Two
The way up the mountain wasn't as quiet as she'd wanted it to be before. Roy seemed to have taken her manners as permission to talk to her most of the way up, but somehow she wasn't as frustrated by it as she thought she would be. The man kept himself to the usual topics. How much skiing had she done, did she watch any sports, see any good movies lately. She noticed that he hadn't talked about work, though. Not even one word.
Maybe he was like those teenagers. He didn't look like it. Pressed in close, she could feel that it wasn't his coat that made him look bulky. He had broad shoulders and the feeling of his muscles under the coat made her wonder what he looked like in regular clothes.
Living in California had certain advantages, or perhaps disadvantages. Bodybuilding gorillas came through the station more often than was likely represented by their actual numbers, and a man who spent twenty hours a week in the gym wasn't likely to impress compared to some of them.
That didn't change how she felt about a man who looked like he took care of himself, though. The difference was subtle, but she could tell it with one glance. Well, normally she could. Most of the folks on the mountain had on a heavy down coat over their sweaters over their shirts, and it tended to make everyone look like a little roly-poly.
As much as she hated to admit it, the effect on her was the same. She was trim, even small, but with two coats on to keep the cold out she looked like a completely different person. Like a teenager, she thought, and not in a good way. Not an "energy to fuck all night, experienced enough to know what she was doing" kind of way; more like a "wearing mom's makeup and clothes don't fit" kind of way.
If it weren't for their coincidental timing, looking like this, a guy like Roy wouldn't have looked at her twice. But that was no reason to blow him off, not with the way he looked.
She let him talk. His voice was soothing. More soothing than music that had aged like milk. She fished the phone out of her pocket, her gloves making it hard to get a grip that she was sure of before she pulled it out. Then she changed the playlist. The soft guitar kicked in a moment after the piano, and when the trumpet melody hit she was already feeling better than she had for the entirety of Britney's first three songs.
They jumped one right after the other, and made it out of the landing zone double-quick. The skis felt strange on her feet, but the minute she started moving she was already feeling that familiarity that she'd left behind a little more than ten years ago.
When a familiar jacket lined up next to her on the intermediate slope, she found herself raising an eyebrow at him. He shouted to be heard over the ear-buds he'd watched her fit into her ears, but she could have heard him if he spoke softer.
"I'll race you. If I win, let me buy you a cup of coffee."
She laughed, exaggerating the motion, and then took off suddenly. It took him a moment to react. By that point she already had a good lead on him, and she was going to use every bit of it to beat him down as best she could.
He might be good-looking, but she had a decade of experience to work off. It was just that she hadn't had that experience in a long time. And what was more, this place was new to her. She'd never seen these slopes in her life, but as she started moving, starting with practicing shifting her weight left and right.
Roy was going to catch her if she kept up like this. She ducked her head a little and worked her way up to a good speed. There wasn't going to be much challenge, not compared to what she remembered with her head, but she hadn't been doing this in a long time, and her reflexes weren't what they should have been for anything more advanced than this.
She dodged around a bump that would have slowed her down. Still, Roy was catching her. If she wasn't lucky, he'd make it before she got down the hill. She wouldn't mind a cup of coffee, and she would mind the company less. But that didn't mean that she didn't want to win, neither.
He came up alongside and made a quick, informal salute as he passed. Then he was gone, and picking his way further down the mountain, at first only a few inches ahead and then a few yards. Erin cursed and crouched lower, trying to minimize the resistance she was catching on the air.
Comfort be damned. At some point her reflexes would take over or she'd flip head-over-heels into the snow, but losing wasn't an option. There was no way in hell she was going to accept that. But she could already see the end of the trail coming up.
She tried to will herself faster, started catching Roy up ahead. He looked over his shoulder at her, checking to see if she was closing the gap, and then suddenly one of his feet slipped sideways and he took a tumble.
Erin turned her skis and let herself slide along the snow. It was cold and it was wet, but even if she was off-duty and a thousand miles away she was still a cop and still had a responsibility to make sure that he was okay. To her relative pleasure, Erin found Roy already straightening himself up. He pulled his scarf down and barked out a laugh.
She reached over to help him up, waiting for him to get steady. Then, as soon as he looked even remotely upright, he shot off again. The surprise was too much to catch up with, only a few hundred feet from the finish. She pulled up thirty seconds after him.
"That's my win," she said, letting her competitive edge touch her voice a little more than she might have wanted.
"Nope. I got down first, and you have to take me up on my offer."
"No way, Jose. I won that. You fell down, automatic disqualification."
"Well, that doesn't sound right to me, and pretty girls don't always get their way."
The grin on his face told her how pleased he was with himself, and she couldn't bring herself to refuse.
"Neither do pretty guys, Roy. But we'll compromise. I'll buy yours, you buy mine. How's that?"
"You better watch out, I get a double-shot with extra whipped cream. It'll be like, fifteen dollars."
Erin rolled her eyes beneath the ski goggles. "How will I ever afford such extravagant coffee?"