by Mia Ford
Chapter 10
Bea
We scooted off the end of the slope, laughter filling our stomachs. We grabbed each other’s hands and pulled ourselves to our feet. I glanced back up the hill, looking at the tall, muscular guy that I had seen just the day before, standing outside of the elevator. It was Mr. Tattoo, and his name happened to be Cameron, my ski instructor. I looked back at Hailey, who was waiting for me, and smiled, making my way over to the bench and letting the concierge service take my skis. I actually really like skiing, but I knew that if I wanted to really enjoy it, I would have to lose some of the layers. I was barely able to control my movements and just kind of floated down to the end and fell over. I had to admit, though, it was fun, and I hadn’t laughed that much in years. I really loved having Hailey around to lift my spirits.
We walked back up to the resort and inside, taking off our jackets and the rest of our layers and giving them to the concierge to send up to our rooms. We then headed over to the bar and sat down at the end, ordering Irish Coffees to warm ourselves up and relax. My cheeks, since they were pretty much the only things showing outside, were red and tingly as the heat from the building washed over me. I was glad I hadn’t brought all my layers into the bar, or I would be sweating like an animal.
“So, what did you think?” Hailey asked.
“I actually think that I may really like skiing,” I said with surprise. “Though next time, I am going to do my snow pants, an under shirt, a sweater, and one of the lighter jackets. I was like the damn Stay Puff Marshmallow Man coming down the bunny slope. It was a good thing that there were no kids there this morning.”
“Yeah, we would have either scared them half to death, or they would have chased after us, thinking Frosty had finally come back to life,” she said, laughing. “All in all, though, I could totally see me and you hitting the slopes back home on the weekends. Maybe we’ll even meet us a couple of handsome men to take out with us.”
“You are always thinking about men.” I laughed. “I will be perfectly happy taking myself to the slopes and enjoying the day whizzing down the mountain. Thank God for ski lifts, though. I couldn’t imagine going up and down that mountain without it. Then I might not think that skiing was that fun after all.”
“Yeah,” she scoffed. “I could totally see us making it halfway back up and just collapsing, deciding it was better to freeze to death than keep going up the mountain. I am glad we decided to buy gear, though. We may actually get some use out of it back at home. It makes going back to the grind seem a bit more exciting than before.”
“You act like our vacation is over.” I laughed. “It’s totally only day two. We have lots of skiing time left.”
“Yes, we do,” she said, clinking her coffee mug against mine.
“So, the instructor, Cameron, I saw him yesterday when I was getting in the elevator to go up and get ready for shopping,” I said nonchalantly.
“He was nice, and I loved his tattoos,” Hailey said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I’d have to say that he is probably one of the hottest men I have ever met up close. If you thought he was hot in his ski gear, you should have seen him in jeans and a Henley. His muscles filled out, like, the entire thing.”
“Uh oh, sounds like someone has a crush.” Hailey snickered.
“No.” I blushed. “Can’t I just think a guy is, like, super hot? Besides, I don’t have a chance in the world. Have you seen the kind of girls that are floating around this place? They are like supermodels.”
“Girl, you are freaking gorgeous,” Hailey said. “And on top of it, you are smart, hardworking, and you have an actual personality. Those hookers have daddy’s money and really good plastic surgeons.”
“Still, they are much hotter than me,” I said. “And I am terrible when it comes to talking to guys. I get all kinds of out of sorts, and can barely put a sentence together. I have never been the girl that could pick up men.”
“You picked up Grant,” Hailey pointed out.
“No, he picked me up.” I laughed. “I just talked about random nonsense the whole time, and luckily, or not depending on how you look at it, he found me charming.”
“You are charming,” she said, smiling. “And it looks like you are going to have your chance to talk to Cameron, after all.”
We looked up at the entrance to the bar and watched as Cameron walked inside, ruffling his black hair with his hands and pushing up the sleeves of his sweater. He was so handsome, with his snow pants lingering on the edge of his hips and his smile the perfect Colgate-commercial white. The suspenders to his pants were off his body and laying to the side, giving him the appeal of a hot fireman. Immediately, I could feel the heat push into my cheeks, and I fanned myself, trying to slow down my heart rate. Hailey looked over and pushed my mouth closed, a giggle coming from her chest. Cameron walked over to the bar and nodded at the bartender, reaching across and taking the bottle of beer from his hand. He took a sip and set it down, turning and looking around the room. Finally, his eyes landed on me and Hailey, and my heart skipped a beat.
Our eyes locked, and I gasped slightly, trying to find my footing as his mouth curled up into a smile. I grinned back and then looked down, grabbing my napkin and fiddling with it as he pulled himself away from the bar. Hailey looked at me confused.
“He’s coming,” I said under my breath.
“Perfect,” she whispered. “Just be your amazing self. You will do great.”
I looked up in panic as Hailey picked up her mug and walked off, Cameron getting closer by the second. I could feel the sweat in my palms start to rain down, and I grasped my mug with two hands, turning back toward the bar. What was I supposed to even do? I hadn’t talked to another man in three years, let alone in a situation where we were probably going to be flirting. I took in a deep breath as he walked up next to me, the smell of his cologne seeping into my brain and making me hazy.
“May I sit down?”
“Sure,” I said, looking and smiling.
“You are Bea, from my class, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied, swallowing a drink of my coffee. “It was a really great class. I think I might pick up skiing when I get back home.”
“Well, you seem like a complete natural,” he replied with a smile. “I am glad I could give you the confidence to actually get on the slopes. I’ve been skiing for a very long time, and I couldn’t imagine my life without being able to escape to the snow.”
“So, you have been instructing for a long time?”
“Since I was about nineteen, back at home in Vermont,” he said. “I started skiing when I was a little kid and just really caught the bug for it. I competed, I trained, and then I realized how much I loved it when there wasn’t any pressure on me to be the best. So, I quit competitions and started teaching. My buddy Glen and I created our freelance company, so we pretty much get to ski almost every week of the year.”
“That’s awesome,” I replied. “I stay at home all the time in my home office. I wish I had chosen to travel more. I mean, with my job, I can do it anywhere in the world that has internet. For some reason, though, I decided to settle down in my own home town.”
“Well, I am sure you are amazing at your craft,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with settling down. I’m sure the Mister is happy to have you home.”
“Oh.” I laughed. “There is no Mister. just me.”
“I see,” he said, smiling.
“How about you?”
“No.” He chuckled. “It’s just me and my skis, and Glen, of course, but he’s my best friend, so I don’t mind having him with me.”
“Hailey has been my best friend for many years,” I said. “She is the whole reason that I am here for the Christmas holiday.”
“Nice, you took a girls’ trip,” he replied.
“Kind of,” I said. “My boyfriend of three years and I broke up, and she thought I needed a vacation.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said kindly.
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“It was for the best, trust me,” I said, laughing awkwardly. “We were not really meant for each other, and he was a big douche bag.”
“No one likes a douche bag.” He laughed.
Cameron was really sweet, and I couldn’t help but notice that he actually paid attention to me when I was talking. He actually acted like he was interested in what I was saying, and that, in itself, was a completely new experience for me. Not to mention the fact that he was incredibly handsome, which made it a lot easier to sit there and stare into his gorgeous eyes. We continued to talk until it was dark outside.
“Well, I think I’m going to head upstairs and get changed so Hailey and I can lounge around and feast on room service,” I said, smiling.
“May I walk you upstairs to your room?”
“That would be nice, thank you,” I said, handing my mug to the bartender and grabbing my coat off the back of the chair.
Hailey had already gone upstairs, and the bar was starting to fill up, so I figured it was the perfect time to make my exit for the evening. We walked slowly across the marble floor and over to the elevators, talking about the time he spent in Denali teaching safety to the adventurous skiers out there. I thought about the bunny slope I had just been down and couldn’t even start to imagine just randomly skiing down something like that. However, the thought of seeing such an amazing place made me a little jealous.
“I would love to travel,” I said. “Alaska has always been on my list.”
“It truly is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been,” he said as we climbed into the elevator.
“Floor five,” I said, watching as he leaned over and pressed the button, the muscles in his arm tensing and then releasing.
“There was part of the trip where they took us ice fishing, and I actually saw a moose and a bear,” he said. “It was like being inside of a National Geographic film. I’d love to go back there sometime just as a tourist so I can really see the land.”
We got off the elevator and walked down the hall to my room. I stopped and turned toward him, smiling. I reached up and kissed him gently on the cheek and reached for the door handle.
“I had a really nice time,” I said. “Thank you for teaching me how to ski and then keeping me company.”
“Do you think that I could get your number?” he asked, with a strangely shy tone to his voice. “I mean, I’d love to take you to dinner while you are in town.”
“Well, I think that we should leave it up to fate,” I said with a smile. “When we run into each other again, we will know that is the perfect time to go out.”
With that, I walked into my room and shut the door, standing there with my head pressed against the wood and butterflies lighting up my chest. Wow. Just wow.
Chapter 11
Cameron
I stood there and watched as this captivating woman closed the door. While I would have loved to go inside and continue forward with our conversation and obviously more, I was okay with the fact that she was making this a little harder than most girls that I met. There was something about her that made me want to try harder. There was an innocence about her eyes that made me know that she was guarded, having been burned by this ex-boyfriend. Though I knew this was not about being long-term, I wasn’t against drawing this out past one date, and that was something completely new for me.
I stood there by her door for a little while, my body leaning against the wall and my eyes blankly staring down the hall. I was replaying every way that her lips moved as she talked about her life back home and her dreams for the future. She was incredibly intelligent, I could tell, but she didn’t rub it in people’s faces at all.
After about ten minutes, I decided that I should probably head back down. Not only was it slightly creepy that I was still standing there, but I knew that Glen would be waiting for me with some choice words on how I just dipped out on him and left him to clean up alone from the class. Hopefully, when I told him about how I was feeling, he would cut me some slack, playing on his whole “happily ever after” mentality. There wasn’t a girl I considered my happily ever after, but Bea had definitely caught my attention in a way that I had never experienced before. I had been traveling a long time and had met a lot of different girls, but there was something different about this one, something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I turned and walked back toward the elevators, jumping onto one that a couple had just exited. The doors shut slowly, and I leaned up against the wall, crossing my arms in front of me and letting the smile that had been simmering below the surface finally come out in the open. When the doors opened, I got out and walked over to the bar where Glen was sitting, waiting for me to come back. He had actually walked in before I left, but he had sat down, seeing me talking to Bea, giving me a chance to talk to the girl I had been obsessing over for two days.
“Thanks for leaving me completely alone at the top of the mountain to put everything away,” he said, sipping his beer. “Was it worth it? I mean, I saw you talking to the girl.”
“Dude,” I said, letting out a deep breath, “It was more than worth it, no offense. There is something crazy special about that girl. She is a hell lot sexy, totally into me, but she is like a normal human being. She has dreams, aspirations, can hold a conversation, knows where Alaska is.”
“Wow,” Glen said, laughing. “That is way above the curve for ski resorts.”
“I know, right?”
“So, did you bang her?” he asked. “I mean, if you did, it must have been like the best ever because you were up there for like fifteen minutes at the most.”
“No, I did not bang her,” I said, laughing. “What are you like fifteen? We had a really good conversation, talked about like everything we could in that little span of time, and then I left her at her door.”
“You mean she turned you down,” he said, smiling.
“Yeah,” I replied chuckling. “But I was strangely okay with it. She thinks that if fate wants us to go back out, we will run into each other again.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I feel like maybe it’s time that I started to manipulate fate a little bit,” I said, laughing. “I mean, I can’t just meet this girl and then leave it up to chance. It just can’t happen.”
I sat there looking around the room at all the women that were coming into the bar. There were some hot ones, but every time I started to check one out, Bea would pop into my mind. Her fair skin, striking eyes, and perfect body were giving me chills down my spine. All I wanted to do was go knock on her door with champagne and strawberries, but I knew that she wouldn’t appreciate it. This girl was different than any other girl I had ever met. She was more down to earth and appreciated something like getting to learn how to ski. I had never felt appreciated before, except by the women I pleasured late at night in the resorts I stayed in. This was a completely different kind of feeling. She actually listened to what I was saying when I was talking, and she could tell that I was doing the same thing. That, in itself, was a huge deal since I was usually zoned out half way, just waiting for the moment where the woman would invite me back to her place.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get her off my mind. I could see Glen watching me struggle, his eyebrows furrowed together. It was like the wires weren’t connecting in my brain, and I was having a very difficult time being the carefree guy I usually was. There had never been a girl that had caught my attention to the point where I was no longer able to just let it go when I got turned down. Normally, I would just brush it off, figuring there were plenty more where she came from, but not with Bea. This was something completely different. I was so lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize a tall, hot brunette had walked up to us. I shook my head as Glen elbowed me.
“Huh?”
“I said, ‘hi, I’m Sylvia.’” She giggled. “I was wondering if you wanted to come over and sit with us, or I could buy you a drink, and we could talk.”
“I, uh
, I have a drink,” I said, sounding completely idiotic. “I mean, thank you, Cynthia.”
“Sylvia,” Glen said, clearing his throat.
“I mean Sylvia,” I corrected myself. “Thank you, but I am going to just spend the evening with my best friend tonight.”
“All right,” she said, slightly snobbish.
She turned and walked away, going back to her friends and whispering. They all looked over at me with nasty looks, and I turned back to the bar, not giving two shits whatsoever. I had never turned down a girl like that before, especially not one as hot as her, but my head was somewhere on the fifth floor, floating around the suite with Bea. How was I supposed to hit on someone else when I couldn’t even keep my mind on them for more than thirty seconds? This chick had really gotten into my head.
I looked up at the bartender and nodded, signaling for another beer. When he came back, I ordered two shots of whiskey and passed one to Glen. He raised an eyebrow at me and picked up the shot, throwing it back and slamming it down on the bar at the same time as me. I breathed deeply, feeling the warm liquid flow down my throat and into my chest. I needed to calm the hell down. That was what I needed to do.
