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We took about half an hour trying to get the basics down. She wasn’t catching on as fast as I thought she would, but I was trying to be patient.
“I’m slipping! I’m slipping!” she cried as she tried to get up a small slope straight on.
“Just have to sidestep little by little up the—Olivia!” I saw her sliding down the hill backward and got a little worried.
We only had about an hour before Olivia was scheduled to interview Henrik, so we had to get her skiing pretty quickly.
I waited patiently as she finally made her way up to the top.
“I don’t get it. I’m doing what you said.” Her entire demeanor was pure frustration. “Shins forward, hands out, shoulders in front of my hips.” She repeated everything I had told her and was gripping her poles tightly.
“And if I want to stop, I have to make a triangle shape with my legs and skis.”
A sigh escaped my lips and her face shot at mine.
“That was the basics of it, like I told you thirty minutes ago.” I couldn’t fight the irritation in my voice.
She matched my tone
“Hey, I’m doing my best here.”
“No. You’re letting your fear get the best of you.” I snapped. I had noticed how much she held back when we first started. “You’re even holding the poles like your life depended on them.”
“Because Iamscared, Ben. This is literally my first time trying to ski.” She forced her voice to be calm. I could see the effort, and I appreciated avoiding a screaming match at the ski resort.
I tried to remind myself that this was her first time trying and since it was summer, the snow wasn’t slippery, it was more sticky. On top of that, there were really only a few inches.
“Hey! Not in the face, Scott," Mark yelled nearby. That was probably the most excited I had ever seen him. We turned and saw the crew members happily playing in the snow.
“See, look at that. They’re all having fun in the snow because we’re at a ski resort. It seems like out ofall the peoplein this place, we’re the only ones not having fun.”
I let out a long sigh and frowned at her words. It was getting a little tiring, but weren’t we having at least a little fun?
“Let’s try gliding down again, Olivia,” I said, keeping my voice low. I tried to keep all of my frustration out of my tone. But I felt…well, I wasn’t sure how I felt.
She nodded and took off. I was surprised to see she successfully glided down the small slope and stop without any issues.
“I…did it,” she said, sounding a little unsure. She looked at me expectantly.
“Great. You can do the report now,” I said, unclipping my skis. “Send over a draft once you’re done.”
Before I could analyze the strange feelings swirling in my chest, I left and headed back to my cabin without turning back toward Olivia.
Chapter 13
Olivia
Afteralongandstressful day, I actually finished filming the ski resort story without anything untoward happening. Thank God! I wasn't sure I could handle anything more that day. It took two takes to get the gliding down part, and though I was thinking about changing up my reporting style, a couple of words from my crew helped change my mind.
“You’re changing what already worked… because some snooty rich bastards made fun of you?” Mark asked, keeping his indifferent tone but also not hiding his disgust. “I just think they didn’t want to see you succeed. At least that’s what my boyfriend would say,” he added when he finished setting up the action camera attached to my helmet.
“So you think I should just keep my style even if they’re going to make fun of me?” I asked, still apprehensive about doing a fun activity in a serious reporting tone.
“Wow, you reallyarein your twenties. You still think life is like high school,” Mark snarkily commented, but again, it didn’t really hurt at all since he said it so monotonously. There was no bite in his words.
"Latetwenties." I smirked at him to remind him I wasn't a kid.
After that, the rest of the crew agreed with Mark’s sentiments, though they were more supportive. I had a quick contemplation while I was riding the ski lift. It was surprisingly therapeutic sitting down and ascending while overlooking the gorgeous fjords of Norway. Who would have thought? And it turned out that they were absolutely right. If I changed every aspect of my style with a number of comments from people I didn’t even know nor care about, then I was destined to fail as a reporter. Maybe even as a human.
