Begin Again

PART 1

Vancouver in the winter time was something off of a post card.

Tiny white specs began to fall to the earth from the pink sky, adding to the thick blanket of snow stretched from the ground to the mountainous regions in the distance. I fidgeted with the zipper on my purse as I knocked tentatively on the door in front of me. A fresh gust of wind traveled to my rosy cheeks and I begin to shake, although it could've been from the nerves.

Four years. It's been four years since I've talked to Alexander, yet here I stood in front of his family's front door on Christmas Eve.

I promise this wasn't intentional. I had been in Vancouver the last couple of weeks promoting a new film. I was supposed to catch a flight back to LA last night but because of a huge snow storm, all flights were canceled until further notice. That's when I got in touch with Nat.

Despite Alex and I's falling off, I still kept in touch with his sister Natalie. I had first met her, along with the rest of the Ludwig's, when she flew out to visit her brother on the Hunger Games set. I got on pretty well with Nick and Sophie, but it was Natalie I kept in touch with, mainly because of our shared interest in modeling (and our mutual addiction for shopping).

I had already been texting back and forth with her about her latest shoot when I received the bad news. After I told her about my flight being delayed, she insisted I come over. The last thing I wanted to do was intrude on my ex co-worker's holiday. What if he didn't want to see me? What if he had a new girlfriend? Just the thought made my stomach churn. I tried to reassure her that I was fine, even though I dreaded spending Christmas alone in a hotel. You're coming. That's a demand. Mom's already clearing the guest room, she finally texted.

I was pulled from my thoughts when the door creaked open. "Isabelle! What a surprise!" Mr. Ludwig greeted me, smashing me into his knitted Christmas sweater. One thing about this family; they were the biggest group of huggers I've ever met. I swear, they put the Tanners to shame. "It's good to see you! You must be freezing! Is it just yo-" "Sweet Lord Harold, at least let the girl get out of the freezing cold before you start yapping away!" Sharlene appeared behind him, looking just as gorgeous as ever. Another fun fact; I'm fairly certain these people carried the genes of a God. They were all the closest thing to flawless I've ever seen.

"Come on in honey." She beamed. I smiled at her in appreciation and walked through the door.

"They're all in the living room watching a movie," Sharlene said, and Harold took my coat and bags from my hands, bringing them up to the guest room. "Thank you so much for having me. I'm sorry to intrude like this on such short notice.." "Don't you dare apologize! You know my door's always open." Sharlene countered. God, she was so sweet.

Something about her always reminded me of my mom. They were two of the cheeriest people I know of; you'd hardly ever see them without a smile on their faces. Back on set when we had our families fly out to visit, they got on pretty well, initially from their shared interest in baking. Each day of their visit, they'd bring platters of food to set, and certain costars-Jack and Dayo-would stuff their faces until they physically couldn't eat any more. It got to the point where Gary had to step in and tell them to stop feeding us before he had a whole bunch of tributes puking at the cornucopia.

I opened my mouth to speak, and then Natalie appeared in front of me. She hastily walked over to me and embraced me in a tight hug to which I reciprocated.

"Isabelle! How are you?"she chirped. "I'm good! How are you?" We unlocked from our embrace and she beamed at me. "Amazing! We were just about to start Elf. We've got cookies and hot chocolate so I hope you're hungry!"