“Getting some boots fitted with her instructor,” I said.
Rachel slapped my shoulder. “Ow!”
“Did you leave her alone?” she asked.
“Not alone,” I clarified. “With her instructor. They’re going to teach her all the basics. She’s never been skiing.”
“And you didn’t think to join?” she asked.
“It’s a private lesson,” I defended. “Besides, I know how to ski.”
She rolled her eyes, but left it alone. I didn’t know what her problem was. I would only distract her during the class, and I wasn’t interested in sitting through a whole lesson on something I knew how to do.
I grabbed my goggles and headed up the ski lift with Arthur. Rachel and Samuel sitting in front of us.
“Where’s Tiffany?” I asked him. This was a rare time we had to chat.
“In the room,” he said. “She’s not much for skiing.”
I nodded. She didn’t seem much for fun, but I kept that to myself. We sat in a stilted silence the rest of the time. I had no interest in talking to him about work, and I was sure he didn’t have anything else to talk about.
We got to the top of the black diamond. The slope was large, so more than one of us could go at a time. I let Samuel and Arthur go down at the same time so they could race it out, before Rachel and I followed.
I held my poles beside me and pushed off, allowing gravity to take me down the edge of the mountain. My body remembered what to do, pushing off when I needed, and following the curves of the snow.
When I reached a drift, I readied myself and did a slight jump over it, launching myself up and free falling for a moment, before landing and making my way down the rest of the mountain.
When I reached the bottom, Arthur was standing by the edge with Samuel, who had a set jaw and crossed arms.
“Something tells me Arthur got down here first,” I said.
“Shut it,” Samuel said. “The day’s just started.”
“Yes, plenty more opportunities to try and catch me,” Arthur said.
I laughed in shock. Arthur hadn’t said anything witty in… ever, probably. He had a slight smile as Samuel pouted.
“Hey, El,” Rachel said, cutting through our jabs. “Is that Juniper?” she asked.
I followed her gaze. It was. She had braided her hair back and tucked it under a knit beanie. She wore a deep turquoise puffer jacket and matching snow pants that fit in all the right places.
Then I froze as I saw her instructor come around. It was a man who looked fairly tall, with blonde hair tied back out of his face. He looked a bit average, almost like a Ken dall, and something about the way he was smiling at her rubbed me the wrong way.
“Looks like she’s learning how to position her poles,” Rachel said.
“I’m sure her instructor knows where he wants to positionhispoles,” Samuel said, waggling his brows.
“Cut it out,” Rachel chided, but I was hardly listening.
Hewaspaying too much attention to her. But I shook my head. He was just doing his job, even if he was doing it in a manner I didn’t appreciate very much.
“Let’s go back up,” I said, turning before hearing anyone’s response.
We rode a couple of the black diamond slopes, and every time we came down we just went right back up. I didn’t need to be paying attention to Juniper’s lesson. It had nothing to do with me.Shehad nothing to do with me, not really.
Eventually, everyone was exhausted and Rachel insisted on taking a break. I almost got Samuel back onto the slope in sheer competitiveness with Arthur, but he was also ready for a break.
As we got back in, though, I caught a shock of red hair coming down the bunny slope. She was doing pretty well, though I noticed her leaning back too far. I thought she was going to correct it when she came forward, but I saw the rookie decision to lean back and watched her crash onto her butt.
