by Amanda Tru
“That must be the spark I recognized between you two then,” Dottie gushed. “I knew there was something special there. I just knew it.”
At first, Cosette had been reluctant to share the intimate details of their relationship with a stranger, but when she heard Josh sit back and so casually begin to share the story of their romance, she wanted to bless Dottie a thousand times over for being so forward and inquisitive.
“Let’s see,” Josh had begun. “I think it was May. It was May, right?” he asked, turning to Cosette.
She simply nodded her head, content to listen while the words poured from his mouth.
“I was coming home from work. I’m a trooper out in Glennallen,” he added as an aside. “I was coming home from work, and I was filling up my gas tank when I got a pop-up on my phone. A few weeks earlier, my buddy talked me into setting up a dating profile on this website. I really did it just to get him off my back. I wasn’t expecting anything to come out of it. I’d even turned notifications off on my phone. I still have no idea how that one got through my settings. Must have been God is all I can think.” He turned and gave Cosette a grin that warmed her stomach a hundred times more effectively than Dottie’s rich hot chocolate ever could.
“So then,” he went on, “I went into settings to turn notifications back off, but I swiped left instead of right, and all of a sudden, there’s this profile picture of what seriously looked like a Hollywood celebrity. I mean, she’s gorgeous.”
“Of course she is,” Dottie answered before Cosette could speak. Cosette had used a picture from an old photoshoot simply because that was the only image she had on her phone the day she set up her account, but neither Josh nor the waitress would give her a second to explain.
“So there I was at that gas station,” Josh went on, “staring at this woman who seems to have dropped quite literally from my dreams. And I’m not just talking about her appearance, by the way. It was everything — her smile, her eyes, her profile. I can’t tell you what it was about her, but I read her words, and I knew.”
Dottie gave an understanding nod. On the one hand, Cosette would have done anything to keep listening to Josh talk about how he felt the first time her profile picture showed up. He’d never shared this part of the story with her at all.
On the other hand, she was quite certain that she would die of embarrassment if he heaped any more praise on her in front of this waitress they hardly knew.
“So I’m reading all about this dream girl,” he continued, “and I’m thinking to myself, There’s no way she’d be interested in me. I mean, everything about her screams city life. We’re talking one sophisticated woman.”
Dottie continued to bob her head up and down as if Josh were saying everything just the way she would if she were the one telling the story. Her intense agreement left Cosette feeling more than a little unnerved.
Exposed.
And yet she inwardly begged Josh not to stop, to keep on talking about the day they met. She’d had no idea until now how strongly he reacted to their profile match. She’d been up on the Betwixt site a few weeks by that time and had already seen her fair share of first dates. The experiences were awful enough that she’d seriously considered canceling her subscription to the website on the first of the month.
And then Josh’s profile popped up.
She hadn’t thought a whole lot about it, to be totally honest. She’d hate to tell him now, but Los Angeles was teeming with singles looking for easy dates. She certainly didn’t remember selecting Alaska as one of the regions she’d be willing to consider for a relationship, but then one day, her phone app told her they’d found a match. Josh appeared nice on the surface. A little more rugged-looking than some of the others she’d been paired with before. The only part she could understand was that his profile said he was from a place called Glennallen, Alaska. A place Cosette had never heard of and far outside of the twenty-mile radius she’d selected when creating her account.
She chalked it up to a mistake in her settings. In fact, the first thing she did after Josh’s profile came up was to go into her profile and figure out why the site had matched her with someone from an entirely different state. She’d clearly indicated when setting up her page that she didn’t want a long-distance relationship. And yet, there in her account settings was Alaska, listed as the only other region outside of her local area where she’d consider finding a match.
How had that happened?
She never planned to contact Josh. She meant to swipe his picture off her phone’s screen and forget about him entirely, except her hands were shaking and sweating like crazy. Only an hour earlier, she’d received an invitation for her very first callback. The studio wanted her to reread lines for a true-crime show about a man who went on killing sprees in homeless camps around Anchorage. She was so excited about a potential big break, she somehow swiped her screen the wrong way, and before she knew it, she was staring at the full version of his profile.
The one that included the picture of him in his policeman’s uniform.
The one that indicated his job was an Alaska state trooper.
She hadn’t been looking for a relationship. She just thought that maybe knowing someone in law enforcement from up north might help her better prepare for her callback. If he’d been a trooper for long enough, he might even have some kind of inside scoop into the serial killer’s story. It was a long shot, but after four years of failed auditions and no momentum whatsoever, she was ready to grab hold of any competitive edge she could find.
“Are you familiar with the Arctic slayer? That’s the very first question she asked me,” Josh told Dottie with a laugh. “I’d been staring at her profile picture, just standing there by the gas pump like an idiot, and I’d already convinced myself she was way out of my league, then I get a message from her. Except it wasn’t, Hey, cute photo, or Wow, what’s it like being a trooper? or even something like Alaska? Cool. Do you live in an igloo? Nope, she wanted to know about the Arctic slayer.”
“Is that a band?” Dottie asked.
Josh chuckled. “Not quite. It’s what the Lower 48 calls the serial killer who hit all those homeless camps.”
“I was preparing for an audition,” Cosette felt compelled to explain. “There was a show they’re doing about the case, and I thought if Josh knew anything about the investigation, it might help me with my callback.”
Dottie looked at Cosette as if she’d all of a sudden switched to speaking a foreign language. “Well, that’s all quite interesting, I’m sure…”
“Cosette’s an actress,” Josh inserted with a notable dash of pride. “Down in Hollywood.”
Dottie’s eyes widened, and she sucked in her breath. “Get out of here! A real live actress at my table? What have you starred in, honey? Have I seen you in anything?”
“Not yet,” Josh answered before Cosette could admit she’d never landed a single role. “But you make sure to remember this face because she’s going to be famous one day.”
Dottie reached for her notebook. “Well, I should get your autograph now, shouldn’t I? That way, when you’re a big star, I can tell people I served you hot chocolate with fat-free whipped cream on top.”
Cosette was trying to think of a polite way to demure, but Dottie looked so sincere, and Josh was smiling at her with such admiration she decided that signing her name in the waitress’s order book wouldn’t hurt anybody. She took the pen Dottie handed out, but before she could write her name, the lights flickered.
“Uh-oh.” The smile vanished from Dottie’s voice.
The power flickered again, and then the restaurant went dark. Even the streetlights from the parking lot went out.
“Well, isn’t that a shame?” Dottie exclaimed. “Power outage. You know, with the snow coming down this hard, I figured it was only a matter of time.”
“What happened?” Cosette asked, squeezing Josh’s hand.
He gave her leg a reassuring pat with his free hand. “Sometimes the snow p
acks onto the tree branches, and they collapse onto the power lines. Not a big deal. Hopefully, it’ll get up and running again soon.”
Both Josh and Dottie had pulled out their phones and turned on their flashlights. Cosette wondered just how common power outages were up here. She wouldn’t have even thought about using her phone for extra light.
“Tell you what,” Dottie said, “I can’t ring you up, so we’ll just say the meal’s on the house.”
“You can’t do that,” Josh argued.
“Nonsense. You’re my favorite table that I’ve had all year, and I don’t tell that to just everyone, either. It’s my treat.”
“I can’t let you cover everything,” Josh argued.
“‘Course you can, and you will. But I’ll make you a deal. You two come back to my table and eat here the next time you’re in town, and you tell me more about how you met and what your plans are together, and we’ll call it even. Fair enough?”
“Fair enough,” Josh finally agreed. He stood up. “We sure appreciate it.” He wrapped his arm around Cosette’s waist as he helped her to her feet. “Come on,” he told her. “It’s a long way back home. We better get started now before that snow gets even worse.”
Dottie insisted on giving them both hugs, and while she and Josh were both distracted, Cosette reached into her wallet and pulled out a few bills to leave on the table as a tip. She didn’t have time to count them out, and it was so dark she probably couldn’t have seen them anyway, but she hoped it was enough.
Dottie walked them both to the door and gave Josh one more hug.
“Are you going to get home okay?” Josh asked her.
“Who me? I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about that. You just take care of that pretty actress of yours. I know she’s a sight for sore eyes, but you keep your focus on the road in this snowstorm, young man, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Josh answered.
Dottie let go of Josh then wrapped her arms around Cosette. “God bless you, sweetie. You are gorgeous and talented, and I know God has great gifts in store for the both of you.”
Cosette didn’t know how to handle such profuse praise and wasn’t sure if this emotional outpouring was unique to Dottie’s personality or if everyone in Alaska was so hospitable and kind.
What she did know was that it was darker outside than she could ever remember experiencing before. Random headlights passed every so often on distant roads, and Josh’s cell shined a path directly in front of them. The footprints they’d made when walking into the diner had already been covered over, and the snow was at least four or five inches deeper than it had been an hour earlier.
“Careful not to slip,” Josh warned her, keeping his hand on the small of her back as he led her to his truck. He grabbed her by the elbow, and Cosette guessed it was more to keep her from falling than any kind of affectionate gesture.
He helped her into the passenger side then kicked his feet against his side of the car to get off the extra snow before he climbed into the driver’s seat next to her. He turned the key in the ignition, checked to make sure the wipers were working, then said, “It’s been sitting for a while. Gotta let it warm up a minute or two.”
Cosette wasn’t sure what to say, what to do, what to expect. There were so many thoughts swirling around in her mind. She wanted to tell Josh how happy she was that they were finally together. She wanted to admit how nervous she’d been, afraid that things might not work out.
She wanted to tell him how full her heart had felt as he told a near stranger the story of how they met. How his praise left her feeling both embarrassed and proud.
But she couldn’t say anything.
A few minutes later, with warm air blowing on them at full force, Josh grabbed her hand, gave it a squeeze, and asked, “Well then, are you ready for me to take you home?”
“Okay, thanks.” Josh ended the call on his cell phone and faced Cosette. “That was my friend back in Glennallen. The road’s open, meaning that technically we’re free to make the drive, but there’ve been two other accidents on there this evening besides the one I came across this afternoon. It’s really bad. There’s even some avalanche danger once you get onto the passes.”
Cosette was more exhausted than she cared to admit. Maybe she shouldn’t have had that hot chocolate back at the diner and gone for a latte instead.
“… want to do?”
Cosette didn’t catch the first half of his question. “Sorry, what?” She was having a hard time focusing. What had they just been talking about?
“The road’s really bad. It’s getting late, and once the temperatures drop… well, if we get delayed or if something happens on the highway, there aren’t that many places to stop and warm up. I’m just not sure how safe it is trying to make that drive on a night like this.”
“What other choices do we have?” she asked.
“My brother and his family live near here. I could see if they could put us up for the night. The kids could share a bed to make room for you, and I’d be fine taking the couch…”
Cosette was having a hard time focusing on his words. Was she disappointed in the change in plans, or was she just more tired than she realized?
“We always could risk the drive,” Josh was saying. “I’d just feel terrible if something happened to you on your first night in the state.”
“I don’t know.” Why was it so hard to think?
Josh let out his breath. “It’s your choice. I can call my brother, see if they don’t mind a few extra bodies. His power’s probably out, but we still have cell reception…”
Everything Cosette’s mother warned her about swirled around in her mind.
How do you know you’ll be safe?
He lives in the most remote part of Alaska.
You won’t have anybody to help you if something goes wrong.
She couldn’t focus, couldn’t think, couldn’t decide. What was wrong with her?
She had to make the choice. Had to tell Josh what she wanted to do.
Did she want to stay here in Anchorage and spend the evening talking with more strangers who’d keep her from spending any time alone with Josh?
No. Not a chance.
“Let’s try the drive.”
“You sure?”
Cosette thought Josh’s voice sounded pleased, but with everything so dark, it was hard to read his expression.
“I’m sure.” She reached over and grabbed his hand, proud to have cleared away her mental fog. She’d traveled all the way here to spend time with Josh. Sitting at the diner while a middle-aged woman barraged them with questions about their relationship had been okay, but what she really wanted — what she really needed — was time alone together. Just the two of them. Time to talk. Time to relish each other’s presence.
They’d fallen in love once over thousands of miles.
Now it was time to do it in person. Face to face.
She squeezed his hand. “I want you to show me your hometown. I want to know everything about you.”
He let out what she could only guess was a happy sigh. “I really do adore you,” he said. “Do you know that?”
“I’m starting to catch the drift, yeah,” she answered playfully.
He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “You know,” he said, his voice suddenly serious, “when I was driving to town to pick you up, I was scared out of my wits.”
“Seriously?” Cosette had a hard time believing his confession. He’d seemed so comfortable, so collected since the moment they met.
“Yeah. I was a total basket case.”
“You didn’t show it,” she told him truthfully.
He laughed. “Maybe you’re not the only one in this relationship who’s good at acting.”
She waited for him to say more, but he seemed content to stay silent.
“So, tell me something about Glennallen,” she prompted after a quiet minute.
“Well, let’s see. Pretty cold. We can get down to thirty or
forty degrees below zero. Think your California tan’s ready for those kind of temperatures?”
“It’ll be all right,” she answered, still feeling somewhat coy. “I hear it’s cold enough that the clouds can’t form, so it’s sunny all the time.”
“Well, for about six hours of the day,” he corrected. “Other than that, it’s pitch black. That’s something else you’ll need to get used to. The sun never gets higher than about fifteen degrees from the horizon. You know how they talk about high noon? Doesn’t happen up here. Not even close.”
Cosette found the geography lesson interesting, but that wasn’t what she’d meant to be talking about. “Tell me something else,” she prompted. “Tell me about your friends or your work. That’s it. Tell me about your job. What kinds of things do you do all day?”
His hand felt a little sweaty in hers. She wasn’t sure if it was something she imagined or not.
“Well, work’s work. You know. Not a whole lot to say.”
“Then tell me something else. Tell me about what it was like growing up in Glennallen.”
“Actually,” he began, “I grew up in a town called Eureka. Only about sixty year-round residents. We’re going to pass it on the way home. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere. Smack dab in the middle of the Glenn, highest point on the mountain peak. You want to talk about snowstorms, there were winters we’d get twenty or thirty feet of snow in a single season.”
“I don’t think you’ve mentioned that before.” Cosette couldn’t even picture what that much snow looked like. How did they drive their cars, or shovel their driveways, or even get out of their houses?
“Really?”
Now she knew his hand really had grown sweaty. The heat was on full blast, but it still was barely enough to make a difference in warming up their frosty interior.
“Not the happiest of memories there.”
“Oh.” She paused, waiting for more, then realized he might need some prompting. Now that she thought about it, he’d never talked about his past before. How had she not noticed?