Christeen Whyte walked into her friends room, it was as disorganized as it always was with clothes all over the floor, the bed unmade and shoes, books and make up covering every surface, Heather Thompson had been working in Australia the past year and had just come home a couple of days ago.

“Chris what have you done to yourself?”

Chris had lost a lot of weight since Heather left, she had come down two dress sizes.

“Lost weight” Chris replied stating the obvious.

“You look great, what size are you now?”

“About a twelve.  So how was it?” Chris asked as she sat on Heather’s bed.

“Great, I met a guy!”

“Oh yes?”

“He’s the eldest son of the owner of the last hotel I worked in.”

“Good looking?”

“Mark’s gorgeous, he has jet black hair, green green eyes and what a body.  He’s great and he’s coming over after Christmas.”

“You only have a month to pine for him then.” Chris teased.

“We’re just friends”

“Aha”

“He hasn’t even kissed me.”

“Yet”

It was the second Friday in January and at seven o’clock Chris walked into Heather’s room.

“How’s the new job?” Chris asked

“Good.”

Heather had on a pair of jeans and a sweater, Chris had on a black trousers suit and a body suit.

“Just home from work?” Heather asked

“Sort of, I worked late and didn’t really feel like getting changed.”

Mark Holland stood in the doorway, he was staying in Heather’s big sister’s old room.  He assumed that this wasn’t the friend they were going out with as Heather had said her friend Chris was fat. 

“Did you manage to get our tickets?”

“Yip”

Heather smiled “You don’t have to stand in the doorway Mark, you can come in.  Chris this is Mark, Mark this is Christeen but as you’ve already guessed everyone calls her Chris.”

Chris turned around.

“Hi” they both said.

“What time does the movie start?” Heather asked

“Eight Thirty”

“Chris got us our tickets during her lunch break so we didn’t have to stand in the queue” Heather explained to Mark. 

            While they were standing in the queue for popcorn, Mark looked at Chris, if Heather thought she was fat he’d hate to see what she called a fat person.  Chris was beautiful, average height, long light brown hair, blue grey eyes and a nicely shaped figure, he had a feeling she was different from the other girls he knew.  He still thought Heather was cute with her shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes but Chris was just something else.  Heather sat between them during the movie.  When the movie had finished Heather went to the ladies room, leaving Chris and Mark standing alone together.

Chris smiled “How long are you here for?”

“Three weeks” he answered “That’s not a British accent you’ve got.”

“No siree, I’m from Dallas Texas” she said her accent coming through strong.

“How long have you been here?”

“Six years.  I was fifteen when I moved here.”

“Are your parents American?”

“My Mom is my Dad’s Scottish”

“Did you live in Dallas the city?”

“No my Granddaddy had a two thousand acre ranch, we stayed there, its about a twenty minute drive into Dallas itself.  My older brother and his girlfriend own it now.”

“Any other brothers or sisters?”

“A younger brother, you?”

“Just a younger brother.”

Heather came back “What shall we do now, its still early.”

“We could go to the pub” Chris suggested.

“But your driving.”

“So I can have a soft drink, you know it doesn’t bother me.”

“Mark?” Heather asked

“Fine by me.” He answered.

It was kareoke night, Chris put Heather’s name down for it, so by the time Heather was called up she had had a few drinks and went up without hesitating and sung at the top of her lungs.

The following weekend Heather and Chris were in Heather’s room.

“I wanted to take Mark to Aviemore for a few days but I can’t now, I’ve just started my new job.”

“Go for the weekend.”

“We’d have to leave Friday night and come home Sunday afternoon, its not long enough.”

Chris was sitting on Heather’s bed flicking through a magazine.

“I’ve got it, you could go!” Heather said

“Go where?” Chris asked, absentmindedly

“You could take Mark to Aviemore for the week.”

Chris looked up “I can’t”

“Yes you can, when was the last time you had a holiday?  Two years ago and I know you Ski.”

“I don’t know.”

“Please Chris, do it for me please.  Mark did say he could go himself but I would prefer it if you went with him.”

“You mean you want me to go and make sure another woman doesn’t try and take him away from you.”

“I’ve told you we are just friends.”

“Aha.”

“Chris!” Heather yelped throwing a pillow at her.

“Okay.” Chris said laughing “I’ll go and I haven’t been Skiing in ages.”

            Mark had been out with Heather’s Dad and when he got back Heather told him the good news.

“Good news Mark.”

“What’s that?” he asked lifting the pile of clothes off one of the chair’s in Heather’s room and sat down.

“Chris said she’d go to Aviemore with you, since I can’t get any time off work.”

Mark looked at Chris, who was pretending to be reading an article in the magazine but was fully aware that Mark was looking at her.  He’d be spending an entire week with her, just the two of them.

“I’ve already phoned and booked you a room, you leave on Wednesday.” Heather said “And Chris is a pretty good skier.”

“How would you know?” Chris asked “We’ve never been Skiing together before.”

“Andy told me.”

Who was Andy?  Mark wondered, was he Chris’s boyfriend, he hoped not.  Chris stood up.

“I’d better be going.  I’ll pick you up about ten on Wednesday.” She said to Mark before leaving.  On the way home Chris had a funny feeling something was going to happen while they were at Aviemore.  She was attracted to Mark, but Heather did like him so much that made him out of bounds to her.  Why had she let Heather talk her into this?

AN: I decided to be nice and give you something else to read…..please note never been to the USA so if my geographic reference  sucks let me know and I’ll fix it!