By 2 a.m. she was in my bed.
Let me tell you how we got there.
Harper suggested the cabin two months before we actually went.
She found it online one night while we were watching TV in my apartment living room.
The place looked small but comfortable, with a fireplace and no neighbors for miles.
I liked the idea right away because work had been nonstop and I needed quiet.
Harper already knew that without me saying much.
She has auburn hair past her shoulders that she tucks behind her left ear when she is thinking hard.
Her eyes are hazel, and they stay on me longer than most people would consider normal.
She has this habit of standing just inside my personal space when we talk, close enough that I can smell her vanilla lotion.
We had been dating eight months by the time we packed the car.
I met her at a birthday party for a coworker.
She was quiet at first, sitting on the couch with a drink, but when I asked her about the book she was carrying she lit up.
That night she texted me a thank-you message with three heart emojis.
By the end of the first week we were talking every day.
Harper always remembered the small things I mentioned, like my go-to coffee order or the brand of socks I hate.
She moved some of her clothes into my place after three months.
She never asked if it was okay, she just did it one afternoon while I was at work.
When I came home she smiled and said the closet had space.
I let it happen because it felt good to have someone care that much.
The drive to the cabin took four hours on Friday afternoon.
We stopped once for gas and snacks.
Harper bought the exact beef jerky I like without me saying anything.
She had made a playlist of songs she knew I listened to on repeat at the office.
The sky looked heavy the whole way up.
When we pulled into the gravel driveway the first flakes were already drifting down.
The cabin was exactly like the pictures, one big room with a kitchenette in the corner, a bedroom door on the left, and a bathroom with no shower curtain.
It smelled like old pine and dust.
I started the fire while Harper unpacked the cooler we had brought.
She had planned meals for three days: pasta, canned chili, bread, cheese, and the bottle of red wine she now set on the counter.
The wind picked up outside while I was stacking the logs.
By the time the flames caught, the snow was falling hard enough that we could not see past the trees.
Harper stood at the window with her arms crossed.
“Looks like we are not going anywhere tonight,” she said.
I checked my phone out of habit and saw no bars.
She checked hers too and shrugged.
“No signal at all,” she said.
“Good.”
She said it like she meant it.
We made the pasta together because the kitchen was tiny.
I stirred the sauce while she boiled the water.
Every few minutes she looked over at me and smiled.
The smell of tomato and garlic filled the room fast.
We ate at the small wooden table near the fire.
The wine tasted better than the cheap stuff I usually bought.
Harper poured mine first, then hers, and clinked glasses without saying why.
After we finished she cleared the plates and I added another log to the fire.
The wind was louder now, pushing against the single-pane windows.
Harper came back with the wine bottle and two fresh glasses.
She sat on the couch and patted the cushion next to her.
I joined her.
Her leg touched mine right away.
The fire crackled and popped, throwing light across her face.
She looked at the flames for a long minute before she spoke.
“I have been thinking about this weekend for months,” she said.
“What about it?” I asked.
“Not just the cabin. About having you here with no one else around.”
She turned the glass in her hands.
“I think about you a lot during the day. Even when you are at work and I am home.”
I waited.
She took a slow sip.
“I know your meeting times because you tell me them. I know when you leave the building because you text me when you are done.”
She set the glass down and looked straight at me.
“Sometimes I drive by the office on my lunch break just to see your car in the lot.”
The words sat between us for a second.
I felt my stomach tighten but I did not move away.
“Is that bad?” she asked quietly.
“No,” I said. “It is just intense.”
She nodded like she had expected that answer.
“I want to be enough for you,” she said.
“You are.”
She leaned over and kissed me before I could say anything else.
Her mouth tasted like the wine.
She pressed close, one hand on the back of my neck.
When she pulled back her cheeks were pink from the heat of the fire.
“I have been thinking about touching you like this for a long time,” she said.
Her fingers moved under the hem of my shirt and rested on my stomach.
The touch was warm and steady.
I kissed her again, longer this time.
She climbed into my lap without breaking the kiss.
Her thighs settled on either side of mine.
She pulled her sweater off over her head and dropped it on the floor.
Underneath was a thin tank top that showed the shape of her body clearly.
I ran my hands up her sides and she shivered even though the room was warm now.
“The bedroom,” she said against my mouth.
We stood up together.
She took my hand and led me through the door.
The bed was already made with the flannel sheets we had seen when we arrived.
She turned on the small lamp on the nightstand and the light was soft and yellow.
Snow tapped against the window behind the bed.
Harper pushed me back onto the mattress and climbed on top again.
She kissed my jaw, then my neck, then lower.
“Is this okay?” she asked, her voice muffled against my skin.
“Yes,” I said.
She sat up and helped me pull my shirt off.
Her hands explored my chest slowly, like she was memorizing the feel.
I reached under her tank top and she lifted her arms so I could take it off.
Her skin was pale in the lamplight, dotted with a few freckles across her collarbone.
I cupped her breasts and she leaned into my hands.
She made a small sound when my thumbs brushed her nipples.
“Take the rest off,” she said.
She stood long enough to push her jeans and underwear down together.
I did the same with mine.
When we were both naked she crawled back onto the bed and straddled me again.
She reached between us and guided me inside her slowly.
The heat of her made me catch my breath.
She stayed still for a second, eyes closed, then started to move.
Her hips rolled in small circles at first.
I held her waist and matched her rhythm.
The bed creaked under us.
Outside the wind howled louder.
She opened her eyes and looked down at me.
“I have thought about this exact position for months,” she said.
Her voice was steady even though her breathing was fast.
She leaned forward so her chest pressed against mine.
I could feel her heartbeat.
She moved faster and I felt her getting closer.
She came first with a long moan into my neck.
Her body tightened around me.
I followed right after, holding her hips as I finished.
We stayed like that for a minute, breathing hard.
She eventually rolled off and lay on her side facing me.
The room felt smaller than before.
She reached over and traced a line down my chest with one finger.
“That was better than I imagined,” she said.
I laughed once, a short sound.
“You imagined it?”
She nodded.
“Almost every night before I fall asleep.”
She pulled the blanket up over both of us.
We lay there listening to the snow and the fire in the other room.
After a while she spoke again.
“Last month when you went out with your coworkers after work I checked your location five times.”
She said it like she was confessing something small.
“I know you were just having a drink. I still checked.”
I turned my head to look at her.
Her face was calm.
“I am not mad,” she said. “I just wanted to know you got home safe.”
I did not know what to say so I kissed her forehead instead.
The lamp stayed on.
Sometime later I woke up because she was moving against me again.
It was still dark but the fire had not gone out completely.
Harper was pressed to my back, one arm over my chest.
Her hand slid lower.
“Can we do it again?” she whispered.
“Yes,” I said.
This time it was slower.
She guided me onto my side and I entered her from behind.
She reached back and held my hip so I stayed deep.
Her voice was soft and close to my ear.
“I love how you feel inside me,” she said.
The second time took longer.
We moved together in long, steady strokes.
She reached down and touched herself while I kept going.
When she came her whole body tensed and she pushed back hard against me.
I came a minute later with my face buried in her hair.
After that we did not move for a long time.
The snow had not stopped.
Harper turned in my arms so we were facing each other.
Her hair was messy and stuck to her cheek.
She looked at me with those hazel eyes that never seemed to blink enough.
“Do you feel trapped with me?” she asked.
I opened my mouth but nothing came out.
The wind kept hitting the windows and neither of us moved.
The question hung there while the cabin stayed quiet around us.