Christmas Kisses

Christmas Kisses: Part 1

The blistering December winds buffeted Samantha as she scanned the relatively empty park. Justin had agreed to meet her at the park at two, but she couldn't find him amidst the white snowfall. She shivered in the cold, burrowing into her plaid scarf. She glanced around and shifted on her feet, hoping he would hurry up.

All of the sudden, something hit her in the back, striking her squarely between her shoulder blades. Something wet and cold. Whirling around at the speed of light, she searched for the source of the snowball. Her eyes landed on a familiar figure, leaning against a wall, his hands in his coat pockets, trying to contain his laughter.

Samantha's dark eyes narrowed as she scooped up a large handful of snow. Taking advantage of Justin's current state of distracted mockery, she aimed and threw.

That shut him up pretty quickly.

~~~~~

Ten minutes later, the two found themselves inside the Starbucks, sopping wet with snow in their hair. Justin sighed, brushing a few ice crystals off his jacket. "I cannot BELIEVE you threw a snowball at my face."

"It's called karma," Samantha smiled placidly, turning around to order a hot chocolate at the counter.

"Aww," the barista commented as she rang up Samantha's order. "Y'all are cute together."

Samantha and Justin froze, then immediately stared intently at their shoes. (To be fair, Justin did have some nice Converse.)

Samantha recovered first, "Oh, uh, no, we aren't- we're not-" she stammered, blushing furiously.

"I-it's not like that," Justin started a few seconds later, painted the same shade of red as Samantha.

"Oh." The barista paused, then winked mischievously at Justin. "Hurry up and snatch her, won't you? A girl like her won't last long." The girl behind the counter began scribbling something down.

Samantha laughed strainedly and shuffled away to pick up her drink. As her eyes flicked downward toward her receipt, she noticed a handwritten note on the back.

"If you're into girls...713-420-6966 -Violet." Violet had added a little winky emoji at the end. Samantha peeked a look back at Violet, who was still staring blatantly in her direction. Blushing furiously, Samantha glanced back down, but not before she saw Violet gesticulate the "call me" motion.

Samantha headed over to a booth and Justin plopped down in the seat, a reddish tinge still plastered on his face. Then he stated as smoothly as possible, "Heh, the weather's nice today..." However, his attempts were futile, and Samantha could barely keep from laughing.

Trying to keep the conversation away from the scene that just happened, she replied, "Yeah... Very, uh, cold?" She coughed.

"Yeah..." Justin sighed, albeit awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. Oh god, why didn't Alina come? She was supposed to be here today. That barista could've flirted with her since she's into girls anyway and left Samantha for me...

An awkward silence ensued for around a minute until Samantha tried to chug her drink. "OW!" Samantha shrieked, fanning her mouth. "God dammit," she said, her tongue blistering.

Justin tried to look sympathetic at first, but then he started to snigger, and then burst into straight-up laughter."Why did you think that that was a good idea?" he choked out.

Samantha, glaring at Justin, "It's not funny! Everyone makes mistakes...sometimes." She grumbled for a minute or two, but she began to laugh as well.

The awkwardness between them was shattered, and their conversation carried on. As they were leaving, Justin noticed a sheet of paper fluttered out of Samantha's grasp as she attempted to shove it in her pocket. He opened his mouth to call out her name, but his words seemed to stick like molasses in his throat. His eyes were transfixed on the scribbled message on the back of the receipt.