“Makris,” Alex replied.
“Of course, Mister Makris,” the staffer answered. “You are in cabin 48.”
Alex looked at the two keys and moved them closer and farther a few times until he could read the numbers. 16 and 48. He raised the one numbered 48 and put it into his pocket, assured that he wouldn’t mix them up again.
“Thank you,” Alex said and pulled a twenty-dollar bill from his other pocket. “Happy New Year.”
The staffer took the bill and smiled. “Happy New Year to you too, Mister Makris.”
Alex walked awkwardly to his father and handed him the key to cabin 16. His dad gave him a goofy smile and then reached up to pad his shoulder.
“You are a good boy, Alex,” Nico said. “And you have a good wife. I hope you are treating her well.”
“Very well,” Alex responded.
“Good,” Nico said. “When I was younger, I made a lot of mistakes, but your mother was not one of them.”
“I know, Papa,” Alex replied. “Why don’t we get you back to her.”
“Oh, yes,” Nico replied, moving his hips like he was dancing. “Your mother told me that tonight we might…”
“Huh?” Alex asked. He watched his father for a long moment before he realized the man was using dancing as a euphemism. “Oh. Then we need to get you back to the cabin quickly.”
“Yes,” Nico agreed. “I am beginning to get into my mood. Your mother says I turn into an animal.”
“Okay,” Alex said with a chuckle, “I don’t need to know that.”
“It should not be shameful for a man to want to ravish his woman like a tiger in the wild,” Nico argued.
“It is not,” Alex replied, “but his son also doesn’t want to hear that his father dominates his mother in bed.”
Nico stopped and seemed to think about Alex’s words for a long time. Then he chuckled and said, “I think you are right. Point me to my cabin and I shall not speak another word.”
Alex scanned the cabin area and realized cabin 16 was on the opposite end of the lakeside row as 48. He turned his father toward the cabin and pointed.
“And a good night to you, Alexander,” Nico said, his voice turned formal.
“Good night, Father,” Alex said in a similarly formal fashion.
Walking to cabin 48 proved to be a bit trickier than Alex imagined. For whatever reason, someone had put snow in his way, and snow was slippery. He thought one of the staffers was going to lose his job in the morning, and he did not want to be in that office when the boss man came down hard. Honestly, why snow?
The lock to cabin 48 also proved to be tricky. The darn thing kept moving around on him. He thought there should be some law against locks that move, but for now he would deal with it and talk to the resort manager in the morning. After all, it was only a few minutes to midnight, and he didn’t want to be calling the manager just moments before he started a new year.
The cabin was dark when he opened the door and Alex tried to be as quiet as possible. His wife seemed like she was asleep, laying under the thick blankets of the one bed in the room. Stepping in quickly, he closed the door and rejoiced that he hadn’t let most of the heat of the room out. In fact, it was downright hot now that he’d been in the frosty outdoors, and he started taking off his clothes as he got farther into the single room cabin.