On Sunday morning, Cosima wakes up to an empty room and walks into the living room to find the guys zipping up their ski jackets.
"Hey, Cosima, you're up. You wanna hit the slopes with us today, show off your new moves?"
"No way, Scotty, I'm not ready for that yet. I still have a lot of learning to do before I won't make a complete fool of myself out there. You guys go, I'm just gonna chill today."
"Alright, but I am determined to get you to ski with us at least once before we leave."
"Yeah, yeah, sure, as long as you're cool with the bunny slope."
After the guys leave, Cosima flips on the TV. Everything is in French, and she has no idea what is going on, so she shuts it off and decides to get dressed and go for a walk around the hotel.
A little while later, Cosima is relaxing by the fire, lost in thought, when hands suddenly cover her eyes. "What the hell, Scott," she shouts as she grips the hands over her eyes. Upon touching the offending digits, she quickly surmises they do not belong to Scott. "Delphine?" she asks tentatively.
"What gave me away?" Delphine asks as she lets go and Cosima's turns to face her.
"Well, your hands are a lot slimmer and softer than Scott's." Cosima gets lost in thought for a second before snapping back. "Sorry I yelled at you like that, Scott's just always sneaking up on me, trying to scare me."
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I just saw you sitting here and you were so focussed on the fire that you didn't see me coming. I couldn't resist. What were you thinking about?"
You, she thinks. "Oh, you know, Buckminster Fuller, sacred geometry, that sort of thing," she lies.
"I see," Delphine nods. "That sounds very exciting, and I can understand if you don't want to be dragged away from those deeply enthralling thoughts, but I was supposed to meet up with a friend today, however, she's under the weather, so I was thinking, if you're not busy, maybe you'd like to hang out."
"Hang out?" Cosima asks.
"Yes," Delphine furrows her brow, "is that not what you say in America?"
"No, we totally say that, I'm just surprised you want to hang out again so soon."
"Oh, well it's a beautiful day, and we had fun over Christmas, so I just thought it would be nice to spend the day together, but if you don't want to, I'll understand."
"No, no, no, I want to," Cosima jumps up. "What did you have in mind?"
Delphine grins, "Go put on your ski clothes and meet me back here in a half hour."
"Skiing?" Cosima asks with a distasteful look on her face. "On second thought, maybe I don't want to hang out with you today."
"Go," Delphine orders, playfully pushing Cosima in the direction of the elevator.
About thirty-five minutes later, Cosima trudges off the elevator towards a waiting Delphine. "I'm here," she grumbles.
"Try to contain your enthusiasm."
"I'm sorry, it's just, I thought I'd have another day off from skiing before embarrassing myself further."
"Well, lucky for you, we're not going skiing."
"We're not? Then why'd you force me to dress like this?"
"Oh, you'll see. Let's go," Delphine leads them outside to her Jeep.
"How was your bar crawl with the ski instructors the other night?" Cosima asks as they drive.
"It wasn't a bar crawl," Delphine laughs, "just one bar. It was fun, but I was pretty exhausted from Christmas and only stayed about an hour."
"Yeah, same, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow."
"What did you do yesterday?"
"Oh, well, yesterday the guys insisted on a real touristy type day. They dragged me to a dog sledding race in the morning, afterwards we went to lunch at Chambre Neuf, and then we spent the afternoon at the Alpine Museum."
"You had a busy day. Did you enjoy the museum?"
Cosima nods, "Yeah, it had some pretty cool exhibits and it was interesting learning about the history of the area. What did you do yesterday?"
"I went skiing in the Grands Montets. It has some of the fastest runs in the Chamonix Valley."
"Oh, did you go with friends?"
"No, I went alone. It's something I do every year the day after Christmas."
"Delphine, are you nuts," Cosima shouts, "why would you go out there alone? What happened to the whole buddy system thing?"
"Cosima, I'm not a beginner, I've been skiing my whole life."
"That's besides the point, you never know when something can go wrong. Please don't do that again."
"You're really that concerned about me?"
"Yeah, of course. I mean we're friends, right? And now that I'm actually committed to learning to ski, the last thing I need is you being taken out of commission. What would happen to me then?"
"You'd probably be forced to join the 7am group."
"Nope, not happening," Cosima shakes her head defiantly. "You need to be more careful, you cannot do that to me."
"Okay," Delphine laughs, "for you, I will not go skiing without a buddy. Happy now?"
"Yes, thank you." Satisfied, Cosima changes the subject, "Any word on how Sebastian and Phinny are doing?"
"As a matter of fact, I got a call from Luc this morning. He was complaining because the puppy already chewed up one of his new tennis shoes."
"No way!"
"I'd feel bad, but I grew up with Luc, so I rather enjoy his distress. Phinny slept with Sebastian last night. Danielle texted me this picture, I already made it my screensaver," Delphine hands her phone to Cosima.
"Oh my god, that is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Cosima squees as she looks at the photo of Sebastian asleep with the puppy perched on the pillow above his head.
Delphine pulls over to the side of the road, "We're here."
Cosima looks out the window, "Mountains."
"Not quite mountains, these are more like steep hills," Delphine corrects as she pockets her phone, gets out of the car and heads around to the trunk.
Cosima reluctantly follows her and stops dead in her tracks when she notices what Delphine is removing from the trunk. "A sled?"
"Two sleds," Delphine corrects as she pulls another out and hands it to Cosima. "Red for you, black for me."
"We're going sledding?"
"Excellent deduction, Sherlock," Delphine laughs. "Papa used to take us sledding here all the time when we were little. I saw a photo of Luc and I here at Mémé's and got a bit nostalgic. I thought it might be fun to do as an adult."
"So you're saying I get to ride down a hill, on my butt, on purpose?"
"You do," Delphine smiles.
"Hell to the yeah," Cosima celebrates. "Let's go!"
They trudge through the snow before stopping at the top of a hill and sitting down in their respective plastic sleds.
"Alright, let's do this together," Delphine says. "On my three. Un, deux, trois!" They push themselves off and race down the hill.
"Woohoo!" Cosima shouts as she zooms down the steep embankment. As her sled slows to a stop at the bottom of the hill, Cosima stands up and hops off. "You should really teach sledding instead of skiing, this is so much fun!"
"Sledding doesn't take skill, Cosima."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on, let's do that again." Cosima starts padding back up the hill as an amused Delphine follows behind.
On the next go, Cosima takes off on "Un," arriving at the bottom before Delphine and then bombarding her with snowballs when she lands.
"Oh, you little—" Delphine grabs a handful of snow and returns the favor, nailing Cosima in the side of her head. Cosima screams and holds her sled up like a shield against the subsequent barrage of snow balls.
"Mercy, mercy," Cosima holds her arms up in surrender. "You're killing me, Cormier."
"Don't mess with the girl who grew up in the snow."
"I've learned my lesson."
"Good. Race you back up the hill," Delphine says as she grabs her sled and takes off.
"No fair," Cosima complains as she runs after her, "your legs are like ten feet longer than mine."
They sled for the next couple hours before stopping to take a break.
"Hey, do you wanna build a snowman?" Cosima asks giddily.
"Non." Cosima frowns at Delphine's quick shut down. "Let's build a snow woman," Delphine suggests instead. "Why does it always have to be a snowman?"
Cosima brightens, "You're right. I didn't even realize how sexist that was until now. Women can be made of snow just like men can, even better I bet."
"Definitely better." Delphine points to a spot covered by trees, "Let's build her over there in the shade so she won't melt under the sun's rays."
Together they roll each section of the body, then find a couple branches for her arms, pine needles for her hair, acorns for her eyes, a pine cone for her nose, they bend a twig to form a smiling mouth, then Delphine takes off her scarf and wraps it around the snow woman's neck. "Voila!"
"Perfect! What should we name her?" Cosima wonders as she inspects their creation.
"How about Shelly Snow?"
"Shelly?" Cosima asks with a laugh. "Where'd you pull that random name out of?"
"It's for the poet, Percy Shelley. While visiting this area, he wrote my favorite poem, Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni."
"I don't think I know it."
"I'll have to give you a copy one day."
"I'd like that," Cosima grins. "Since it's your favorite, Shelly Snow it is. Why don't you use your long arms and take a selfie of the three of us?"
Delphine pulls her phone from her inside coat pocket, they stand on either side of Shelly and smile as Delphine takes the picture.
"Let's do a few silly ones," Cosima suggests. Delphine snaps some more as they make goofy faces. They finish with a shot of them kissing opposite sides of Shelly's face.
Delphine swipes through the photos, "These are great."
"Send them to me," Cosima requests as she bends down, picks up some snow, and rubs it on her lips.
Delphine looks from the phone to Cosima, "What are you doing?"
"My lips are so freakin' chapped from the cold."
"And you thought rubbing snow on them was a good idea?" Delphine laughs. She reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a tube of lip balm. "This is a skier's best friend and it has sun protection." She rubs it over her own lips.
Cosima stands up and holds out her hand, "Can I borrow it?"
"Are you kidding? Do you know how many germs can transfer from one person's lips to another if you share this?"
"Did you learn that in immunology 101?" Cosima asks wryly. "Look at my lips. I feel like they're gonna start bleeding any second. You have to share it with me."
"Sorry," Delphine shrugs as she continues to run the stick over her lips.
"Now you're just overusing it to mess with me," Cosima whines.
"Do you really want it?" Delphine holds the tube up in front of Cosima's face.
"Yes." Cosima goes to grab the tube, but Delphine quickly pulls it away. "Oh, come on, that's just rude. You're such a tease."
"Okay, fine, you can borrow it," Delphine holds it out again, but pulls it back as soon as Cosima reaches for it, "if you can get it away from me."
Delphine proceeds to taunt Cosima with the Chapstick, pulling it away with every attempt by Cosima to snatch it. On her 7th attempt to grab it from Delphine's hand, Cosima skids and ends up tackling Delphine, pushing her backwards into the snow as the Chapstick goes flying from Delphine's hand. The forward momentum causes Cosima to land on top of Delphine.
"Oops, sorry," Cosima apologizes as they lay on the ground. "But you did kinda deserve that. You should have just shared it with me to begin with."
"You're right, I probably should have," Delphine agrees with a chuckle.
"I'm pretty sure my lips are going to crack and fall right off my face now."
"We can't let that happen."
"We'll never find that little tube in all this snow."
"I have a better idea."
"What's that?" Cosima wonders as she looks down at Delphine.
"This," Delphine reaches up and cups Cosima's cheeks tightly, bringing her face down towards her own, her over-moistened lips meeting chapped ones.
"Mmm," Cosima hums as she eagerly reacts to the unexpected kiss, pressing Delphine further down into the fluffy snow as she savors the taste and feel of soft lips soothing her own.
"Better?" Delphine asks when Cosima eventually pulls away.
Cosima smacks her lips together before nodding, "Yup, so much better. Thanks!" She pushes off the ground and stands back up, leaving Delphine deeply immersed in the snow.
"Can I get a hand?" Delphine asks as she stretches an arm in Cosima's direction.
Cosima starts to clap, "Great job, Delphine."
"Cosima!" Delphine shouts.
"What's wrong, Delphine, don't like the taste of your own medicine?"
"Did you like the taste of your medicine, Cosima? Cause if you want to taste it again, you'll help me up right now."
"Oh, you do not play fair," Cosima huffs as she grabs Delphine's hand and pulls her to her feet.
Delphine smirks proudly and Cosima shakes her head before reaching her left arm around the back of Delphine's neck and pulling herself up into another kiss.
"So were you just sharing your lip balm with me or should I read anything into those kisses?" Cosima inquires as they break the kiss and Delphine rubs her nose gently against Cosima's.
"I was just sharing my lip balm with you. It was my good deed of the day."
"That was quite the good deed," Cosima grins.
"I've been wanting to do that particular good deed for a while."
"You have?" Cosima asks and Delphine nods. "With me or any chapped lip sufferer you happened to come across out here?"
"Just you and your very inviting chapped lips."
Cosima swallows audibly, "How long is a while?"
"Since you came running in with your boots on the wrong feet."
"Really?"
"Cosima, why do you think I let an adult stay in my youth ski instruction group?"
"I thought you were taking pity on me."
"Well, you were a bit of a mess, but I let you stay because I thought you were cute and funny, which probably isn't the most professional thing to do, but I wanted to see you again. Why did you decide to stay in the group?"
"Because I suck at skiing and deserve to be embarrassed by kids that are far better than me." Delphine stares Cosima down. "Okay, and because I may have had a teeny, tiny crush on the instructor," she admits.
"Had?"
"Well, I had a teeny, tiny crush then, now it's a gigantically, massive crush. But I didn't think that you actually liked me back that way."
"Cosima, I invited you to spend Christmas with my family, I've never even invited close friends to our family dinner. I wanted to spend more time with you outside of our ski lessons and thought that would be a good excuse."
"Yeah?" Cosima smiles.
Delphine nods, "And it took every ounce of restraint not to kiss you like that under the mistletoe, but I felt it would be inappropriate for our first kiss to take place in front of my whole family."
"I can't believe you gave that much thought to our first kiss. Or that there even would even be a first kiss. You're very confident in your appeal, aren't you?" Cosima teases.
"I wouldn't say it was confidence so much as hopefulness."
"Honestly, I was kinda hoping you would kiss me like that when we got caught under the mistletoe. I could care less if your whole family, or even the whole world, was watching, cause when I'm with you nobody else exists."
Delphine starts to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"You. That line, that was very smooth."
"Shut up," Cosima grabs Delphine's hand and interweaves their gloved fingers. "What happens next? If we're gonna be kissing like that, does that mean you'll have to drop me from your class?"
"I already let you stay in the group to begin with, what's one more broken rule? Besides, watching you fall on your butt has become one of the highlights of my day."
"I certainly wouldn't want to deprive you of that joy."
"Yes, well, it's only second to the joy I get spending time with you."
"Ooh, Mademoiselle Cormier, who's the smooth one now?" Cosima grins up at Delphine.
Delphine leans down and kisses Cosima. "Let's go have dinner. My lips aren't going to sustain us both out here much longer."
"I don't know, I feel pretty sustained."
Delphine shakes her head and tightens her grip on Cosima's hand, "Come on."
"Wait!" Cosima yanks Delphine's hand, halting her progress. "What about your scarf?"
Delphine glances back at their creation, "Let Shelly keep it, she needs it more than I do."
"I admire your altruism."
—
"Hello, boys," Cosima greets with a humongous smile as she enters the suite a few hours later. "Beautiful day today, wasn't it?"
"What's got you in such a good mood?"
"Oh, I don't know, Scotty boy," she responds as she sits down next to him on the couch, "maybe the fact that I just spent the day with Delphine, a good portion of which involved kissing."
"Whoa!" Kenny exclaims in awe, while Eugene looks on speechless.
"You and Delphine? You kissed?" Scott asks.
"Yup. She kissed me and then I kissed her and then we kissed each other and then we went to dinner and kissed some more."
"Cosima, that's awesome!"
"I know, I can hardly believe it happened. Forty-eight hours ago I was stressing out about liking Delphine and it being one-sided, and now, somehow, I have an incredible, French—" Cosima pauses abruptly, unable to finish her thought.
"An incredible, French what?"
"I don't know. In all the excitement of kissing her, I didn't ask Delphine what we are to each other now. Are we just two friends who occasionally make out? Are we dating?"
"You could just ask her," Eugene offers with a shrug.
"What? How can I possibly ask her that? I'm only here for two more weeks, I can't expect her to put a label on a two week relationship. It'll either be too much or not enough."
"So then just enjoy it for whatever it is while you're here," Scott suggests.
"Yeah, yeah, you're right, that's all we can do. I've got this perfectly perfect girl who likes me and wants to spend time with me and teach me to ski and kiss me… Scotty, I need you to pinch me."
"Why?"
"Just do it." Scott reaches over and pinches her arm. "Ow! Okay, good, I'm really not dreaming. I thought for sure I must have hit my head on the slopes and slipped into a coma."
"No, Cosima, this is definitely not a dream," he assures. "I'm so happy for you."
"Thank you!" Cosima exclaims with an enormous smile.
"So does Delphine, like, have a friend?" Kenny asks.
"Or three?" Eugene wonders.
"I'm sure she has many friends," Cosima says as she rises off the couch and heads to her room. "Goodnight, hale fellows."
