Christmas In July/Romance Rewind: Snow Day
“A snowball?” He rubbed his eyes. “Who is down there?” He opened the window to see his neighbor Kelsey standing on the lawn, with another snowball in her hand.
Jake woke up to the sound of something hitting his window. It wasn’t a crash, there was no broken glass, but something startled him. He peered out the window and something exploded on the glass.
“A snowball?” He rubbed his eyes. “Who is down there?” He opened the window to see his neighbor Kelsey standing on the lawn, with another snowball in her hand.
“It’s a snow day!” she said. She dressed from head to toe in the same snow gear she wore when they went skiing together.
“Snow day? What do you mean? We’re not in school anymore.”
“The office sent out a company-wide email. They’re closed for today because of all the snow from last night. We’re off the hook!”
“If we’re off the hook, then why are you awake? This is the perfect opportunity to finally catch up on sleep.”
“You can sleep in tomorrow. It’s Friday and we have the day off! Let’s go on an adventure!”
The benefits of living in the same apartment complex as a co-worker were as follows: carpooling to work, if someone has car troubles there’s always another option, in the winter they knew who would wake up early to clean their car off.
Snowball to the window instead of an alarm was not a benefit.
Jake got dressed and headed downstairs. His apartment was on the third floor. The stairs were already slick from others in the building making their way down. When he first moved in, he used the elevator more often than not, but it’d been broken for the past two years.
When Jake walked outside, a snowball to the chest greeted him.
“You’re way too excited about this,” he said. “It’s not like there still aren’t things I should get done today.”
“There will be none of that,” said Kelsey. “Today is a snow day, which means it’s a free day! Let’s walk to the coffeehouse down the street and treat ourselves to our Friday usual.”
“Walk? Why can’t we drive there? It’s almost two miles down the road.”
“We never get to walk anywhere. We’ve been carpool buddies for almost two years now and we’ve barely had a conversation that didn’t involve work. I’ll go first, my favorite color is blue. What’s yours?”
“Green. Let’s drive. I have my keys in my pocket. It’ll be easier.”
“Snow days aren’t about things being easier,” said Kelsey. She knelt and grabbed another handful of snow. “They’re about having fun.”
“Fun is easy.”
“When you’re a kid, maybe.” She lobbed another snowball at Jake.
“You’re going to pay for that one.” He smirked.
“You’ll have to catch me first!”
Jake picked up a handful of snow and began packing it in his hands as he ran after Kelsey. He knew right away where she was leading him — the coffeehouse. It was their Friday tradition to treat themselves to a nice coffee on the way to work. The cafeteria at work provided free coffee, but having the same thing day after day took its toll. The Friday tradition was Kelsey’s idea, and he looked forward to it every week.
“You can’t run forever!”
“I can run at least two miles!” Kelsey shouted back.
He lobbed his snowball, and it hit Kelsey in the back.
“Good shot!” she called out. “Now you’re getting it.” She grabbed a handful and carried on running.
“Just you wait,” said Jake, already packing another snowball. “That was just a practice throw!”
“Oh, was it?” Kelsey giggled.
Kelsey stopped in front of the coffeehouse, and Jake caught up to her. Each of them had a snowball in hand.
“Well, well, well,” said Jake. “Looks like we have a standoff.”
“Who’s going first?” asked Kelsey. “Think you can draw faster than me?”
“I think I — ”
The snow dripped from Jake’s face.
“Coffee is on me!” shouted Kelsey.
Jake looked up and smiled.
“I’ll take a hot chocolate.”
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