“I think so,” I replied. “I just paid for it out of my trust fund.”

“I suspect that Braden will be handling their finances as a couple,” Adam said as Braden laughed and shook his head.

“So should we pick bedrooms?” I asked excitedly. I might have actually enjoyed Girl Scout camp much more if this had been my cabin. Nobody really had any preference about bedrooms as they were pretty much exactly alike so Cam and Jess went to the left along with Lily and Adam and Braden and I wound up in the two bedrooms to the right.

Braden and I took a few minutes to check everything out. Our room had a nice queen size bed with a very soft-looking comforter in a rich red color. The décor in there was also warm and rustic and so, like the rest of the place, it was very cozy. The private bathroom would make things easier. Our joint morning shower could be slightly more awkward with a line of people waiting outside. We started unpacking and putting our things away.

“I was thinking. After dinner and this get together, or whatever it is, we could come back here and have a drink and maybe enjoy the hot tub for a while,” Braden said as he unpacked. I had a feeling that was just the beginning of his plan for the evening.

“That sounds nice.” I smiled.

“And then later, we could come back in here and I know a position we haven’t tried that I think you would really like. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion,” he said happily.

“Well, actually, I have a surprise for you later too,” I said, feeling myself blush a little.

“What kind of surprise?” he asked, sounding very intrigued.

“I’m not telling.” I giggled. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Oh come on!” He stopped packing and came over to me. “If you don’t tell I’ll be forced to get the information out of you by other means.”

“What other means?” I giggled more and found out as he started tickling me. “I’m not telling!” I squealed and the two of us fell onto the bed where I squirmed, writhed, laughed and tried to get away. Soon I was bucking my h*ps underneath him and I quickly realized that he was becoming highly aroused.

“Gabrielle, I think it’s time for a quickie,” he said thickly and started kissing my neck. I moaned and wrapped my legs around him.

And then the knock on the door came. Because you knew that there had to be a knock on the door. Braden and I practiced coitus interruptus more often than most Catholics.

“Yes?!” Braden called out none too warmly.

“I’m sorry guys!” Cam answered sounding embarrassed. “The food’s here, though, and everyone’s waiting.”

“Okay! We’ll be right there!” I called out in what I hoped was a light cheerful voice and I heard him walk away.

“Does it seem like we don’t get to have sex very often without a waiting period being involved?” Braden asked, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling blankly.

“It’ll be worth the wait,” I rolled onto my tummy, gently stroked his hair and leaned down to kiss him softly on the forehead. He looked up at me for a second and smiled and then got up silently and went to go splash cold water on his face and pace around to reestablish the blood flow. Five minutes later we sat down at the table to dig in to our Italian cuisine. Braden was still not looking very jolly though.

“Oh, I think someone’s a Gloomy Gus,” Adam said with barely suppressed mirth.

“I’m sorry I bothered you guys,” Cameron said, looking a bit more contrite but also rather amused. “We’re running kind of late though.” He shrugged and pointed at his watch helplessly.

“Your fiancée there has us scheduled for drinks with the X-Files gang tonight,” Adam, who obviously had a death wish, went on. “Wouldn’t want to be late for that.”

“I was looking at the schedule,” Lily chimed in. “They’ve got a local historian coming to tell the stories of both the UFO sighting and the ghosts that supposedly haunt this place.”

“I’m sure that’s much more fun than whatever you had planned, Brade.” Adam smiled.

“Keep it up and you’ll be the next ghost haunting this place,” Braden said, which just made Adam laugh more.

“So, we listen to the historian and…?” Jess asked Lily who was still reading the schedule.

“And there’s a ‘meet and greet’ and then some folks will be heading out to the woods to see if they spot any UFOs,” Lily answered.

“How about instead of searching for aliens and sitting in a forest at night we come back here and search for some alcohol and sit in the hot tub?” Jess suggested.

“Ah! Come on! I wanted to hunt the aliens!” Cam laughed.

“How long do the lecture and the meet and greet last?” Braden asked. I had a feeling he was mentally counting down the minutes until we could go to bed.

“Um, well it runs from eight until ten,” Lily answered. “And it’s seven-thirty now so we’ll have just enough time to clean up and head over to the Lodge.”

We finished up and while Jess and I cleaned up and Lily stocked the kitchen with the few groceries we had brought along, Cam and Adam stocked the bar with the large supply of alcohol we had brought. Braden, meanwhile, checked to make sure that the hot tub was working and to quickly finish our unpacking. Twenty minutes later we headed to the Lodge on foot. It took less than five minutes to get there but the darkness and woods made it feel kind of spooky. When we arrived we followed signs to the saloon where the ‘meet and greet’ was taking place. As soon as we got in the door we saw a table with “Hello” badges and went over to fill them out. The ink had barely dried when we were approached by a positively exuberant couple with badges indicating that they were Earl and Marge.

“Hello there!” Earl said enthusiastically. “Earl Samuels, and my better half, Marge.” He reached out a hand and vigorously pumped all of our arms a few times.

“Nice to meet you!” The woman, who resembled a codfish, said in a slightly manic voice. Marge looked like she had drunk about sixteen pots of coffee.

We introduced ourselves and they shared that they had been attending this conference for several years. We also learned that Earl sold insurance and Marge was a service desk manager at K-Mart and that they both firmly believed that aliens walked among us. Yeah, this was going to be a long night. We finally managed to extricate ourselves and make it to the bar.

“Did you think that Earl could be the shadow?” I asked Adam.

“It’s hard to tell. Like I said, I didn’t get a great look at his face. I thought he might have been a little younger, but Earl seems to be in decent shape and he’s about the right size. It’s possible.”

“They didn’t act like they recognized us, though,” Braden commented.

“Marge seemed pretty nervous,” I pointed out.

“Honey, I get the feeling that Marge is nervous a lot,” Jess put in.

After fortifying ourselves with alcohol we decided to work the room a little more. The next couple to approach looked like former hippies. They appeared to be in their sixties and it seemed like they hadn’t had a haircut since then either. The woman was dressed like a gypsy and the man was dressed like Tonto.

“Hello,” said the woman pleasantly. “I’m Rain and this is my lover Forrest.” I laughed loudly. Nobody else laughed at all, loudly or otherwise.

“Oh!” I said. “You weren’t kidding.” Braden quickly pulled me to his side and reached out to shake their hands.

“I’m Braden, my fiancée Gabrielle, our friends Cameron, Jessica, Adam and Lily.” They all smiled and waved to Rain and Forrest.

“Wow man, it’s really cool to have new people here!” Forrest said. “We want to share your thoughts so I hope that you’ll take some time and rap with us.”

“Well, personally, I don’t really like rap, but I do like the blues,” I assured him.

“What he means is that we want the information to flow freely. We are all here to explore the possibilities and expand our minds,” Rain added helpfully.

“Oh, okay. Well, I’m good with flowing and expanding,” I answered, nodding like I understood what in the hell she was talking about.

“Far out,” Forrest said. “We’ll catch you later.” With that they wandered off.

“I think that Braden will also be handling most of the speaking for them as a couple.” Adam laughed and I glared at him.

“Forrest is too old and too skinny. Do you agree?” I asked him irritably.

“Yeah, absolutely. It’s not Forrest and it’s not Rain even though she’s pretty tall for a woman,” Adam agreed.

“Well, the room is packed with white guys of average height and weight, do you see him anywhere?” I asked.

“I don’t think so but it’s kind of hard to tell,” he answered, looking around. “There are so many average-looking guys here, which just makes it all the scarier.” I saw someone else on the move, coming in our direction.

“Greetings!” said a short skinny guy with black-framed glasses and wild red hair that stuck up in several places. He was wearing a T-shirt with a Star Trek insignia on it. “I’m Stew Morrison and I’m an organizer of this conference. We’re so happy to have you with us. Are you here because you’ve made contact or just because you want to learn the truth?”

“Well …” I started but Braden cut me off tactfully.

“We’re open-minded and curious people,” he said with a smile.

“I see! Well, that’s wonderful!” Stew was looking at Braden carefully. “You look a little familiar. What do you do?”

“I’m a lawyer,” Braden answered in a friendly tone. “We all are actually.” We introduced ourselves to Stew and he turned his attention to me. “You look familiar too. I could almost swear that I’ve seen you two somewhere recently.” I was about to explain that he might have seen a picture of us together in the engagement announcement but Adam jumped in.

“So, Stew! Is this the whole gang assembled here?” he asked.

“Oh, no. There’ll be more people arriving tomorrow and even more still tomorrow night when we all go out on the watch. Stella, who’s also a group member, has psychic abilities and she has a strong feeling that this is the year that our visitors will return. Here, let me introduce you.” He looked over and waved at a woman standing near the bar who looked like she was having a conversation with the air beside her. She looked over at Stew and began walking in our direction.

“Stella, let me introduce you to …”

“She’s psychic. Maybe she already knows our names,” I joked.

“What’s that?” Stella asked the chair to her left. Nobody was actually sitting in the chair at the moment so I thought she meant literally.

“That’s a chair,” I said helpfully.

“Her name is Gabrielle,” Stella continued.

“Do you name all of your furniture?” Adam asked with a smile.

“She’s speaking with Emily,” Stew explained. “One of our resident ghosts.”

“Uh huh,” Cam said. “I take it that you and Emily have met, Gabrielle?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I know some Emmas …”

“Hang on a second!” Lily jumped in. “You’re saying that there’s a ghost sitting in that chair and the ghost knew Gabrielle’s name?”

“Yes, Emily knows many things,” Stella said with dramatic flair. She should meet the pecker. She seemed to be glancing back and forth between Lily and Adam though. That actually made me wonder …

“Emily must read the Philadelphia Inquirer,” Jess said with a smile.

“I sense skepticism,” Stella said a bit reproachfully. “There’s too much negative energy here now. We must be moving on.” With that she and Emily left.

“She’s a bit touchy,” Stew explained. “Let me know if you need anything.” He smiled and moved on.

“Don’t be snarky with the crazy ghost lady,” I said to Jess as soon as Stew was out of earshot. “We need to get in good with these people.”

“You guys were messing around with her too,” Jess said with a smile.

“I don’t think that you should openly share who your relatives are with these people, Gabrielle,” Adam warned.

“He’s right, Gab,” Cam agreed. “A senator’s son and the daughter of a powerful CEO might not be the most popular folks in a room filled with conspiracy theorists.” Three more people started moving our way.

“How nice to see some new blood here this year!” said a squat, middle-aged guy who reminded me of an accountant “Stephen Jebson!” He shook our hands. “I’m an accountant.” Hey! Did I call it?

“Mathew Sinclair. I work in the hospitality industry,” said a second man, who reminded me of Liberace but more flamboyant. He had tinted hair, a hot pink shirt and a diamond earring.

“I am Raoul,” said the third man, like that meant something. He had jet black hair with enough grease in it to lube the entire parking lot. He also had a shirt unbuttoned halfway to his navel and about fifty gold chains. Sexy. We introduced ourselves yet again to the newest arrivals.

“We haven’t had anyone new at the conference in a while,” Mathew offered.

“Well, we’re kind of new to the UFO world,” I explained.