by Laney Powell
Snow Job
A Resolution Pact Short Story
Laney Powell
Copyright © 2019 by Laney Powell
Snow Job A Resolution Pact Short Story
Spar Island Girls #4
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
The Chats
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
About the Author
The Spar Island Girls
Also by Laney Powell
A Sneak Peek…
New York Ladies!
AnnaLi: So I’m going to this party. It’s for work. Not jazzed.
Harper: Why not? Office parties are fun! Well, maybe not your office LOL
AnnaLi: Yeah, but if I don’t show, it looks bad. Company team building and all that BS.
Harper: You want to come hang with me?
AnnaLi: *sigh* YASS. But who knows how long I’m stuck?
Harper: K. Boo. I wanted to hang tonight.
AnnaLi: What are u doing?
Harper: Watching the ball drop from home.
AnnaLi: Wanna grab breakfast afterwards?
Harper: YES!
AnnaLi: Diner?
Harper: K
Mi Alpha Alpha Alums Chat:
StacyB: “Remember, ladies. Do it. Whatever it is you want to do. Wherever you have wanted to go. Whatever you want to try, to taste, to feel, to live.... do it. This is our year.”
Annalise
This party, as expected, blows. And not in a good way.
It’s a work party, put on by my firm. I’m an accountant, and I work for one of the larger accounting firms in the city. After the breakup with Todd, I’d buckled down and put all my energy into work. Work has been my life for the past year, and it paid off. I’ve been promoted twice, even with the eye rolling and snide comments about how a woman got promoted.
They can all jump off a cliff. I put in the hours, and I’ve found mistakes that saved the clients money. That’s why I earned my promotions. As a supervisor, when Bernie, one of the partners, throws a party, I’m there.
Whether I want to be or not. It’s definitely a ‘not’. Bernie is old even though he doesn’t act like a guy in his sixties. This party is not happening.
Well, I need to be fair. It’s not the worst party ever, but it’s not doing a damn thing to further my goal. I’m looking to make a change, not work so hard, find someone else, and start a life that is not focused on work.
My goal isn’t going to get any help here. I glance around, sighing as my phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out to see a new text. It’s from Harper, my best friend.
Harper: You still there? How is it?
AnnaLi: As expected. Same old same old. Nothing new to see here.
Harper: I’m sorry. U want to come here?
AnnaLi: No I need to be here. The boss made it clear that the supervisors didn’t have a choice.
Harper: K. If it changes text immediately and we’ll get you out of there.
AnnaLi: THX.
She doesn’t reply, and I get it. What is there to say? Nothing. I’m stuck here until the clock strikes twelve like Cinder-freakin-ella. The only difference is there is no prince trying to chase me down fetish-clutching my shoe.
I sigh as I put my phone away. I’d even take that right now. At least it would seem as though I was going somewhere. And what’s worse is that I know how stupid this is. I don’t need a guy, or a relationship. I’m only twenty-four.
That’s too young to give up and throw in the towel, right? I don’t want to die, surrounded by cats that casually eat off my corpse until there’s nothing left.
I don’t even have a cat, but I’ve been considering getting one. Probably not a great sign.
I sigh and take a sip of my wine. The booze is flowing freely, but I don’t want to drink more than I should and do something I’d regret. Not with people I must be around every day. No thank you.
“Hey, Annalee,” a male voice slurs next to me.
Chad, one of the guys in a division other than mine, sidles up to me. He’s got a rocks glass in his hand that is swaying alarmingly, and he smells like whiskey.
Since he can’t say my name right, I’m going to assume he’s drunk. There’s no easy path to escape, so I will need to get creative.
“Hi, Chad. Hey, I was just—”
He grabs my arm, stopping my getaway. I tug on my arm, and his grip tightens. Great. He’s an asshole in addition to a pushy drunk. And he’s married. This entire thing has no good outcome.
“Where you going? I want to talk to you.” His boozy breath wafts over me.
Gross. I turn my head slightly.
“I need to go to the restroom,” I said.
His grip lightens. “Great. I’ll go with you, and we can… talk… there.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Chad. We can talk at the office. Besides, where’s Marion?” Marion is his wife.
His head whips around so fast it’s like watching a cartoon character. His eyes are wide as he scans the area, and they’re still wide when he turns his gaze back to me. “You see her?”
I nodded, easing my arm from his grip, and wrapping both of my arms around myself. “I did. I think she’s headed for us. She saw you,” I nod my head again, looking like this is a sure thing.
“Shit,” he mumbles, and without another word to me, he moves away, the whiskey sloshing out of his glass as he tries to go unseen by his wife.
I lean against a wall. Now I need to find his wife.
I located Marion and alerted her that Chad was a bit under the weather. She’d given me an impatient look, but she left with the speed of light. I followed at a discreet distance.
She found Chad and promptly hauled him off. Excellent. He wouldn’t be lurching around the party any longer.
I sighed, and looked at my watch. Well, it was still New Year’s Eve. That meant I could make a resolution and make changes. I could make them anytime, but they seemed to carry more weight when done tonight. What did I want to change?
This time next year, I wanted to be in, or about to be in, another job. A good one. Where people didn’t think I’d slept with one of the bosses to get ahead.
And I was going to be in a relationship.
Neither one of these would be easy. They both required me to get out of my comfort zone, to do things outside of my normal daily stuff. I wasn’t meeting guys at work, and the gym didn’t offer many possibilities either. It had to be something different.
I’d also need to figure out how to job hunt discreetly. It might be easier to find the perfect guy.
But that was it. Those were my resolutions. I was going to change the things I didn’t like. It might take me all year, but New Year’s Eve next year would be with the arms of an amazing guy wrapped around me at a work party where I was happy to be there. No more of this skulking around the edges watching the clock.
As Bernie stood up, and started the countdown to midnight, I headed for the coat check. I didn’t need to celebrate here. I grabbed a bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket, found my coat, and went out to try and find a cab home.
I woke up and stretched, automatically reaching over to the other pillow. It was empty. I sighed. It was going to be empty, at least for now.
Cara had left when I left my law firm for a leave of absence, after becoming the youngest partner in history. She expressed a lot of dismay at my “lack of ambition.” The fact that my entire world had turned upside down wasn’t supposed to get in the way of my upwardly mobile ambition.
But it did. So, she left. I understood, even though I missed her. Sometimes. Most of the time, I enjoyed being alone.
It was quiet here on Wonderland Mountain. Just what I needed.
Once the paperwork had been filed, and I’d woken up—alone—after my leave officially started, I hadn’t known what to do with myself. Sitting around and doing nothing did not appeal to me. When browsing Craigslist, I saw a help wanted ad for instructors at Wonderland Ski Area, and I was on the road within the hour.
I’d been skiing since I was three, and pretty sure I could teach. To my surprise, it had been a tougher interview than I thought with Bob, the head instructor, giving me what was politely called the stink eye.
“I don’t know what you’re running from, but you’re running from something. I don’t care, so long as it doesn’t affect your work here. You’ve never taught before, but you’re a good skier, and I think you’ll work out, long as your ego doesn’t trip you up.”
Bob shoved a stack of paperwork at me, told me to come back the next weekend, and I’d been working here ever since. I would drive up Wednesday night, and stay in the staff cabins until Sunday, then come back. I could have worked all week, but there were people who needed the job. I didn’t.
Well, I did. But not to live, not to get by. I spent the rest of the week studying, looking into different areas of law. I needed something different. I just didn’t know what that something was.
I’d settled my parents’ estates, but there were a few things outstanding. Thankfully, it wasn’t much, so all the business aspects would soon be taken care of. I had to figure out how to live without two of the best people in the world, and that was a lot more difficult. When my parents were killed in the accident, most of my world fell away. They were my closest friends, and I adored them.
Grief took a lot longer to settle than an estate. I hoped, by the end of the year, I’d be in a better place. I threw back the blankets and rolled out of bed. I would be. No matter what.
As I stood in the shower, I decided to head up to Wonderland early. The first weekend after the new year was always busy. If I wasn’t needed, I’d spend the day skiing on my own.
The day was clear and crisp. Driving into the mountains, it felt like the entire world was sparkling. The perfect day. I didn’t know why, but today felt like it was going to be something different. Something special.
I could use that.
When I parked and headed for the instructors’ office, Bob told me he didn’t schedule me today.
“Had to get out of there?” He raised a brow.
I nodded. “Yeah. There’s always the chance you wouldn’t need me.”
He grinned at me, and I grinned back. Bob was over seventy, but he always made sure to get out and hit a couple of runs every single day. I admired that and knew he’d understand.
“You’re in luck. Go. If anything changes, I’ll text you.”
I saluted him as I left. A couple of the other instructors greeted me, and we talked for a few moments before they had to go, making plans to go to one of the local bars for dinner tonight.
My day sorted, I headed out for the lifts. It was going to be a perfect day.
Two hours later, I was sweating, and standing at the top of Lift Nine on the Revenge trail. This had a lot of moguls and took more effort and time, and I was ready for it. I looked down as far as I could to see any other skiers as well as behind me. Mid-week, mid-afternoon, there weren’t many people up here.
Perfect. Putting in my earbuds, I cranked up my music and pushed off from the edge, heading down the run. It’s what I needed today—focus, clarity, everything on the next piece of the trail in front of me. Nothing more. Nothing---
Something hit my back and I go flying forward, my poles going everywhere and both skis coming off as I land on my face.
“What in the hell?” I ask as I pushed myself up, taking my poles off so I don’t kill my ambusher.
Five or six feet above me is a woman, and unlike me, she’s not on her face. She looks like she slid down on her ass. She’s got one ski on, and the other one is another ten feet up the run.
“Are you all right?” She asks as she pulls off her goggles. “I tried to yell ‘Right’ to you, but you didn’t hear it!”
“If you are not skilled enough to run the moguls, this is not the trail to be on,” I say coldly. I can’t say what I really want because I’m wearing a jacket with the Wonderland logo on it, as well as the word ‘Staff.’
“Well,” she gets up, and kicks her boot out of the ski, “if you—hey! You’re wearing earbuds! If you didn’t cut yourself off, you would have heard me!”
“I—” I stop. She’s right.
Damn it.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I looked behind me before I started but I must not have seen you. Are you all right?” I ask, feeling every kind of lame and douchey. The thought of being a complete ass is made worse by the fact that her face is gorgeous, and I can’t stop staring at her. A thrill of attraction ripples through me. I haven’t felt that for anyone—or anything—since my parents died.
She takes off her helmet and runs her hands through her hair, shaking the snow out. “I’m fine.” Her tone indicates that while she might be fine, she is seriously annoyed.
“Can I help you?”
She gives me a look of such disdain that I almost wish I hadn’t spoken. Almost. She’s petite, and she has long hair, all of it honey blonde. I love long hair. Her eyes are dark, and they are spitting fire at me.
“No, you’ve done enough. Sorry I ran into you, but since you couldn’t hear me doing the right thing, there was nothing else that could happen.” She turns, picks up the ski closest to her and starts hiking up the hill to get her errant ski.
“Hey, wait. I’m sorry. Let me help you.”
She waves a hand behind her back to let me know my help is not welcome. I watch her for a moment to make sure she’s all good. She gets up to her ski, puts her helmet and goggles back on, and steps back into both skis. In an instant, she’s heading off away from me, and as I watch, she skis down below me.
She’s good. Really good. The way that someone who has spent a lot of time on skis is good. Watching her, I would bet she was looking for the same thing I was—peace, quiet, time alone. I take my time and let her disappear from my line of sight.
All I want to do is follow her down, follow her home.
“Ease up, stalker,” I tell myself as I continue down the run. But to myself, I hope that I’ll see her again.
Annalise
After my near-death experience with the rude—but amazingly, panty-droppingly handsome—guy on the moguls run, I go a little easier the rest of the day. Running into him is going to make me hurt tomorrow. I’ll soak in the tub at the hotel tonight.
After the horrible party, I came home and thought about where I’d been happiest. It had been here, coming skiing with my dad every weekend. After my parents divorced, they agreed I’d get to spend as many weekends here with Dad as I wanted. I loved Wonderland. The resort was small, and had a family feeling even now.
The thing that had dragged me up here from the city—the final push—had been the Craigslist post looking for ski instructors. I’d never officially taught skiing, but I’d been skiing my entire life. I’d booked a room at the hotel close to Wonderland and come up to make sure I still had the skills.
To my satisfaction, I did, hot rude guy notwithstanding. It didn’t hurt that every guy I’d ever had a crush on growing up had been one of the instructors here. I skied every weeken
d, and gotten friendly with some of them. The Craigslist ad reminded me that all of my first crushes were guys from here. Wonderland Ski Area.
Unfortunately, the hot rude guy was Wonderland staff, and that didn’t bode well for my mission. He had apologized, and after his initial rudeness, looked upset that he’d caused the pile up.
And he’d yard saled all over the place. It made me giggle. At least I’d only lost a ski.
There were lots of employees here, though. Just because one was rude—it wasn’t like I couldn’t handle rude guys. I worked with them forty plus hours a week.
When I got back to the hotel, after a hot bath, I pulled out my laptop and applied for the instructor job. It would mean I needed to get out of the city quick every Friday, but I didn’t have much going on during the weekends anyway.
My friend Natalia texted me as I contemplated how to fill out the ‘Why do you want this job?’ question.
Nat: OMG! Are you coming home anytime soon?
Me: I wasn’t planning on it. What’s up?
Nat: I have so much to tell you.
Me: Maybe in a couple of weeks. Wanna hang out?
Nat: All weekend.
Me: K. Put me on your calendar girl!
Nat: K. XOXOX
I smiled as I added the weekend to my schedule. I hadn’t been home in months, and it would be good to see my parents and Nat. I’d heard that Cate had come home, too, so maybe she’d be there. They were part of the group of girls I’d grown up with. All of our parents were friends, so we started out forced friends, but we grew to really good friends, and were tight all through middle and high school. It was like a gang—we even had a name. The Spar Island Girls. We’d gone, first with our parents, and later on our own, out to these little islands off the coast of Bristol. The name had been a joke at first, but it had stuck. So had the friendships. Very few of us lived in Bristol anymore, but we kept in touch with an ongoing chat. Perhaps by the time I went back, I’d be able to give an update on my mission to change my life.