Steamboat Stories

An excerpt from Steamboat Stories (a chapter in my book):

“Single?”


I meet Steve in the lift line at Burgess Creek on a sunny January late morning. I don’t hear his question at first but a man with a hat and goggles is looking my direction with the body language of someone asking me something, I just can’t hear what he is saying with my helmet on.

“What?”

“Single?”

I laugh because, yes, indeed, I am single, but what he is really asking is if I want to ride the chairlift with him. There isn't a line of people; in fact, there are no other people around except for the lift attendant.

“Yes, wanna go up together?”

And we do.

The two things I notice about Steve right away: he has an amazing smile and he is not wearing a helmet.

We start typical chairlift talk.

Phase 1: We talk about how our day was going, what trails are good.

Phase 2: We ask each, "Where do you live?"

Phase 3: He lives in Steamboat - I ask how long he has lived here and what he does for work? We try to figure out if we might know each other through mutual friends.

Phase 4: We don't know any of the same people so when he asks my name my first instinct is to make up one. But he is cute and makes me laugh by quoting 80s movies, so I tell the truth.