Love In The Wild West

Once they got to their room, Louise turned to Lila and said, “Is this place great or what? Oh, I am so glad that we are doing your birthday here!”

“Me too,” said Lila, forcing a smile. “It’s a really great… ranch.”

“Yeah it is!” said Louise. “I have to admit, I was a little worried that we were going to be staying at a ranch, I mean, it’s nice and all, the idea of a ranch, but I didn’t really know if I would enjoy it. You were right in the bus, I am a city girl through and through and I would not really enjoy myself if I stayed at a ranch. This is not so bad, though! It’s actually really good, and I think that we are going to have a really good time here.”

“Yeah,” said Lila, biting her tongue so that she did not end up saying anything mean or rude about this place. “Yeah, I think we are going to have a great time here as well.”

“You want to shower and then jump into the pool?” asked Louise.

Lila sighed and said, “Sure. That sounds like a great idea.” She figured that she should make the best of this trip, especially since her friend was so excited about it. This was all for her, after all. Louise had brought them here so that they could celebrate Lila’s thirtieth birthday in style. Lila would be able to enjoy herself if she just let loose. She just couldn’t shake how disappointed she was by the fact that this place was not all that it had been advertised.

They each showered and then went to the pool where they talked to a couple of cute guys that were staying at the hotel as well. They were really attractive and both Lila and Louise were interested in going up to their rooms but they were checking out in a few hours so there was no point in doing any of that.

Once they swam in the pool for a while, they had worked up a huge appetite for themselves. Hence, they showered and got the chlorine off of their bodies and started to make their way to the various restaurants that the ranch housed so that they could have lunch.

They had a big lunch, enjoying steaks and wine as well as a delicious chocolate cake for dessert, and once they were done they headed up to their rooms and collapsed onto their beds. “I love this place,” said Louise. “Me too,” said Lila, the lie hidden deep beneath the fake tones of cheeriness in her voice. “Let’s never leave,” said Louise, “seriously, let’s just live here until we die.”

Lila laughed and said, “I do not think even you can afford that,” she said. “As much as we want to, we are gonna have to go back some time.”

“Oh do not talk about that right now,” said Louise. “Let’s go to the spa after a little while. I want to enjoy my time here as much as possible.”

“That sounds like fun,” said Lila. In all honesty, it did not sound like a lot of fun. She wanted to go horse riding, she wanted to round up cattle, she wanted to learn how to tie an actual lasso. These were the things that she had been looking forward too, and these were the things that this place was sadly not going to be able to offer her. She was disappointed that this place had turned out to be a fake, but Louise was very important to her. Lila wanted her best friend to have a good time. At least one of them should, after all, since they had spent quite a bit of money to come here.

The spa was nice, as far as spas go. It was the type of place that pampered you a lot, and Lila enjoyed herself as much as she could. By the time they got back to their room, Louise was exhausted so she collapsed onto the bed and went to sleep immediately. Lila looked at her best friend, poked her to make sure she was asleep, and then exited the room. She was going to go for a walk. She had to do something, anything, to take her mind off of the fact that this place was not everything that she had wanted it to be.

So many years spent fantasizing about going to a ranch, and the first chance she got to actually go to a ranch she had come to this place. This… hoax, this place that turned the cowboy lifestyle into a brand, a marketing strategy. She was extremely frustrated, especially because of the fact that she was going to have to fake enjoyment for a week before returning to the city and the job that she hated from the bottom of her heart.

She walked along the perimeter of the ranch. It was quite beautiful at night, once she got away from the incessant music of the nightclub. She was closer to the calm of the desert here, and the night air was cool. She wondered what was going on out there in the desert, the real cowboy territory. She wondered what animals were out and about right now, whether there was anything exciting happening. She could not see the lights of the city from here and that was a small comfort. At least she was away from that concrete jungle, that place that forced you to become a slave to a corporation.

Lila wondered if she would ever be able to escape the life that had been forced onto her. She wondered if she would ever be able to enjoy the freedom of working at a ranch. This trip had given her hope, but it had been a false hope. This was a nice place, but it was not what she had wanted.

All of a sudden, all of these thoughts were struck from Lila’s mind when she bumped into somebody as she walked. She felt a muscular body against her own, rock hard, a body that sent her tumbling backwards before she landed square on her ass. Pain shot up her tailbone, but Lila did not notice it, because when she looked up she saw the handsomest man she had ever seen in her life.