It all happened so suddenly. We got on the gondola. It was only slightly drizzling. Then the heavy rain came. The gondola stopped. We heard a voice over the PA say, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are having some technical difficulties."

Ha. Great. "Technical difficulties." That's code name for "you're all going to die and about to be dropped a hundred feet to the ground below."

Mitchie sat down in one of the seats. "Shane, this is the scariest thing ever. We're going to die. I can feel it."

I looked out the window. It was starting to hail. Which, apparently, is not good if you're in a gondola going over a valley. I turned to Mitchie. "Don't talk like that."

She stands up. "Do you see what's below us? Yeah, you can't see the ground. That's bad. That means we're really, really high up."

"Don't be so pessimistic."

"It's hard not to be when you're about to plummet to your death."

"I'll protect you," I say, nearing her.

She sighs. "Now's not the time to be romantic."

"Who's being romantic?" I ask, smirking. I wrap my arms around her, but she pushes me away.

"No," she says. "Not right now."

I frown. "Okay." I sit down on one of the chairs and Mitchie sits down as well.

She looks out the window.

"You look sad," I say. "How can I help?"

Mitchie just sighs.

"Flowers? Chocolate?" I offer. "Jesus?"

She lets out a huff of laughter.

I pull out a Dove chocolate bar from my pocket. "Chocolate. I have chocolate."

Mitchie looks over at me. "I'm not hungry right now. I can't eat right before I die." She turns her body, facing me. "I've never given much thought as to how I'd die."

"You stole that from Twilight."

"Whatever. Point is, I never thought I'd die in a gondola."

"We're not going to die."

"I always thought I'd die in my sleep. Or get murdered, at least. But a gondola?"

"We're not going to die."

"Really? A gondola?"

I stand up. "No one's dying here."

"Sit back down, the whole gondola is shaking. It's freaking me out."

I sit. But the gondola keeps swaying.

Mitchie, of course, nearly shits a brick. "Why is it swaying like that?"

The wind howls and hail pelts the windows even harder.

"Fuck!" Mitchie exclaims. "We're going to die! Right now! I can feel it!" She searches through her purse.

"What are you looking for?"

"A piece of paper and a pen. When they find our dead bodies, I want my mum and dad to know I love them." She continues rummaging through her purse.

I stand up and go over to her. "It's okay."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is. It's okay because," I scoop her up in my arms, "we're going to die together. How romantic is that?"

"Shane," she whines.

I set her down on her feet and cup her chin with my hand, forcing her to look at me. Her mouth is slightly open so I take the opportunity to kiss her. I put my hands on her waist, and she wraps her arms around my neck.

We didn't even hear the guy over the PA saying that the gondola was working again.

Nor did we feel it start to move back up the mountain. Or notice the doors open when we got to the bottom of the mountain.

We pulled away from out kiss and see one of the gondola monitors look at us like we're mentally incapable of getting off.

"Five more minutes," I say and kiss Mitchie again.