Most people took to their beds early that night, being so tired from all the travel but something kept Andrew, Cory, Alison and I up, drinking wine in each other’s company.

“So how did things go with that girl you were seeing?” Andrew asked Cory. “Sabrina?”

Cory groaned angrily at the mention of the name. “Matt didn’t tell you? Things didn’t work out between us.”

“Oh, how terrible!” I respond empathetically. Despite not knowing the full story, I did know how terrible heartache could be to overcome so I could identify with Cory’s struggle.

“I think I may have dodged a bullet,” Cory mused. “Between you and me, I think she might have been a bit of a d___.”

Andrew furrowed his brow and the rest of us were arrested in silent shock. “You shouldn’t use that word, Cory,” instructed Andrew in the same stern voice I had overheard him use with Christina. “It’s rude.”

Cory raised his hands in front of himself defensively. “There’s no other word for it, is there? I’m just saying, she seemed more interested in her friend, May, to me!”

I wondered if this conjecture was merely the posturing of an insecure mind. It could hurt to admit when a girl doesn’t like you! I could easily imagine Cory coming up with all kinds of theories to avoid facing that one simple truth.

“It’s only natural that women would get along with each other,” I offer. “We shouldn’t judge others when we don’t know the full picture.”

Cory shrugged. “Whatever the reason is, she didn’t want me. We didn’t even kiss. I still haven’t ever kissed a girl!”

Cory’s lips had been well loosened by the wine and I was beginning to fear the trajectory of this conversation. I didn’t want Alison to overhear something obscene. Luckily for me, Cory didn’t immediately start discussing more carnal desires.

“You just have to be patient,” Andrew said sympathetically. “You’re still only 20, you have plenty of time!”

Cory contemplated Andrew’s advice while staring intently at his glass of wine. “It’s just that my dad said he had already married my mum by my age. He also said if I didn’t get a job and start paying rent, he’d kick me out even though I still have a year left on my degree...”

I could sympathize with the guy. He didn’t seem to have the worst lot in life but at 20, these are the sorts of issues that matter to you.

“If you put the effort in, you’ll be able to finish your degree and work at the same time. Then, you’ll be able to start your career and before you know it, I’m sure the women will come flocking. It’s hard to be into a guy who still lives at home, you know?”

Cory groaned at the honesty of my advice, clearly wishing I had given him an answer that suggested a quick fix. Everyone laughed as Cory begrudgingly conceded to my and Andrew’s advice.

When the laughter settled, there was silence for a while as Cory returned to staring into his glass. “I wonder what it feels like to go all the way?”

Time to go to bed. I looked over to Alison to suggest we go now but she was already moving to leave.

“I’m really tired, guys,” she said with a yawn. “See you all tomorrow?”

“I’ll walk you.”

“See ya,” Cory said lazily, before turning his attention back to Andrew to continue complaining about his lack of romantic experience.

When Alison and I made it into the hallway she let herself chuckle slightly under her breath. “I wonder why no girl wants to kiss him?” 

I smirk at her. “I could come up with a couple of reasons.”

We walked to the door of her room. I lean in and speak to her in a bare whisper. “How about me?”

“How about you?”

“Can you think of any reasons not to kiss me?”

“None,” she said with a wide grin as she leaned in close to me.

With Alison’s goodnight kiss, I found my way to sleep very easily that night.

The next day was skiing day! Despite how late everyone had stayed up the night before, everyone had gotten up early, excited to go. Sybil and Rebecca had made breakfast for everyone with varying degrees of help from everyone else. It was a simple breakfast: bacon and eggs on toast, but it was superb! 

There were buses that took guests from the resort to the skiing area but the resort also had an agreement with the local property owners where they could also rent out a bus if they needed one. We had organised such a bus when we arrived in town but it wasn’t supposed to come until 10AM and it was still only 8 by the time we had finished breakfast. As it was warmer today than it had been yesterday, although of course you still needed several layers to combat the region's deathly chills, we decided to go on a walk around the grounds while we waited. Seeing as the first-timers only got a tour of the house yesterday, it seemed fitting to me to complete the tour with the outside portion today.

Andrew and I lead the charge, taking everyone out the north-facing “back” door, allowing us to move further east, toward the gardens and greenhouse. As we walked, the group excitedly discussed our plans for the day. Everyone was so excited.

“Whoa! I bet this looks incredible in spring!” Sybil said, mostly to Iris as she first saw the garden. The garden  was mostly decorated with hearty conifers that were better suited to this region's climate, but there were areas in the garden bed that allowed for flowering plants to be placed in the spring and summer to make the garden radiantly beautiful. So on that front, Sybil was correct.

During the winter, it was a bit drab though. “Just wait until you see the greenhouse!”

As you walked through the garden path, the outline of a building could be seen on both the south and the east sides of the garden’s edge. The south was a large structure of red painted wood that originally served as a large garage for trucks and the like, however my family used it exclusively as a garden shed. Although I pointed it out to the others for the sake of completeness, in truth it was not an especially interesting building for guests. On the east side was the greenhouse and it was beautiful!

The girls seemed very interested by this but the boys were less so. Still, even Cory was polite enough to at least come and have a look. The greenhouse looked like most greenhouses do, a box made of glass. Ours, however, was special. It was artificially heated through the colder months in order to keep the plants alive and allow for a broader range. We mostly kept herbs in it so that Mother could use fresh herbs in her cooking even during the winter, although in all honesty many of the plants died anyway. I wouldn’t want Mother to hear me admitting to that though.

“We shouldn’t go inside,” Andrew explained. “We try to expose the plants to as little cold air as possible.”

“That and it’ll be very hot inside,” I chime in.

“What was the point in walking all the way over here then?” Cory complained and Andrew poked him in the ribs for being rude, which Cory audibly yelped in response to.

At 10AM, the bus arrived and we all clambered in. The entire ride to the slopes was around 25-30 minutes but our house was actually one of the closer ones. Due to the size of the bus, the 9 of us alone couldn’t fill it out, so there were other people on the bus before we even got on. These were most likely to be other people with holiday homes as the buses the resort used for its own guests would typically be filled only with guests. Whoever they were didn’t matter, however, as none of us spoke to them for the entire trip. Instead we simply made the bus bounce with our excited energy.

After arriving at the slopes, we went into the reception area to get our rental skis and goggles for those of us who didn’t have them. Andrew and I had our own pair that we brought with us, but the others, many of whom this was their first time, had to borrow theirs. After getting equipped, we got on the pagoda to ride it to the top of the slope.

“Have you ever been before?” Cory had asked Alison while sitting next to us in the pagoda. Cory and Matthew were athletic types who often went on long hikes together. Skiing seemed right up his alley. “I haven’t. Is it hard?”

I wasn’t sure why he was asking Alison instead of one of the men, especially me, but she answered cheerfully anyway. “Well, I don’t do it too often myself. But I think you should be able to handle yourself, Cory.”

I felt a pang of jealousy and internally admonished myself. Alison was just being kind! Even if she weren’t, the comment itself was pretty mundane. I just found it easy to generate jealousy when my fiancee was as gorgeous as she was.

“Are you scared?” She asked him.

He shook his head. “Excited! Dad and I have gone surfing before and that was awesome! This is kind of like that. Just that the water is frozen.”

Alison laughed and my pang of jealousy became a throb. That throb became an ache when Cory turned to me and said, while making eye contact. “Well, Alison at least you have Walter to hold your hand on the way down but if he ever chickens out, you can always lean on me!”

I wanted to stand up and smack him but I knew I couldn’t. I’d have to beat him with my words instead. “If Alison tried to lean on a man as thin as you, she’d push you waist-deep into the snow before being able to steady herself.”

Alison, noticing the tension at last, stealthily reached over to squeeze my hand. “I won’t need either of you, boys. I’m not going to fall in the first place!” 

“Damn, confident,” Cory said in an oddly bitter tone. Perhaps my comment on his waifish form bothered him afterall. I hope so!

Cory was an equal opportunity flirt, it seemed. He didn’t care if a woman was looking at him as a man to lean on or a boy to nurture as long as she was looking at him. Alison showed no interest in him though and I knew she was a wonderful and faithful woman who would never betray me. No need to get too upset about it. Maybe just a little bit.

The rest of the ride to the top was uneventful.

Alison and the rest of the girls went down a gentler slope, as did Cory, which I told myself was due to his incompetence and not because he simply wanted to be surrounded by all the girls. Andrew, Matthew and I went down a harder slope.

“Race you to the bottom!” Matthew announced, and Andrew immediately perked up.

“Okay,” he said, his mood rising to the challenge. “You in, Walt?”

In all honesty, I didn’t want to. I wasn’t as innately competitive as Alison and Rebecca were, or Andrew and Matthew for that matter - but I did want to show off. Despite myself, I couldn’t quell the inner schoolboy that simply wanted the girl he liked to see him doing something cool. 

“Sure, I’ll join in - if you want to lose,” I said slyly.

“3, 2.... 1....”

Right as Matthew started saying “go!”, we all darted down the slope at max speed. Andrew and I, who were more than used to this, immediately pulled ahead and remained neck and neck as we sped down the mountainside. I considered sparing a glance to my left and behind, to see if Alison was watching me, but I knew I had to focus on the task at hand if I were to beat Andrew.

Andrew was my older brother but he was only a year older so we had always been close. Despite the stereotypes about brothers, we were never very competitive either. We always liked different things: different movies, different sports, different girls - so there was never anything to compete over. However, once dad died, he suddenly became more inclined to it. If I had to guess, it would be that he felt pressured to be the new man of the house and look after Mother. Perhaps he felt he had to “put me in my place”, so to speak in order to properly fill the role. His heart wasn’t in it though. At the end of the day, I always felt the warmth of his love, even when he was giving me a hard time. I just saw this race as one of many examples of Andrew coping with dad’s loss differently to how I had.

Matthew had kept good pace behind us in the beginning but by the time Andrew and I were nearing the bottom, we had long since left him in our snow-powdered wake.

In the end, Andrew beat me, but that was okay. We had travelled so fast, it took Alison and the girls another couple of minutes before they reached the bottom, at which point I bold-faced lied about my victory, inspiring loud objections from my brother. Alison laughed heartily at our commotion and it made me feel warm and soft inside.