Shirley woke up at ten o 'clock, unusually late for her. She looked around the room and spotted Alicia staring at her.
"When did you get here?" Shirley asked rolling out of the covers, she cringed when her bare feet hit the ice cold wood floors.
"Oh, I was at the hospital until three a.m, and then I got here. I checked out. I'm fine. You were asleep when I came in. That nurse is so cute! He is a great conversationalist!" Alicia explained.
"I thought you loved Carson." Shirley raised her eyebrows at Alicia.
"Well, I do. Sheesh, Shirley, Carson is a young man, Jeff is an older
man. In terms of older men, Jeff is number one, and younger men, Carson
is." Alicia said, as though it was quite obvious.
"Oh. Well, anyway... I'm glad to see that you're okay."
"Thank you."
Shirley got up and rummaged through her clothes, finally settling on a black and red ski suit she retreated to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
"Oh!" Alicia barged in, "Bo said he'll meet you at the slopes at ten
thirty."
Shirley spit out her toothpaste and looked at Alicia.
"What time is it now?" She asked. Alicia looked at her wristwatch.
"Ten ten."
Shirley sighed.
"Great, that means I'll have to skip breakfast." Shirley muttered.
"I have one of those nutri grain bar thingys. You can eat that before you go." Alicia offered.
"Okay." Shirley said, she began combing out the knots in her hair.
* * *
Shirley and Bo were on their skis, standing above a looming hill, Shirley having been on the slopes before wasn't a bad skier, Bo though was another story.
"So," Bo cleared his throat nervously, "How do you stop if you're um, out of control?"
Shirley sighed.
"You bring the tips of your skis together to slow yourself down. It's
called a snowplow."
"And that'll help?" Bo asked, worry engulfing his blue eyes.
"Bo, you won't go out of control."
"Are you sure? I won't pull a Bono will I?" Bo asked timidly. Shirley was beginning to feel exasperated.
"Bo, suck it up and be a man." She said. Bo grabbed her arm.
"Ha ha." He said robotically, then he frowned, "Where are we going anyway?"
"When we go down that hill we turn right, then the hard parts over, we take a right and we go down a trail. There's a hill, but It's alright." Shirley explained. Bo pulled out a map from his back pocket and looked it over.
"I'll meet you down there." She said, and started off.
Something was nagging at the back of Bo's head. He looked at the map and gasped. The trail they were going to take was closed. If Shirley went down the second hill, she'd fall into the ravine that was made in the last snowstorm.
"Shirley." He gasped, he threw the map down on the ground and skied as fast as he could down the hill.
-End of Part 3-