In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, Chapter 2 [First Access] (Patreon)

I returned to the house to find Madison and Lily sitting on the porch, drinking tea and talking like old friends. I offered a friendly wave, and they both cheerfully greeted me back.

“See any animals?” Madison asked.

Only your weird partner, I wanted to say. Instead: “I saw some goats from a distance. And chickens.”

“You need to come in the spring,” Madison said. “We’re planning on adding another goat, and let me tell you, there’s nothing cuter than a baby goat.”

“Aww,” Lily gushed. “Oh my god, we have to.”

“We’ve got some beer if you want,” Madison said. A beer did sound pretty good.

“Yeah, I’m in.”

“I thought you’d say that. And don’t worry. I’m sure I have something here worthy of your big city small-batch craft-brew tastes.”

I blushed a little, feeling called out. I offered a shrug. “I...I’m really okay with whatever you have.”

“Don’t let him fool you,” Lily said, rolling her eyes. “He waited outside of one of the local breweries overnight so that he could get a case of some special limited beer.”

“They make it once a year! And it sells out in, like, 10 minutes every year!”

“Alright, calm down, sommelier,” Madison teased. “This door goes into the kitchen. There’s some beer in the fridge. But if that’s not to your liking, there’s a door next to the stove that goes into the garage. There’s some more beer in a fridge in there.”

“I’ll take a look,” I said with a shrug, leaning into her teasing. “I’m curious to see what you country folk know about good beer.”

“Oh,” Madison laughed. “So he’s a little bit of a smartass too?”

“He hides it well,” Lily replied.

I entered the kitchen, finding myself immediately impressed with the size and space of the kitchen. It wasn’t entirely surprising, given the size of the house, but there simply wasn’t an experience I could compare this to in the city. Most of our apartment could fit in this kitchen, and I knew for a fact that we had friends with apartments that were smaller than this.

I walked past the kitchen island, gawking at the extra gas range and sink it sported in addition to the units on the perimeter of the kitchen, before reaching the fridge. I was curious what Madison and Kat were doing that afforded them this lifestyle. Maybe the cost of living was less - but that also meant that there probably weren’t many great jobs out here. Whatever they were doing, I was a little jealous.

Giant Harpoon. Sawdaddy. Mountain City. There was an impressive selection of beers in this fridge. And even more in the garage? I shouldn’t be nosey, I thought. But she did tell me I could do so. And now I was kind of curious.

I opened the door next to the stove, traversing a short hallway to another door that I assumed was the garage. I was imagining myself in a horror movie, where everything seems perfect and too good to be true - only for the rug to be pulled out from under me and find out that I was due to be sacrificed to an ancient god with more apostrophes than vowels in his name. T’yr’g’d’lrg?

But the garage seemed to be just a normal garage. As far as I could tell, there was no altar here. Maybe that was in the barn. The garage door was open, and I was again thankful for that fresh clean air.

I found the other fridge, hiding behind an ATV and riding lawn mower, and I opened it, revealing - as promised - more beer. As I studied my selections, I could hear some footsteps entering the garage, presumably from the open garage door. With the fridge door open, I couldn’t see who it was, but I was guessing it was Kat. I felt awkward again - pawing through their beer stash after I had already just about given her a heart attack. I stayed still behind the fridge door, hoping she’d do what she needed to do and leave without noticing my presence.

“Hey, Maddy, I was hoping that, like, before I go and introduce myself to your friends you could...uh...help me change? I just…” she trailed off - perhaps seeing my shoes below the bottom of the fridge door, or perhaps there was some other sign that I wasn’t who she thought I was.

I slowly closed the fridge door, a can of IPA in my hands. “Uh...hey Kat. Sorry, I think Madison is out on the porch right now.”

For the second time in as many interactions, Kat’s face turned red. She nodded quickly and spun on her heels before fleeing the garage as quickly as she had entered. I felt bad for startling her, again. It didn’t seem like things were off to that good of a start between us.

I began walking back through the kitchen to the porch when I found myself pondering what Kat had said in the garage. Needed help...changing? That didn’t make much sense to me. It was clearly none of my business, but it was curious nonetheless.

“The Ox Hoof IPA,” Madison said as I emerged from the house, beer in hand. “A good choice!”

“I take back my doubt of the countryfolk’s taste in beer.”

I considered bringing up my strange interactions with Kat, but figured I’d let it go. If I had caused Kat any sort of embarrassment, I didn’t want to add to it by further broadcasting those moments to everyone else - especially since Lily hadn’t even met her yet.

Taking a seat, I listened in on Lily and Madison’s conversion for a minute or two - some story about their high school days and an ill-fated attempt at buying cigarettes from an undercover cop - before tuning out and just listening to the sound of the birds and humming cicadas. I might have fallen asleep for a moment or two, stirred by the sound of Kat calling out to Madison from inside the house.

“Hey, Maddy, could I borrow you for a moment?”

“Oh, hey Kat! Our guest are here! You should come out and say hi!”

“I...definitely will in a minute or two. But...if I could just borrow you for a moment.”

“Oh! Oh. Right, right.” Madison turned her attention to Lily and I. “Excuse me for just a moment. I have to help with Madison with something and then we’ll be right out.”

“Of course,” said Lily, showing no signs that she thought anything was strange or out of place.

With Madison back inside the house, I leaned forward to Lily. With a hushed tone: “I ran into Kat.”

“Oh yeah? Was she nice?”

“I...I don’t know. I think I surprised her, or she wasn’t ready to meet strangers or something. It was kind of awkward.”

“Madison speaks highly of her, so maybe it’ll be better when we all get a chance to properly introduce ourselves.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

I had wanted to say more about our interactions, but I bit my tongue. If it really did come down to proper introductions, I didn’t want to have started unnecessary gossip.

“How are you liking the farm?” she said, changing the subject.

“Love it. It’s amazing.” I sat back in my chair, and my voice returned to its usual volume. “I know it's going to sound silly but...I don’t think I’ve ever really been in a place like this. Growing up in the city and the suburbs and all.”

“That’s not silly at all,” Lily said, putting her hand on my thigh. “That’s why I wanted you to come out here. Isn’t it great?”

If this was an elaborate trap to sacrifice me to T’yr’g’d’lrg, I was content with my fate. For now, I was happy to be sitting on this giant porch, taking in the sights of the farm with my wife, feeling closer to her than I had in a while.

While things had never been bad between Lily and I, the last few months had at least felt a little strained. We each strived to carve out our own workspace at home since we were both working from there - and there was a natural fatigue in just seeing each other all day, everyday. We had been doing more things for ourselves - she was taking long walks at night; I was shooting zombies in post-apocalyptic wastelands with my friends.

If nothing else, it was probably a good thing that we got to disconnect from our normal routine.

A few minutes later - maybe a few minutes longer than whatever I had expected - Madison and Kat returned to the porch. Kat was looking much more composed now. I could just see it in her face and her warm smile.

“This is my partner Kat. Kat, this is Lily and Henry.”

Lily and I stood, trading quick hugs with Kat. While she seemed much less anxious now, I still caught a hint of embarrassment in her eyes as we hugged. But there was something else, too. Her scent? As we pulled away from each other, I felt weird for thinking about it all - but I couldn’t quite place it and I could tell that it was going to linger in my mind for a bit.

“Sooo,” Lily said, taking her seat again, while Kat pulled up a chair of her own. “Tell me about yourself.”

“Oh...what’s there to say,” Kat said with a bashful laugh. She and Madison exchanged a glance and both laughed a little. There was an obvious chemistry there that was fun to watch. “I’m not very good at talking about myself.”

“Stop being so modest, you stinkbug,” Madison said, playfully shoving Kat. “She’s incredible! A natural farmer. She put up the chicken coop and the fencing all by herself! And you should hear her sing!”

“I’m not going to sing for them!” Kat said sternly.

“We’ll just get some wine in her later,” Madison said with a shrug. “You’ll see. She opens up like a fire hydrant.”

“How did you meet?” Lily asked.

Madison and Kat exchanged another glance, laughing again. “Ah, well, we met online,” Madison said. “You know, as everyone does these days. And it was just one of those things...you see something you want and you just have to have it.”

Kat blushed at this and the two held hands.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Lily said. “I think what you have here is incredible. Kat seems delightful. And this farm? Wow… But, back when I knew you, I just didn’t see...this. You know what I mean? I think it's wonderful.”

“Back then,” Madison said, “I thought I knew what I wanted. So I got married to Leo. And it started off fine but things sort of fell apart quickly. I had spent so long wanting to be a good wife and mother - like my mother had been - that by the time I actually had that chance, I thought, what if I’d like something else more? And...well, Kat is that something more.”

“So,” I said, taking a gamble on whether or not this was an appropriate question to ask, “I got to say… This farm? This house? It’s incredible. Are there jobs around here? Like, what do we need to do to live like this too?”

They both laughed again and looked at each other. They traded some “uhms” and “ahs” for a moment, nonverbally trying to negotiate how they’d answer the question.

“Well,” Madison said with a shrug, “we have the luxury of working from home. As I guess more and more folks do anymore. But we make...online content. And we’re thankful for how lucrative that it's been that it's afforded us our home and property.”

“Oh wow,” Lily said. “That’s incredible! I didn’t know that. What kind of content are you making? Like crafts and stuff on YouTube?”

There was an awkward silence on the porch. I was surprised that that was where Lily’s mind went first. I heard “online content” and my first thought was something more adult. And judging by Madison and Kat’s stunned look...I suspected that I probably wasn’t too far off.

“Well...no...not exactly,” Madison said.

Kat buried her face in her hands, though I wasn’t sure if she was trying to hide her giggling, or if she was that ashamed.

I looked back to Lily, watching her face as she slowly put the pieces together herself. She blushed and laughed awkwardly. “O-oh...sorry...I had no idea that you were doing...that sort of thing.”

“I know, I know,” Madison said, composing herself after laughing a little. “It’s a lot to take in. And I hope that doesn’t change how you view me. View us, really. I guess that’s why it took so long for me to reach out to you again. I was kind of afraid to reveal this part of our lives to you.”

“No…” Lily was clearly in between thoughts. She didn’t look offended, she just looked confused. Curious, maybe. “I would never judge anyone for that. Especially you. It's none of my business, I promise. I’m honestly so glad we’ve connected again, and...you know, what you do in your time is your business.” She shrugged, as casually as she could muster. “I just didn’t expect...that.”

“Not that it matters,” Madison said, “but it’s not like...straight up fucking each other or rolling around while naked and covered in oil. It’s more like…”

Kat shot her a concerned look and made a small whining noise. Madison stopped and laughed a little, realizing that whatever it was they did, maybe Kat was less interested in talking about it than Madison was.

“It’s not a big deal,” Lily said with a shrug. “There’s a million things for us to catch up on.”

“Exactly,” Madison said with a nod. “In fact, I was thinking about cooking up some dinner. Want to come in and help out?”

“I’d love that,” Lily said gleefully. “I do love to cook...and I’m dying to see that kitchen in action.”

“Oh, girl, you’re going to love it. Come on!”

“Do you need any help?” I offered.

“Nah, we’re good. Why don’t you chill out here. Kat? Can you keep him company?”

“O-of course,” she said. She smiled, but her cheeks had grown a little rosie.

Admittedly, so had mine.