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The four of us walked through the airport toward our designated pickup area, where we’d load up in a van waiting to take us to our hotel. I hoped it was nice and that the room service would be operational, especially since we’d be stuck there for the next few days.
Staring at the storm outside the airport windows, I knew I wouldn’t be getting back to Florida anytime soon. That much was clear. My mom was going to be so disappointed. For once, I had actually planned on being home with her, my brother, and my niece for Thanksgiving. I’d missed the last three since I’d started working for the airline, much to her displeasure. I actually enjoyed being in a new city each year, trying to find turkey with my friends from the crew. It had become a tradition of sorts, and I looked forward to it. Plus, the holiday pay was a nice bonus.
But this year, my mom had convinced me to come home. Mostly because my brother and his family would be at their in-laws for Christmas, so if we didn’t have Thanksgiving together, then who knew when I’d see them again? Apparently, I was always working, and my niece was getting bigger by the day, destined to forget all about her auntie Sky if I didn’t come around. I didn’t want that to happen, so I had requested the time off.
We all neared the exit, and I grabbed my jacket, buttoning it up tight as I braced for the cold that I was certain would hit me the second we stepped outside. I was a Florida girl through and through. Humidity I could handle. But the snow and frozen ice chunks that blew through the wind? Those always seemed to chill my bones hard and fast. I never quite got warm enough.
“Ready?” Chad asked as we got even closer toward the exit doors. “The van’s right there.” He pointed at it, and we all nodded, ready to hand the driver our luggage as quickly as possible.
Once we were situated inside the van, the driver flashed us a concerned look. “I’m really hoping we don’t get stuck on the way there,” he said, and my eyes widened.
“What? You think we’ll get stuck?” The question slipped through my lips.
Thanksgiving in a hotel with River wasn’t exactly my idea of a great time, but being stuck on the side of a road in a snowed-in van sounded even less appealing. I saw it all play out in my head. River would try to convince me to have sex with him.
One for the road, he’d say. He’d beg. He wouldn’t stop talking about it.
Then, we’d die with his frozen penis inside my vagina, and that was how people would find us. Stuck together forever.
They’d write that we were in love. Or that we were trying to stay alive by sharing our body heat. When the truth would be that I was giving him a pity fuck so he’d finally stop talking and shut up for once.
“We should be all right, but we really need to go,” the driver answered.
“Are we waiting on anyone else?” River asked, and the driver shook his head. “Let’s hit it,” he said before smacking the back of the seat with his palm.
Pulling out my cell phone, I typed out a quick text to my mom, letting her know that I was snowed in and wouldn’t be making it for Thanksgiving. She was definitely asleep at this hour, but it was better I let her know sooner rather than later. She’d wake up to the message and no doubt call me about it instead of texting back a response. I needed to remember to put my phone on silent once I got checked in and settled in my room for the night. The last thing I needed was to be woken up at some ungodly hour, just to be yelled at.
Thank God the only scary thing about the drive was how slow we had to go. The roads were slippery, and the visibility was awful. Near whiteout conditions at times, which were definitely only going to get worse as the night wore on. It took us over an hour to get to a hotel that was typically fifteen minutes away, at most. Seeing the red neon lights through the falling snow made me smile.
We’d made it.
I couldn’t wait to take a long, hot bath and hoped that my room had a tub. We piled out of the van, thanked the driver, grabbed our bags, maneuvered through the double doors, and walked up to the front counter, bringing in clumps of snow with us.
The first thing I noticed was how many people were up at this hour and hanging out. It seemed like every single corner and table was filled with families and people on their laptops. When I saw trays of food still being delivered, I breathed out a sigh of relief. I was hungry and had only packed a few light snacks. Nothing that would actually settle my grumbling stomach. And since our flight had been so short, we hadn’t had anything that I could take from the galley. No pretzels, no peanuts, no cookies. Nada.
“I’m so happy to see that food,” Carmella whispered toward me as the woman at the check-in counter typed frantically on her keyboard, working some sort of magic with her fingers, like they always seemed to do.
“I want to order one of everything,” I said with a laugh.
I signed the check-in sheet that the airline had called over. It had each one of our four names listed with the checkout date noted aspending. Never a good sign.
“Please tell me I have a bathtub,” I mumbled toward the hotel employee, who was still typing on her computer as she grinned to herself.
“All your rooms do. You actually got the last four. We’re all sold out,” she said before handing me a single key card. “Here you go. You’re all on the same floor.”
“How about we head to our rooms, change, and meet back down here in ten?”
It was River who was asking. I hadn’t expected it or even considered the fact that everyone would want to hang out together. Weren’t they exhausted like I was? Didn’t they want to soak in a long, hot bubble bath until the water turned cold?
“Is the bar still open?” Chad asked.
“It’s open until the crowd starts to die down,” the employee answered.
“Really?” I asked.
“We typically close around eleven, but the bartender decided to stay and keep the bar open He lives about an hour away, so he’s stuck here too.”
“That was nice of him,” I said as I exhaled.
