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“Okay, then. You really are all about this Christmas shit, huh?”
Her face grows serious and a hit of disappointment flits in the back of her eyes as she says the next words. “First of all, it’s not Christmas shit. It’s a celebration. Secondly, I’ve always wanted to spend it with someone special, so don’t belittle it.”
Well, now I feel like a complete and total asshole. Obviously she feels strongly about this.
Her eyes search for a tree farm worker and she whistles when she garners his attention, pointing to her tree. Great, now I need to find one. I start looking around, but I have no clue what her standard of tree picking consists of, so I’ll let her pick for me. Her eyes find mine again and she speaks softly, “You don’t want to cut it down yourself, right? For another memory?”
“Nah, I think I’m good.”
“Okay, what kind of tree do you want?”
“How about I let you pick since you’re the Christmas guru around here?”
“Sounds good to me!” She turns and keeps walking. Again, inspecting every single tree. My eyes land on one just a few steps away from us and I walk over to give it a look. It’s not perfect, but I have a feeling she’ll go for it. It’s not as full as the others around it, but the top is excellent for a topper.
“Hey, Willow. What about this one?” I say, pointing to the tree behind me.
She walks back toward me, looking over the tree. “It’s perfect, Oliver.” The tree farm worker isn’t too far away this time and she manages to wave him over without a whistle. The snow crunches underneath our feet as we make our way to collect both trees and checkout. We stand back and watch as both trees get sent through the tree baler, wrapping them tightly for the ride home. She pulls out her wallet to pay, but I shake my head.
“My treat, I’ll buy.”
“No, this is on me. It’s not a date, so I’m perfectly capable of handling buying my own tree.”
“Stubborn, I see.” She straightens her shoulders, acting bossy, and I have to chuckle.
“Get used to it.”
We pay for our own trees separately, and the workers help carry them back to my SUV. I open the back door and grab the blanket from the seat. Then, I step up onto the running boards and lightly drape it over my roof. No need to scratch the paint with fir needles, soft or not. The worker hands me the first and then the second tree, and I strap them both to the roof with tie downs. I wave my thanks and they go back to whatever they were doing originally.
“You ready to get these trees home?” I say, looking over at Willow.
“You bet! I can’t wait to decorate them.” She’s giddy and I can see the excitement streaming through her.
Our trek home is slow moving. The snow continues to fall, and it’s starting to accumulate. It’s been a while since I’ve driven in this much snow, but I’m used to it, so I continue. Just as I’m about to process another thought, Willow pipes up. “Holy shit, I can’t remember the last time Whiskey Run got this much snow. It may be a record.” Pulling out her phone, she starts hitting buttons.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking at the weather app. We’ve already gotten record amounts of snow, but this just seems like too much.”
I wait in silence as she checks it. “Well, fuck. There’s a winter weather advisory out for Whiskey Run. Looks like it’s going to get bad tonight.” Looking up and out the front window, her brow furrows. “It’s really coming down, Oliver. I don’t know if it’s such a good idea to be out in this too long.”
“Let’s just check the news when we get to your place. I don’t exactly have any place to stay if I can’t go home.”
“That’s not true. Last time I checked, I have a couch, second bedroom, and a master bedroom. Then you can help me decorate the tree, too. Win, win.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.
Fuck yes,I’m so down for all of that with her. But like a gentleman, I respond instead with, “I don’t want to impose.”
“You wouldn’t be imposing at all, what’s a Christmas elf host without being able to actually host?”
I can’t help but chuckle at her words. She does have a point, sort of. “Well, let’s just see what happens when we get there. Actually, let’s turn on the radio.” Reaching over, I quickly turn up the radio and find a station talking about the weather.
“We’ve got messy weather headed our way tonight. It’ll create slick travel conditions, but also dangerous situations in some cases. It’s going to last the rest of today and tomorrow. This powerful storm will create heavy snow and powerful winds. Put the two together with the colder temperatures and we’re heading into a blizzard. The temperatures are still dropping. This storm is going to be a rough one, folks. It’s looking like one to three inches of snow per hour overnight. We aren’t looking at an exit from the snow until Friday. Tomorrow we’ll be looking at some of the top accumulations of snow in this area for a couple of years now. Predicting around two to three feet at this point.”
Her eyes find mine and she breathes out the breath she’d been holding. “I think you should definitely stay with me tonight. It’s not going to be safe to drive home.”
“I don’t live but a half an hour away from you.”
“It’s not safe, Oliver. I mean look at the snow. I will hear no arguments. You’ll be staying with me tonight. I’ll even wash your clothes.” I’m looking at her when a horn starts blaring and I realize that I’ve swerved into the middle of the road. Quickly jerking the wheel back to my side, I also veer off the road, barely correcting at the last minute. I put my arm out for Willow to brace against as I come to a complete stop. I admit I may have enjoyed the way her breasts felt against my arm, but I shouldn’t be thinking about sex while we’re out in this weather.You’ll get your chance. I say to the guy in my pants adamantly pressing against my zipper, trying to escape.
