Hot Night, Cold Winter Storm

Characters

Nick - 23, main character

Evi - 20, housemate

Irene - 24, housemate

Brian - 18, new housemate

Fleur - 26, Housemate, dating Steve

Steve - 31, dating Fleur

- - -

It isn't that unusual for it to snow this early in the year. It is the 18th of December after all. But the winter is much colder than normal this year. Previous year around this time it did snow as well, but it was warm enough for the snow to melt as soon as it hit the ground. The kind of snow that left the roads all wet with a nasty mix of half molten snow, road salt, and all the other debris on the streets. This year is different.

It has been well below zero degrees for several weeks now. The people driving, cycling, or taking public transport have been getting used to this. weather. Today was the first time some real proper snow hit the Dutch city of Utrecht. The trees are getting covered in a light layer of glistening white snow. It would not be unimaginable that photographers were already busy taking pictures of the beautiful sights at the city canals. The traditional canal houses would look incredible.

Nick had gone for a walk around the city center early in the morning. By then the snow was already falling steadily and slowly covering everything. Some people just like Nick had gotten up early as well to enjoy the snow, but most people were likely still in bed. Being one of the first people to walk through the fresh snow was very satisfying, although it also gave Nick a bit of a guilty feeling to disturb the peaceful image. It was fun to walk outside in the snow, watching the different styles of christmas trees people had set up in their homes. The bridges over the canals had become a bit slippery, but the sights had totally made the early walk worth the effort.

Nick returned home at around eight o'clock in the morning. He lives at the edge of the old city center in a rental building for students. As a 23 year old student Nick was very happy with the house. It is an old building from the early 19th century. A traditional townhouse that once belonged to a jeweler. The store used to be on the ground floor, with the family living above it. Because it was a beautiful and well built building it was preserved over the years. The building had been rebuilt years ago to be purely residential. These days it was rented out to students.

The ground floor is shared, but on the second and third floor there are separate rooms. Nick rented the largest room on the second floor. This was his third year living there. On the second floor there are two more rooms and a small bathroom. Evi had moved in two years ago, and Brian had moved in after the summer holidays.

Their rooms had ceilings quite a bit higher than a regular house these days. This was nice, but in the winter it took a lot of fuel to properly heat the place. Living in a relatively fancy building close to the city center with large rooms was great, but the gas bill was a big downside. Thankfully his landlord was not the worst, so Nick still counted himself lucky.

The third floor had a lower ceiling because of the sloping roof, but the rooms were joined together. Fleur lived there. At 26 she was the oldest in the house. In the winter she was very happy having her place on the third floor, but in the summer it could get too hot there. At times when the summer was especially hot, she would sometimes just walk topless to and from the bathroom. The first time Nick was a bit shocked to see her large milky white breast. But Fleur would just smile and keep going. During the winter Nick sometimes missed seeing her walking around like that.

However, Nick wouldn't be there in the house for much longer. The 18th of December is the first day of the winter holidays that year. Because of a local holiday the winter holidays were extended a few more days. A lot of students would soon leave the city to go back to stay with their parents for christmas. Nick too would go visit his family on the outskirts of Amsterdam. He was planning to go there in a few days. First he would take a couple of days to build his energy back up after a long period of studying. The feeling of finally not having to do anything was liberating.

After walking in he quickly closed the front door. Between the five of them living there they had agreed to take off their dirty shoes in the hallway. None of them liked cleaning, and this just made it easier. Now that it was snowing it also meant they didn't drag moisture into the house. Instead of his shoes Nick put on a pair of thick woolen socks that his grandma had made for him.

Walking into the living room he noticed that none of his housemates were up yet. They were probably sleeping in. It was still dark outside after all. They would probably wake up with the sunrise. The coffee machine on the kitchen counter looked very appealing. Taking an early morning walk was worth it, but it drained his energy.

After having his morning coffee he quietly went upstairs. He did not want to wake his friends up unnecessarily on their first day off. But when he was halfway up the stairs the door of Evi's room opened and she walked out. She was wearing just a plain pair of bra and panties. She closed the bathroom door after her softly, clearly trying to not make a lot of noise. She had not noticed Nick walking up the stairs. Maybe she didn't even know he was awake yet.

When she walked out Nick had taken a quick glance at her butt. She hadn't seen him, and her butt was at an interesting angle from his perspective. Evi always looked amazing, and even better in just her underwear. At 20 years old she still had that slender teenager look with perky boobs and a tight ass. It wasn't like Nick had not seen her in her underwear before, but he still felt a bit embarrassed for staring at her ass. In their house they hadn't any rules for clothing standards. You could just wear whatever you were comfortable with. They had a sort of unspoken agreement to not stare at each other.

Nick tried not to let any dirty thoughts about her get into his mind and just walked into his own room. With a sigh he realized he should probably just tidy up his room. It wouldn't be great to come back from the Christmas break into a messy room. Nick started organizing his books. Slowly the world around him started waking up. After organizing his books he cleaned up his closet. From the sounds in the house Nick could make out that everybody was in a good mood. The old house was built well, but the sound insulation wasn't great. He could easily hear that Evi had finished her shower, and that Fleur was now happily singing in the shower. Nick was ironing his shirts when Irene knocked and came into his room.

"Good morning, have you seen my hair clips by any chance?"

"No? Why would I have your hair clips?" Nick said.

Irene looked like she had just woken up. Her hair was messy and she wore baggy clothes.

"I am not saying you have them, just that I can't find them. Maybe you just happen to have seen them."

"Do you want me to help look for them?" Nick asked.

"If you want to, yes please. I could help you iron your shirts in return if you want?"

"Haha, no thanks. I'll help you look, but I can manage my own shirts."

"Thank you. And to be fair, you are better at ironing than me anyway," Irene said.

Nick turned the appliance off and followed Irene into her room. They all knew cleaning up wasn't Irene's strong suit, her room was even messier than usual. Together they started looking around. But it didn't take long before Nick was practically beginning to clean up. Searching through the mess would take a while so he might as well help her out. She had helped him study a lot the last few weeks, so it felt to Nick like a good time to return the favor.

"Why do you need your hair clips now all of a sudden? I don't think I've seen you wearing them recently."

"Well I am going to travel to my parents in Germany in a few days, and I wanted to try something fancy with my hair," Irene explained.

She told Nick what she wanted to try and showed him some pictures. Irene had long blond hair that had a little bit of natural curls. Nick himself did not think too much of the pictures she had shown him, but he did not tell her that. Her natural hair was already astonishingly beautiful, and he actually liked when it was a bit roughed up. However, Nick also understood the desire to try something new and daring. Irene and Nick had a close bond, and he knew her well enough to know not to argue with her about her hair.

After pulling a whole lot of her clothes from the floor and throwing them on a pile they found the hair clips. Somehow they had ended up in the pocket of a sweatshirt.

"If you have any laundry you need washing you could give them to me. I think I am going to do the black laundry first," Irene said.

She separated her laundry in black, whites, reds, and the rest. Nick noticed himself staring at her while she was picking through her clothes before breaking off his gaze and heading back into his own room. He had some socks and boxers in his own laundry basket. He pulled those out and brought them back to Irene. They did not wash their clothes together often, but now it was probably easier. Irene, Evi, Brian and Nick were all going to go to their families for christmas, and everybody would want to use the washing machine. So it made sense for them to wash their clothes together.

After finishing up the laundry together they went downstairs. In the living room Evi and Fleur were talking and giggling. When they saw Irene and Nick walk in they stopped their conversation, as if they were hiding something.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout?" Irene asked.

"Just girl talk," Evi said with a cheeky smile.

"Oh it's alright, they can hear it too," Fleur said. "Steve is coming over today and he will be staying the night. He said he wanted to meet my parents during the Christmas break."

"Cool, so it is getting serious? At what time does he get here?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, I think it is becoming real now, meeting my parents and everything."

"Well finally, I thought he might have some commitment issues. Good to see he is making the next move. Good for you girl," Irene said.

"He is coming here in an hour, he wants to get here before the snowstorm. It seems to be getting worse than they had expected," Fleur said.

"Yeah, about that, maybe we should get some groceries before the storm hits. You never know, we may get snowed in. Does somebody want to go to the supermarket with me?" Evi asked.

"Sure, I'll come with you. I think I'll buy some wine for us as well. If there is going to be a snowstorm we should make it fun indoors right?" Irene responded.

Evi jumped up from the couch and went to the hallway to put on her winter boots. Nick and Fleur talked about Steve for a while. They had been dating for almost a year now. It was clear that Fleur was very happy that she managed to get a man that was willing to have a real long term relationship with her. She had dated other guys before, but somehow they always just wanted to keep it casual. Fleur did not mind keeping things casual at first, but now that she was 26 she had properly figured out what she wanted. She said she was ready for something serious now. After talking for a while she started daydreaming and sort of drifted away.

Nick let her enjoy herself in the living room and went back upstairs. He was happy for Fleur, but there was also a bit of jealousy. His last date had ended with a bad fight after four months of having a great time together. He did not like to think about it anymore, so he quickly tried to push those bad memories out of his mind. Instead he went to check in on Brian. He hadn't heard from him today yet. Brian was the youngest in the house at just 18. He was a really friendly guy, but also a bit of a geek who kept to himself sometimes when he wasn't feeling great.

It turned out Brian had just started playing a new game. He hadn't been able to play it much between studying and his work. So now that the holidays were finally here he had jumped in right away. Brian showed Nick that they could play it as a cooperative game. Together they played the game until the doorbell rang.

"That might be Steve, maybe we ought to go down and greet him. I hear we might see him around more often," Nick said.

"Steve...? Who is he again?" Brian asked.

"Fleur is dating Steve, you know the 31 year-old Danish guy? I think you've seen him before. Fleur said that he is willing to make it a serious relationship with her."

"Oh yes, I remember, the tall guy with that badass beard right? He seems cool, I wish I could grow a beard like that," Brian said.

When they got downstairs Fleur had already opened the door. It was just Evi and Irene returning with the groceries. Fleur's facial expressions turned from excitement to disappointment to worry. The weather outside was getting pretty tough. The wind was blowing so fast that the snow blew past horizontally. Evi and Irene looked eager to get back indoors. Their noses had turned red from the cold.

While they took off their thick winter coats Evi said, "This crazy girl suggested we should buy some ice to keep the wine cold!"

"Oh shut up, I did get some good wine though," Irene laughed.

It turned out Evi had bought a mountain of snacks, and Irene had pushed to buy some decent food as well. Most of the time they bought groceries for the house and just split the bills. It was easier that way since they shared the kitchen. After putting away the groceries Evi suggested they put on some candles and play a board game. Fleur was hesitant because Steve could arrive any minute. Evi tried to explain to her that he would probably be delayed in this kind of weather, so they could just play until he got here. Fleur gave in on the condition that they did not play Monopoly, she hates that game. Instead they decided on Settlers of Catan.

Fleur was winning for a long time before Brian pulled off a great comeback. The two of them were very close, but Fleur still won in the end. They hadn't played Catan with Brian before. Luckily he was gracious in defeat and turned out to be a good player. Playing Catan had kept her mind of the fact that Steve still wasn't here. The others had exchanged some looks but decided not to tell Fleur. But now that they had finished the game she would wonder about that anyway.

"Fleur, have you heard anything from Steve? It's been a while now," Irene asked.

"Oh shit, he is still out there," Fleur realized.

She pulled up her phone and checked if she had missed any calls or messages.

"Last text I have from him is from an hour ago, saying that the traffic is very slow on the roads."

Nick opened the curtains. The world outside looked almost apocalyptic. The snow clouds had blocked out most of the sunlight. It was definitely a lot worse than what was shown in the weather forecast.

"Christ, I didn't know it would get this bad," Brian said.

"And it seems like it won't get any better until early in the morning either. We might actually get snowed in for real," Irene said, looking at the weather app on her phone.

"Guys this isn't helping!" Fleur said.

Tears were forming in her eyes. Her lower lip was trembling, she really was worried for Steve. The euphoria of just having won at Catan had quickly faded away. Evi threw an arm around her and tried to calm her down.

"He is driving through this storm for me, what if something happens to him?" Fleur said, trying not to start crying.

"He will be alright. I think you should call him. Even if he can't pick up the phone right away he will have seen you called, and he will call you back as soon as he can," Irene suggested.

Brian did not really know what to say, so he went to the kitchen to make tea. Nick agreed that it would be best to call Steve. But the phone went to voicemail. That made Fleur look outside through the window and start to cry softly. She did not even look up when Brian handed her a cup of tea and kept staring at her phone, hoping Steve would call her back.

But he didn't.

At least not for now.

"Maybe he is still driving, and just can't pick up the phone now," Evi said.

Fleur did not seem to listen and kept staring at her phone. Nick noticed she had already changed her phone's background to a picture of Steve. That probably did not help her now.

Fleur wiped away her tears and started to phone him again. But she had not yet started the call before the doorbell rang. Everybody looked up and sort of froze in their place. But Fleur jumped up and raced through the front door.

Fleur threw the door open, saw his face, his beard covered in icicles, and threw herself out into the snow, into his arms. Steve staggered back, holding Fleur tight to his body. They stood there out on the street, hugging in the snow until Evi walked out and pulled them back indoors. When the front door was closed behind them they finally stopped hugging.

"What took you so long? Why didn't you call me?"

"This snow, it is really crazy out there. I wanted to drive here as fast as I could," Steve said. "I am so glad I still came to see you. The snow can't stop me from being with you. But man, driving through that was hard."

"But why did you not call?" Fleur asked.

"I wanted to..." Steve said.

He held up his hands that were encased on thick gloves.

"I saw your call when I was parking the car, and I was going to call you back, but I could not get my phone to work, my fingers were so cold that the touchscreen barely worked. So I just decided to run here instead."

Fleur said nothing back, she just looked at him for a while before jumping into his arms again.

When they finally had gotten Steve out of his winter coat and sat him down on the couch they fired a lot of questions at him. How bad was the situation on the road, what car does he drive, what were his plans for Christmas.

Steve was a bit overwhelmed, but answered all of their questions after being handed a cup of hot chocolate. He told them that Fleur had mentioned she would stay in Utrecht during Christmas. This year she invited her parents to come over instead of going back to their place. Steve explained how he saw this as a good opportunity to meet her parents. But he could only half explain the story before Fleur interrupted him.

"You can interrogate him later, right now he is all mine."

Fleur grabbed his arm and pulled him up from the couch. He managed to hold on to his cup of hot chocolate while she led him upstairs. He did not protest and let Fleur guide him.

"She is so happy with him," Evi said dreamily after the two of them had disappeared upstairs. "I wish I had a boyfriend like that."

"Isn't he a bit old for you?" Brian asked.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Daddy issues," said Irene with a smile.

"Shut up! Anyway, I think we shouldn't disturb them for a while," Evi said.

"How about we play another round of Catan? This round every time somebody rolls a 7 they have to drink," Nick suggested.

Irene said she wouldn't play, instead she asked Evi to help her with her hair. She showed Evi what she wanted to try and they soon went to Irene's room to try it out. That left Brian and Nick downstairs. They put Catan back into the box and looked at the weather forecast again. It was getting pretty bad now.

"Is there something we should do?" Brian asked.

"Not really. I think we just have to stay inside and hope for the best. Tomorrow morning we can start shoveling snow," Nick said.

Brian suggested they continued with his new computer game. They turned the lights down in the living room and went upstairs as well. They completed the first mission within half an hour. But the next level was a lot more challenging. They nearly got it when they got distracted and failed the mission again.