In the picturesque town of Winter Grove, the tenacious Alicia Whittaker faces off against her best friend's snobbish brother, Zeke Brighton, when his disapproval of his sister's boyfriend threatens to upend their Christmas.
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Tenacious college stud...
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Alicia
Alicia was standing on the very top step of the stairs, reaching her phone high into the air as she tried to call Sterling...
But the call disconnected with a beep.
A message flashed across the screen. No service.
"Still nothing?" Olly asked. He was sitting a few steps lower, back to pressing his neck against the cool stone wall.
Alicia dropped down onto the stairs and stared at her useless phone, still flashing that No service message. It had been almost forty minutes since they got stuck, and yet... "Nothing. Why can't I get service in here?"
"I think it's something to do with the stone," Olly said, now rolling his neck over one of the more protruding stones. "I've never been able to get a signal in here, guess you can't either. We tried. Guess all we can do is wait..."
"Wait? How long can we wait?" she said with a shudder. Even at the top of the stairs, the cellar was freezing cold. Olly had been kind enough to offer Alicia his Christmas sweater while he donned one of his many faux-fur tree skirts and wearing it like a cape. But a sweater wasn't enough to keep out the cellar's pervasive chill.
"If you're chilly, grab a tree skirt."
Alicia flexed her hands. Her fingers had been numb for a while. "Don't worry? You don't think I should worry about being trapped in a frozen cellar when no one knows where we are?"
"No, I don't," Olly said, like it was obvious. "Sterling willfind us."
"The Sterling who isn't here? The one we don't know when he'll be back?"
"He'll be back soon."
Alicia felt her eye twitch. "What if he doesn't come back at all? What if he goes straight to the festival? Then what?"
"Then everyone will be concerned when you don't show up and come looking for you!" said Olly, looking at her like she was the crazy one. "Are you okay?"
"Not really!" Alicia groaned. She leaned back against the door and took a deep breath to try and calm down.
Olly stared at her for a quiet moment. "What's wrong?"
Alicia gave a sharp laugh. "You mean other than being doomed to freeze to death in my so-called-friend's frozen murder dungeon? Nothing at all..."
"Oh my god, so dramatic! We're going to be fiiiine," Olly said with a sniff, then took a good long look at her. "And it's something else. Something's bothering you."
Alicia bit her lip, wondering if she should get into it right now...
Well, why not? What else was she doing?
"I got some news."
Olly's eyebrows launched. "Good news, I hope?"
"Great news, actually," Alicia said, but she couldn't muster a proper smile. "A spot opened up for the exchange. I'm going to London next semester."
