Page 28 of Stuck on the Slopes

I wasn’t sure what it was I said that made him freeze, but it was as if his body turned off. Juniper.exe stopped operating. With his voice in a whisper, he said, “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“Well, I mean it. I promise.”

We spent the rest of our meal in a comfortable silence that left me with the lingering desire to give Juniper Hart a massive hug. I wondered when the last time he’d received one was.

Chapter 8

Rachel

Itcouldn’thavebeena better day for a photoshoot. With a partly cloudy forecast and yesterday’s still-fresh snow coating the ground, it looked like a winter wonderland outside, and the cloud coverage helped diffuse the light—making it perfect for photography.

Back at my old job, before I was in a managerial position, I had more opportunities to get my boots on the ground, so to speak. While we had a media team in our department that handled photo and video, if they were wrapped up on another project, they’d send me to the flagship resort twenty minutes away from the corporate office to work in their stead. In turn, I’d gotten rather close to the resort staff, learned the place inside and out, and gotten fairly talented behind a camera. We used a lot of the photos I’d take for social media posts and email marketing campaigns but saved the media team for our print and television promotional materials.

It was one of the few opportunities I got to be creative. So long as you followed the shot list, you could get experimental in the process—something the corporate environment sucked out of what should have been an otherwise creative job. Even if they always had something negative to say about anything, no matter how perfect of a job I did, at least I could enjoy it in the moment.

As we started in the lobby, I asked, “Do we have social media accounts for the lodge yet?”

“I have the old ones from the previous owner. They gave me the passwords, but I haven’t touched them. Here, I’ll send you the info.”

While he did, I focused on some of the lobby details, straying a bit from the shot list once I’d captured everything and was satisfied with at least two of each key feature. I captured the elk horn chandelier, the photos we’d hung on the walls, and vintage skis displayed alongside highlights from ski tournaments hosted here in the 80s.

This place had really come a long way in a few short months.

“Have you posted anything on socials yet? Any sort of announcements?”

“Not yet. I barely post on my own. Social media’s never really been my thing.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “I’d wager you never wanted to be famous in the first place.”

“Tch. What gave it away?”

“It would be easier to say whatdidn’tgive it away.” I held the camera out to him. “Want to take a look?”

He accepted the camera, looking through a few silently. He nodded as he handed it back to me. “Looking good. And you’re right. I really enjoyed hitting the slopes as a kid. Didn’t matter if it was on skis or a snowboard. Then, I sort of just fell into it.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you’ve got me. I’ve got no problem with social media. It’s a tool, that’s all.”

His expression was hard to read; it was like there was more he wanted to say, but he simultaneously didn’t want to talk about it. “That’s a good way of looking at it.”

Sensing he would appreciate a change in topic, I asked, “Want to grab the exterior shots while the weather’s still nice? I think it’s supposed to snow again later.”

He perked up again. “Good thinking. I’ll grab the tripod.”

“Thanks!”

Juniper tucked it under his arm as we made our way out front, looking for the perfect position to get the first batch of pictures. Once we got set up, I gave myself a moment to appreciate how breathtaking this place was. I tried to make a point of this every day, at least once, to not take it for granted.

“What got you into marketing, anyway?” Juniper asked.

“I’m awful at math and wanted something that wouldn’t require numbers. Since I always had my nose in a book, I figured writing would be pretty fun, and then one thing led to another.”

“It suits you. You’re great at it, I can tell.”

Pride surged within me thanks to the rare compliment from Juniper. “Thanks.”

From where we stood, some bushes would call the foreground of the pictures home. Instead of flowers blooming, winter left behind some icicles dangling from them in thick chunks. The snow completely coated the ground, and our footsteps were hardly visible from the slight incline to the lodge. The mountain peaks behind us poked out over the roof, and as if the view couldn’t get any better, some gondolas zipped on by.

“Perfect,” I declared. I started snapping away, getting some both with and without the gondolas in the shot. After I took a few photos of the lodge from the outside, I stopped to look at what I’d gotten thus far to make sure the lighting was okay. With the sun tucked behind a cloud, its rays weren’t creating any weird sun flares, but I also wanted to make sure it wasn’t dark beyond editing repair.

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