He considered it another of his conquests and little did he realize, he was about to be conquered. His habit of playing one woman off another for his own enjoyment had become his pattern and his victories almost endless. His games were thwarting true love for any of those involved because the taste from his adventures spoiled it for all of them, including him at last.

They had come down the mountain this first time and while he did have her slightly mesmerized, she was a lot harder to convince. Convince that he was what she wanted. He decided that with some time he could make her do whatever he wanted and then when he was ready, he would cut her loose like all the rest of them.

The ride down was quicker than the ride up. That was the essence of adventure and time, getting somewhere unique was always the anticipation, coming down, just the wrap up, the reflection. 

 She was so soft and so malleable, he knew it and he would be the strong one, the one who directed the play, the one who would watch it all unfold and anticipate each new scene.

 They pulled up to an inn at the foot of the mountain. It was actually very cold and the heat in the car felt comfortable. All this cold and damp, all the time, she was not sure she wanted to get out of the car again. She had just warmed up after the ride down that mountain. She could not shut her eyes, as the sun was really waning, it got to be more treacherous feeling and scarey.

 "Come on, lets get a quick drink before we get back to town. I will have to do some work tonight and then the band will be rehearsing." What he was really thinking about was how he was going to explain his absence again to his live in girlfriend.

She was ready for a drink. That ride, while beautiful, was nerve wracking and she had not easily dismissed the look on Han's face, the bus driver. What the hell was he smirking about anyway. Why should she even care what he did or if he saw her anyway. He was an old oaf.

" Yeah, it is a good time for a gluh wein I think. I could use something about now. It was damn cold up there. Let's get in there for something and we will then get going, I have stuff to do tonight too," she said.

So together they walked into a sea of light blond pine, with all sorts of red embroidered curtains and lace. It seemed large by the standards that she had become accustomed. It was not like the other dark, smoky little places that were around town. Then she realized it was a real inn with a restaurant attached. It must be a popular tourist place, and this was an off hour. The restaurant was nearly empty.

Well, that was easy enough he thought, she will sit here with me, we will have a drink and then we will head back and I will be just in time. Only it did not happen quite that way. His mind was not on her really at this moment, it was racing for all the other things in his life that he had to manage. It was like a game, or being at the race track, once finished, you won or lost and it was on to the next one. He liked it that way. Organized, without too much feeling. He could manage all he needed to in his life, job, music, this was just cream.

As they sat together, her imagination took her far away, and while he was there and she was attracted to him, she was not really engaged with what they were doing. She was thinking about how beautiful this place was, how interesting, how much she hated what brought her there in the first place. She was counting the minutes until she could leave and resume whatever it was she could on the other side of the ocean. She was attracted to him, that was for sure, but by this time she knew that she needed much more that attraction. She needed respect. He was a good time waster and it was exciting to do things together. He was intelligent and in a strange way, she read him as being more vulnerable than herself.

She had been rejected before. She was too intense, by that lovers standard. Really? What else was an artist supposed to be? How do the colors get so orange unless you mix them heartily with red and yellow both? Too intense, no more just like you could not control me, puppet me and make me into what you wanted. Yes, it hurt, not to be the puppet of your dreams, but hell, who wanted to be a puppet??? These were her thoughts they took her far away from this, back to New York.

He had been mistaken. He  thought her angst about going up the mountain was some kind of sexual tension. He thought he had the whole thing figured out. Then with a start, he realized he really didn't know her. She was different, it was, well, tantalizing. He began to take off his sweater.

She looked at him, as if she just saw him for the first time. He reached around himself and was about to pull the sweater over his head and stopped abruptly.

"What are you doing?"  She had looked, at least there was something under that sweater, but what the hell? The waiter had not even come yet, they had not even had the gluh wein yet.

"I am warm, really warm, I am taking off this sweater. " He spoke to her like he was being very firm, yet wondering and softening all in the same breath. Her face kind of relaxed and she thought about what he was saying. He is warm, even without wine?

He relaxed and told her, " It is perfectly acceptable in Austria, that if one is warm, after coming in from the cold, to take off your sweater. I am sorry if I startled you, it is done all the time."

She smiled broadly, yes, she had a feeling it was done all the time.

At her smile he further melted, but there was nothing left to take off in public. This woman had a way of making him very hot. He was calm as he wrapped up the sweater and stuffed it near his coat. Why was he so warm?

Soon the gluh wein came and it was nearly all over. There was something about that smell of that heated wine that further heated the situation. They both sipped and looked at each other and spoke very little. Like they were taking it all in and measuring it to see if it really was a fit. Soon another serving was ordered, and the swish of the machine as it was being dispensed, broke the silence in the place.

The brightness in the room disappeared with the sun, and soon it was time to leave, but not before seeing each other differently for the first time. All their time together was piecemeal, it didn't fit well together, it was planned, yet unplanned, casual in the very best sense.

Suddenly they were off and they did not really speak in the car. When they arrived it was dark. He dropped her off at her apartment and in that moment, he looked into her eyes and had a strange thought. He did not want to leave her. To be damned anything else, if she invited him in, he was going.

She felt for the first time a feeling of reluctance to leave him, yet of satisfaction. She had a lot to do and an early start the next day. She really did not have time for more. Yet, she lingered and she felt him standing on the mountain again. He had grasped her hand tightly as she stepped onto the ice. He had made her feel in that instant he was connected to her. Yet, it was very human, like a child holding another child's hand. They had laughed as they slid and hurried back to where they should be. In an instant she still felt it was just something without too much depth, something that if she painted it one way it would still be another.

So the basis of that attraction was that there was really no time for more. Clever romance is unplanned and not crafted as we think, it happens like a strange current when there is a connection that cannot be broken. 

 Copyright 2011 by SheilaTGTG55

 Read Part One Here:

http://open.salon.com/blog/sheilatgtg55/2011/01/26/love_and_the_grossglockner_-_part_one

Part Three coming soon!