“I am looking up flights back to New Hampshire.”

“Stacy…” She seems so defeated.

“You deserve to have the winter wonderland you always dreamed of. When it snows, Hanover is exactly that. I just feel so terrible that I took you away from what would have already been perfect.”

“It is the thought that counts Stacy. I truly love festivals, and while it’s not snowy, this is a small town, so it totally would fit all of the Christmas cliches that I love.”

“And you deserve that cliche! We’ll cancel the hotel, move our return flight forward, and use the hotel money to rent a cottage right outside of Hanover. There will for sure be snow and a festival there. How does that sound? I will get you your cliche.”

I couldn’t help but sniffle, even though I hate crying in front of people. “Thanks, Stacy, I’d actually really like that.”

She smiled and looked down at her phone, becoming pale.

“Stacy, what’s wrong?”

“Uh, I actually can’t get you back to New Hampshire just yet?”

“What, why?”

“There’s… a major snow storm that has shut down all airports in the state.”

All I can do is sigh. Of course I wouldn’t be able to go back because of the first snow of the season that I am missing out on.

“How long does it seem like it’ll last?”

“That’s the thing.”

“What?”

“Usually blizzards last less than a day, but this one looks like it’ll take at least two. They don’t know when the airports will open again.”

“So, what are we going to do?” I feel like I’ve become numb.

“I guess we can just go back to the hotel? Maybe get a couple of drinks? We can hang out and enjoy the amenities before going home.”

I nod and get back in the car. ‘It’s not that bad,’ I repeat to myself in a montra. ‘It’s not that bad.’ ‘It’s not that bad.’

“What was that?” I jolt in my seat.

“The tire.” I have seen Stacy pale entirely too many times this trip.

“Okay, pullover. Yep, just right here. You got it!” I help direct Stacy to a safe piece of road to park on. “Let’s just call the rental agency and see how they want to go about this.” Bless my analytical brain at times like this. “It’ll be okay.”

Luckily, the tire incident didn’t happen too far from the general store we had just stopped at. Instead of waiting in the car, we walked the short distance back to the store, where we could get something to eat and hopefully get some wifi.

“Back so soon?”

“Yeah, a little bit of a tire issue. Do you have wifi here that we could access?” Please say yes, please say yes.

“Actually, we do.”

It’s the little things that get me through.

I connect to the wifi, and so does Stacy, who gets to work finding the insurance information for the rental. I decided to spend my time looking up things to do in Scottsdale for the next couple of days. 

Apparently, there are quite a few holiday related activities in Scottsdale. It may not be the cliche holiday movie in a small snowy town that I asked for, but at least there’s ice skating, a myriad of different light events, and of course, hot chocolate. This vacation can be salvaged before the real one where I get stuck in a snowy cottage begins. 

A jingle at the front of the store draws my attention away from my phone. A man in a nice button down shirt entered the store and went immediately to the clerk. “You know, there’s a car parked out front, right?”

The clerk nods in our direction and the new man blushes slightly, after giving us a small wave hello. He turns back to the clerk and I look back at my phone, wishing that there was actually a winter festival and that I could have had a meet-cute with the man.

After making a mental checklist of things to do in Scottsdale, I turn my attention towards daydreaming. I dream of a cute desert Christmas story, similar to the one that Stacy promised in her new book. 

“Girl? You good?” I must have been pretty out of it, because Stacy was shaking my shoulder. When my eyes finally focus, she says: “I called your name like four times.”

“Sorry, yeah, I’m good. Just off in my own little world.”

“Well, I have bad news, good news, and bad news.” I wave my hand to tell her to go on. “Bad news number one, the car, for some reason, did not have a spare tire, or else we could have changed it ourselves to get it to a dealer. Good news, the rental agency will deal with all of that and will bring us over another car.”

“Oh, that is good news!”

“Except… they can’t bring us a new car for like five hours.”

“Of course they can’t. What are we going to do for five hours? Sit on our phones?”

“Cassy, I am so sorry. This is all my fault. I ruined your vacation.” She had tears running down her face.

“Hey, don’t say that. I have plenty of cool stuff planned for us when we get to Scottsdale. Starting with an especially strong drink,” I laugh. I really don’t want to see Stacy cry, because I know that I’ll start crying.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear your predicament.” It was the button down shirt guy. “Maybe I could help?”