Surprisingly we woke up later in the morning than we had anticipated.
The day consisted of running errands and getting in quick sessions of skiing before we had to endure going back home to the old world that we lived in. As much as I sort of missed the place we called home, I didn't want to return to the constant array of cameras and publicity stunts that were always going to be set up on our doorstep.
My mom called at about midday to let me know that she was home safely and their flight had landed. She also mentioned that Axel won't stop sulking about his separation from York.
At around five p.m. Tristan suggested that we ordered room service for our last meal at the lodge. As much as I wanted to have some elaborate meal on our last night, something about Tristan had been off lately. I didn't want to cause conflict so I agreed with what he wanted. After all, he did put in plenty of extra money to improve the cabin that we had.
We looked through the menu and decided that we could still have nice food even if it was room service. Tristan called the dial up number as I played with York on the floor.
He rang multiple times after complaining about no phone service, and then complained that the number wasn't connecting. I rolled my eyes. He had been such a drama queen lately.
"Mae do you reckon you could go across to the main entrance and figure out our order?" he asked. He flung his body on the couch and switched on the television. Although my back was turned from the television, I noticed that SpongeBob's voice had begun on the channel he was on.
Was he serious? It was like negative ten degrees outside.
"Why can't you go?" I asked back, gesturing towards him lying on the couch.
"I've been packing all day. I'm tired."
He's tired? That makes two of us.
I thought back again to the grant he had most likely paid on the room. Although I was agitated, it would nearly pay him back for the cost of the room if I went to the entrance.
York followed me to the door with a confused look on her little face, and I had to stop her from running out in the snow when I opened the door. I threw my down jacket on before enduring the cold wind that was going to belittle me when I entered the outdoors.
I trudged up the snow hill angrily, towards the main building where the ski lodge situated. It was one big cabin with a bar and a café. It was also where people went to hire their ski boots. My feet were getting cold from the snow that was oozing into my shoes, and then my socks.
I felt instant relief when I entered the cabin and felt the warm air hit my face. I quickly closed the door behind me to stop the cold air from entering the building.
I had only been inside the cabin a few times, so despite knowing exactly what I was coming to do – I had no idea where I needed to go. I looked at the bar and noticed there were a few official looking people over there, so I made my way over to the timber colored bar.
"Just a scotch on the rocks," I heard a man say as I approached the bar. It was followed with a nod from the bartender who was dressed up in a fancy undercoat and black tie.
He drew attention to me when I placed my hands on the edge of the bar so that I could lean over and quietly ask him for directions. While I waited I noticed that I was acquiring a few stares from random individuals and at first I wondered if there was something on my face.
It wasn't until all the people sitting at the bar were giving me the same sort of look, I wondered if I was in the wrong place.
"Are you that girl... from that series?" one of the men asked me. He was slurring his words as he drunk a beer.
"Yes. I suppose so," I softly replied. The man closest to me who asked for the scotch on the rocks turned his head sharply towards me.
"Are you that Parker girl?" He didn't seem as drunk as the first.
"I... I guess so," I answered shyly. He quickly took out a serviette from one of the canisters and clicked the pen on that he removed from his suit pocket. Although he did seem intoxicated, he was doing alright.
"Can you sign this for me?" he asked. I nodded and quickly wrote down my autograph. I had it down so well that I could do it with my eyes closed.
The man thanked me as the bartender arrived with his drink. The bartender slowly looked up to me.
"Can I help you ma'am?" he asked. He folded his arms across his body. I hoped he didn't think I was asking for a drink because I was still underage.
"Can you direct me to the room service help desk?" I asked. Telling from the look I received, there was no such thing. Bloody Tristan.
"Do you mean guest services?" he politely asked. You could tell he didn't feel like dealing with idiots. Poor guy. It was probably nearly the end of his shift and here I was pestering him with questions.
"Can they help me with food service? I mean my boyfriend back in my room can't connect his phone to the room service guy..." I mumbled. The man's face changed even more. Gosh, I bet I was just looking more like an idiot every moment I stood here.
"We don't have dial up room service. It's door to door delivery."
I must have looked confused, because he began to elaborate more.
"Our lodge doesn't have dial up food service, which means you can't get it over the phone. One of our workers, Emmanuel, attends the rooms on rounds to check if any guests have the order slip filled out and in the pocket alongside their door."
I nodded. That makes more sense.
"Thank you," I looked at his name tag, "Jacob!" I frowned. Now I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. When I entered the cold again, the blood immediately disappeared from my cheeks and my entire body was a solid five degrees again. I mumbled profanities to myself as I stumbled back down the snow hill. It would have been faster to personally ski back to the cabin, I wouldn't have been as cold that way. It also hit me that the sun was down now, meaning I had been gone for more than twenty minutes from the cabin. I was surprised Tristan hadn't left the cabin on foot to come find me.
When I re-entered the cabin, I noticed that York wasn't in the living room and neither was Tristan. The television was also off.
Perhaps they did leave to find me.
The entire cabin was dark and I couldn't' see anything so I continued to walk to try and find the light switch. Believe me, trying to find a light switch in the dark of somewhere you don't live, is near impossible.
When I got closer to the couch I noticed there was one single tealight candle in a mason jar on the ground. It was dimly lighting a small amount of light in the room. It was the only thing I could see, so I followed it. Perhaps the power had gone out and Tristan had resorted to using tealight candles.
I mean that could happen right? I was not about to be murdered by some lodge killer was I? Was that a thing?
When I reached the tealight I noticed that there was another one at the hallway door. Perhaps I hadn't noticed these before because they were well hidden behind the couch.
As I proceeded to walk, I noticed that the tealights had made a trail that led me to the hallway. Once inside the hallway they were placed carefully closer to each other, leading up to the other end of the hallway.
As we'd stayed here we had only used the one bedroom to sleep in, but at the other end there was a guest room that I supposed was empty and that's where the candles led me.
I slowly and quietly walked up the hallway to the door, that was left half open. I could barely see anything through the crack that was open.
I pushed the door the slightest bit and it creaked in an old style, horror movie fashion. I accepted my death.
The room was dark, but I could make out a small amount of movement in the room. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, when a single string of fairy lights turned on and the room was the tiniest bit lighter. I noticed that the movement I saw was York, and she was sitting in the corner of the room wagging her tail. I was quite surprised as I had not taught her to sit yet, or even stay for that fact.
That was when I noticed that there was a door in the guest room connected to outside. You learn something every day.
I followed the trail of fairy lights across the roof to find myself at the door. I wasn't sure if this was an elaborate plot to knock me off the face of the earth, or if the room service guy had gotten seriously bored and lost.
The room was colder than the others. I could feel the cold wind from outside whistling through a door. I pushed the door softly. There wasn't much force needed as the door wasn't fully closed. The cold air hit me with a pang and I was suddenly aggravated again from the walk I endured up the snow.
But something felt different...
I didn't even notice that our cabin had a backyard area that led straight into the forest. Our cabin was borderline on the edge of the forest anyway, and I hadn't even attempted to look outside the back door.
My eyes adjusted again the dim lighting of the outdoors, when I noticed I was standing on a red rose. Confused, I picked it up only to notice I had crushed the stem.
I walked out to see where the rose had come from because typically people don't leave roses on my back doorstep for any apparent reason – and noticed there was another rose around the corner of the cabin the slightest bit.
When I bent down to pick it up, that's when I noticed.
There weren't just two roses. Perhaps close to two thousand were scattered in a tight heart shape. The snow was no longer white, instead the entirety of it was red, and filled with roses. My heart dropped at the thought of this beautiful gesture, and I felt like I couldn't breathe until Tristan pushed himself off the wall of the cabin. I nearly didn't notice him. He was dressed head to toe in a suit.
In between us lay thousands of roses.
I was too gob smacked and caught off guard from the sight of all the roses that I couldn't hear what he was saying for the first half of it.
"There's one thousand, three hundred and seven roses at your feet. One rose represents each day since we met on that flight destined for greatness from Miami to Los Angeles," he confidently said. I giggled, because that was what I often referred to the flight was.
"I was just a young eighteen-year-old who was in a bit of trouble and didn't know who he was. You, on the other hand were a sixteen year old girl that made me realize that throwing the salad out of your burger does not make you look healthier because people will still notice it's in the wrapping." He looked down. My heart was fluttering at the thought of his speech.
"We've had our ups and our downs, especially all the times that I have messed up. We've been thousands of millions of miles apart and still manage to connect somehow. We've had significant others, best friends and worst enemies that we've managed to live through while apart from each other. Through the course of all this, I've learnt that you are the only person I see myself with for the rest of my life."
He continued his walk towards me and we met in the center of the circle of roses.
"We've had red carpets, photoshoots, television shows, movie deals, record deals – the two of us are a force that cannot be reckoned with. I've had my fair share of mistakes, but I've learnt one significant thing. The saying is true. If you love something let it go and set it free. If it comes back to you, it was always yours in the first place. Time and time again, you have come back to me."
I think my heart was going a million miles an hour. If there was any time that my body would give way, my luck it would be right this second.
The air that he was breathing was white and I noticed that both of our bodies were shivering.
He looked straight into my eyes.
"Mae Parker, there's four words I've been wanting to ask you since I laid eyes on you in that first class seat three and a half years ago."
My heart stopped when his body dropped down to one knee. The leg of his suit collected snow as he bent his knee.
No.
No.
NO.NO.NO.NO. NO.NO.NO.NO. NO.NO.NO.NO.
This wasn't happening.
"Will you marry me?"
well. that's the end folks.... stay tuned
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