“This is actually pretty good,” I admitted, taking a sip of my hot chocolate.
“Duh. Tim’s is the best. You positively cannot come to Canada without having a Double-Double,” she held her coffee up towards me and I took it from her grasp, taking a sip.
“It’s super sweet,” I grimaced, although the after taste was surprisingly nice.
“Exactly. The secret is in the double cream. So good. One time I almost had a kerfuffle with the server because she claimed there was double cream and there most certainly was not. I worked at Tims as a teenager, I know my drinks.”
I smiled. Australian Shelby was carefree, lackadaisical and unencumbered. She loved getting unknowingly high and taking me along for the ride. But Canadian Shelby was somehow even brighter. Comfortable in the role of native, older sister and tour guide. And ironically, given how majority of my life saw me overseeing initiatives and making decisions, playing passenger to her was a huge fucking turn-on and it was getting difficult to hide that awakening.
“So what are we doing now that I’m all rugged up?” I asked, referring to my snow pants, boots and thermals. There were decorations everywhere and with everything happening, I’d forgotten Christmas was now only two days away. Mum and Dad had been happily surprised to hear about the impromptu trip overseas and I knew I was going to be sprayed with questions the first chance I gave them.
I’d also replied to Old Ed and frustratingly confirmed I would look into the spaces he’d found in NYC despite wishing I could ignore him forever.
“Blake hopefully comes home before the weekend and we will stay in for a roast, so I need to get supplies. But, I want to take you into town today. Show you a real white Christmas,” she grinned.
“Why only hopefully?” I asked, wondering why a hospital would want him to stay there over the holidays unless he absolutely needed to.
“Just waiting on clearance,” she gritted, running a hand through her hair. “They can be slow here, especially over the holidays.”
“I leave in three days.” The confession spewed from my mouth as if it knew I would never say it otherwise.
“What?” Shelby exclaimed, sadness sweeping across her features like a shadow before vanishing behind a careful mask of indifference.
She pulled into a carpark, switching off the engine before turning towards me. “How do you feel about this?” She asked tentatively. “I mean, you just got here.”
“Apparently my indefinite leave did have an expiry date,” I shrugged, trying to keep the disappointment from my voice. “I fly to New York two days after Christmas, stay there for a couple of days and am then home on the thirty-first.” I toyed with the lid of my drink, avoiding her scrutinising gaze. I needed to maintain any feelings of sadness were about returning to work, rather than leaving whatever this was because if she didn’t feel the same as I did, it would crush me. It would make things awkward and uncomfortable.
She was quiet for the longest time before her forcefully chirpy voice broke the silence. “Well, that gives us three days to cram in all things Canada. So let’s go!” She was outside and closing the car door before I even had a chance to tell her I didn’t want to leave soon… or maybe ever.
“I loved swimming in the ocean and traipsing the coast of Australia with you, but nothing compares to this.” I said, holding my sticky treat aloft.
“Right?” She grinned, her cheeks rosy from the cold, somehow making her even more beautiful. “Maple taffy is my favourite thing about the snow,” she added, sucking the frozen sweet into her mouth before removing it with an audible pop. She smiled again, those plush lips calling for me.
Ugh, I wanted to kiss her.
Right here in the middle of the ice-rink, surrounded by families and other skaters, I wanted to devour that mouth and taste the sweetgoodness on her tongue. And based on the way her brows were raised accompanied by a mischievous smirk, she could read my mind. I was blaming the look of my pale blue hoodie which she’d adorably matched with a beanie and gloves, making her the cutest fucking snow bunny I’d ever seen.
Before she came to Australia, I didn’t notice people. If they weren’t a business associate, or family, there was a strong chance I wouldn’t even talk to them. I wouldn’t know their names, their likes and dislikes and I definitely wouldn’t know that their top lip raised into a perfect little peak. That their hazel eyes were a little lighter on an overcast day when the ground and trees were powdered with winter snow. Or the way they smelt like a drug made just for me and tasted like my kryptonite – all very inconvenient thoughts given our location.
The rink was full, lines of people holding hands, kids with their skating aids fumbling along next to attentive parents trying to do their best to keep them upright. And then there were the couples, gracing the makeshift canal as if each were the only two people on the ice.
And I felt that, because regardless of everything happening, I wished it were only Shelbs and I out here. Ice skating wasn’t something I’d done since I was a child, but it was clear she did. Her moves were practised, fluid and far more effortless than my clunky footwork which saw me concentrating as much as possible.
“Might even taste better if I wasn’t so focused on remaining standing,” I grumbled, eliciting a laugh from her.
“You do resemble a baby giraffe, but a very adorable – ooop,” her eyes widened briefly, before she reached for my hand and yanked me forward. My sugared treat went flying, the tips of my skates digging into the ice as I grabbed hold of her hoodie and did my best not to tumble and flip us both.
“Jesus,” I spat, lucky not to be face down at her feet.
Her laughter rang like bells in my ear. “Sorry, but they almost ran into you,” she squeaked, pointing behind me to someone who was long gone.
“I told you I wasn’t the best skater.” There was a definite whine in my tone depicting my embarrassment but Shelbs ignored it.
“And I told you I was scared of the ocean and you forced me into that,” she put her hand on her hip, not sorry at all.
“I recall that day having a much better ending,” I whispered, biting back my smirk when her mouth fell open a little. We were still skirting around the times when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, the days that followed as if nothing happened until we were wound so tight with brief touches or unintentional affection and it happened again. A silent war raging within until we lost our restraint in the best of ways.
With the hospital, Blake returning home and Christmas, we hadn’t had much time just the two of us. Today was the first time I felt as though I had her all to myself and I wanted to skate away from the crowds and just be us. Take her in the trees and kiss her until our mouths hurt and we could no longer feel ourselves because of the cold, especially as my departure hovered over us like a storm cloud.
