Fate brought them together, the way his car happened to slide into hers when he lost traction in the Schnucks parking lot.
He looked at her and she blushed. At least, he thought she blushed. It could have been windburn.
“You’re not like the others,” she told him. And it was true—he shoveled his sidewalk.
Their fingers touched, a zap of electricity passing between them. Only neither of them could feel it because they’d forgotten their gloves. Their fingers were waxy, a sign of frostbite. But also, maybe a sign of love.
“I’ve never felt this way before,” she said, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wet with tears. “I told you not to eat so much Culver’s before we went sledding,” he replied.
Her eyes said it all, which was convenient because he couldn’t hear anything through his earmuffs.
In a fit of desire, he tore off her coat, and her scarf, and her hat, and her gloves, and her neckwarmer, and her zip-up, and her sweater, and her long-sleeve, and her turtleneck, and her snow pants, and her flannel-lined jeans, and her fleece-lined leggings, and her long underwear, and her wool socks and her other wool socks.
They thought they were falling in love. But when they were lying winded on their backs, it was clear the driveway hadn’t been salted enough.
They kissed passionately, their chapped lips scraping together.
They could spend hours together, and it only felt like mere minutes, like when they waited for the guy from AAA to restart their car battery for three hours and it only felt like two hours and fifty-four minutes.
“When I’m around you, I can’t think straight,” he said. Actually, it was hypothermia.
Their love was hot, like… God, heat feels like a distant memory. Their love was hot like… soup. Like an erotic soup.
“Let’s take a trip down south,” he said, “Somewhere tropical, steamy, passionate.” She was thrilled. She’d never been to Cincinnati.
Nothing could keep them apart. Except lake-effect snow. They had the power of love, but they did not have four-wheel drive.
“You’re giving me goose bumps,” she said. But when he left, the goose bumps remained, and she realized she needed a warmer coat.
“You look so beautiful in the moonlight,” he said at 4:15 p.m.