“Do you want to talk about Russ?”
“Definitely no.”
“I’ve decided that, if something happens to me, I’d WANT you to hit on Jim.”
“That is weird and gross, but I think you’re saying it from a place of love.”
“I am.”
“I love you, too.”
Winter had arrived. With freezing temperatures and afternoon flurries. Every time it snowed, everyone who worked in Western Alliance’s seventeen-story glass office building would stand at the walls and look down at the street to see if it was sticking.
Meg Jones stopped in Cherry’s office around three one day, on her way out the door. There was a blizzard coming. It was a few days tillChristmas. Cherry was standing at her window, looking out into the whirling white.
“You should get out of here,” Meg said. “Beat the traffic.”
Cherry hated driving in the snow, even though she was fine at it. “Maybe I’ll wait for everyone else to plow a path down Dodge.”
“You’ll be here till midnight. I heard they’re closing the interstate to Lincoln.”
Meg left, and Cherry left right after her. The office was already empty.
Cherry’s fifteen-minute drive took an hour and a half. Bumper to barely visible bumper. She lived at the top of a hill, and tonight she had to rev her engine at the bottom to power up the unplowed street to her house. The car rolled back the first time she tried it.
It was a relief to finally pull into her driveway just as the sun was setting. Cherry had forgotten her snow boots at work, and her dress shoes—very cute tasseled oxfords—were full of snow by the time she got to the porch.
There were fresh paw prints in the yard... It looked like Stevie had been rolling around. Stevielovedsnow.
Cherry trudged up the front steps and inside the warm house, finally letting herself relax. Stevie didn’t come running. She and Tom must still be on their walk. Stevie was lucky that Tom was around—Cherry never would have taken the dog for a walk in this weather. Stevie was too hard to manage when it was icy. She’d drag Cherry down the block like a sled.
Cherry took off her wet shoes and flipped the light switch. The lights didn’t come on. She tried it again. Then walked into the kitchen and tried that light, too. Was the power out? It could just be a fuse... The house was old and glitchy.
The fuse box was out in the garage. Cherry glanced out the window. Maybe she could just wait for Tom to take care of it...
No.
She could do this.
She’d done it before.
She didn’t have extra snow boots, so she put on rubber rain boots and carefully made her way back down the front steps. The boots were slippery, but they kept her feet from getting even wetter.
When she got to the garage door—not the big door, the side door—it was already open.
She peeked in.
Tom was standing in the shadows holding a snow shovel. He was looking down at his phone.
“Oh, hey,” Cherry said. “I thought you guys were still on your walk.”
“We just got back.” He tucked his phone in his pocket. “I was going to shovel the front sidewalk before I go.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“It won’t take long,” he said.
“But it’s just going to keep snowing.”
