Chapter 9
She checked the weather app and saw snowflakes lighting up her screen. Had it been snowing all night? It didn’t look like the snow would be slowing down anytime soon, but none of the news channels were predicting anything more than a couple of inches.
Her boss had sent out an email letting her team know they could work remotely for the day due to the weather, which she greatly appreciated. But the jury was still out on whether the Christmas party would be cancelled.
As much as Paige secretly hoped this would happen, it would mean not putting the dress back on and catching Carter looking in her direction. And Paige hated to admit she was looking forward to his attention.
On cue, Carter emerged from his room in workout attire. His only acknowledgement of her was a brief nod in her direction before rummaging through the fridge for his protein shake, which quickly reminded Paige that her fantasy about Carter returning a crush on her was just that—a fantasy.
She was looking forward to going home and seeing her parents.
Even though Paige had re-decorated her condo after Carter’s tirade, he had definitely sucked out some of the holiday spirit she had been craving after last year’s breakup.
Paige needed the Christmas coziness her parent’s house provided ASAP.
Paige eyed the window nervously. Most of the flights out of Chicago were experiencing extreme delays today, and she hoped the tides would turn before her own flight tomorrow.
She pushed the thought out of her mind and opened up her laptop. Before jumping into work emails, she opened up her business plan budget.
Carter had sent over half of a month’s rent last night to cover the remainder of his time in the condo. While it was still a nice bump to her savings, she needed to figure out where things stood with her freelance timeline.
After her last-minute shopping spree for a Christmas party outfit, her mortgage payment, and groceries for Thanksgiving, Paige had made only a small dent in what she hoped to save before making the leap and quitting her job.
It was enough to cover a website domain and hosting platform and a subscription to her favorite graphic design software, which would allow her to get started on her branding while she waited to find a new roommate and beef up her savings.
It wasn’t anything major, but it was a step in the right direction.
She crunched some numbers and came to the conclusion that with the time it would take her to find a new roommate, and knowing they likely wouldn’t be willing to pay the premium Carter had agreed to, it would be another six months before she felt comfortable leaving her job.
Paige sighed. Maybe I was too harsh on Carter. Having him stay would have expedited the timeline.
Sure, he was a grumpy, rude, arrogant ass, but she could have looked beyond all of that for the sake of his rent check. Paige was kicking herself for reacting with such a hot head after his Grinchy outburst.
Carter left his room again—this time in a white button-down with navy slacks. Paige couldn’t help but do a double take as he made his way to the door and put on his jacket. Even with layers he was sexy.
He opened the door and left without a word or glance in her direction, and Paige reluctantly got started on work.
***
To Paige’s relief, the party was cancelled. The company sent out an email just after lunch.
As hot as she felt in her party dress, she had some PTSD around the event that was starting to bubble up. She knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid Chance and Diana forever, but the cancellation meant she could at least avoid them until after the holidays.
She’d take it.
Now, what to do on my last night in town?
Paige had planned her flight home around the mandatory Christmas party and was mostly packed for the trip, so now she had the night wide open.
She had used up the last of her groceries this week in preparation for her two-week trip, so she opened up the takeout app on her phone and searched through the available options.
The weather must be getting worse, she thought. It seems like most restaurants are closed tonight.
She put in an order at a fast-food chicken chain a few blocks away and opened up Instagram.
“All dressed up with nowhere to go!”
Of course it was Chance’s post at the top of her feed again. The photo was of him and Diana in their Christmas party outfits standing in Chance’s living room. She sighed and finally hit the unfollow button.
Any relief Paige had felt about the party getting cancelled quickly subsided. This post was just another reminder of last year’s heartache and of what she no longer had.
She tried so hard to always be optimistic, but these past several weeks had started to test her limits on seeing the glass half full.
Four years ago she was polishing her resumé to get a better job, but then Chance walked into her life and sidetracked all of her plans.
And for what? Sticking it out at the agency and making a crappy salary had felt worthwhile when she thought Chance was her soulmate.
But now here she was feeling like she was totally behind in life.
As she looked out the window at the falling snow, she wished she had a partner to bundle up with for the walk to pick up her dinner—someone to snuggle up with on the couch under a cozy blanket.
She was a strong, independent woman who always looked for the bright side, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use the company and partnership of a man.
Paige put on her puffy coat and gloves for her walk to the restaurant. She was about to open the front door when she heard an angry Carter on the other side.
“There is nothing more to discuss,” he growled. “I’m done with this conversation.”
Paige didn’t have time to move away from the door before he opened it, catching her like a deer in the headlights.
The look on Carter’s face warned of his sour mood.
“Move,” he practically grunted.
Paige knew he had caught her eavesdropping, but his command made her blood boil.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” She knew she was pushing dangerous buttons, but if he was going to be rude, she wasn’t going to just lay down and take it. Besides, at this point she had been wallowing in self-pity for the past half hour and had no shits left to give.
“Not in the mood,” he said coolly as he slid past her.
“So I take it you don’t want to walk with me and talk about it?” she said sarcastically, pushing harder.
Carter turned on his heels to glare at her. His brown eyes almost looked like they were on fire. Then the corner of his mouth twitched up in a smile, like he enjoyed her testing his boundaries.
“Not in the slightest,” he said before turning back around and closing himself in his bedroom.
“Asshole,” Paige muttered under breath as she started her trek to get dinner.
***
Later that night as Paige was brushing her teeth, she couldn’t shake her annoyance at her interaction with Carter earlier. This man really had the gall to check her out one day and then the next, treat her like she was trash on the sidewalk he could kick out of his way.
Just hours earlier she was regretting kicking him out, but now Paige was counting down the hours until her plane was set to take off and bring her far away from this disrespectful and inconsiderate jerk.
She had been checking the news and flight app all evening to make sure everything was still on track. The meteorologist seemed to take a casual stance on the snow falling outside, which eased Paige’s mind as she got into bed and drifted to sleep.
***
The following morning shocked the entire city of Chicago.
While everyone slept, the city experienced the biggest blizzard it had seen since 1979.
There was twenty-nine inches of snow on the ground and it showed no signs of stopping. And on top of that, it was fifteen degrees outside.
O’Hare and Midway were both completely shut down, and there was no world in which Paige was getting on a plane to California.
How did this happen? Paige was shocked. Why did none of the news channels pick up on this storm?
She looked out her window onto a sea of white. Cars were covered, doors were blocked, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.
She was completely snowed in.
It was only then that it dawned on her.
She wasn’t snowed in.
They were snowed in.