Snowbound

by CJ Martín

  “Vik?” she asks confused. Her eyes bounce between Rob and me.

  “Vik! Number one boarder in the world? Ranked number one at the trials for the X-games?” he says animatedly, grabbing her arm. The fucker touched her. Again.

  “Vik?” Her eyes are as round as saucers. “Vik.” She repeats again.

  “Did I miss something?” Rob frowns and looks between us.

  “No man.” I stand up.

  “You? You’re the asshole?” She stands up awkwardly, bats Rob’s hand away, and I smile inwardly.

  “Yeah,” I say. “In the flesh.” I know I’m being a dick, but this girl is getting to me. I mean, why do I even care if this fucker’s her boyfriend. I don’t.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” She stares at me. “I knew your eyes looked familiar.”

  I pause for a moment wanting to say more, but change my mind. “See ya around, Giggles.” I brush past her and squeeze between her and the tiny table. Her tits brush my chest and I barely suppress the groan of satisfaction in my throat.

  Then I walk purposefully away from her and back to the party.

  My head is fucked up, my game a little thrown off as I make my way back over to the keg. I relax my jaw when I see JJ and Lars shooting the breeze. From the gleam in JJ’s eye I know he’s lit. Lars is not too far behind.

  “Hey, Vik!” Lars pulls me in for a quick one-armed man hug.

  “Dude.” I pull back and JJ hands me another beer.

  “How the fuck you been?” Lars asks like he hasn’t seen me in years, although it’s only been three weeks.

  “Same old.” I shrug.

  “Tapping a lot of snow bunnies?” Lars questions.

  I don’t respond because my eyes are too busy trying to locate her. Giggles. I wonder if she stayed back in the corner. Or if she left with Rob. My hands curl into fists at the thought.

  “You know it.” JJ answers for me. “He was avoiding some blond chick earlier. Don’t ask me why. Girl was hot.”

  I bring my eyes back to them and pound JJ’s upheld fist. “You know how it is.” I smile my most cocky smile.

  I chug back my beer and JJ hands me another.

  “We boarding tomorrow?” Lars asks. “Backcountry?”

  “Hell yeah,” JJ agrees, and I shrug in response.

  An hour later we’re still chillin’ when Kristian joins us. He pounds my fist to say hello and grabs himself a beer. Not too long later Peter joins us, completing our group. He has a big smile on his face that’s explained as he says, “These girls are down for anything.”

  I chuckle, about to agree when I see Giggles approach the crowded dance floor. She walks slowly and wobbles a bit as people bump into her on either side. Her smile is polite and apologetic as she continues forward. Each move is deliberate, and it’s clear that it’s taking a lot of effort on her part to maintain standing upright. I’m about to excuse myself and go to her when I see Rob approach her. Motherfucking Rob swoops in to save the day.

  She smiles at him gratefully and he grabs her elbow, leading her further into the dense group of people. She leans against him and an uncharacteristic surge of jealously sweeps over me. If she dances with him after turning me down I might lose my shit.

  I watch from a distance, not paying attention to what my boys are saying. Not even caring that I’m apparently missing out on some hot chick in a short dress.

  The pair stop in front of a group of three girls. The one in a purple dress throws her arms around Giggles and kisses her sloppily on the cheek. Giggles laughs, and I wish I were closer so that I could hear her. She gestures to Rob and smiles before returning the girl’s hug. Then waving goodbye to the rest of the group, she turns to leave with Rob. Un. Fucking. Real.

  He guides her off the dance floor, resting his hand on the small of her back. At this point I think he is looking for any excuse to touch her, and I can’t say I blame him. They pause at the front desk area where everyone’s coats are piled. I see him dig through the pile and produce a turquoise and pink ski jacket. I smile as I recognize it as the same coat she wore yesterday.

  He helps her into the coat and she zips herself up. The coat is puffy and huge but instead of thinking she looks awkward and round like I did yesterday, I think she looks fucking adorable. She turns to her side in order to help Rob find his jacket in the pile and in doing so catches me staring at her. Her eyes flash with recognition. I don’t avert my gaze, although it is blatantly obvious that I’ve been watching her. I hold her stare and she blinks once before looking away.

  Rob retrieves his coat, and slips it on quickly before leading her out the door.

  For having hassled me about coming on this trip, I’ve barely see any of my friends. To be fair, even if I hadn’t sprained my ankle I wouldn’t have seen much of them anyway. They are advanced skiers. Me? I am barely a beginner.

  I can’t say that this morning was a bad day per se. Rob hung out with me much of the day. We spent most of the time in the lodge, because really, what else was there to do? We played board games that were stacked neatly on the shelf in the back of the room and I lost miserably each round of Uno. Toward the end I did manage to win once, but I think Rob took pity on me.

  Chels, Maria, Nikki, and Charles meet up with us for lunch. Rob actually tries to pay for my lunch, which is awkward. I only ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a bottle of water, but still. I smile sweetly and decline the offer. He is already sacrificing way too much on my behalf. I don’t have much time to worry about Rob and our theoretical lunch date, because Maria is talking nonstop about last night’s party.

  “So did you see JJ last night?” She nudges me rather abruptly to get my attention, and my soup sloshes over the rim of the bowl. I make a face at her and she mutters, “Sorry. So did you?”

  “Who is JJ again?”

  “Hot snowboarder.” Chels says.

  “Pro-boarder.” Maria corrects. She shakes her head in disbelief. “I showed you pics last night?”

  “Oh yeah, yeah. I remember,” I say quickly. To be honest, when I heard Chels say hot snowboarder my mind instantly drifted to Anders. Or Vik. Or whatever the hell his name is. Asshole. Yeah, that name seems to suit him.

  I’m vaguely aware of Maria and Chels talking in the background. Going on about JJ’s blue eyes and nice ass, but the words drift over me. I’m too lost in my own thoughts, my own encounter with a very sexy, blond, blue-eyed snowboarder.

  I mull over our conversation last night. Seriously. He must’ve had a good laugh at my expense while I sat there telling him how I fell on the bunny slope when he was the whole reason I fell in the first place. Well, not the whole reason. I guess I am being a bit bitchy. It’s not his fault that I can’t ski. And he was kinda nice last night when we were talking. But he should have ‘fessed up to who he was. It’s not like I’m mad at him or anything. It’s not like I saw him half-naked in a back office. It’s not like I watched longer than I should have and… Oh God. Heat rushes to my face. Maybe I should be the one apologizing to him.

  “Earth to Elena.” Maria throws a cracker at me.

  “Hey!” I yell at her and throw the cracker back her way but miss her by a mile.

  “Nice aim.” Charles teases.

  “These pain pills must be making me a little more loopy than I thought.” I lie to save face. It’s the not the pain pills. My hand-eye coordination is terrible. Hence, the bunny slope disaster.

  “Sure blame the pills, Gimpy.” Charles says with a laugh.

  “Leave her alone.” Rob chimes in.

  Thankful for the support, I offer a small smile. I say to Charles, “Yeah, leave me alone!” in my best whiny five-year-old voice.

  “I can see why you fit in so well on the bunny slopes.” He laughs again and so do I.

  “You know how I roll.” I say. “And by roll, I do mean literally roll.” I crack up at my own joke.

  Everyone laughs and it feels good to enjoy this time with them. I feel young and carefree. I shove Anders to th
e back of my mind and focus on my friends.

  After lunch I force Rob to go with the others to ski the Pine Tree Trail, one of the longest, most impressive ski trails at the resort. He hesitates, but I can see in his eyes that he really wants to go. He’s been such a sweet guy, but I could do with some alone time.

  Besides, I can easily entertain myself on my phone or my Kindle for hours, so after saying goodbye I hobble over to an over-sized armchair and curl up. The only thing missing is my Snuggie (aka my super-soft blanket that I take everywhere with me that sadly I left back in the hotel room) and a mug of hot cocoa. I open the cover and let the words of Paolo Coelho take me away.

  I spot her instantly. She is sitting by herself in an armchair, head bent in concentration. Not surprisingly, she seems to be reading. She doesn’t see me. But I most definitely see her.

  Without thinking I walk toward her. I don’t let myself question the pull that she has on me. I simply embrace it.

  “Hey Giggles,” I say as I slide onto the sofa across from her.

  Closing her Kindle she looks up at me. Wearing my dark grey board pants and black jacket, I’m dressed almost identically to the day we first met. The day she almost ran me over.

  “Anders.” She narrows her eyes.

  I bite back a smile. “Why’re you calling me that? You know who I am now.”

  “It’s your name isn’t it? Besides you told me to call you Anders.” She says a bit of edge to her voice.

  I’m surprised by her tone but quickly recover. “Whatcha doing here all by yourself? No skiing for you today?”

  “No. No skiing for me. Someone almost plowed me over two days ago and I injured my ankle.” She points to her ankle.

  “You almost—”

  “And for your information I am waiting on my friends. I’m not by myself.”

  “You mean the five-year olds from the bunny slope? What are you guys going to do next? Watch Sponge Bob together and play with Barbies?” I tease her, hoping to illicit a laugh, but instead she gives me a glacial stare and angles her body away from me.

  “Come on Gigs.” I lean forward. “I was just joking.”

  No response. She ignores me like I haven’t even spoken.

  After another minute of silence, I hop up and sit down next to her on the chair. I sit close enough that she’s aware of me but not close enough that we touch. “Gigs,” I say, leaning in to nudge her shoulder with my own.

  “Don’t call me that.” She turns her head in my direction and I realize just how close our faces are. After a beat we both pull back.

  “Gigs, what do you want me to say?” I turn up the charm tenfold.

  “Sorry would be nice.” Her tone is frosty, but I can already see the anger melting from her eyes. “You treated me like shit. I was hurt and you were more concerned with going off with Blondie than helping me.”

  I experience a moment of panic when I realize she called Jessica Blondie. How the hell did she know my nickname for her? Is this girl a mind reader? What the fuck? But then I realize I’m being irrational, and she probably referred to her that way for the same reason I did: her blond hair.

  Rather than argue, I decide to suck it up and apologize. It’s rare for me, and I don’t know why I care so much but I find myself saying, “I’m sorry.”

  Unlike most girls who would expect more or would make me grovel, she simply says, “Apology accepted.”

  Easy. Like it was nothing to forgive me for being such a dick. I raise one eyebrow. “Just like that?”

  “What?”

  “It’s just that most girls…” I stop and look at her for signs of manipulation or game playing, but there are none. “Huh.”

  “You apologized. It’s over and done with. Believe me, I didn’t lose any sleep over it.” She says this casually, not in nasty way, but in way that I know she means what she says.

  Huh. I wonder what she’d say if she knew that I lost sleep over her last night picturing her with that loser Rob. That I turned down three offers from girls who were willing. More than willing. Three. That I went home alone after the party and beat off thinking about her.

  “So Anders, what are you doing here? How come you’re not out there shreddin’ it?”

  I laugh at her question. It’s obvious that she knows nothing about snowboarding. Hell, she didn’t even know who I was until yesterday. And to hear her use snowboarding lingo is comical. Adorable, but comical.

  “What?” She frowns. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “No.” I look at her intently. “I just came back. We spent four hours boarding backcountry.”

  “Backcountry?”

  “Areas outside the ski boundaries.” I clarify.

  “Isn’t that dangerous?” Her eyes widen with genuine concern.

  “It can be.”

  “Well did you shred it?” Even she can’t keep a straight face and she giggles.

  “Gigs, you know I did.” I grin, loving the sound of her laugh. “So what did you do today?”

  “Nothing much. Hung out with Rob, mostly. What’s there to do at a ski resort when you can’t ski or snowboard?” Her voice lacks humor.

  I don’t respond. I kinda stopped paying attention when I heard the name Rob. What’s this guy’s deal? Before I can stop myself, I say, “That guy wants to bang you.”

  “What?” She gasps. “We’re just friends. I’ve known him since freshman year.”

  Slightly embarrassed by my outburst—usually I’m much smoother —I decide to roll with it. “So you’re not into him?”

  “No!” Her voice rises and a few people glance our way, but she quickly regains her composure. “What’s wrong with you? Not all guys think that way.”

  “Uh, yeah they do.” Man, I’m really blowing it with this girl, but I find myself completely dumbfounded by her. All of my charm has left me. I’m a babbling idiot.

  “God, you’re a pig.” She laughs again. “To think I thought you were hot.” She turns her head to look out the window at the skiers milling about outside.

  My ears prick up at her comment. “Thought I was hot?”

  “Yeah, for like two seconds, but I’m not into man whores.” She presses her lips together.

  “What makes you think I’m a man whore?” I’m beyond insulted, although I really shouldn’t be. Because I am in fact a man whore.

  “Anders, everyone knows about your reputation.” She folds her arms across her chest.

  “You didn’t.” I pin her with my gaze. “You didn’t even know who I was last night.”

  She blushes and looks away again. “I may have done a little research…” Her voice is shy.

  I laugh, a deep belly laugh. This girl is unreal. “Should I be flattered or scared?” I gently tug on her hair to bring her face back toward me. And yes, it is as soft as it looks.

  “Scared,” she says in a serious tone but then giggles.

  “Gigs, I like you.” I smile, because I really mean it. “I think we’re going to be good friends.”

  “Okay,” she says wearily, almost as if she is pacifying me.

  “You’ll see. Whatcha doing tomorrow?” I’m already planning on taking her out on a snowmobile to show her the trails that I board.

  “Well, being that I’m laid up from a rather tragic accident with a clumsy snowboarder —”

  “Hey, I am not the one who fell.” I tug on her hair again, because honestly? I just want to feel it one more time.

  “Whatever.” She shrugs. “I don’t have many options. Probably just hang out here or in my room. Read or get started on some schoolwork.”

  Is she serious? Who does schoolwork over winter break? “Let me take you out. Make it up to you.” I try to keep the eagerness out of my voice.

  “That’s not necessary.” She smiles at me. And I can tell she means it. She really has forgiven me with those two simple words.

  “I know,” I find myself saying. “But I want to.”

  “I can’t ski. I most definitely don’t want to try b
oarding.” She shakes her head. “I don’t want to hold you back.”

  “You won’t.” I nudge her shoulder again. “Whaddaya say?”

  “I don’t know…” Her voice trails off. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Is that a yes?”

  “It’s a ‘What do you have in mind?’ ”

  “Do you trust me?” I keep my tone light, but my question is serious.

  She looks down at her lap. “Should I?”

  No, she probably shouldn’t. I treat women like shit. My personal life is a fucking mess. I was recently busted for drugs. I’m this close to losing two of my biggest endorsement deals. I’m not a good bet.

  “I don’t know,” I finally say.

  She turns her head to look at me then. She pins me with those chocolate brown eyes and I swear it’s like she is searching my fucking soul. Then she smiles at me. “Okay, Anders. What time?”

  The breath rushes out of me. This girl is not what I expected. I blink and look away from her penetrating gaze. “Meet you here at ten?”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  At dinner I tell Maria about Anders. It was only she and I because the rest of our group wanted to try the sushi place that Charles was raving about. Friends of his had gone there last break and swore that the sashimi was the best they’d ever had. Maria and I both don’t like sushi—the thought of raw fish literally turns my stomach—so it made sense that we would grab dinner together. We chose a local pub called Evergreen Tavern that the lady at the front desk recommended.

  Maria is without a doubt my closest friend in the group. We met during our sophomore Econ class and bonded over our hatred for our professor. I’m not usually a teacher hater, but this guy was seriously a dick. He didn’t even bother to learn our first names. Instead, he would shout out our last names randomly to check to see if (a) we were present or (b) we were paying attention. Ever since that class, Maria and I have been besties. We’ve roomed together for the past three years, and I’m really going to miss her when she heads back to New York after graduation.