by Laney Powell
The next morning, I took the shuttle up to the lodge. As I headed to the lift, my phone vibrated. I wanted to ignore it. Ignoring it wasn’t my way. When I looked there was an email from Bob Hoffman, head of the instructors at Wonderland asking when I’d be available for an in-person interview.
I couldn’t ask for a clearer sign. I called his number.
“’Lo?”
“May I speak with Bob Hoffman?”
“Speaking.”
“This is Annalise Walsh. I got your email about an interview, and I would love to schedule one.”
“Oh, yeah, the ski instructor. Well, what’s your schedule?”
“I’m actually here now.”
“At Wonderland?” He laughed.
“I came up to ski for the weekend.”
“And decided you needed a job here?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, great. Come on down to the ski school and ask for me. We’ll go from there.” He hung up.
This was sooner than I expected. Wow. My heart sped up. I wiped my suddenly sweaty palms on my pants. Interviews made me nervous. At the door of the school, I stopped. “You’re here for something new. Something new,” I muttered to myself. I walked in, looking around for anything resembling management. A door labeled ‘Office’ on the far wall would be a good place to start. I dodged kids and walked in the door.
An older man at the desk, glaring at papers in front of him, looked up. “Help you?”
“I’m Annalise—”
“Oh, yeah, the interview. OK, here’s what is going to happen. While I’m calling your references, you’re going to go out with one of my instructors and he’ll put you through the paces. You’ll have to explain something to him as though he’s a student. After that, you both come back here, and we talk. All right?”
I nodded. The clearly laid out plan made me feel better.
Bob got up and stuck his head out the door. “Markus!” he yelled.
Someone yelled back, and Bob replied, “Send him in here!” He returned to his desk, and looked up at me with a smile. “You ready for this?”
I laughed nervously. “I hope so.”
“Little different from accounting, isn’t it?”
I widened my eyes as I nodded. “A lot different.”
Bob laughed. “That’s a good thing. Hey, Markus, you don’t have a class this morning, do you?”
“No. Why not, by the way?”
Oh no. Oh holy Joseph oh dear God oh no. That voice. I turned around.
“Because I need you to test an interviewee. Be polite and be a student at the end. Have her help you with recovering from a yard sale.”
It was him. Hot rude guy. I wondered how Bob knew about the yard sale. I also wondered if I’d failed the interview before I began.
Thankfully, Markus was smiling at Bob. “Recover from a yard sale? That’s pretty specific.”
Bob stood up. “Yeah, well, Mariah said you had a pretty good one yesterday, so I thought you might you need a refresher. Go down one of each of the runs, see how she does, and have her help you recover. You know,” Bob smiled widely. “From a yard sale.”
Oh, sweet baby Jesus.
Bob left and Markus—hot rude guy—turned to me. He held out his hand. “We didn’t exactly get a chance to introduce ourselves yesterday. Markus Donnelly.”
I took his hand, and the wave of his cologne—or something—washed over me as an electric spark jumped as our hands met. Whoa. I blinked and pulled myself together. “Annalise Walsh.”
He smiled, and some part of me inside melted into a puddle of goo. He’d been hot frowning at me. Now that he’d smiled? Dear Lord. I didn’t know if my underclothing would make it.
“Okay, let’s get going.”
I let out a breath I wasn’t aware I’d been holding. Maybe he wasn’t going to hold the whole thing against me? He shouldn’t, as the whole thing was his fault.
He looked over his shoulder as we left the school but didn’t say anything. I followed along, not sure of what to say. Silence seemed best now.
“Where’d you leave your stuff?”
I pointed to the racks, and he turned in that direction. When I’d gotten my skis and poles, he jerked his head for me to follow him again. Jeez. This was getting uncomfortable.
Maybe that was the point? To see how I managed being uncomfortable? Okay. This I understood. I took a breath and steadied myself. I faced down worse kinds of people than this all the time.
He stepped into his skis, looking over his shoulder. “Let’s go on up. Ptarmigan Lift will get us to all the runs we need to do.”
I nodded and took off after him. Despite how nervous this—and Markus—made me, I felt great. Markus didn’t seem angry or vindictive. He seemed pleasant. I wondered what else he’d done. He had a professional manner that I recognized.
We got on the lift and I settled back up for the ride. This was one of the older lifts, so we’d be on here for a bit.
“You live around here?” Markus asked.
I shook my head. “I live in the City.”
“That’s a long haul for a weekend job. Will that be a problem?”
I laughed. “No. My firm likes the late hours Monday through Thursday, not Friday. The partners like to be gone by two, so we work extra during the week.”
“Law?”
“No, accounting.”
He nodded. “What specialty?”
“I’m a supervisor of a team of first level forensic accountants. We go over the books to see if anything jumps out, and if something does, we hand it off to the next team.”
“You’re already a supervisor? When did you graduate?”
I bristled at the disbelief in his tone. “Three years ago.” I refrained from stating I busted my ass and deserved my job and more.
He nodded again. “You a little burnt out?”
That wasn’t what I expected. I took a minute to respond. “Well, maybe. I don’t know. I decided I didn’t want my life to be one long stream of paranoid suspicions of other people’s wrongdoing. And I haven’t skied as much as I wanted to, so… here I am.“ I shrugged.
“I get it. You grow up skiing?”
I couldn’t remember the last time someone asked me so many questions. And he really wasn’t asking anything out of the ordinary. I was out of practice at meeting people. God, I so needed this job! If I didn’t get it, it would be the first step on the road to Cat Lady status.
“I did. My dad and I used to come up here all the time, and it’s one of my favorite places to ski, even though it’s not huge.”
He grinned. I was struck—again—at how handsome, how smoking hot he was, even with goggles on. “I did too. I’ve skied all over the world, but this is where I learned to ski. That’s something you don’t forget.”
I smiled. “Exactly.”
“Look, I know you can ski. You did great on the moguls yesterday, even though we crashed, and you had to be sore. So I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. Let’s go to the top, take Kamikaze down first, head to Bob’s Way, and finish up with Glider. Sound good?”
“That does.”
“One thing, though.”
“What?”
“You have to lead, and you have to put some speed on it.”
That sounded great. “OK. I can do that.”
He smiled again. “I’m sure you can. When we get off, you’re in the lead. I follow.”
This was a long run—over two miles to the bottom, so it would be a good test of a lot of aspects. Particularly on a Sunday, when it would be packed the closer to base we got. The end of the lift appeared, and I took a breath.
I watched the chairs in front of us send their riders off and then it was our turn. My nerves were gone, and I was excited and flying.
Markus
I watched her leap from the lift and take off. She liked to ski fast, that much was obvious. I let her get a little ahead of me. I’d catch up with her once we were off Kamikaze and see how she did with
a close follow. That would be important for any future students.
She was easy to keep track of as she wore a bright green ski jacket, and her helmet was hot pink. Her hair was loose under the helmet, and it flew back and forth a little as she turned.
Annalise was good. I’d been pretty sure she’d be hired even before this, but talking with her, and watching her now, I had no doubts. I sped up a little because she was quickly outpacing me.
Interesting that she was an accountant. She was from the same kind of world I was, and understood the pressure. It felt comfortable talking with her. I loved working here, but there were a lot of people who didn’t understand the world I’d come from. A number of the employees were still in school, or studiously avoiding school, so we didn’t have a lot in common.
I thought Annalise Walsh and I might have more in common. I hoped so. There was a stirring from the lower regions that hoped so, too. I made to catch up with her as Kamikaze spilled into Bob’s Way, a slightly less challenging run.
“Hey,” I shouted.
She whipped her head over to me, slowing only a little. “There you are!”
I felt the challenge in her words. “What, you trying to say something?”
She laughed, and it was a gorgeous sound. “Well, this is the second time you haven’t been able to keep up with me. At least you have all your stuff.”
“Oh, you did not just bring up the yard sale.”
She slowed. “I did.”
“I’ll have you know those are on the level of fighting words.”
“OK?”
“You want the job? You better beat me, or at least be right on my ass by the time we get down to base. Game?”
“You are on, hot shot.”
I laughed. This day was turning out better than I’d expected when I’d seen the schedule this morning. “OK. On three. Ready?”
She turned to look down the run. “Three!” She shouted and sped off.
I shot after her, laughing. She was fierce, and I liked her competitiveness. She kept ahead of me as we skied from Bob’s Way and onto Glider. At that point, my size and momentum caught up, and I edged out in front of her.
She shouted something as she moved closer to me. We moved in tandem, avoiding other skiers and I noted that she skied wide around slower skiers or those obviously practicing. She also began her moves far ahead, which was not only excellent skiing, but a good trait for an instructor.
As we reached the base, she didn’t let up. Neither did I, and we got to the Lodge and both hockey stopped.
“A tie,” she said, breathing a little harder than usual.
“I can agree to that,” I said.
She laughed. “Not afraid of your ego suffering?”
“My ego kind of got left up on the mountain yesterday,” I said wryly. “Kind of silly to worry about it now.”
Her mouth fell open. “We forgot to do the yard sale!”
“No worries. Come on. We’ll go up again and take a shorter run. OK?”
She nodded, and nearly as one we turned and headed back for the lift. I let her get in front of me. I liked to watch her move. Not only was I evaluating her as an instructor, I couldn’t help but notice her as a woman.
She was hot. And graceful. And strong. Cara, my ex, would have never raced me down the mountain after being sneaky at the start. She preferred things more après-ski versus actual skiing. Perhaps that was part of why I wasn’t so upset that she’d left.
Annalise turned to me. “What, are you tired, old man? Come on. I have a job to secure.”
I laughed and caught up with her at the lift. This had to be the best interview I’d ever conducted.
We got on the lift as Shane, the operator, gave me a fist bump. “Nice run, man.”
I nodded. “Thanks. Job interview.” I jerked my head in the direction of Annalise.”
His eyes widened. “Nice.” His tone left me no doubt that he was talking about more than just her skiing. The thought made a thread of anger flare up. He was already evaluating her, checking her out, and I knew he’d have his thoughts all over the place before the end of the day. That’s what the guys here did. The girls that worked here were all fair game, and nothing was serious.
Annalise was better than that. I didn’t know her well, but I knew that much.
Thankfully, she wasn’t paying attention, but looking out off the lift to the other side.
“You OK?” I asked.
She turned and nodded. “Yeah, I’m just thinking about how to tell you to pick up all your stuff. I mean, I know how to do it, but sometimes trying to explain things is not as easy.”
“Welcome to teaching,” I said.
“I don’t have the job yet.”
“Oh, you’re going to be fine. Even if you’re not great with this. The important thing is to remember people are trying, and they generally want to do well.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. People are here because they want to learn.”
“That is kind of the point,” I said. “But yeah. Sometimes it’s hard to remember.”
“I know I’m over thinking this, but that’s what I do.”
“You ever taught kids before? That’s probably where you’ll start. They’re more forgiving and less of a pain than adults.”
“No. Kids make me nervous. What if they hate me?”
“Kids are actually the easiest. Unless they’re scared to be here, they’re fearless and excited. I love teaching them.”
“Really? That makes me feel a little better.”
I took the opportunity to pat her arm and found I liked touching her. It gave me a thrill that had nothing to do with teaching. “You’ll be fine. Besides, you’re not the one who has to do a massively impressive yard sale in about five minutes.”
She laughed, and she looked less nervous than before. That made me happy. “You have a plan?”
“It takes skill to fall and make a mess.”
“Well, you have the basics of it,” she said.
We both laughed. I was enjoying her company more than I thought I would, probably more than I should for someone who would shortly be a colleague. We got off midway and headed for a blue trail and I looked down, trying to find the best way to do this.
I didn’t want to fall on my face again, no matter what I said. I skied down and dropped a pole. I skied a few more feet and let go of a ski. Another ski, the second pole, and I topped it off with both gloves. I was about thirty feet down the run, and I turned to look back at her.
“Help!” I waved both hands. “I’ve lost all my stuff! What do I do?”
Annalise skied wide and stopped carefully next to me, stepping out of her own skis. I waited to see what she’d do. Every instructor did things differently.
“OK, Markus, this is a momentary setback. We’ll get you back on the skis and going again in a minute.”
“But it’s all over the place,” I said, waving my arms to indicate all my things.
“It happens,” Annalise said. “The thing you need to do is be calm. We’ll get all your stuff.” She spoke calmly. “Let’s walk up and get the things up top.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “I like to get the stuff farthest away first. My dad always said do the hard stuff first so that’s what I do.”
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
“Take your time.”
“OK.”
“There’s nowhere you have to be. So breathe and let’s get up to that first pole.”
We hiked uphill, and she got my pole for me.
“Now it’s all easier from here. You walk down collecting all the gear.”
“Yeah, this is better. Thanks,” I said, still playing the student.
“Get the uphill piece out of the way, and you can take your time walking down grabbing it.”
I snagged the rest of my gear and picked up my gloves.
“There you go,” Annalise said.
I stopped to pull on my gloves. “Good job. You�
�re a natural at this.”
She shrugged. “I remembered what my dad did for me the first time I did this. I was practically crying because I hit my mouth and I had braces, and I was trying so hard not to cry, and he talked me through it like it was no big deal.”
“Well, it is the first time you do it, and students can have a fear of it.”
“Does that mean you’re going to give me a good review?”
“Did you even doubt it?”
“Well, yes,” she said. “I don’t assume.”
“Assume you’ve got the job unless Bob finds something really bad in your past.”
She laughed. “Please. I spent all my time in school trying to get good grades, so I would get picked up by a top firm, and I’ve spent the last three years working my butt off so I don’t have to hear about all the guys who do it better.”
“You aced it, Walsh,” I said. “Come on, let’s go give Bob his report.”
We skied down the rest of the run together, not racing this time. I couldn’t get over how good I felt being with Annalise. She was fantastic.
Which meant I’d need to find a way to spend more time with her.
Annalise
I found I was out of breath as we skied down to the Lodge. I wanted some lunch, some water and a break. Not that the skiing had been overly difficult but trying to stay professional with a guy who made every single part of me hum with excitement was tough.
I wanted to kiss him. When he touched me on the lift, I thought my hormones might explode. His touch made me hot, and he was hot, and he kept smiling at me… stop it! I told myself. This is his job. That was it.
I wondered what would happen if I fell on him and kissed him senseless? I probably wouldn’t get the job. I would get a police record. Slow your roll, I told myself.
Markus knocked on the wall next to the door to Bob’s office. “You’re here,” he said. “What’s wrong?”
Bob looked up from a pile of papers, pushing the glasses up onto his head. “I’m here chained to the desk. What do you want, pain in my ass?”
