The cold wind swept his brown hair out of his eyes before a crosswind pushed it right back in. Ignoring the inconvenience, he huddled his face into his scarf. It's warm cashmier embrace softening the blow of the New England gusts.
Where is she? He wondered, taking a peak around. They had planned on meeting here, and, he checked his watch, she was 20 minutes late. Arching his neck to get as much of his face under the scarf's protection as possible he briefly began to lose himself in thought.
What if it had stormed on her way? She knew how to drive in snow he assured himself. What if she had gotten lost? She wasn't too proud to stop and ask for directions. What if she had forgotten about their plans to meet? He didn't have an answer immediately, letting the unpleasant thoughts parade through his head a few more times before deciding that: no, they had planned it, they had spoken yesterday about it. There was no way she had forgotten. He continued thinking, coming up with reasons she might be late, then countering his own logic with other ideas.
He felt a pat on his shoulder. Unburying his face from his collar he turned and saw her, a poofy winter jacket, a scarf tucked around the collar, woolen hat pulled tight over hair that fluffed outwards from two sides giving her shadow the shape of a poodle. He smiled. She smiled. They hugged.
And then she slid her frigid hands under his wind breaker and against his back. With a yelp he tried to get her hands out, but with a blissful smile on her face she meerly pushed herself into him and murmered happily: "waaarrrm!" Another step back and his heel slipped on a small patch of ice.
With a surprised yell they both fell into the snowbank. His lungs emptied by the fall and her impact on him, he panted for breath as he looked down at the pom pom ball on the top of her hat that had bonked him on the nose. His breath heavily fell: in, out, in, out, and then began to switch to chuckling: in, out, heh, in, heh, out, heh heh. Soon his mirth couldn't be contained and he was laughing down at her as she pushed herself up off him a little, turning her head enough to be able to see him smiling down at her.
With a mischievous smile, he locked his knees with hers and rolled, bringing her underneath him and this time, it was his hands that slipped into her jacket. She squirmed and laughed, giggling as he wiggled his cold fingers against the small of her back.
He stepped up, stretching his hand out to help her out of the snow. She looked at him, cocked her head and smiled. In return he did the same, squinting his eyes up from his smile. She unceremoniously pulled him down into the snow bank, rolling to pin him underneath her. Shouting that she'd have the last laugh she engaged him in a fit of tickling, although by this time their fingers weren't nearly as cold as they had been before they began moving.
As she panted heavily and stood up over him, outstretching her hand in both a sign of peace and offering her hand to help him up. He began waving his arms and making a snow angel. Laughing at him, she took another step forward and wiggled her hand at him. "come on". He took her hand, beginning to shift upwards to his feet. He pulled.
This time it was her who lost her footing on some ice and slipped forward. Catching her from under the arms, his knees gave out from his lack of footing and there they were again, panting for breath in the snowbank. He rolled her into the nook his snow angel had made and got to his knees. Smiling down at her, he took the picture in: Her hat slanted over one eye,jacket partially opened by all the movement and one end of her scarf fell haphazardly across her hat and face.
"You're a funny looking angel, you know that?"
She smiled and sat up onto her knees and took him in for a hug with no tricks or cold fingers. Huddling together for a moment, they drew apart and giggled at each other and the mess of snow they had made around them. "It's good to see you"