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. Jamelia 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.
Jamelia 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, Jamelia 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."
Jamelia rolled her eyes beneath the ski goggles. "How will I ever afford such extravagant coffee?"
Three
Jamelia had never taken twenty minutes to get dressed before, not even when she had put on her work clothes that morning. But now it seemed like impressing was exactly what she was hoping to do, and now she was realizing that all she had were clothes that were perfect for relaxing and nothing else, or winter clothes she was going to wear on the mountain.
Then it came to a choice between something that almost approximated reasonably casual, or figure out a way to explain wearing a jacket and slacks to a casual coffee date.
She forced herself to choose the casual clothes, in spite of her mind immediately latching onto the chance to wear the usual suit. Something about it was alluring to her, even if it took her already decidedly average-at-best breasts and minimized them further until she looked like a man. The comfort, or the repeated self-assurance that she had brought it specifically to impress someone if the chance had arisen.
Now that it had, she realized how stupid that idea had been. She'd wasted space in her luggage by bringing it. Still, that was, at the very least, a good lesson if she ever took a second vacation. Leave work clothes at home, because no matter how much you like wearing them you're not going to wear them.
She made her way back downstairs, decidedly unhappy with her clothes. They made her look like a slob. Like the beach-bum kids who wore pajamas everywhere, and thought that was an appropriate look in public. She didn't think that, but she hadn't expected to go out much at all. Room service, nothing more.
Roy, on the other hand, looked every bit as good as she thought he would. Naturally broad shoulders and just enough muscle to look like he wouldn't run into trouble. He moved with a slow, easy grace now that he was off the skis. His clothes, on the other hand, weren't much better than hers. A sweater proclaiming his presumable graduation from University of Virginia that looked like he only wore it in the cold when he was at home sipping on hot chocolate, and well-worn blue jeans. The look seemed to fit him, though.
His face split into a grin when he saw that her coming out of the elevator.
"Hey, you all set?"
She hefted her purse in one hand to show that she had it, and he halfway-turned toward the resort restaurant, watching to see if she came along. They went through the fifteen-foot-wide door side-by-side. The sign said 'seat yourself,' so they did, settling into a table that would hopefully be visible enough for the waitress to see. Roy gave a small wave the minute she turned in their direction anyways.
"So, what brought you out here?"
Jamelia rolled her eyes. "Boss told me he was giving me a week's vacation whether I wanted it or not, so-"
"So you thought you'd come out here and take advantage of the season?"
"More or less. My parents used to live out East, right by a ski resort, so we'd go out every winter. Then my dad got a transfer, and a promotion to go with it, but he was too busy to take us out. By the time things slowed down, I was in college, and too busy for vacations."
"You sure we aren't related?" He laughed. "I have about the same story, only the other way 'round. We started in Colorado, then moved down to Alabama just in time for High School, so I could stick out like a sore thumb."
The waitress came up, and they gave their orders. Jamelia got herself a hot chocolate. Too much caffeine this late, and she'd never get to sleep. She didn't need an early morning, but that didn't mean that she was going to wreck her sleep schedule just because it was a vacation.