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With me halfway through my wiggling, the impact made my hip slip up and over the side of the tube. And all at once, everything whipped around. I was tumbling in the snow, the tube flipping over me, and something heavier, too.
We crashed and landed in a tangle of limbs.
I was on top, but also trapped under Gabriel somehow, with the tube on top of the pair of us.
“Are you all right?” Gabriel brushed my hair back from my face, his rough glove scratching my cheek.
I laughed and lingered over him, giving myself a moment to catch my breath, but it never came. My chest felt tight. The cold melted away as a pleasant warmth crept over me. We were pressed together, trapped here in this catastrophe that was half my fault, and half not.
I should have been miserable, but I wasn’t. This was the good kind of story, the kind where the injuries were minimal and the thrill of the experience reigned supreme.
“Peachy.” I smiled at Gabriel. “Let’s go again.”
In a concerted effort, we threw off the tube. We were only about halfway down the hill.
“We should probably reach the bottom first,” he said.
Snow began to fall, light and fluffy flakes catching in my eyelashes and peppering my nose and cheeks.
“I don’t know,” I said. “This felt like the end. Maybe the lift will make a special stop for us.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“What a pity. I guess we’ll have to climb back in.”
“You’ll have to climb off me first.”
“You’re pinning my leg. I can’t move.”
He wiggled. I wiggled. And oh my goodness we were like writhing worms, rubbing our snow suited bodies against each other in front of a bunch of children.
I laughed again, and this time I couldn’t stop until we were completely untangled.
Then I made Gabriel go down the hill again and again until my limbs grew numb with cold. We only stopped for food and pee breaks. After the fifth or tenth or ninety-seventh run down the hill, sitting at the bottom of the slope, Gabriel popped up and offered me his hand.
I took it. Then we stood there together, me admiring the warmth that had returned to his hot chocolate eyes, pools of delicious heat I’d love to dive into and never stop swimming in.
“Your cheeks are pink,” he said.
“So?”
“Your teeth are chattering.”
“Nah,” I said, through bouts of obvious chattering.
“We should go in.”
“But I don’t wanna.” The sun was definitely on its way down. I didn’t want the day to end.
“Neither do I.” He cracked a small smile. “But it’s time.”
As soon as we went inside, his walls would go back up. Instead of sharing smiles, we’d be back to pretending we liked each other for the sake of others, back to snapping at each other when no one was looking.
I liked it sometimes. It was fun. It sparked the inspiration I needed. But I wanted to put it off just a little longer.
Gabriel set the tube off to the side and waited for me to follow.
Fine. We’d do the responsible things, the peopling, then this would all be over, and I’d go back to my stink sofa, and to my impatient waiting for our next meeting.
