The mid afternoon sky was beginning to darken as Oliver and I sat on the bench. My arms ached from holding the newspaper in front of my face. My fingers were nearly frozen; the bit of my nose that I could see out of the corner of my eye was bright red. My cheeks felt numb and I had to curl and uncurl my toes to keep the blood moving toward them. But despite how amazingly cold and frozen I felt, I couldn’t stop grinning. I hadn’t had this much fun in far longer than I cared to admit.
Oliver had shown me how to look through the newspaper without being too obvious. Though I wasn’t entirely sure why I was listening to him since he had accidentally given himself away when he had talked to me from behind it earlier that afternoon.
“So, are you frozen yet?” Oliver asked giving me a sideways glance.
“Well I can still talk, so I’m guessing I still have a little bit longer. Though I might be half ice.”
“That’s fine as long as it’s the top half.”
“Huh?” I had no idea what he was talking about. Why would it be better to have the top half of me be frozen? Isn’t that where a lot of important organs are?
“You’ll still be able to walk. How else would you get home?” He lowered his newspaper, laying it on his lap. I starred at him blankly. I think he decided to let it go much to my confused relief. “Well since you are half ice cube and I’m full ice cube, we’d better do something to combat that. How does coffee sound?”
Was he asking me on a date? I was not going on a date with someone I’d just met. I chose to not remind myself I had just spent a good portion of the day talking with him on a bench. That was beside the point. I didn’t want to date anyone. I just wanted a friend. For some reason, my cold dulled mind thought it would be a good idea to voice this aloud. “Is it a date?”
Oliver gave me a puzzled look. “No…it’s just coffee. As in ‘let’s try to become less like ice sculptures’ coffee.”
“Oh ok. Well, that’s fine then.” I was glad the cold had made my cheeks red. I was pretty sure they just rose by a few degrees due to the blood rushing to them. “I know a place close by that’s got a good cup.”
“Great!” Oliver stood up rather stiffly. Through talking with him, I had learned he’d been there on the bench since mid morning. “I could use something to eat as well.” He gave me an impish look. “Don’t worry, it’s not a dinner date.”
Now I was sure he could see the darkening of my cheeks. “Right.” I stood up as well; stretched and proceeded to readjust my scarf and coat.
“Claire lighten up. I was only giving you a hard time,” Oliver said, seeing the embarrassment despite my many layers of clothing.
I tried to shake it off. “The café is north of here. Do you want me to bring the newspaper along?”
Oliver picked his up from where he had placed it, folded, on the bench. “If you want. I think I will if nothing else to practice my spying skills at some later date.”
“Why not just use a new paper?”
Oliver paused for a brief moment. “This one seems to be lucky.”
“Why is that?”
“I didn’t mess up quite as much as I normally do.”
“That’s because you were talking to me the whole time. Instead of at whoever’s passing by,” I joked, returning his impish grin from earlier. I guess my embarrassment had disappeared.
“True.” Oliver placed his paper in a coat pocket. “Onward to ice-reducing coffee?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed, folding the paper down to a size that would fit snuggly in my purse. Oliver had already started down the sidewalk. I jogged to catch up. We walked the rest of the way talking about the cold and newly falling snow.
It wasn’t until much later that I looked at the headline of the newspaper Oliver had given me: ‘successful Mars landing is next step for mankind.’
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