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“And the helmet?” I ask, taking it from her, and making a show of checking it for unusual straps.
“Hat head,” she says, shrugging. We all laugh. I take her free arm, and we walk out to the porch surrounding the lodge.
Between Xane and me, her boots and helmet get squared away without too much issue, and we’re off to the slopes. I take charge of teaching her the basics of skiing while Xane dazzles on his snowboard.
Once she has learned the basics of how to move around on her skis, we catch the button lift to the top of the gentle slope. At the summit, if you can really call it that on the bunny side, Julia pauses.
“Something wrong, love?” I ask. Beginner’s nerves aren’t something I would think the lovely Julia would suffer from; she’s been so willing to try new things on our adventures.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispers. I look around my lodge, the cabins with their cheery lights bathing the white snow in glowing yellow, and the sparkling powder with the snaking tracks of families and lovers learning to race down the mountain. My mountain.
I spend so much time here that I’d almost forgotten how beautiful it really is. I look over at Julia, enraptured by the tableau. I see it through her eyes; loving eyes that have only seen sad, dirty New York snow for years. I smell the snow and the trees, and I think of how Julia has stayed locked in the smog and crowds. I smile at her, renewed by her relative purity.
“Yes, you are,” I say and quickly peck her on the cheek, pulling a flush from her visible even in the low light. She’s so pretty when she blushes.
“Alright, Derek, I’m ready. What do I do?” She squares her shoulders, and breaks the moment. I chuckle. We have plenty of time.
“Everything we did on the flat, you do down the slope. I’ll go first, and you follow me. For the first run, we’ll just go straight down.”
I do a quick check over her equipment with my eyes, lingering on a few choice spots; she’s ready. I turn and start slowly down the hill.
I look behind me, and Julia is doing everything I told her. We reach the bottom with no incident. I look back at Julia, and she is positively beaming.
“Ready to go again? This time we’ll try a serpentine,” I say. She nods enthusiastically.
We catch the lift again, and once more, we pause at the top of the hill. Xane joins us this time and catches the silence of the moment. The three of us look out into the night. The snow is laid out below us in a warm, glowing blanket.
“Ready,” Julia confirms when she has taken the sight in again. I nod and start a looping serpentine down the gentle slope.
Halfway down, Xane passes me and carves a beautiful arc of snow off to the side where Julia and I won’t go. He jumps and starts heading back down the hill, but I hear a thud and a muffled grunt behind me. I stop and turn to see Julia splayed across the snow.
“I was watching Xane, and I got tangled,” she explains from her spot on the ground. One ski is off, and her poles are just down the hill from her.
I laugh and start towards her. She pouts. Xane stops what he’s doing, removes his snowboard, and heads back up the hill to help.
“I’m sorry… I’m not very good at this. Maybe I should just watch,” Julia says dejectedly from the cold ground when I reach her.
“Welcome to the ranks, Julia,” I say warmly. She looks up at me, confused. I reach out a hand and say, “You can’t be a skier until you fall. Bloody hell, I fell three times last weekend when I came around for a quick run.”
“I have been exceptionally careful not to fall around you, Gem,” Xane says, handing her the poles. “Gotta keep up appearances.”
She takes my hand, laughing. I help her stand, and we finish our run. We take two more without incident, and one with another tumble.
We find ourselves damp from the falls, and the night is beginning to lighten, so I suggest we head back and warm up before the sun rises, and the early birds join us on the mountain.
“Gosh, is it morning already?” Julia looks surprised.
“’Tis the, lark Princess, not the nightingale that pierced the…whatever. Fuck the bard, let’s get to the fire and some decent tea.” I pull off my helmet and help Julia out of her skis.
We leave the gear with a pair of staffers lolling about near the snowmobiles. Xane takes the blood red one, while Julia and I clamber onto my personal English green beast, which matches my eyes.
“Race?” I call to Xane. He nods sharply, and off we go. Julia’s hands are around my waist holding her soft body close to me. I let Xane win, if only to have a few more moments alone with Julia.
