A Mendes Christmas // Shawn Mendes

part two

december 14th 

The mornings of Winter in New York were bliss. It was like waking up on your birthday every morning, because when you looked out the window the sight was beautiful.

I softly padded my feet over to the window, after covering them in thick fluffy socks, to save them from freezing. I stared out the window to see the snow was heavier than I had ever seen it in the city before, and the streets were empty from heavy snowfall. I looked over the buildings that were situated below mine, and they were just covered in white snow, that had fallen perfectly over night.

I wasn't typically used to snow, because as a kid we always had snow days. Growing up there was never really much snow in my neighborhood.

As I walked past, I switched the television onto the news and listened to the weather updates quickly, before getting dressed into my work uniform. I had a small shred of hope that they would call me and tell me not to come in due to the storm, but I knew that luck probably wasn't on my side today. I stripped down to my underwear and quickly put on my black uniform before stopping in front of the television.

The meteorologist said that the snow today was only going to get heavier, which meant that many flights would be grounded and unable to leave the city. Scenes showed many emotional people at the airport, stating how they feared they wouldn't be home for Christmas. I grabbed my coat and beanie, I knew I would need all the warmth I could get.

I turned the television off at the wall, and grabbed my hand bag before grabbing my keys and leaving the apartment. I locked the door carefully on my way out, ensuring that I had locked it. Not locking my apartment and going out for the whole day was honestly my biggest fear.

I made my way down the elevator, and got to the first floor where there was a set of small mailboxes. Placing one of the keys inside the lock, I unlocked it and opened mine – expecting mail to be coming in from my family, only there was nothing.

I passed a few people that lived in the same building as me as I walked through the small lobby where we all collected our mail. Our apartment building was different to other in New York, as we were basically renting out hotel rooms for as long as we needed too, therefore there was still a reception and a lobby, and guests were still taken care of. The building was treated as a hotel, as we always had people coming and going over busy periods.

I left the building, and walked down the path towards walk. The only thing I could feel was the cold wind hitting my face, as I wrapped my scarf around myself more times than the average person would consider to be normal.

Luckily, my work was only around a few corners, and I would be there within five minutes. I checked my watch. It was only seven forty five am. I still had fifteen minutes to be there.

**********

After my shift, I walked back to my apartment.

Upon walking into the front doors, I noticed more people than usual. Typically, there was an afternoon crowd that came in when it was heavily snowing just to warm themselves up, or to have a meal in the eatery we had near the lobby.

I unwound the scarf that had been choking me the whole way home, and took my gloves off, chucking them into my handbag.

"Chloe! Thank god you're back!" Lola called from the other side of the lobby. She rushed up to me with her handbag swinging from her body.

"What's going on? Why is there so many people here?" I croaked, my voice hoarse from the cold outside air.

"They grounded every flight up until the twentieth. Every hotel on the upper east side is booked out, so crowds of people are starting to come to our building," she said as we looked at the crowded reception, "but as you can see, they can't even take the capacity."