"You didn't have to do that." Nick said.

"I know, but I did it anyways." Samantha said with a premature giggle.

"Why quit your job? You were making good money… I mean, why would you quit just for me?" Nick asked, a thoughtful expression planted on his face. Samantha, the girl of Nicks dreams walked right up to him with the petulant hint of a smile. She held his full attention, Nicks brown eyes wide and fixated onto Samantha's blue.

"Because you", she said, poking him squarely on the nose. "Need me a lot more than some stock broker in New York."

The shock still had not worn off, but something clicked inside of Nick's mind, the four months of dating finally reaching the culmination of which both parties had been awaiting. Shaking off his disbelief and heading deeper into the unfamiliar waters he accepted the flow of the current and simply did what came naturally. Nick, in uncharacteristic bravado twirled her by the hand, before with a devilish grin he kissed her intensely.

Samantha, both surprised and elated kissed him back just as fiercely. The feeling was like nothing either of them had ever experienced, and a deep blush bloomed on both of the two lovers cheeks as Samantha opened her mouth with a gasp, and asked, "where are we going to go?"

"I don't know?" Nick said breathlessly, "anywhere you want I suppose", Nick replied still dazed, while releasing her reluctantly from the tight embrace.

Hair eschew and lipstick smudged she gave him a wink and walked over to his bed. Samantha's bags contents were soon laid out on the similarly awry sheets and Samantha's grin deteriorated to a thoughtful expression, though Nick thought still smiling, it did nothing to hide her striking features.

Finally, after digging through everything in her possession she pulled out a tattered looking brochure. The edges were obviously creased, as if Sam had put it hastily into a jeans pocket, and a tear ran along its spine. The print however was still legible, and though Nick had no previous experience with brochures he thought that the agency that had created it had done a bang up job. In large swirly gold lettering it told the reader with barely concealed contempt, of the country club resort of cottonwood canyon. For the skeptical reader at the mention of Northern Utah, the brochure calmly explains with glorious detail of the majestic peaks of the Rockies and the natural scenic beauty of the Salt Lake valley. It was all inclusive, everything the recipient of the brochure could possible need would be supplied by the lodge, and the age of the building itself only enhanced the natural grandeur of the interior. Though old it was firmly asserted that all creature comforts of the modern world were available in the list of "room packages" clearly labeled on the back. The brochure itself though tattered, remained what the producers had been aiming for.

"It sounds perfect", Samantha whispered, as Nick finished reading the long winded description of the scenic waterfalls in the region.

"It does", Nick conceded. "A little too perfect don't you think?"

"Well they have to talk it up a little bit don't they?" Samantha asked, raising an eyebrow, "I do the same thing with stocks all the time… Or at least I used to." Samantha finished with a grim expression plastered on her face.

The expression played on Nick's heartstrings like nothing before, and he had formulated a plan before he had even noticed. It was obvious Samantha wasn't happy about leaving her job, and though he didn't presume to understand women he thought the resort, though unusually drawing, would be the perfect way, and place which he could use to make her happy.

"We should go." Nick said finally and he squeezed Sam's hand fondly. "I've always wanted to go to Utah."

At this Sam turned her head and gave him a pointed look that clearly bespoke her skepticism.

"Ok", Nick admitted, "I don't really care about Utah… But I'll go for you."

Sam did not reply, instead she leaned in, the mattress creaking as she put her full weight on her hand and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I'll start packing", she told Nick standing up. "We might not need a lot, but I'm not forgetting anything." Sam vowed.

Sam left the room, and Nick could hear her rummaging about under the bathroom sink. Everything had gone so fast, Nick wondered to himself, Sam confessing that she couldn't leave him and move to New York, that she just quit a job any of her coworkers would envy for him, and finally this resort… It was something Nick couldn't figure out at all, it was such a simple thing, a getaway in the mountains, a retreat for tourists and vacationers. But it had been the final piece in the puzzle somehow, it felt instinctual, normal, but when Nick thought about it he had never heard of anything so strange in his life. Nick could imagine the headlines already, wife, (or wife to be, Nick corrected himself), leaves job for husband and start their new life together in the Northern Rockies away from all human civilization… That sounded just about right--.

"Nick, can you come help me lift this bag?" Sam asked, cutting Nicks string of thought like a pair of scissors and instead a new thought manifested itself in the following question.

"Were only going to be gone a week, what on earth did you pack?!" Nick asked exasperatedly, as he shuffled out of the room his cane striking the hardwood floor beneath him with a dull thunk. The door shuts behind him with a muffled shift of air and the brochure flies shut, the glittering title jutting out from amongst the neighboring photographs of the countryside. Alta country and resort, it reads in gold, while below in faded black it says, a gateway to better living…