"Something is terribly wrong." Tiffany barged into her fathers room.
"Don't startle me like that! What is it?" He jumped up from putting on his socks and held his heart.
"Annabel and Mr.Pelton."
"There's always something wrong with these two." He said and continued to wear his fuzzy socks.
"No, you don't get it. They won't even talk to each other anymore. They're not even looking at each other." She grabbed her fathers boots from beside the door and handed them to him.
"Thank you dear, and I guess that is a big problem. What do you think happened?"
"If I knew, I'd tell you. George is also trying to find out. We think it has something to do with when they brought Margot up here. When she had frostbites yesterday."
"Well, why don't you come up with a plan to get them talking to each other again?"
"We're also trying to do that. We're even getting Maggie's help. Say, what do you think, tonight, when we're all around the campfire and sharing stories and memories, we bring one up of them and see their reaction?"
"Wonderful idea. We can even get a little game of truth or dare going."
"Excellent! Father you're brilliant!" She kissed her fathers cheek and ran out of the room to tell George and Maggie.
*
"Pst, mama." Sam whispered to Annabel.
"Sam, what did we say? You can't call me that anymore." She scolded.
They were all seated on logs, in a circle around a camp fire. They had found sticks and George and James sharpened their ends with knives so they could put marshmallows on the ends of them and they were all currently roasting theirs.
"I know, but look at my marshmallow. It's on fire!"
Annabel quickly dropped her marshmallow in the snow and took Sam's stick and pulled it close to her.
"Oh God!" Rebeca screeched when she saw the fire increase on the marshmallow. Everyone turned to look.
Annabel quickly put out the fire and the smell of burnt marshmallow wafted up her nose.
"I'll get you another one." She got up, threw the marshmallow away and put a new one before sitting back down and handing it to him. "Be careful this time, and keep your eyes on it, alright?"
Sam nodded.
She looked down and noticed that her own marshmallow was also ruined, since she dropped it in the snow. She sighed and picked it up. She was about to get up and replace it with one of the marshmallows they had in the bag on the table when a stick got handed to her.
"You can have this one." Richard had gotten up from his seat across from her and handed her his. Without even waiting for her to respond, he took hers, switched it for a better one and sat back down in his spot.
She looked at the stick in bewilderment, then she just went along with it. She didn't even thank him or glance up at him.
George nudged Tiffany at the interaction between the two and she nodded, silently telling him that she noticed. Her father gave her a look from across the campfire and she grinned at him. This was some sort of progress.
"I think it's time to start the first plan." George whispered to her.
"I think so too."
Their first plan was to get Richard to hand out some s'mores. That way, him and Annabel will slowly start to interact before playing a big game like truth or dare.
She got up and headed to the table where they had extra packs of marshmallows lying around, a lot of graham crackers and chocolate spread. She spread chocolate on a lot of the graham crackers and laid them out so it's faster to get the s'mores done.
"If your marshmallow's done, bring it up here so I could do it for you." She called out and nearly everyone handed her their sticks. She called out their names to get their s'more and when it was Mr.Pelton's turn, she handed him two.
"That one's for Annabel. Would you please hand it to her? I'll be done quicker this way." She told him and quickly turned around to show him that the conversation is over. Richard stared at her for a few seconds, swearing that she was doing this on purpose, and then headed to Annabel.
"Here you go." He was staring straight ahead but he handed her the s'more.
"What's this?"
"A s'more."
"I can see that. Why are you handing it to me?"
"Tiffany said this one was yours."
"No thank you. I can get one myself." She got up to head to Tiffany when he stopped her.
"Just take it. There's nothing wrong with handing someone else a s'more. Or is there?" He glared at her and she glared right back.
"Give it to Rebeca."
"No, it's yours." He hissed at her and tried shoving it in her hands but she wasn't taking it.
"𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑒 I'll be taking my s'mores." She snatched both if the s'mores out of his hands and gave him a challenging stare.
"Hand that one back."
"No, it's mine. You gave it to me first."
"I only gave you one."
"And I took two. Do you have a problem?"
"Yes, I do. Now give it back."
"Fine, I never wanted them anyways." She shoved them back into his hands and turned around and started walking away.
"Where are you going?"
"To sleep."
"Annabel, come back here."
"No."
He growled in frustration, marched after her, dragged her back to the log and shoved her so she was sitting on it.
"Just take both of them. I can make more." He handed her the s'mores.
She stood up and they glared at each other.
"I don't want them. I'm not hungry anymore."
"Oh so you're hungry?"
"I'm not."
"You just said you are."
"I said I'm not anymore. Are you too dumb to understand?"
"You're going to eat them."
"I'm not." She handed them back to him.
"Yes you are." He handed them back.
Everyone was watching them go back and forth like it was a tennis match.
"No, I will not be eating them." She shoved them back in his hands.
"If you don't eat them this instance I will shove them down your throat."
"I dare you."
He took that as a challenge and attacked her with the s'mores. She screeched and tried to get away but he caught her and they fell on top of each other, rolling in the snow. Richard tried shoving the s'more into her mouth but she clamped it shut, so instead, it's was smudging all over her face.
"You will eat this." He shouted at her.
"I will not!" She shouted back and shoved his hands away. She took the other s'more out of his hand and flipped them over so she was straddling his front and had him pinned down. She shoved the s'more and smudged it all over his face.
"How does that feel Richard? Eat it all up won't you?"
He tried flipping her over so he was on top but she got away and started running to the hotel.
"You get back here this instance Annabel!" He shouted at her and balled up a snowball in his hand.
"Make me Pelton!" She screamed back and was hit square in the back of the head by the snowball and she fell face first into the snow. "I hate you! You're such a tosser!"
"And you're a daft cow!"
She got up from the snow, fuming. She marched back over and shoved her hand on his chest, making him stumble back.
"You take that back this instance."
"You take back what you said first."
"Never."
"Then I won't either."
"Sam, why are mama and papa fighting?" Tam whispered to her twin, but the two fuming adults heard and snapped their heads towards them.
"She's not your mama." Richard growled out.
"What he said." Annabel said.
"Oh look at you, agreeing to something I said." Richard turned to her with a mocking look on his face.
"Don't let that boost your ego. This is the only time this will ever be happening." She growled out at him.
"Enough! You two are acting like children!" Rebeca screamed out.
"Stay out of it!" Both Richard and Annabel both said, pointing at her, with very angry looks.
"Oh look, you agreed again."
"No I did not. We just happened to have said the same thing at the same time." She said.
"You totally did."
"I did no-you know what? That's it, I've had enough of you. I cannot stand you anymore. I can't continue this trip while you're here. I'm going back home."
"Home?" He said, all the energy from the fight went away and it felt like he was slapped in the face with a cold cloth at hearing that she can't stand him. But then slight hope at hearing the word home. Maybe she meant their home up in the meadow, but that hope was quickly put out when she spoke again.
"Yes, home. Back to my mother who I haven't seen in a long time. I'm leaving and I'll never see you again."
"If you leave, then you're fired." Mr. Wilton's wife spoke up.
"Then so be it. I quit. Good bye everybody." She spun around and headed inside the hotel.
Tiffany and George looked at each other in panic, as funny as this was, this was not supposed to happen. Everything happened so fast that no one knew how to react.
Richard stood there in utter shock, his heart breaking with every step she took away from him.
This was his fault. It was all his fault. He had to fix this. But would she come back? This is the second time he drives her away. He can't loose her again. But what if she really hated him now?
"Go papa! Go bring her back. Don't loose the women you love all over again!" George shoved his dad forward and Richard snapped out of it.
"The woman he loves?" Rebeca asked.
"Oh fuck off. Everybody knew he loved her and not you. Even you did." George said to her and grinned when he saw his father run after Annabel.
*
The elevator was taking too long for Richards liking so he rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time even though it hurt his leg and he knew he was going to be in a lot of pain later.
He burst out of the stairwell and rushed to Mr.Wilton's side of the floor. He heard running water and followed it to the washroom where Annabel was vigorously rubbing her face clean of snow, s'mores and what seemed to be tears.
He walked up to her and whirled around when she heard him.
"Ri-"
He grabbed her face with both of his hands and smashed their lips together in a desperate kiss. He tried showing her, with that single kiss, just how much he wanted her to stay, just how much he needed her and how he couldn't let her go. How she's been driving him crazy and insane.
They would have continued their heated and desperate kiss if the need for air wasn't nagging them to pull apart.
They rested their foreheads against each other and tried catching their breaths. They both searched each other's faces and for once, found the answers to their unspoken questions.
"Your face is covered in s'mores." Annabel tried to hold in her laughter. He smiled wide and his eyes shone with happiness.
"Yours is too."