A-frame shops and storefronts selling alpaca blankets and rugs turn to the glittering lights of the Casinos that make a living year round from both summer visitors there for the lake, hiking, and camping, and from wintersport visitors during the snowy months. Harper was in charge of booking their lodging and she chose The Landing Tahoe Resort and Spa. Sure, she claimed she didn't want a butler, but she'll be damned if she doesn't want to treat Geoff to an extraordinary memory. It gives them access to the slopes and the casinos, but also a suite with a fireplace that peeks through from the sitting room to the bedroom; and there is an enormous, marble bathroom.

A bellman leaps up to the truck and will divest Geoff and Harper of all their luggage unless Geoff is insistent about wanting to carry it all between the two of them. The concierge checks them in, tells them that their ski rental equipment is all reserved for them to pick up at the base of the mountain in the morning. Along with the key cards for their room, they're given a calendar of events and shows in the nearby casinos, a listing of the top restaurants, plus their ski lift and gondola passes. It's a rush of color and warmth and the bright smell of the alpine locale and then the smoky smell of crackling fires in places all over the small but luxurious lobby.

They reach their room and find that a fire is all set up, sans flames, for them should they choose to have one, the bed is turned down with gourmet chocolates on the pillows, and there is a bottle of sparkling wine, cheese and crackers, and some chocolate dipped strawberries that are so large they must have come from southern California. Harper twirls a delighted little circle once they're in the room and then energetically moves from one area to the next, surveying it all and returning to Geoff to smile the smile up at him that he saw on Christmas morning. "Do you like it? Are you hungry? Are you happy?"

With a shriek, Harper pushes in the only direction she can with ice-cold fingers sliding up under her shirt: the ceiling of the cab. She may even bonk her head before she simultaneously shivers and starts laughing. "The Iceman Cometh," she both states and quotes. She slides back down and leans in to graze her much warmer nose against his cold one and murmurs, "You need some warming up. It's too bad there's a line of cars waiting for us to get in gear. The coffee is probably still warm in the thermos." Not hot, mind you. But certainly warm. We're almost there? "Baby, with you, I'm always There." Harper tosses her head in rebellion to how cheesy the words sound, even as she smiles at Geoff. She'll offer him coffee to drink for the next portion of the drive. She'll even hold the cup for him between drinks.

Harper has the pleasure of returning from her survey of all the bits of the room in time to see that grin growing on Geoff's lips as he stands there in the middle of the sitting room. "Good answer," she murmurs back as he tips down toward her with that insightful, candid green-eyed gaze of his. She breathes in through her nose and exhales slowly past parted lips. He called her his best friend like some men call a woman the most beautiful girl in the world. There might even be a hint of surprise behind those warm brown eyes. "Jessica will be all sorts of jealous. But you're my best friend, too, Turner." She turns his words on him. "And I fucking love you."

She glances past his shoulder at what she can see of the room only to look back at him as if he were the new and exciting sight to see. "We're going to have so much fun, you'll never want to leave. I promise." Stepping closer she takes advantage of the taller man leaning down to wind her arms loosely around his neck. "Hmm. I wonder what we should do first." She brushes a soft kiss to his lips and tastes coffee there mingled with the taste of him. "There's dinner," kiss, "gambling," kiss, "wine and --" kiss, "--strawberries," Harper is stretching this out as far as she can and her curving smile is evidence of the same. "a fireplace," kiss, "I'm sure some sort of shows in the casino," kiss ... this continues for awhile but -- KNOCK KNOCK-KNOCK. "Bellman with luggage for --" Clearly the man in the hall reads the tag in his hand. "-- Turner?" Harper frowns and slowly, slowly unwinds her arms from Geoff's neck, rocking back from her booted toes to her heels. Another knock. "Want me to get it? I have some tip money in my bag." Oh, there were things she wanted to reply to. Waking up and which? Harper is distracted by Geoff's inimitable grin. From outside the door, "I'll be coming in if no one's there to leave possessions." There's probably some sort of etiquette for this. Some amount of time a bellman needs to wait before entering a room if the guests have gone to dinner or elsewhere.

Harper drops her hands to her sides then settles them atop her hips as she watches the man-bellman interchange with a bit of a half-smile. "That was ... polished. And somehow very compelling." The librarian stands there a bit longer, not yet taking off her jacket in case they're going to leave and go somewhere for dinner. "Your call. I could subsist on strawberries, sparkling wine, and whatever comes with that quite happily. But I'm not the one who did all the driving and put the chains on at the pass. So if you want dinner, we should have dinner."

Harper does intend to eat a healthy breakfast for all the energy in the morning. "If we're not going to dinner, I'm feeding you strawberries in that giant marble bathtub." With her hands on her hips she shrugs her jacketed shoulders. "Fifty-fifty. I could go either way." Her brown eyes twinkle. "You also could be more tired than you're letting on, but I haven't known you --" like this "-- long enough to know what over-tired Geoff looks like."

Harper tips her head as if wary of Geoff's decision even as she lifts one hand from her hip to unzip her jacket. "You know what they say about hasty decisions." She doesn't follow him out of the sitting room. Instead, she divests herself of her jacket and places it on a hanger in the outer room's closet. Then she pulls off her boots and socks and drags her rolly suitcase (because someone with Harper's body strength has got to have a rolly suitcase) into the expansive bedroom. It takes both hands, but with some body momentum she swings it onto an ottoman at the foot of the bed and unzips it. She can unpack things and put them in drawers or the closet at a time when Geoff isn't in the palatial bathroom promising her baths. With strawberries. Well, it was Harper who promised the strawberries. But that doesn't matter in her mind right now.

She strips off her purple socks and drops them atop the suitcase and rummages around until she finds the negligee and satin robe she brought with it, laying them both on the end of the bed. Next there's a trip back to the sitting room first to deadbolt the door, and then to gather the platter of strawberries, the two stemless glasses, and the bottle of sparkling wine. The cheese and crackers are left behind as they are not compatible with bath taking.

Carrying her prizes to the bathroom, Harper singsongs, "Too many clothes, Turner. Far, far too many clothes." The large tub fills slowly but surely. The hot water begins to steam the room and the mirror. After setting everything where she wants it (within reach of the tub itself), Harper goes about opening the bottle with a sucking pop. "Heavenly, here we come," she warns the mountain and its snowy passes.

She takes her time pouring both glasses but just sets them down one by one. Efficiently she grabs the bottom edge of her 'Best in Snow' long-sleeved tee and pulls it over her head to reveal a black, lacy bra. There's a bench in the bathroom upon which she drops her shirt. Then she does a little shimmy to drag the comfortable black pants down her legs. Matching black panties. Pants join top.

Harper pushes her raven hair out of her face and goes over to lean down to test the temperature of the water with her fingertips. "Hot!" She adjusts the water flow just a little bit. She intends to hand Geoff his stemless glass of sparkling wine once he's in the tub, but one never knows what a Geoff will do in strange new hotel bathrooms. A quizzical look from Harper. She's debating offering him a strawberry sooner rather than later. There are good arguments on both sides.

Harper's quizzical expression melts to an unsuccessfully solemn attempt at a nod before she starts laughing. "You always think of all the things. I didn't even think to check to see if it was haunted." It might be that Harper stares longer than a woman who has biblical knowledge of a man might need to stare. But by the time he's settled in the water with a groan, she murmurs while setting his glass beside the strawberries on the wide, flat area at the head of the tub just behind him, "But it's a hotel. So we know two things. First," she holds out a finger after setting down her glass by the other end of the tub. " -- hotels are always haunted. So that' easy. Second," -- finger number two. "it doesn't really matter how much water we use because it's 'hotel' water." She lifts that hand to stave off argument that likely is not coming. "I know, I know. Environment. But bathtub-with-Turner trumps environment. I know I'm a bad person. You'll just have to accept me the way I am."

Harper reaches behind her back to flick the clasp of her bra free and lets it drop to one hand, tossing it easily to where her other clothes are. The panties follow and she steps over the large edge of the tub and sits all the way down at the opposite side of it from him, reaching for her glass with one hand and wrapping a hand around one of his wet feet with the other. "We're punchy from the trip, but we still should toast." Glancing from Geoff to the bubbles in her glass and back to Geoff again, she says, "To a damn fine road trip that was only lacking in pit stops. To being here together and making our own roller coaster tomorrow. And to strawberries that I get to feed you." She'll draw up her knees and scootch a bit closer so she can clink her glass to Geoff's with a swaying wash of blissfully hot water.

Harper takes a second and a third drink from her glass while Geoff speaks, her eyes never leaving him from a few feet away, her hips next to his, facing the opposite direction. It's helpful when he softens the joking about being a criminal with a wink. Harper tends to get all ready to fight someone whenever she thinks about that time. Here she simply relaxes and sets her glass beside the tub's edge about halfway down the vast expanse. "I'll need some instruction to get my law-breaking badge." Harper breaks the law all the time. She's pretty much not about rules unless they suit her. "Illicit baths," she murmurs, shifting from her behind to her knees in the water. "I like that." Her hand slides up from Geoff's ankle to his knee, her fingers like a stronger current in the hot water. Gently she places his foot over to the side and back behind her now.

"Over there?" She's halfway down the bath now. "Maybe because if I started on your side, I'd forget about strawberries." She taps a wet finger to her temple as if to tick off the reminder in her brain. "Strawberries. Strawberries. Strawberries." The bath is 2/3 full now and the hot-hot water feels incredibly relaxing even without alcohol. Eyes closed, he can feel her slide closer with little eddies in the water, until her hip is up against his side. She hasn't climbed on top of him. No. No, Harper's being good. She's being so good. She reaches for a chocolate covered strawberry and examines it. "I'll try it first to make sure it's worthy of you." She bites into the decadent, jumbo berry and quickly lifts her other hand under her chin, expecting juice or chocolate shards to fall to the bath. Neither do. "Mmm. Not sure if you'll like these." Her brown eyes can't hide the warmth while she does refrain from smiling as she holds a good portion of remaining treat between her fingers. Her gaze wanders over his face and stops to rest at his lips. That's when she lifts the treat to his lips and offers him a taste. This is more an exercise for Harper in self-control at this point. She licks her lips as the fruit touches his.

[The bath is taken. With sexy results. (tm Futurama) ]