Page 28 of Snowed In on Valentine's Day

“I thought we could make a veggie stir fry if that’s acceptable to you,” he said, looking up briefly as he wiped down the counter thoroughly.

“That’s fine. Great, actually. I’m starving.” My eyes scanned the room. “Good thing you have a gas stove, right? No power needed for those. I wish I had one myself.”

“It does need power, as the ignition is electric. But I have a generator, as you know.”

“Oh, I understand.” Though I didn’t. “So, we can sauté some veggies and sauce and then cook some rice too?”

He nodded as he started chopping carrots and then waved toward another stack of produce. “Feel free to start prepping those.”

“I usually put my produce in the fridge as soon as I get home, except bananas, even though I know a lot of produce doesn’t require refrigeration. I don’t know why I do it, but my parents always did growing up. But I’m glad you appear to not share in that habit, else we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy these, am I right? Because you’re trying to avoid opening the fridge and freezer to maintain a cold temperature in there, right?”

“Right,” he said as he chopped.

“Sorry, I guess I talk too much.”

“It’s fine,” he said nonchalantly while placing some scallions on the board.

After a long pause where Itriednot to talk, I had to break the silence. It just felt weird to hear only the chopping sounds, amidst this ever-present tension between us.

“Would you by chance let me use your phone or other device? I promise it’ll be super quick. I just haven’t been able to contact my agent at all since the power went out. I was supposed to meet with her today in the Cities. I mean, she’s probably figured out by now, but—”

“It’s fine.”

“Oh, are you sure? You can even watch me type the message if you want to. I promise it’ll be quick …” I stopped, clamping a hand over my mouth before I could ramble some more. Ugh.

He turned to glance at me for a moment. If I didn’t know better, I could swear his eyes held a trace of amusement. “I’m sure, Hazel.”

After a long silence, I took a deep breath and said, “If I haven’t said this already, thank you. I know we don’t get along, like, at all, so it was kind of you to shelter me during the storm.” I bit my lip, daring a glance upward at him.

“It’s fine,” he said again, not looking up this time.

“And sorry about earlier when I slammed into you and then screamed in your face. And everything after it.”

“It’s fine,” he said, a bit more emphatically.

I sighed, realizing that’s all I would get out of him.

Once we started cooking on the stove, I decided to try again. “So, are you a vegetarian?”

“No.”

“Oh, I just thought … you know, the veggie stir fry. Most rice dishes have meat.”

“I enjoy meat, but I need to limit it.”

“I suppose it’s in the freezer too, which you don’t want to open, so the cold doesn’t escape. Hey, I just had an idea—we could use the snow outside as a freezer! I mean, we could literally transfer the stuff from your fridge and freezer into a snowbank or something.”

Why did I keep talking incessantly? I didn’t know, as I wasn’t usually such a rambler.

He merely gave me a side-eye while stirring the veggies in the pan with oil.

“Or not,” I said with a sigh. “Wait, did you say youneedto limit meat? What’s that about?” As soon as the questions were out of my mouth, I cringed. “I’m so sorry, that’s a super intrusive question that I have no right to ask. I’ll shut up now.”

His expression blank, he turned to me. “I’m minimizing meat consumption for health reasons.”

“Like general health, or a specific concern or … oh, crap! There I go again being intrusive. Just ignore me.” My cheeks were surely flaming red by then. What was wrong with me tonight? I seemed to become a different, weird version of myself around this guy.

His phone timer went off then, and he checked the rice to see that it had drained. He then removed the veggies and sauce from the stove and placed it all on the island behind us. Iwatched, transfixed, as he fixed a plate for each of us. It seemed so odd that this guy couldcook, of all things. But I wasn’t complaining; rather, I was salivating as I sat down on one of the stools to eat. He sat on the stool next to me but edged away a bit.

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