Page 1 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
Chapter1
Maya
“Maya, babes. Don’t freak out, but Aaron is here. And he’s, um…he’s not alone.”
It takes a second for my best friend Ingrid’s words to sink in through the pounding EDM music in the background and the two vodka cranberries coursing through my bloodstream.
When they finally do, I’m confused. I haven’t heard from Aaron in days. But I can tell by the worried look on Ingrid’s face and the way she paused before she said, “he’s not alone” that this isn’t going to be good news.
“What do you mean he’s not alone?” I ask.
She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out. She quickly clamps shut her ruby-rose lips before taking a breath. “Well, um, he’s…at the bar with someone. And they’re, um…well, they’re making out.”
Fury steamrolls my insides. As hard as I’m trying to keep my expression from turning into pure rage, I’m doing a terrible job judging by the way Ingrid looks. Her angelic face turns pained as she stares at me, her periwinkle eyes shining with concern.
She sets her cocktail on the standing table we’re next to and grips my hand in hers. “I’m so, so sorry, Maya. I don’t know how he found out about my New Year’s Eve party. I didn’t invite him, I swear.”
I sigh and give her hand a soft squeeze in return. “I know you didn’t.”
Ingrid’s family is one of the wealthiest in Denver. She’s a party girl who lives her life on social media and has amassed a million followers on both TikTok and Instagram. Every time she hosts anything from a housewarming party to a rave, every person under the age of thirty-five in the Denver area scrambles to get in. I have no doubt that’s how Aaron slithered his way into Ingrid’s Gatsby-themed New Year’s Eve bash at a random warehouse in this industrial neighborhood of Denver.
Ingrid’s eyes shine bright with concern. “I’ll get my security guys to throw him out right now.”
I shake my head. “No, that would just cause a scene. It’s okay, really.”
Her perfectly arched eyebrows crash together. “It’s not okay. It’s absolutely not fucking okay.” She punches her free hand at the ground, causing the delicate gold sequins of her flapper-style mini-dress to sway with the movement.
The tidal wave of anger inside of me pauses and I start to soften. It means everything that my best friend has my back. She’s been like that ever since we became friends in middle school.
I glance around at the crowded warehouse. It’s essentially a giant open dance floor save for the DJ on the stage and the bar in the center. Everyone is decked out in 1920s-style outfits smiling and drinking, having the time of their lives as they count down the minutes to midnight. I don’t want to ruin the vibe by making Ingrid’s bouncers march in here just to throw Aaron out…no matter how satisfying that would be.
My gaze screeches to a halt when he comes into view. There he is standing a dozen feet away from me, making out with some blonde I’ve never seen. My jaw plummets to the floor as I watch him grope her boobs. When his hands travel south to her ass, I make a disgusted noise.
“Oh my god…” Ingrid says when she turns to look.
For a few seconds, all I can do is stand there and stare. I think back to the last time Aaron and I met up a week ago. That was the last time I had heard from him before he stopped answering my texts and calls. He met me at Sweet Cheeks, the ice cream shop owned by my older brother Gage’s girlfriend Becca. He was twenty minutes late to our date—and he had forgotten his wallet. So I paid for it like I have for the majority of our dates.
Irritation bubbles through the anger just from thinking about it, but for the briefest moment, I wonder if I have any right to be angry with Aaron right now. We’ve only been seeing each other for a month. And we never actually had an official chat about making things between us exclusive. But he was the only guy I was seeing. And he could have at least told me that he wanted to break things off instead of meeting me for a date and acting like everything was all good, then ghosting me.
Thisis why I don’t date or do serious relationships—and why I’ll never, ever get married. Every time I do anything other than hook-ups—every time I try and date someone—it always ends in disaster.
That tidal wave surges inside of me once more. Just because we weren’t official doesn’t mean he can treat me like crap at my best friend’s party of all places.
I swipe Ingrid’s cocktail from the table and down it.
“Oh, Maya…” She looks at me, her eyes huge.
Anger and adrenaline collide inside of me as I stomp over to Aaron.
“What the fuck?” I bark. Aaron, the woman he’s with, and a half-dozen people around us jolt at my shouted words.
His brow hits his hairline. “Whoa, Maya. So weird running into you here.”
“Is it? This is Ingrid’s party. You know she’s my best friend.”
The woman he’s with aims her confused expression at me, then Aaron.
He frowns at me. “Oh. Right.”
