True L̶o̶v̶e̶ Story by Willow Aster Page B

he hasn’t walked away from Jade, I’ll conveniently forget about meeting him.
    Approximately 4 minutes and 30 seconds later, and with 10 minutes left before he’s supposed to meet me, I see Ian glance at the gigantic clock on the outside of the ski rental shop. He puts a hand on Jade’s shoulder, she grabs him into a hug and he walks away. I nearly try to hide so it doesn’t look like I’ve just been waiting and spying, but figure I’d trip or something equally embarrassing.
    When Ian sees me leaning against the building, he flashes his brilliance my way. His eyes take me in, and for a moment, I forget all about Jade and ride high on his attention.
    “Sparrow. You are lighting up the whole damn mountain,” he grins.
    I smile because I was thinking the same about him. “Have you had a good day?”
    “It’s been great. We all went out early. I’m seeing a nap in my future.”
    “Oh, did you want to meet up later?”
    “Nooo, are you kidding me? You woke me right up.”
    “You looked plenty awake before you ever saw me,” I smirk.
    Ian’s grin doesn’t fade, but his eyes narrow just a little, as he tries to measure what I’m really saying.
    “How was your lesson?”
    “It went surprisingly well!” I can’t even tone down the excitement in my voice and what shocks me more, is that I actually want to get back out there.
    “I’m not surprised. Well, come on. Show me what you’ve got.”
    Ian leads me to one of the longer, more difficult runs, one that I haven’t gone near yet. Once we’re on the lift, it sinks in that I’m in such close proximity to Ian. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever even see him again.
    “So, Sparrow…”
    I look over at him. If we never have another moment together, I know I will still always remember this moment here, right now, with his phenomenal face perfectly surrounded by the snowy peaks.
    “Your name … tell me about that.”
    “It’s from that verse in the Bible about how the Father sees when every sparrow falls. And my parents are half-hippie, so my name had to be unique. My middle name is Kate after my grandmother, and I used to write that on everything because I was embarrassed of Sparrow, but now I kinda like it. I’m just glad they didn’t name me something like Zipporah. Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” I grin.
    “It fits you. But then again, you could probably even make Zipporah work,” his laugh echoes over the mountain.
    We get off one lift and get on another to go higher up. I’m starting to get nervous about how high we are.
    “So what is your middle name?”
    “Oh no. No. I don’t think you’re ready for that one just yet.”
    “Ohhhh,” I snicker, “it’s like that, is it? Okay, at least give me an initial.”
    “O.”
    “Oh what?”
    “No, O. That’s my middle initial.”
    “Hmm. It’s probably something hideous like Orville, that would be so funny…” I laugh my head off. “Or…” I look over at him because he’s not laughing. He’s facing forward and while he still has a huge smile on his face, it almost looks like he’s blushing. Oh no. I sober up fast. “Oh … it’s not really … Orville. Is it?”
    He nods.
    “Nooooo!”
    He nods again.
    “You’re kidding.”
    He shakes his head and then the loudest rumble comes out of him and he’s laughing so hard, the lift is shaking. I feel so bad.
    “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe that. It’s not hideous … but really? Why would your mama do that to you? I mean—” I give up because now he’s wiping his eyes and it really is too funny.
    He can barely breathe, but in between gasps and laughing, he’s saying, “I can’t believe you guessed it…”
    “Well, O didn’t give me a lot to work with…”
    He straightens up and I look forward. We’re almost to the top.
    “There’s Oliver or Oscar … Omar…” he starts laughing again. “I’m named after my grandfather.”
    “Well, now I really feel bad.”
    “Don’t. That’s the funniest thing