Telluride

Last Cigarette

Faith POV
It's the last day of school for the year. I'm so excited for vacation and to get wedding planning underway. I'm doing my last paperwork for the year and my phone lights up. **TELLURIDE IN 3 DAYS** I smile as I look at the notification, I'm so excited to go to the snow. It's basically as hot as you get summer here so a break from the heat would be good. I finish the last of my paperwork and go to Tim's office. "Hey honey, want to go get lunch?" I ask him. He's got his head down working hard, he said he wants to get as much done today so that once the bell rings he won't have anything to worry about for the next while.
"Mmmmh, yes please." We walk to the staff room hand in hand down the hallway. "Oh baby, there are yearbooks for the staff in here." He says pointing to the corner. "I'll make coffee, see if you can find any photos of us." He says. I flick through the pages and point out the few pictures of Tim and I on the football pages, there's one of us kissing at the final which is really special since that would've been when I accepted his engagement.
"Those are cute." He says looking over my shoulder. I flick through to the superlatives page. Joey got most likely to succeed. I get to the next page and I see the picture of Tim and I at the New Orleans scout den with the words Most likely to live happily ever after: Mr and Mrs McGraw.
"Tim look, we're in the superlatives." I laugh showing him.
"Oh my, that's a bit preemptive." He laughs seeing the Mr and Mrs McGraw. I turn to face him.
"I think it's cute." I say and I give him a kiss. Jason bursts through the door.
"God, I'm glad it's last day." Tim and I just laugh at him. Tim puts our grilled cheeses on a plate and I grab our coffees.
"I might join you guys today." He says as we sit down where Karla, Russel and I always sit.
"Okay, be warned Russel is a gossip." We continue to chat as we eat, Im mostly enjoying looking through the yearbook.
"For someone who's only been here two months there are quite a few photos of you." Tim laughs "camera must loves what it sees." He says. I'm blushing like a fool. How is it that we're engaged to be married but his compliments still turn me into a tomato.
"O-M-G! It's most likely to live happily ever after! Will you sign my yearbook?!" Russel says using a high pitched voice.
"Hey Russel." We both chime.
"Y'all ready for the holidays?" He asks.
"Yeah, Tim and I are staying here. My parents and a few family members are coming over for Christmas. What about you and your wife?" I ask him.
"We're off to California tomorrow to see our grandkids. We're going to be there the whole holidays. Christmas with the in-laws aye?" He says raising his eyebrows at Tim. Tim laughs at him. Karla joins us a little later and we enjoy our last lunch together for the year.
"We'll have to have y'all over once you're in town again, Russel." Tim says to them a we wrap up. He so sweet. We head back to the offices.
"You're so cute." I say to him as I lay down on his couch.
"Are you serious right now? Even on the last day of school, you have nothing to do." He laughs. "And I mean you're right, but why am I cute?"
"Inviting my friends round to our house." I explain. I know that Russel can be a mission but I love him dearly. He carries on working as I lay on the couch. It's still warm here which is nice but in a few days were basically going to be thrown into the depths of winter. We're going to have to dig out all of our warm clothes and get packing this weekend. The bell rings and we both quickly grab our things from our offices and head to out.
"We're officially on vacation!" I squeal as we get in Tim's truck.
"Celebratory milkshake?" He asks.
"Always." We get to the diner and I tell Tim to order 1 because I can never finish a whole one and that way he can just pick a flavour. It's always chocolate. We share our milkshake and then head home.
"Baby we need to start packing, we leave in like 2 days!" I say to him as he lays on the couch.
"Can't we pack tomorrow?" He whines. He is such a child. I laugh and snuggle up next to him. "Faith, I love you and I want to get married whenever, but are you serious about waiting till October?" He asks.
"Yeah, I mean we can't get married before school starts, that's not enough time. And if we have to wait I want it to be on a date that means something." I explain to him. "Besides we've got the rest of our lives." I say. We're watching football or something I'm not actually paying attention, I'm starting to think wedding. I want us to have the ceremony at our church, then the reception here except the issue is how far away it is and transport. We could always do it at Tim's Aunts. She has a huge yard, and right out the back is this huge tree that I've seen pictures of Tim playing in as a kid. I think that would be real nice. And dogwood flowers. We have to have heaps of those, they're my favourites. Oh and Tim in a tux, goodness I can't wait.
"I'm hungry." Tim says getting up. "Chicken and dumplings?"
"Yes please." I say as I sit up by the counter watching him cook. We eat our dinner and go to bed early since tomorrow we're going to be packing and we want to be fully rejuvenated by the time we go to Telluride.

Tim POV
Sunday night.
We've packed our bags and they're in my truck ready for us to hit the road tomorrow morning. I've got some blankets and pillows packed as well since I'm thinking that Monday night we can just stop next to the road and sleep in the truck.
"Baby, we're going to the snow!" Faith squeals as I spoon in behind her. I just laugh at her.
"You're so cute." I say.
"God, I haven't seen the snow in so long." I can tell she's really excited.
"It's going to be a great trip baby." I say and kiss the back of her head.

BEEP BEEP BEEP. For the first time in a long time getting up on a Monday morning is exciting.
"Come on baby, let's go." I say to Faith. We quickly get dressed and get in the truck. This is going to be great. Once we cross the Louisiana state line I ask Faith to get my GPS out of the glove box.
"What is this?" She asks pulling a cigarette box out.
"Oh those." I say.
"Tim, as a nurse I can't believe this. These are sticks of cancer." She says seriously.
"Baby, they're not mine. I confiscated them off a student." I explain, leaving out the part of how I sometimes enjoy the remaining ones, especially when Christine was giving me grief.
"Oh." She opens the box and sees there's only one left. She picks it up and puts it between her lips. "I haven't had one of these since college." She sighs.
"Cancer sticks." I remind her. She just sits with it between her lips and looks out the window.
"What the hell." She says as she lights up my last cigarette. She's got her hair tied back with a blue bandana and god she's stolen my heart. We sing along to the car radio as we drive. It's starting to get late but we were hoping to get to at least Amarillo today. I'm thinking now that we're running behind schedule. 
"Come on honey," she says facing me, "let chase the sunset down." I take this as an invitation to put my foot down on the open road. There's a RV stop just outside Amarillo so we pull over and set up a bed in the back of the truck.
"Look at the stars." Faith says mesmerised as we lay down.
"Pretty special." I say laying close to her.
"Tim, this is romantic and all" she's about to hit me with a big but, "but," here we go, "I'm scared of camping." She says very sheepishly. I laugh. I know I probably shouldn't but it's funny. "Hey! Don't make fun of me" She says sitting up and hitting me lightly.
"Baby, I love you but are you serious." We're 5 minutes away from Amarillo, we're not exactly roughing it.
"I don't know okay. I just prefer sleeping in a house where I know I can keep things out." She says.
"Oh baby." I say using a voice like I'm talking to a newborn and hugging her close to me as we lay down. "I'll protect you."
"I know you will."

We get up early the next morning so that we can get a head start in the day. "Can I sing you something?" Faith asks me, kind of absentmindedly.
"Of course," I say as we continue to drive on.
"I wrote this so don't laugh. Okay?" She says. "I've been making plans for children
Since I've been looking in your eyes
I even have names picked out for them
Daughter'd be Rose
Son; it'd be Ryan
There's one thing I should be killing off and giving up now
And that's worrying about life
Oh, I'll be fine
If one gray hair shows, I'll be fine
If my waistline grows, I'll be fine
Even if time takes its toll." Lord what a beautiful sound. "It's not done or anything and I think it's probably more of duet." She says.
"I love it." I tell her. The more we ride on, move along, the colder it gets and very soon we're both pulling on jackets. The GPS says another half hour and we'll be there.
"Tim, can we go skiing today?" She asks.
"Yeah, that'd be cool."

We get to the lodge on the mountain that is booked for us and can I just say it is stunning. Wow. It got chandeliers and big fire places in every room. And god there are so many rooms. We could've brought the whole football team because there would've been enough room for us all.
"This place is amazing." Faith coos. It's so big and elaborate and grand but at the same time it's cozy and homely. The colours inside juxtapose the outside snow covered landscape like something out of a picture book. We put our bags in the room we've decided to make ours and we bundle up some more clothes and decide to tackle the skiing.

Faith POV
Tim isn't good at skiing. I mean I love the man but he has fallen over and disconnected from his skis so many times now. Hopefully he doesn't hurt himself. I on the other hand am doing alright. I haven't done this in so long but I'm flying down the slopes. "You're really good at this." Tim says as I ski towards him. "I suck, I think I've fallen over more than that little kid." He says pointing to a very young child carving up the snow. I just laugh at him.
"Come on, let's get some cocoa." We go inside to this large club house with a cafe and all these ski trophies lining the walls.
"I'll order, you find us a seat. Look by the big window." Tim says. I find us a little table right next to this huge window at the end of building. When you look out it's like you're right on the edge of the mountain looking down. I can see the little town of Telluride and people manoeuvring around the Main Street. It's truly picturesque. Tim sits down and looks out at the view. I study his face closely.
"Aren't we lucky, baby?" He says looking out.
"Yeah. We really are."