Blizzard ~ Part 1

The snow was coming and I was rushing around my little house, packing an overnight bag to take to my friend Cindy's house. It was Thursday night, the weathermen were promising major accumulation, and in between phone calls and meetings at work, we had hatched our plan. We were hoping to get snowed in for a long weekend, and at least a couple days off of work. I just hoped that Cindy's husband Rob could survive a weekend trapped in the house with two girls, planning to do nothing more exciting than watch movies, paint their nails and eat junk food. I had rushed home from work to pick up my dogs and whatever I mihgt need to stay at Cindy and Rob's house for a few days. I felt as giddy as a school kid hoping for school to be cancelled the next day.

Once I was at Cindy's, we were ready to completely relax. Changed into our comfiest sweats and warmest socks, we set about watching movie previews and were drinking our first beer when the phone rang. It was Rob, and as expected, he was going to be out until late in the evening, as part of the local road crew, salting and sanding the streets. We had of course counted on this, and had planned accordingly - making sure we had plenty of food and beer to last the weekend.

The night went on exactly as planned and we were enjoying our slumber party when there was an unexpected knock on the door, and the sound of shuffling boots and a male voice as Rob came in thru the back. We looked at each other wondering if he was just on the phone, but then there was a second male voice. Cindy gasped and smacked a hand over her mouth, trying to hide a huge smile. I was shocked silent - I had not expected this at all. The two men walked in wearing their big coats, shaking the snow off their shoulders and hair. I could not keep from making eye contact with Rob's companion - but I couldn't tell whether or not he was pleased to see me. He only glanced at me briefly, his expression guarded.

"Look who I found!" said Rob with mock surprise in his voice. He couldn't have been any more pleased with himself.

It was Vincent, tall and thin but muscular, with his dark curly hair, and almost jet black eyes. He was quiet and brooding much of the time, especially in large groups, but when he smiled his eyes sparkled and he looked as sweet and mischievous as a young boy. The long hours of working outdoors and needing a shave only made him more attractive at the moment and I had to pull my eyes away to keep from staring, but he had noticed. Still, there wasn't even a hint of a smile, until he said hello to Cindy. He was the last person I had expected to see, when it suddenly occurred to me that I shouldn't be surprised. I'd probably been set up as soon as Cindy came up with the idea of staying at her place for the weekend. Since our first meeting, Vincent made no attempts to hide his feelings towards me, but at times he seemed downright angry at me, and barely spoke. I had been dating, Roger, a former friend of Vincent's, but the two men practically hated each other now. It was evidently all due to some incident in the past, but so far no one had been willing to tell me the whole story. All I knew was that being near Vincent excited me as much as it frightened me, and I'm not even sure why, but at this moment, I was trying not to panic. He was well aware of my recent fight with Roger, because he'd witnessed it, and possibly even instigated it in part, by making sure I'd stumbled upon Roger in what appeared to be very intimate conversation with another girl. I didn't really know if anything was going on, but it was enough to make me tell Roger I wanted a break, which had made him incredibly angry. Especially since he was convinced that Vincent was to blame.

So the idea of being snowed in with a nice married couple for a few days had been a welcome idea. No worrying about running into Roger or having to avoid him. If we got enough snow, I would have no options but to stay where I was, and that's what Cindy and I had been counting on. But now I wondered if Cindy and Rob (or Rob and Vincent?) had plotted to get me here. I wasn't sure if I should be mad, or just amused, but at the moment, I was happy not to have to decide. I wasn't going anywhere for a while, whether I wanted to or not.

"How bad is it?" Cindy asked the guys as she offered them both a beer.

"It's gotten really bad really fast", said Rob. "We're probably going to be done soon, not much more we can do right now until tomorrow. Everything's been treated, we just have to wait til we can start plowing, and you can't see more than a few yards in front of you out there right now."

"Have you guys even been outside?" Vincent suddenly spoke, realizing that we weren't even paying attention to the snow outside. Cindy and I both laughed and looked guilty. "No, we've been busy with important girl stuff", Cindy said.

"Well let's go!" he said. "You won't be able to get out the door before too long!"

Cindy looked at me, her eyes just twinkling with mischief. She was as pleased as she could be with this development. I gave her a look and shook my head, but I just laughed at her. I had to admit I wasn't totally unhappy with the situation either, but I was nervous.

Once outside it quickly turned into a snowball fight. Since I didn't have the best arm for throwing snowballs, I resorted to sneaking up on the guys and shaking snow-heavy branches that happened to be over the heads. At some point, I ended up being tackled in the snow, not unpleasantly, by Vincent. We were laughing and out of breath and completely at ease with each other until the moment he hovered over me in the snow and we both realized how close we were. I jumped up and put some distance between us as quickly as possible, and tried to compose myself. I realized I might be spending alot of time with him in close quarters over the next couple of days. I knew there was no one else I'd rather be stranded with.

The boys had to go back out for a few hours to work, and as soon as they were gone, Cindy wanted to grill me about Vincent. "you know he really likes you" she started, as we cleared away magazines and nail polish and bags of chips to make room for fixing dinner. I smiled in spite of my best efforts. I felt completely giddy at the thought of him coming back later.

"You like him?" she prodded.

"What's not to like?" I said, "but I don't know what to think of him, he can be a little intense sometimes....sometimes I even feel like he really doesn't like me or something" and now I was feeling a bit deflated, because I knew I had to be careful, and I was confused by the whole situation

"He just isn't sure about YOU because of Roger." Cindy said, "You know how he feels about Roger, and I think he's worried Roger has influenced your opinion of him."

"I know, I just don't know which one of them to believe." I said. "Both of them act like the other guy is the bad guy."

"Well, I can tell you that Vincent is not the bad guy." Cindy said, becoming defensive of her husband's friend. And that was the end of the discussion. We were comfortably silent for a while as we prepared dinner, only speaking in reference to the preparations and laughing at our clumsy attempts to work in the tiny kitchen together. I was once again feeling very relaxed and quite happy just being there, in a warm house with friends, lots of food and nowhere to go.

We were both almost asleep on the couch watching a movie when the boys returned. It was after 1am, but they told us that power lines were coming down everywhere because of the heavy snow, which was now turning into an icy mix that was weighing down everything. They changed their clothes and helped themselves to the food we had kept warming on top of the stove and sat down with us. Vincent sat next to me on the couch, so that my feet were touching his thigh. I decided I'd better sit up and try to keep my wits about me with him so close. By the time Cindy and Rob announced they were going to bed, we'd all been laughing and having a beer and gotten quite comfortable in the cozy living room, complete with blazing fire.

Now I felt myself getting nervous at the thought of being alone with Vincent, who was sitting on the floor in front of me, with his back against the couch. He was tired, but more talkative than i'd ever seen him, and I was flattered that he seemed so comfortable and open with me. Finally he leaned his head back on the couch and reached his arm out to put his hand on mine, and his eyes met mine. I was trying hard to maintain on the outside, but I was all quivery on the inside.

"So do you think I could share this couch with you tonight?" he asked. I narrowed my eyes and gave him an exxagerated suspicious look and he laughed. "I promise to be on my best behavior." I smiled at him but still avoided the question and looked around the room for some distraction.

I got up to go the bathroom and came back to sit next to him on the floor. Our backs were against the couch, facing the fire. He casually took one of my hands and held it in both of his, examing it like a palm reader. I wondered if it was trembling, or just felt like it, and if he could tell. He didn't say anything for a few minutes, and then he finally spoke. "I don't want to see you with Roger anymore" he said. Suddenly he was the intense Vincent that I was at once attracted to and slightly afraid of. "Tell me I won't see you with him again." It was more of a statement than a request. When I didn't respond, he turned to look at me expectantly, waiting. I was so distracted by his gaze that I forgot what we were talking about until he raised an eyebrow as if to say "Well?" "You won't" I whispered, wondering if he could even hear me. He leaned over to kiss me on the temple. "Good" was all he said. We sat in silence for a while, as he continued to hold my hand in his, and eventually, I leaned my head on his shoulder and sighed.

We both must've dozed then, until we were startled awake by a loud noise. It sounded like a gunshot or some sort of explosion, and it was very close by. The fire was dying down, and we looked around trying to adjust to the darkness as we realized the power was out. The house was already beginning to get cold. Rob came stumbling out of the bedroom, still half asleep and trying to see in the dark.

'What the hell was that noise?" he said, rubbing his eyes, as Cindy came out behind him, wrapped in a blanket.

"Think it was a damn transformer" said Vincent, climbing to his feet. He stopped to take a blanket off the couch and wrap it around my shoulders before heading towards the back door behind Rob. Cindy came and sat next to me, and we sat close under our blankets in front of the fire, already dreading the thought of a house with no heat on this snowy night.

The guys came back in shortly to confirm that it was a transformer just down the street, and that the whole neighborhood was dark. Rob went to work setting up a small generator while Vincent brought in more wood and soon had the fire blazing again.

"Well, we've got the fireplace and the one heater, so we should be ok for the night anyway" Rob said as he sat down next to his wife and put his arms around her. "Our bedroom will stay warm with the heater if we close the door, so we can let the girls sleep in there and we can sleep out here on the floor?" he ended it as a question, looking at Vincent and then at Cindy.

"No you guys go sleep in your room," Vincent replied, speaking to the married couple. He sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. "We'll be fine out here with the fire." He turned to me and spoke, "Right?" Like his earlier question about Roger, it was clear that he expected only one response from me.

Rob and Cindy looked at me for my reaction. I shrugged, and then nodded. Again the thought of being alone with Vincent made me both nervous and excited, especially when he was so close to me at that moment.

"Well I need a shot to help keep me warm!" said Cindy. And she went to the kitchen and came back with a very cold bottle of Jaiger and passed around shot glasses.

~ to be continued ~