Fiction

Love in a Thunderstorm

A little rain never hurt

Photo by Jon Ly on Unsplash

“I don’t think the air conditioner’s working,” he said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said as they both looked at the dead window unit. It was their only respite from the humid Midwestern summer. The old cabin didn’t have central air. Something she reminded him of when they agreed to take the cabin for the week.

“There’s no air,” she said back in their kitchen.

“I know but it will be fun,” he said.

“If you say so.”

Now that conversation was rolling through both their minds.

“I’ll call Nick and see if he can fix it,” he said.

“Uh uh.”

“Pray that he can fix it,” he said under his breath.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

He played with the machine a little while longer but he knew it was useless. Honestly, he barely knew how to turn it on.

He walked into the kitchen, it was smaller than the one at home. But it would work all the same.

“I’m going to get dinner started.”

“Why don’t we go out?”

He laughed, “Everything’s closed already around here.”

“God I hate the sticks.”

“Well, I’m going to get dinner started.”

“Let’s at least grill. I don’t want the house any hotter than it is.”

“Not a bad idea.”

They walked out to the garage. He opened the door, “Oh you’re not going to believe this.”

“What?”

“There’s no charcoal.”

“I hate it here.”

“I know.”

“I’ll go start getting dinner ready.”

“I’ll be there in a second.”

He saw Nick’s wife in the driveway and went to ask if Nick could look at the air conditioner.

“Oh no, he’s downstate with visiting his folks,” she said, “he’ll be back this weekend though.”

“Okay.”

“She mad?”

He made a look to confirm, but didn’t answer verbally so he couldn’t be accused of agreeing that she was, in fact, mad.

He walked into the house and it was even hotter.

He tried his best to give her a hand, and he was looking out the window.

“I have an idea,” he said, “let’s sleep outside.”

“What?”

“It’s eight million degrees in here. I’ll never be able to sleep. I’ve got a hammock to set up. We’ll sleep there. It’ll be way better. You’ll see.”

“Okay. That sounds fun.”

So they ate.

And afterwards he set up the hammock.

They were lying in the hammock as it started to get dark. If it hadn’t been so hot he’d have made a fire in the pit, but he thought better of it.

He was holding her and looking for shooting stars, but they weren’t out.

In fact, it was getting pretty cloudy, and just then he realized that he’d never checked the weather.

But, he couldn’t think of anything else as the skies opened up on them. They both ran into the house soaking wet. It was still warm in the house.

“At least it will cool down a little,” he said.

“Would you just shut up?”

“What?”

“This has been a terrible idea from the beginning and you know it.”

“Why didn’t you just say you didn’t want to come?”

“I thought it was obvious.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Well in the future if you’re going to ask if I want to spend a week in the middle of nowhere the answer is no.”

“Fine, I know that now.”

He handed her a towel.

“What are you doing?”

The rain was thundering down on them. They could feel the mist coming through the open windows.

“You’re soaking wet.”

“God, I must look like a mess.”

“No, you look great.”

“Shut up,” she said, trying not to smile.

“I’m serious. I kind of like your new look. You should stand out in the rain more often.”

She blushed, and they put their arms around each other, and they stood there listening to the rain.