Chapter 3-1
1096 Words
Chapter 3
The men chatted a while longer. When they’d finished their coffee, Neil went to the outer office and made the necessary arrangements with Margie for a room in the dorms. Mr. Douglas met him in front of the building. He was sitting in a golf cart.
When Neil got in he gave Mr. Douglas a hesitant look.
The older man laughed. “Guilty. This is my only concession to the no motor vehicle rule. Well, that and riding mowers. Too much grass to cut for the grounds crew to use hand push mowers. This runs on batteries so they let me have it because I’m too old to be tramping all over the place. Bad knees. Driving a horse ‘n buggy around up here at headquarters would be impractical.”
When they arrived at the dorm entrance, Neil got out of the cart and thanked Mr. Douglas. He went into the building and looked around. There were mailboxes on one wall, otherwise the entry was unremarkable. Just your typical dormitory Neil thought.
Seeing that there didn’t seem to be an elevator, Neil walked up the four flights of stairs up to his room.
Neil’s room was large and carpeted. It had a full-sized bed, a large bureau, dresser, and desk. There was also an overstuffed chair and a loveseat. Pictures of horses pulling tour wagons of smiling tourists hung on the walls. There was a private bath.
He began to unpack his bags. Now that he was alone in his room he let his thoughts about Rolf have free rein. There was no question that his response to the big man had been physical. He’d had that response many times to men he found attractive. He’d had a similar, although not so intense, response to Kip when he’d first met the man. However, the reaction that had accompanied the physical one upon meeting Rolf was new. He’d never experienced anything like it before. And Neil wasn’t sure how he should take it.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. He opened it to find Kip grinning at him.
“How’s it goin’?” Kip asked.
“Good,” Neil replied, genuinely glad to see the young man. “Y’all come on in.”
Kip laughed. “Well now, ah don’t mind ifin’ ah do—y’all.”
Neil chuckled. “Y’all are making fun of my accent.”
“No…well, yeah. But I think it’s sexy. A tall, Texas stud like you and that drawl—makes for a killer combination.”
Neil knew Kip was flirting with him. Somehow he didn’t mind at all.
Kip came in and looked around. “So, this is what the suites for the privileged few are like,” he joked.
“Why? What are the other rooms like?” Neil asked.
“Eh…not so bad. Bunks, dressers, desks. Bare floors though. And it’s two or three to a room. Kinda crowded. Have to share a bathroom.”
“Well, y’all can come and visit anytime,” Neil said, deciding he’d do a bit of flirting as well.
“I just might take y’all up on that, Dr. Logan.”
“Please, call me Neil.”
“Okay, Neil.” Kip winked at him. “So what you been up to since I left you off at the office? I see you got a coat.”
“Yes. Mr. Douglas had Margie call someone, and a man named Rolf brought it over.”
“Ah, so you’ve met our man Rolf.”
“Yeah. Is there something I should know about him?”
“Well, no. Just he’s one strange dude. I been here four summers now, and he hasn’t said but five words to me. He keeps pretty much to himself, never socializes with the staff or nothin’. Even his team of farriers say he don’t say more’n he has to, and then it’s usually something to do with work.”
“He has an accent,” Neil said.
“Yeah, he’s from Germany. Been in the States a long time though. He came over with the German equestrian team for the Atlanta Olympics. He was top farrier for the team, I heard. Then he left the team all of a sudden and stayed in the U. S. No one knows why.
You’ll be workin’ pretty close with him. The vets and the shoers do a lot of consulting. The old saying ‘no hoof, no horse’ is really important here as the whole island depends on horses for the tourist trade and transportation. So the farriers are super important in order to keep the wheels rollin’.”
Kip suddenly jumped to another topic before Neil could process the information about Rolf he’d just been given. “What’cha doin’ for dinner? I could introduce you to the dorm cafeteria—a truly divine experience—or we could grab a couple bikes or a buggy, if one’s available, and head to a restaurant in town.”
“Sorry, but I’m supposed to have dinner with the Douglases and meet Dr. Turner and the other new vet…uh…Betsy something, and some others, the barn manager and tour director. Rolf will be there, too.”
“Oh, okay. Maybe another time then,” Kip said, sounding disappointed.
“I’d like that.”
Kip brightened.
“Say, I can’t seem to get any cell service,” Neil said. “I’d like to call home and let everyone know I got here okay.”
“It’s pretty iffy. But if you’re hooked to wi-fi it’s pretty reliable. They’re talking about getting some sort of booster towers that pick up cell and wi-fi signals and make better connections when you’re out and about. One of the biggest complaints tourists have.”
“Is there wi-fi in here?”
“Yep. Password’s ITDorms. One word. The I, T, and D are in caps.”
“Thanks.” Neil took out his phone and put in the password. As soon as it connected to the dormitory wi-fi it gave off a series of text notifications.
Kip laughed. “Somebody’s worried about you.”
Neil checked his messages. There were six from Jordan, one from his sister, and one from Neil’s parents. Neil let out a sigh. He realized he’d not thought about Jordan since he’d arrived on the island. Seeing his name was kind of a reality check.
“They’re from a friend back home and my family,” Neil said.
“A friend?”
“Long story,” Neil said, not wanting to go into detail. “I need to get going. Mr. Douglas said dinner was at six, and it’s nearly that now. I need to take a shower.”
“Too bad you’re in a hurry. I could use a hot shower myself.”
Neil smiled. “Now that’s a proposition I wouldn’t mind taking you up on—maybe later.”
Kip waggled his eyebrows, said that maybe he’d take Neil up on that invitation, waved goodbye, and left the room.
After Kip left, Neil opened Jordan’s messages. Each became increasingly concerned that he had not heard from Neil. Neil wrote back that he was sorry, made reference to the unreliable cell service, and assured Jordan he was all right.
Every message also contained some expression of how much Jordan missed Neil, even though they’d only said goodbye that morning. One even said Jordan was counting the days until Neil returned to him.
Neil sighed. He reminded himself this was only day one of their separation, and despite the fact that Neil seemed to have already forgotten about Jordan, it would take time for Jordan to let his feelings for Neil go. Or so Neil hoped.
After Neil responded to Jordan’s texts, he called his family to let them know all was well and got ready to go to dinner.
- Writer
