Snow storm

The fireplace roared to life as he dropped the match into the carefully stacked wood. The snow outside fell heavy, and its cold seeped through the walls, penetrating the house and dropping its temperature far past levels of comfort. The central heating of the building had broken a few days prior, but fortunately he had been able to collect more than enough firewood before the storm blew in. He had anticipated needing to keep himself warm until the snow had passed and he could get the heating repaired. He had not, however, anticipated having to heat for two.

She sat in front of the fire and smiled up at him in thanks before gently scooting closer to the flames. She had come to visit him by surprise just before the storm blew in. Neither of them had expected the snow to come today, however, as the weather forecast had clearly detailed that it would come the following day.

He went to another room and grabbed the only clean blanket he had and brought it back to the fireplace. "Sorry," he explained, "this is all I have right now that we can use to help us keep warm."

She smiled back at him. "Don't worry about it," she replied. "I don't mind sharing. It'll help us keep warmer, after all."

He sat down next to her and draped the blanket over both of their shoulders. It wasn't the biggest blanket in the world, forcing them to sit shoulder to shoulder so that it could fit around them both. They sat in silence for a time, watching the fire crackle, trying their best not to shiver as the room slowly warmed up, or at least the small area where they were sitting.

"I'm sorry you had to get stuck here with me," he said after a time. "I know that you had other plans that you wanted to get done, but it looks like you're gonna be stuck here with me for a while."

She shook her head. "You don't have to apologize to me. It's not like you can control the weather and made the storm blow in early. Neither of us could have known that this would happen, and it's better to be stuck here than out on the road alone or something like that."

He nodded in agreement. "That's true. You could have been a lot worse off. Still. I wasn't exactly prepared to have you here during the storm. I was only planning on one person. I may not have enough supplies."

She frowned but nodded in return. "I suppose that's true. We'll just have to be careful with the supplies that we have."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "This didn't exactly turn out to be the best day."

She smiled up at him and gently pushed more against him. "I don't know," she replied. "It could have been a whole lot worse than getting stuck with you."