Fall of Rome

I followed Dylan out of our room and down the elevator, happy that he wasn’t insisting on taking the stairs again. He stopped me once we reached the lobby and took us down the opposite hallway, where the resort’s cafeteria was. I didn’t know where we were going, but it was obvious Dylan did He had probably been studying his maps again.

Our journey finally ended when Dylan stopped us outside the resort’s official ski shop. There were skis and snowboards packed in every inch of that shop, and the rest was covered in every other form of skiing gear a person could need, from shoes to hats to snow suits.

Dylan took a step inside, looking back as he eyed for me to follow him. I followed behind him and watched as he grabbed the first hat he could get his hands on. He felt the material in his hands as though he was really judging the quality before he smiled.

“This should be warm,” he said, as he slid the fleece hat onto my head. He pulled the flaps over my ears, tugging at the ends as he smiled at me. “Perfect.”

I chuckled at him and pulled the hat off my head, which caused my hair to frizz up in every direction. “This is the ugliest hat I’ve ever seen.”

“This isn’t about fashion, Eleanor,” Dylan joked as he grabbed another hat off the rack. “This is about survival.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the look on his face, which was the perfect mix of sarcasm and sincerity.

“Well, when you put it that way,” I trailed off as I grabbed a hideous green and brown hat off the rack. I did the same thing he did, inspecting the material for quality, before I pulled the hat over his head. “I’d say that’s just ugly enough to save your life.”

Dylan smiled at me and shoved the hat on my head, making my hair even more out of control than before.

“Now we need suits,” he said, as he walked over to the women’s side of the shop. Of course, he grabbed the ugliest thing he could find, which just happened to be a pink and white triangle print suit, complete with fur around the cuffs. He checked over the garment for insulation before deciding it was perfect and passing it to me. “Still a medium?”

I nodded my head, tightening my eyes as I looked at him. I used both arms to carry the heavy garment to the men’s side of the shop, and before Dylan could say anything, I began combing the racks for the perfect suit for him. Two could play that game.

After a bit of searching, I finally settled on a blue and black suit that would clash perfectly with the hat I had picked out for him. All that was left was boots and skis, which a store clerk happily fitted us for. He was obviously confused by our choice of garments, but didn’t say anything as he passed us the ugliest sets of skis they had, which he had probably thought would never sell.

Dylan paid for every last bit of ugly clothing we had picked up, and we headed over to the resort’s public changing room, which was meant as a measure to prevent snow from being tracked all over the resort. It was fashioned just like a locker room, and I took to one corner to try to make sense of the mess of clothes I had to put on.

Countless layers of clothes covered my body before I slipped on the hideous ski suit, and by that time I was practically dripping in sweat. I hoped Dylan was ready to go outside, because I desperately needed to cool down.

As I began walking out of the changing room, I realized that hobbling around in that suit was going to be a bit more difficult than I thought, and I imagined I looked impossibly awkward as I shuffled my legs back and forth.

Dylan was already waiting outside the locker room for me, both of our sets of skis in his hands. “You look beautiful.”

“Oh, shut up,” I said, laughing at him as I caught sight of my reflection in the window. “I look ridiculous.”

Dylan shook his head, placing his hand on my back to guide me towards the doors. “I think you look beautiful.”

I didn’t bother arguing with him and just kept hobbling forward as I waited for the relief of the cool winter air that the outdoors would provide.

We had to ride another bus up to the ski lift, but it wasn’t as crowded as the one we had to ride to get up to the resort, probably because it was so late in the day and most of the skiers had already been out on the slopes since the early hours of the morning.

“So, I’m guessing you have sort of training lesson planned when we get to the top?” I asked, looking at Dylan as he clutched the skis closer to him.

“Nope.” He shook his head, looking back at me with a smile. “I’m going to teach you.”

I raised my eyebrow at him, turning a bit more. “Do you even know how to ski?”

He shook his head again, his smile growing wider. “No, but I can learn.”

“This is going to be a disaster.”