"Kristoff! Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!"
"Did that thing just made 'click'?"
"Uh…"
"Great, we're dead…"
Hans was gone, we were trapped in a fucking freezing fridge, and, on top of that, we weren't wearing our phones… Game rules…
"Kristoff, I'm sorry, I…"
"No, you were right. There was no bomb. It was ridiculous… I should have known better."
"Maybe, but I was starting to believe him too…"
"No, you weren't. You are smarter than that…"
An awkward silence filled everything. I could clearly see a bruise forming on his arm from the boxes he had protected me from, and I was sure there would be more blows on his back and head.
"Maybe we should put some ice packs on those bruises…" I joked to try to lighten the tension a bit.
"Ha, ha… I think they are cold enough, thanks," he said with an annoying satirical tone.
"Hey! You don't need to talk to me like that! No one asked you to cover me!"
'Okay, that wasn't what I wanted to say.'
"Right! It would have been better to let them crush you to the floor!"
"I would have endured it! I'm not so fragile! I don't need anyone to protect me!"
"I know you don't! You are a fucking black belt in aikidou! But I couldn't help it!"
"Why not?! Why do you think I need you to take care of me while I'm sleeping?! Why do you think I need to have breakfast every single day with you?!"
"You don't! And you know what? You don't have to do it again!"
"How could I?! We're gonna die here today!"
"Fine, then!"
"Fine!"
Our breath was heavy and our mouths no longer let out vapor due to the cold that we had let in with that absurd argument, but I felt heat in me, I should have felt rage, or shame, or fear, but it wasn't what was filling me, and his eyes told me that he was feeling just the same. We crashed into the other. Our mouths recovering the heat little by little and the pain of our lips giving way to the warmest, most humid, and desperate sensation that had invaded me in my life. His hands pressed my pelvis and head against his body, and my finger gripped his shirt tightly. Too late. I had realized it too late. And now that I knew I couldn't let him go, I had no choice but to do it. At least, I would go with him.
"You…" he said totally out of breath when our lips parted. "You don't hate me?"
"Hans believed that he could make me happy. He believed that I felt alone, small, and useless."
"Why would you feel lonely and useless?"
"Why didn't you include small?!"
"If I don't hold you tight, I feel like you will slip between my arms, you're really very small."
"I didn't mean that!"
"Why else would you feel small? You are a dazzling professional, it is impossible to enter the same room where you are without looking at you, your physique is striking, your personality strong and overpowering, and you have the strength of five men!"
"No, I don't!"
"Which one?"
"The strength thing! Although I feel like the cold is damaging your mental function about the rest…"
"No, it's not," he said convulsively chuckling. "Well, maybe it is, it's too cold in here, but that's not the reason I said that. It was just what I think of you…"
"You do think that?"
"I do."
"So… you don't hate me?"
"I think I did that question first," he laughed.
"I'm not alone."
"That's your answer?!"
"When Hans said I was alone, I knew that technically he was right, but, for some reason, I didn't feel like that. I've been on my own for a long time. I love my sister, but our lives always go in different ways. I have no friends, I hadn't time for them while I was a student and I don't really know how to make them now. I have no boyfriend. I don't have even cats!"
He laughed again and I knew that what I was about to say was as real as crazy.
"But, you know, I do have a man who hates me enough to make me feel that I'm never alone. He's always there, teasing me, smiling at me, laughing with me… He's always in my mind and… I've needed some sexy woman hanging from his neck to realize that it actually hurts."
"Here is the only sexy girl I've ever wanted to hang from my neck."
"So… you don't hate me?"
He smiled tenderly at me and caressed my trembling jaw.
"I didn't know all the answers about you in this stupid game, and I hated to think I didn't know you enough to reach to you."
"But you did find me."
"I knew the first four statements."
"What said the last one?"
"I had two choices. 'Your partner is black belt in aikidou.' and 'Your partner hates the rain.' I knew you didn't hate the rain. But, you know, I guessed Hans would be with you and it hurt to think that I couldn't have found you if I wouldn't have known that."
"So that's why you knew!"
"Yeah…"
"You were worried about me?"
"Like hell."
I smiled and caressed his blue lips with my numb fingers.
"Why did you know I like rain?"
"I…"
Kristoff scratched the back of his neck and looked away.
"The first day I worked here, at the time of leaving work, it was raining seas."
"It was? I don't remember."
"I do remember. I saw you from the window. You left slowly, stopped under the rain, and raised your face to the sky to feel the water run down it."
"Oh, I think I remember now…"
"I knew you were special. The other staff was running like crazy to their cars, but the time seemed to be stopped to you. I've never been able to stop looking at you since then."
"Are you serious?"
If my blood hadn't been struggling to reach my heart without freezing in the process, my pale cheeks would have turned a deep, hot red.
"Why did you never say anything?" I asked bewildered.
"Well, that same day, I had been so rude to you. I was overwhelmed and, when you appeared, I felt safe with you and I didn't want to hide my actual mood. And then, you were so feisty and we started that ridiculous war, and it was fun, but I also knew I wouldn't keep it with anyone but you. But, of course, I couldn't do anything to change things, you had an obvious crush on Sven. I had no chances…"
"It was too obvious, huh?"
"It was for me."
"And it wasn't obvious to you how my mind changed and my heart showed me my real feelings?"
"I enjoyed the change, but it was hard to believe that you actually felt something for me."
"Well, I did. I do."
He kissed softly my lips and I wished I could sense it.
"It is probably too late for this, but… would you be my boyfriend? We have a lot of frozen food for our first date."
"I don't feel like eating right now, but I do want to be your boyfriend, Anna."
A single tear escaped his eye and I felt my legs lose their last strengths.
"What if we sit here and you tell me what the other statements of the game were? Die doesn't need to be boring,"
He sniffed a laugh, hugged me weakly, and sat on the floor settling me on his legs."
"Okay," he whispered in my ear from my back. "The first one said: 'Your partner is shorter than 1'65cm.'"
"Oh, that was easy, then…"
"Yes, it was."
Kristoff's head rested on mine. I knew he was starting to fall asleep as I was.
"What… what about the second one?"
" 'Your partner has two university degrees and 3 master's degrees.' "
"You knew that?"
"I guessed that it could be only you."
"Why?"
"Don't know… just felt it like you."
"Oh… How's that?"
"Your work is flawless. It is obvious that you know a lot more than what you say…"
"You are… interesting, you know?"
"How's that?"
"You are the one whose work is absolutely impressive… and you… oh wow, it is hard to think right now."
"I know…"
He tightened the hug as much as he could and I snuggled into his arms.
"The… the third one. I wanna know."
"More than two diopters in the right eye."
"My loupes don't lie, huh?"
"I love your glasses, they suit you."
"I like your glasses too. I like your eyes better though."
"You have seen me with my glasses?!"
"I've seen a lot of things… Fourth one."
He took a deep breath and I feared that it was the last one, but he started talking.
"You are in love with your partner."
'In love?'
Even freezing, my brain was shocked by those words.
"You… And you came."
"I did."
"So… you don't hate me, huh?"
"I love you, feisty-pants."
"Oh, shit, I love you too, Kristoff."
I kissed his neck while a few tears left my eyes and he leaned into it caressing my head.
"If, at least… I had broken his… arm… I would have died a happy… woman."
I heard something cracking. And that was it. I didn't know what was real and what was a dream… We were passing out and that will be all. A brief romance I must say. I wish we had had this talk sooner… Well, maybe I'll see him on the other side.
"Wish granted!"