Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [51]
“You okay?” the guy asked her. She nodded.
“Well, then watch it next time. You shouldn’t be on this slope if you can’t handle it,” he said and stood up and skied off.
Isabella sat in the snow. She only had one ski and couldn’t even see where the other one had gone. That guy had been such an asshole, she thought as she climbed back up the hill. What a jerk. They could have been killed. It wasn’t her fault, totally, was it? No, he had gotten in her way.
The whole time she climbed back up the hill and struggled to put the runaway ski back on, Isabella thanked God that Harrison hadn’t been there to see it. That would have been mortifying. She crawled up and snapped her boot back into the ski. She sat for a moment to get her bearings, and then she stood up. She had to ski down. There was no other way off the mountain. She was a little turned around, but stayed to the right. That was what Harrison had said to do.
She skied down the rest of the mountain and didn’t see Harrison once. Maybe she’d taken too long after her fall. She skied right up to the lodge and took her skis off. She was done.
Isabella clomped into the lodge in her boots and took out her cell phone to call Harrison. “Where are you?” he asked when he answered. “I was getting worried.”
“I’m at the lodge,” she said. “I fell.”
“I’m at the lodge too,” he said. “Where are you?”
“I’m right by the food counter.”
“I don’t see you.”
Isabella looked around for Harrison and then realized that this lodge looked very different. “Um, Harrison, I think I’m somewhere else. The sign says the Blackbear Lodge. Do you know where that is?”
Harrison was quiet for a moment. “That’s on the other side of the mountain. How did you get there?”
Isabella could tell he was laughing. Her eyes started to fill with tears again.
“I don’t know! Where am I?”
“Stay there, okay? I’ll come to you,” Harrison said and hung up.
Isabella limped over to the counter and ordered hot chocolate. She had started crying a little, which made her nose run even more. The cashier was a high-school boy and he looked frightened of her. He was probably scared she was going to talk to him and tell him her problems.
She took as many napkins as she could and walked with her hot chocolate back to her table. On the way, she spilled hot liquid on her hand. Now the tears started again. She was pathetic. She was a pathetic person.
Isabella was blowing her nose when Harrison walked in.
“Hey there,” he said. “There’s my little Rand McNally.”
Isabella laughed and then started crying again. She couldn’t stop. Now this really would be the end of them. Harrison would see how crazy she was and he would have to break up with her. Then they would have to drive back to the city together. This was a nightmare.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Harrison pulled up a chair and took her hand.
“Nothing,” she said, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “Nothing, it’s stupid. I’m just really tired and I got so cold. And I’m embarrassed that I got lost.”
Harrison laughed in a kind way and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “That’s all? You’ll be fine, my little ski bunny. My little lost ski bunny.”
Isabella laughed and then felt stupid for crying. “So how do we get out of here?”
“We have to go back up the lift and then back down the other side of the mountain. It’s a good run, though,” he said quickly.
“I don’t know if I can go back up there,” she said.
“Well, I could go by myself and then ski back down to the main lodge and get the car. But it would take a while.”
Isabella leaned her head back.
“You know,” Harrison started and cleared his throat. “I’m really glad you came this weekend.”
Isabella righted her head and looked straight at him. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I really like you, you know.”
Isabella smiled at him. “Probably just because of