"One fifty one rum, pineapple juice and Malibu, caribou get them all numb," I sang, my sunglasses half way down my nose and the bottle of tequila clutched between my gloved fist. "Make baby girl cum, out of her shell—"

Jade sighed as I shimmied my tits at him.

—"and raise hell, don't stop til the cops come."

He paused the song. "We're going to be passing a toilet soon," he said, his hood sat bunched on his neck and his elbow leaned on the lip of the door. "You need to go?"

"Yes sir."

Jade took his eyes off the road and let them trail over me for a long moment. The blare of the music became white noise until he suddenly snapped his attention forward again.

I realised my lips had been parted and I no doubt looked dumbfounded. I smacked them together, feeling parched and pulling my feet up under my bum. "Do you have to look at me like that?"

My voice was slurring, that was obvious to even me.

"Look at you like what?"

"Like you're thinking about me naked."

His mouth turned up in amusement. "You can't tell when I'm thinking about you naked, I promise."

"Ugh," I stuck my tongue out pretending to gag, meanwhile I also capped the lid of the tequila because the fact that I kind of liked what he said meant I'd had too much to drink.

I pressed play on the stereo and turned the volume up. "Half a bottle of 151 off in a jug, one cup of Malibu Rum, baby that's wassup. Then you, fill the rest of the jug with pineapple juice and it's cracking the only defect is waking up, like what happened. I like red light parties and fed right bodies—"

"You remember when your mom and dad thought you were in a gang because you knew all the words to this song?" Jade was lightly laughing at one of the more outrageous accusations that'd been thrown at me in my youth.

I laughed and lowered the volume a little. "That was at my seventeenth."

"When your secret playlist was blasting over the loud speakers at two am."

"I was feeling rebellious after I found out my present was a summer internship at that fucking fashion magazine my mom was obsessed with."

Jade looked at me for a moment, his smile sort of hot, as much as I didn't want to admit that.

"It was like they didn't even know me," I slid the sunglasses off and dropped them into the center console, followed by my gloves.

"You didn't end up going, right? Ivan said you got into some shit over it."

I faced the window, hiding a small smile at the fact that he remembered all of these details that would've been completely inconsequential to him. I was too drunk to be having these little blasts from the past. It made me nostalgic and mushy, even though half of those memories were accompanied by the pain of narcissistic parents.

"I didn't go," I said, leaning back in the seat and pushing my hands into my hair, combing it through. "First time I put my foot down and that was the start of the blatant disappointment. I mean, I think they'd always been disappointed in me but that was when they started telling me I was letting them down. It's weird. They're weird. I have a job that means I get to help people. Like, people that need it. It's meaningful. It gives me purpose. And they couldn't care less."

"Why are you going home for Christmas again?"

I dropped my hands from my hair and shrugged them in question. "I don't even know at this point. Because mom apologised for the fact that I missed the last two Christmas'. In her own way. She said 'you shouldn't have missed being with your family over Howie, please come home'. And I guess that was good enough for me. I'm either craving their approval or I'm missing Whistler Village. Probably the latter."

"It's not weird to crave your parents validation," Jade murmured and I tipped my head to look over at him.

"Your mom and dad are proud of you," I said, but it came out more like a question. I didn't know much about Stella and Timothy.

Just that they spent most of their Christmas's at five star resorts in warm locations. Which, I could see the appeal in, I just wasn't sure I'd ever want to part with a white Christmas.

The snow covered mountain peeks, the village covered in lights and baubles and snowmen and candy canes. It was the one time of the year I felt childhood magic again.

For the last two Christmas' that I didn't go to Whistler Village, I spent it in Montreal with some girlfriends. Which was just as enchanting. Perhaps better considering mom and dad weren't there.

"They haven't been proud of me since I threw away the chance at being an NHL star," he said, the window behind him was a picture of rushing green trees and white snow, blurred as if the paint on a canvas had been smudged. I focused my attention past his head so I wouldn't get distracted by how beautiful his side profile was.

It didn't surprise me to hear they weren't proud of his violent outburst abruptly ending his career before it began. But I still felt a pang of sadness for him.

I wanted to ask him what he'd done since then to make them proud. From what I knew, Jade spent a lot of time visiting different countries. Picking up odd jobs for his dad here and there and visiting Ivan when he came to Calgary.

"What... what do you do for work at the moment?"

He coasted his finger tips along his lips in thought. Seconds stretched on and then he looked over. "Something that'd make you proud, I think."

"Really? What is it?"

"Na, I like it better when you're mean to me," he grinned and flicked the blinker on, steering us off the highway.

The sudden change in course startled me and I peered out of the windshield at the large gas station on the side of the road. Trucks were parked along one side, cars and vans were at the pumps. It was a self serve with a small convenience store attached.

I'd find out what his job was soon. We were going to be stuck in a car together for the rest of the day. I'd pester the truth out of him.

Jade parked in one of the spaces beside the store and killed the engine. As soon as I stepped outside, I remembered how drunk I was. Sitting down had been deceiving and I kept a hand on the car as I circled it and headed toward the public toilet at the edge of the building.

Before I could reach for the handle, Jade stepped in front of me and opened the door, walking ahead. There were four stalls and it smelt like stale piss and cigarettes. The lighting was dim bulbs and tiny windows at the top of the brick walls. The concrete floor was covered in damp patches of who knows what. I didn't want to find out.

"Oh man," I held my nose and watched Jade as he walked down the length of the stalls, sticking his head in each one. "What are you doing?"

He checked the last stall and faced me, seeming so much taller in a confined space where it was just the two of us. He slid his hands into his pockets and gestured at the stalls. "Checking there was no one in here waiting to shiv you. Go to the toilet."

"Go outside."

His small smile made his gaze a little less intense. "You don't want me to hear you pee?"

"Ugh," I walked over to him and grabbed his arm, dragging him toward the door, which he could've resisted, but he followed along and let me shove him outside. "You can stand guard out there."

I did my best not to touch a single thing with any part of my body while I peed. Which was difficult considering my head was spinning and my balance was shot to hell. As soon as I was done, I launched myself out of the door and shuddered, finding Jade leaning against the wall with his hood covering his toque.

"You want some snacks or something?" He tipped his head at the store.

"I could definitely go for something sweet right now." The sudden urge to let some chocolate melt on my tongue spurred me on and I practically skipped to the store. I wasted no time scanning the aisles, plucking bags of sweets off the shelves while I was vaguely aware of Jade trailing behind me.

When my hands were full, I went to the counter, smiling at the girl working the til and dropped my stash in front of her. Jade leaned a palm on the surface and watched me with amusement.

"Ooh, wait here, I want one more thing."

I ran off and heard his low laughter. At the back of the store, I went for the fridges and tapped my chin as I searched for a drink with electrolytes in it. I knew I'd be needing them in a few hours. If not sooner.

When I had a few gatorades in my arms, I shut the fridge door and almost collided with another person. A man. A man with a buzz cut and a big black winter coat on. He stepped back before I could knock the six pack out of his hands and gave me a sweet smile.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to get in the way."

"Oh, you're. . . fine," I said, letting my gaze shamelessly trail his figure. Yep, I was too drunk.

He ducked his head with a coy blush on his cheeks and I admired him.

Okay, so he wasn't as tall as. . . some other dudes. And he didn't have a sexy smattering of stubble that I loved on a man. And he didn't have the sort of green eyes that reminded me of a lily pad floating on a still pond. And he didn't have this effortless comfort in his gaze, like nothing was ever that serious and if it was, it'd be okay.

But he was still cute.

"You on a road trip too?" He asked.

I nodded and adjusted the drinks in my arms. "Yeah I'm—"

"Doll," an arm fell over my shoulder and Jade used his free hand to take the drinks from me. I watched his fingers close over the three bottle caps and lift them like it was nothing. Oh, wow—

"We should keep going," he said, forcing me to turn with him as I finally looked up and saw the handsome stranger staring at me with a blank look.

"He's not—" I started to explain that Jade and I weren't together but it was pointless. I was being dragged across the store and the cutie was heading in the other direction.

"Jade," I snapped as he put our drinks on the counter, the cashier scanning them and adding them to the pile of sweets she'd already put through.

"Yeah, doll, I know." His arm was still around me as he slipped his card out of his pocket and ran it through the debit machine. "I'm an asshole. You hate me. I'm going to regret that. All of those things you like to tell me. You'll live."

"You are such a fucking dick," I shrugged him off and left him with the cashier while she bagged our items, a look of concern directed at Jade.

It was freezing outside, my breath came out in clouds as I crossed under the awning of the gas pumps and towards the car.

I heard the bell of the door a moment later and Jade caught up with me quick.

"Did you have to?" I spun around when I made it to the car and bumped back into it when I found him almost toe to toe with me. He reached around my body and opened the back door, throwing the bag inside without taking his eyes off of me.

"Did I have to what?" He leaned a hand on the car, caging me in. "Stop you from picking up a fucking gas station bum? Yeah, I want to make it to Whistler sometime this week, not wait around while you get your kicks."

"He was not a bum, Jade," I shouted. "His coat was Tom Ford."

He straightened up and rolled his eyes. "You sound like your mother."

I gasped, slapping a hand across my mouth. That hurt. He peered down at me, his brow pinching a little as he swallowed. I supposed he had a point. That was definitely something my mom would've noted if she were assessing a man and his potential.

He opened his mouth but I didn't wait for whatever he was going to say. I spun around, got in the car and tipped my head back, wondering why he extracted such a visceral reaction from me every fucking time.