Snowpocalypse

Elle was locking up for the night she was the last one to leave she had just set the alarm when the rain came she hurried down the street in the dark of 3am, which in the city was not that dark. As she entered her apartment she turned on the weather, it was noise. The man was talking about the storm lasting three days and becoming a wintry mix as the temperature continued to plummet. She picked up her cell phone and sent a text to her morning manager telling him not to come in due to the weather. Texans did not drive in this stuff well. Then she lay down to sleep the pitter of hail on the window and the weatherman her company.

The next morning Jason woke up to a white world. He looked out the window and was blinded by the light reflecting off the ice. Great now the whole building would be home for the day. He didn't mind the snow, he wouldn't be out in it but the calls from 3b would drive any sane man to drink and get mad at his phone. He had to say he had always wished 3a would call more but she seemed like an independent woman, not the needy aggressive type of her neighbor. He remembered her name was Elle.

Elle woke to the white world and a silent apartment. She wandered into the living room to turn on the TV but it didn't turn on. She walked over to the ancient radiator and felt it, still warm. Yay for heat, but then she looked around her apartment and noticed none of the lights she left on where on. Great no power. She looked outside then and was nearly blinded by the light but she still looked and she saw that the signs were all off and and the streetlights were out, like out, not even blinking.

She sighed, no coffee. She began to wander toward the bathroom when she heard footsteps coming up the rarely used stairs to her neighbor, she ran to the door to take a peak at the manager of their building, Jason was his name. She saw a thermos in his hand and suddenly had an idea. She cracked the door and waved as he glanced over, "Uhm, when you get done could you maybe spare a cup of coffee?"

He grinned, held up his thermos and started toward her just as 3b opened her door.

"Oh good you're here." She said in her nasally voice as she practically sank her sculpted claws into his bicep. She drug him into her apartment complaining it wasn't warm enough and quickly slammed the door. Elle shrugged and closed her own door.

Jason got away from 3b in under an hour, he then immediately went to 3a. And knocked.

Elle figured he had forgotten so she had gotten ready to go outside and trudge down to check on the faucets in the restaurant. When someone knocked on her door.

She was buttoning her jacket when she opened the door. Jason stood there with his thermos in his hand.

"You wanted or perhaps needed a cup of coffee?" He said with a grin.

She returned his grin and said "yes please." She then started unbuttoning her jacket.

"Uhh you wouldn't have made it far in that," Jason began, "it's 7 degrees Fahrenheit out there, with a minus 5 windchill"

She looked up and said, you have power?"

He looked bashful as he grinned, "I have a crank radio."

She looked puzzled by that and said "can I see?"

His grin got bigger and he got up grabbed her hand and the two of them raced past 3b like they were kids stealing cookies.

They got to his apartment and he let her in with his key and then he went in the direction of the bedroom and she wandered over to his music collection. He had a wall of LPS, albums, vinyl records. He even had a couple of albums on the wall behind glass. One was purple, she wandered over to it as she heard a whirring noise followed by the weather report. She looked up and smiled and then when the man reported the temperature she sighed and then said "hey, it is not 5 with a minus 7 windchill."

He raised his hands in defense and said, "you're right, you're right. I made that part up. " then he grinned a devilish grin and finished, "but I finally got to show you that I am good for something, besides eye candy"

He said the last phrase under his breath and then had the pleasure of seeing her blush.

They sat and listened to his radio taking turns cranking it and they got to know each other. All day they talked. He told her how he ended up as a 'Maintenence engineer' and she told him how she ended up as a restaurant owner. They watched as people tried to walk on the slick roads. They even went down and skated across them themselves to check on the pipes at the restaurant. She had gas for cooking, having been trained in France she had had it installed. So she cooked for him. As they ate they talked some more the radio long forgotten as the only means of entertainment. She didn't realize they had so much in common. He went to school for geology and then into general contracting. She went to school for geological engineering and became a chef a few years in.

As night fell over the city the lights and power had not been restored but he had taken her up on the roof where he would have a garden in the spring but for now he had some outdoor furniture that he brought out of hiding and a firepit. While the world lay in darkness and cold around them, in a city that was never dark, these two were warm in each other's arms before a fire.