Snowflakes in the Sky pt. 2 + Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway!

As Sophie woke the next morning, she smiled as she thought about Ethan. He was a nice guy and she appreciated that he had given her a ride home last night. Then she remembered her car and frowned. How was she going to get the money to get it fixed? Thankfully, she had Triple A. Her dad had insisted once she left for college and now it had finally come in handy. She was about to call them to tow her car before she remembered she didn’t know where it was getting towed. I need to call Ethan, she thought. She started to dial, but decided to go and brush her teeth first and get the grogginess out of her voice.

Once that was done, she went ahead and called him.

“Hello,” he said sounding wide awake. It was only eight thirty in the morning. She didn’t expect him to be an early riser. Then she remembered where he worked. Duh!

“Hey, Ethan? It’s Sophie.”

He smiled at the sound of her voice and said, “Good morning.”

“I was calling to get the number of the car people you knew. I was about to call Triple A to get the car towed.”

“Oh, that’s good you have Triple A. Let me pull up the number.”

He searched through his contacts and then said, “Okay. It’s called Quick Start Mechanics and the number is 867-9980. I take my car there all the time and they give me a good quote.”

“Thanks Ethan. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem, Soph.” She blushed when he called her by her nickname.

“You’ll probably be waiting there for a while, but if you want, I could drive you there and maybe we could grab some breakfast or something. What do you say?”

He was asking her out. On a date. But did breakfast really count as a date? She wanted to get to know him better and really, there was nothing that was stopping her. Nothing except her condition.

“Sophie?”

“Yes.”

“Yes?” He asked surprised she was willing to go out with him.

“We can get some pancakes. They’re my favorite.”

“Ok, cool. What time do you want me to pick you up?”

“I can be ready in thirty minutes.” She immediately began to wonder what she was going to wear.

“Okay. See you then.”

She fell back onto her bed in excitement and immediately nervous flutters began to occur in her stomach. It had been quite some time since she had gone on a date and now she had to prepare herself. She went to her closet to find something suitable to wear and decided on long sleeve dark blue shirt with a plaid woolen scarf. She paired it with a jean skirt and chocolate brown boots. After showering and fixing her hair, she finally got dressed and headed to the living room to fix a cup of hot chocolate. As soon as she poured it in her cup, she heard Ethan beeping his horn outside. She placed a lid on her cup, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door.

She got inside of his warm car and instantly smelled the familiar scent of his cologne.

“What cologne is that you’re wearing,” she asked him.

“Well, good morning to you too,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s Chanel Bleu. Why? Do you like it?”

“It’s nice,” she said dismissively, trying not to put too much into it. “So I already called Triple A and gave them the address to the auto shop so we can head there now.”

“Okay. You know, I’m really glad you decided to come out with me today. I wasn’t expecting you to say yes,” he said as they drove towards the shop.

“Am I really that unapproachable,” Sophie asked feeling bad.

“I mean, it took some work to get you to smile,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I just have some things going on in my life and I didn’t want other people to be burdened with my problems.”

He was silent for a moment. What problems was she referring to?

They arrived at the auto shop and Ethan talked to the manager. He gave them a time to come back and they headed back to the car.

“So where do you want to go for breakfast,” Ethan asked.

“I know this amazing place over by the school. It’s called the Pancake Pantry and they serve these delectable pancakes and waffles,” Sophie said excitedly.

“That’s where we’re going then,” Ethan said amused at her enthusiasm.

Man, she’s beautiful, he thought to himself before putting the address in his GPS and driving off.

“So you know, besides being a serial killer, I don’t know anything about you,” Sophie said with a smile.

He chuckled and said, “That’s not exactly true. You know I go to church and that I think you’re beautiful.”

He looked at her from the corner of his eye to see her blush a little.

“Well, I need background information,” she said ignoring his last comment. “Where did you grow up? What’s your favorite color? Are you more of a cat person or a dog person? Do you like cooking,” she asked naming off her questions one after another.

“I feel like I’m being interviewed,” Ethan said raising his eyebrows in mock surprise.

“I have to get to know the person that’s trying to kill me. That way, I can write all about you in my diary and they’ll be able to catch you after my untimely demise.”

“Somebody has been watching to many thriller movies!”

She shrugged in indifference.

“Okay. Well, I grew up abroad, believe it or not. My parents are missionaries and my mom was pregnant with me when she and my father were witnessing in Spain. So I spent a few years there, up until I was ten. Then we came back to the states. We lived in Texas for a few years before finally settling here in Chicago.”

“That was a lot of moving,” Sophie said.

“Yeah. Making new friends has never been hard though.”

“Cocky much?”

“Nope. Just confident.”

She rolled her eyes and he continued. “My favorite color is blue and I’m definitely more of a dog person. And can I cook? Does boiling water count?”

“No!” she said playfully shoving him.

He laughed as they arrived at the restaurant. Once inside, the hostess seated them at their table.

“I’ll give you two some time to look over the menu,” she said after placing ice cold glasses of water on their table.

“What should I get,” Ethan asked as he eyed the menu.

“What flavors do you like?”

“I’m in a berry kind of mood.”

“They have the multi-berry chocolate fusion pancakes,” Sophie said. “They’re my second favorite.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s your first?”

She turned her menu around and pointed to the apple cinnamon cheesecake pancakes.

“These pancakes melt in your mouth and hits the spot,” she said remembering the last time she came here.

“I think I’ll have those then,” he said satisfied with his decision. The waitress then came over to take their orders and then they were alone again.

“Now it’s my turn,” he said.

“Your turn for what?”

“To know more about you.”

“Okay,” she replied feeling nervous all of a sudden.

“What did you want to be when you were younger?”

“I’ve always loved being around kids so I thought I’d be a teacher,” she admitted. “But when I was approached to teach Sunday school at our church, I quickly realized that I shouldn’t make a career out of it.”

He laughed at her confession and thought about his next question.

“If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?”

“Hmm, that’s a hard one,” she said thinking about the different options. “I guess that I’d want to be able to self heal.”

“Interesting. I never would have thought about that one.” He suddenly remembered her statement in the car when she said she didn’t want to burden people with her problems.

“What did you mean in the car when I told you it took a while to get you to smile?”

She froze, inwardly scolding herself for saying that to him and thought of a way to redirect the conversation. She didn’t have to think too hard as the waitress soon came over with their food.

“Hey, do you mind praying over the food,” she asked, hoping the distraction would let him forget his question.

“Sure,” he said bothered by her lack of an answer. “Lord, we ask that you bless this food and the hands that prepared it. Let it be for the nourishment of our bodies. In Jesus’s name, amen.”

“Amen,” Sophie replied opening her eyes. She immediately dug into her pancakes and stuffed her mouth with the sweet treat to avoid answering his previous question.

“Slow down, tiger. I’m sure that’s hot,” he said laughing at how she attacked the pancakes.

“Oh,” she said, mouth full of apples and pancakes. “I’m really hungry in the mornings. Usually, I run in the mornings, which increases my appetite, but with all the snow, I’ve been running on the treadmill on an incline to make up for not running outside.”

“So you like exercising,” he said pretending to jot it down in a notepad.

“Hey! That’s confidential information,” she joked.

He smirked and finally took a bite of his own pancakes. The taste of the pancakes were so divine that he let out a moan.

“Wow, that good huh?”

“These are better than you described,” he said a little embarrassed by his outburst. He took another bite and smiled.

“Here,” she said grabbing a napkin. You got some on the corner of your mouth. He took the napkin and unsuccessfully dabbed at his mouth.

“Give it to me,” she said amused. She then gently wiped the corner of his mouth and she looked into his eyes. Bad idea. He stared back, lips turning in a smile and he grabbed her hand. Her heart began to beat faster and he then put her hand down on the table.

She fake coughed to fill the awkward silence that had settled between the two of them. Suddenly, her phone rang interrupting her thoughts. She saw that it was the auto shop and answered.

“Hello, Sophie?”

“Yes,” she answered clearing her throat.

“Your car is ready to be picked up. We fixed the problem with your starter and gave it a test run to make sure everything was rolling smoothly.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you so much. I’ll be there soon,” she said relieved that everything was okay.

“No problem ma’am. See you soon.”

“They’re done with the car,” she said as she hung up the phone.

“Well, we don’t have to go right away, do we? We just got our food.”

“I can clearly see that you’re a foodie, although I don’t know where it all goes,” she said looking over his rather thin frame.

“High metabolism,” he said shrugging. “It’s been that way since I was young.”

“Tell me about your younger years,” Sophie said wondering his story.

“Well, like I said, I was born in Spain and it was really fun being around all of that beautiful water and tanning in the sun,” he said relishing in the memory.

“What was Texas like,” she asked.

“Definitely hot,” he said. “But there were some cooler days as well.”

“You said you made friends easily. Has it always been like that for you?”

Her question seemed to cause a shift in Ethan’s mood.

“What is it,” she asked in concern.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing important.”

“You can tell me,” she urged. “You’ve already admitted to being a criminal,” she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He paused for a moment before speaking again.

“In middle school, there were some issues that I went through with some of the other kids at my school. I constantly got teased by my accent and the kids bullied me in the hallways for much less. One day, I got tired of it and I got into a pretty serious fight with one of the ringleaders of the pack. He ended up in the hospital and I got sent to juvie.”

She was shocked. Ethan didn’t look like the type of person to get into trouble like that. But could she really judge him for standing up for himself? Bullying was a serious matter.

“After I got out, my family moved here for a new start. I started going back to church and getting my life right with God.”

“Wow, Ethan. I had no idea.”

“Yeah, I usually try to leave my past in the past.”

She began to eat the last of his pancakes when he said, “I asked you a question earlier and you didn’t answer. I shared something personal with you. Is it that bad that you can’t tell me about it?”

Her heart began to pound, but not in a good way. Why did he have to bring it back up? If she told him, he might not want to see her anymore and she was just beginning to like him and open up a little. She opened her mouth to speak, and then……….

 

 

Hey guys! Thanks for taking the time to read the second installment of my short story Snowflakes in the Sky. I hope you’re enjoying it so far. So today marks Day 2 of the Quinny J. Christmas Giveaway and today’s prize is a $15 Starbucks gift card! Who loves coffee? (not me lol) So in order to be selected for a winner of this gift card, tell me in the comments what you’re favorite Christmas recipe is for the holidays. Do you love chocolate chip cookies? Maybe you have a recipe for a pie that makes people’s mouths water. Share below in the comments and make sure to leave your email. Here’s the other contest rules:

1. You must be a follower of my blog via email or through WordPress
2. You must like the post that will be posted the day of the contest (Thursday)
3. There will be a question posed at the end of each post and you must answer in the comments to be considered and leave your email address.
4. Lastly, share my blog. At the end of each post, there’s a share button that can link to your social media pages, such as Facebook and Twitter.

 

Good luck and I look forward to announcing the winner Saturday at 4pm!