“No,” she said, cringing. “Because I know how you feel about fangirls! Tell the truth. You don’t love us. We’re not snowflakes to you. We’re leeches.”
He slumped forward and scrubbed his hands across his face. For a long moment, Tessa thought he wouldn’t bother to reply. But he gathered himself again. With a sigh, he turned back toward her. “OK,” he said in a flat voice. “I get it.”
“You do?”
“Yep. Loud and clear.” He nodded firmly. “You’re a fangirl. You’re embarrassed. Now get over it.”
“I can’t just—”
“Here,” he interrupted. “Give me your phone.”
“What? Why?”
He held out his hand. “Just do it. Trust me. Just this once.”
Tessa wasn’t even sure she’d brought it out here, but she dug into the pocket of her robe, and her fingers closed over the phone’s familiar form. She handed it to him without meeting his eyes. In her mind, all she could think of was the picture on her lock screen—the first visual he’d see, the moment he flicked it on. She’d changed it the other night to the new single cover for “Snowflake”: Eric Thorn, riding a snowmobile, naked to the waist.
“Please, don’t look at the camera roll,” she whispered.
“Nah, I’m familiar with what I look like.”
Tessa didn’t watch him, but she could sense his smirk. She waited for him to make some snide remark. Instead, she felt him thrust something back into her hands. She looked down to see her red leather cell phone case, now empty. “What’s this?” she asked with a frown.
He didn’t answer. He merely cracked his car door open and chucked her phone into the darkness, as far as he could throw.
Tessa’s eyes flew open wide. “My phone! What did you just do?”
“There.” He wiped his hands back and forth to say good riddance. “All gone. No more pictures.”
“But that’s my phone!”
“I’ll buy you a new one.”
She looked at him in silence, too stunned to speak.
“Tessa,” he said, his face dead serious. “It’s really not that complicated. If being my fangirl embarrasses you, then stop being my fangirl. Be something else instead.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Like, you could be my girlfriend, for example.”
He took her hand again.
“Tessa, I love you. Do you understand that? I’m in love with you. I’m freezing my ass off in your driveway for you. I’m sitting here singing a whole sugary-sweet love song that I wrote for you. Just for you. Not for anyone else. The song isn’t called ‘Snowflakes,’ plural. It’s ‘Snowflake.’ Just one snowflake. How many more ways do you need me to say it?”
She ducked her head.
He squeezed her hand. “Look at me.”
“I can’t,” she said. She could feel her heart thumping. Her throat was starting to constrict. She knew she should do her breathing exercises, but the Eric five count wouldn’t have its usual effect.
She didn’t want to have a panic attack, sitting here in front of him—or worse, that terrifying blankness that had happened earlier with Blair. That nothingness when her mind switched off, like a cell phone running out of batteries. Tessa didn’t know where she went exactly when that feeling overtook her, but the mere idea of it made her break out in a sweat. She dug her nails into her palm, focusing on the sensation to keep herself anchored in the here and now. “I’m such a mess,” she said. “You don’t even know the half of it.”
“Yes, I do.” His voice was strong, unflinching. “Tessa, look at me. I know you. I know your weaknesses, and you know mine.” He edged closer as he spoke. “And I also know how special you are. That’s what I remember from the first conversation we ever had. I didn’t know you yet, but I could tell that you were special. And the more you let me see you, the more I couldn’t get enough. Because what I saw inside you has got to be”—his voice cracked, but he plowed on—“has got to be the bravest, strongest, most beautiful person I’ve ever known.”
Tessa covered her face with her hands. Her throat felt thick, but not from panic. She recognized the ache that came from trying to hold back tears. “Stop,” she begged. “Please stop!”
“Why? You’re embarrassed?”
“No.”
“What, then?”
She whispered the answer, barely louder than a breath. “I’m scared.”
Eric’s face relaxed. He took her hand and cradled it gently as he began to sing again.
Just one snowflake.
She thought that no one cared.
Perfect snowflake,
I’ll catch you. Don’t be scared.
Tessa knew she shouldn’t look at him, but she couldn’t help it. She needed to see. She gazed helplessly at those ice-blue eyes, that chiseled jawline, those perfect lips… She knew his face better than her own, and yet he wore an expression she didn’t recognize. His cheeks had turned a shade darker. His eyes were hooded but soft. She’d never seen him look that way before. Not once, in all the screenshots she’d collected.
She realized what it meant: the answer to all the questions she didn’t dare to ask. Eric Thorn had never turned that look upon a camera lens. His fans had never seen his face in love.
He reached out one finger and touched the corner of her mouth. Tessa didn’t realize she had a tear running down her cheek until he made contact with the damp spot. He leaned toward her then and kissed her, softly, his lips just barely grazing hers.
Tessa gasped at the sensation. His fingers were freezing, but his lips melted a path straight through her icy core. She felt a crack in the numb exterior—a fissure that slowly spread until she crumbled.
They broke apart, and she looked up. His face was inches from hers, their frosty breath comingling. “You’ll freeze to death out here,” she whispered.
His arm went tight around her waist as his lips sought hers again. “Maybe,” he whispered back. “But I’ll die happy.”
Tessa could see him shivering badly though. She pulled away from him again and popped the passenger side door open.
“Where are you going?” she heard his voice call after her.
She turned and looked back over her shoulder with a ghost of a smile on her lips. “Come on,” she said, nodding toward the house. “It’s OK now. You can come inside.”
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
OFFICIAL MEMORANDUM
DATE: 1-03-2017
FROM: Special Agent Donald J. Peterson, FBI TO: Charles D. Foster, Lieutenant, Midland Municipal Police Department The Federal Bureau of Investigation asserts investigative authority in the matter of Case ID # 79-SA-1337, pursuant to Title 28, U.S. Code, Section 540A0. We hereby confirm receipt of a total of eleven (11) excerpted fragments from the interrogations conducted by the Midland Municipal Police Department on the night of December 31, 2016. Full data records of the online Twitter history for accounts @EricThornSucks and @TessaHeartsEric have also been obtained at your suggestion. Forensic crime scene analysis is currently underway, and results will be made available to your department forthwith.
Please find enclosed a transcript of our recent conversation conducted in the FBI San Antonio Field Office. Thank you for your department’s full and speedy cooperation in this ongoing investigation.
Case ID #: 79-SA-1337