Stuck. A Pants-Optional Vermont Love Story.

Ashley was late, really late. This was not the way she wanted to meet Tanner’s parents for the first time. She took a calming breath. Tanner was nice. His parents would be nice, too. And she was sure they would love the cream-filled pastries she brought from Bien Cuit in the City. Pastries were the way to anyone’s heart.

Her flight landed over two hours late because of the snow. She replayed Tanner’s concerns in her head. ‘I’ll pick you up at the airport. You aren’t used to driving in the snow.’ His insistence had driven her nuts. She was 31, an adult, in charge of million-dollar projects at work, living on her own in New York City. Did he really think she couldn’t drive? 

She had finally told him to book the car for her, and he had spent several minutes reviewing the Hertz website before picking out the largest four-wheel-drive vehicle available. 

“I added chains, just in case. It’s really rugged driving. Between the four-wheel drive and the chains, you should be OK,” he said. 

She had rolled her eyes. 

So, here she was, driving an enormous SUV on a dark and snowy road, in the middle of nowhere.

She tuned the radio to the Sirius holiday channel and laughed out loud when “Let it Snow” came on. Fat flakes, mesmerizing and fluffy, pummeled the car. Poof, poof poof. It was like the sky was having a snowball fight with her windshield. And the sky was definitely winning.

The headlights lit the snow banks and made them glitter. The white clumps clung to the branches, drooping them toward the white road. There was lots of snow here. Way more snow than in New York and way, way more than in her hometown of San Diego where it was sunny and 70 degrees pretty much year-round. The road looked like a postcard, or the trailer to a scary movie where the heroine… stop that!

The GPS dinged to signal a right hand turn and she followed the instructions, peering into the dark arch of trees. She gasped as the SUV started to skid. What was the tutorial Tanner gave her–steer into the skid? Away from it? She eased her foot off the gas and breathed a sigh of relief as the car regained traction. Evidently the pavement had turned to dirt, or dirt and snow, or dirt and snow and maybe ice. OK, maybe she should have taken Tanner up on his offer to pick her up at the airport.

Up ahead, the darkness was punctured by blinking red taillights. As she got closer, she slowed down. The blinking vehicle wasn’t moving and had an odd tilt. She stopped her car. Visions of horror movies played through her head. Should she lock the doors? Turn the car around and drive the other way? She screamed when a large, amorphous shape loomed in her headlights, waving at her. 

Get a grip, Ashely. It’s a person, not a zombie. 

She lowered the window halfway and poked her head out. “Can I help you in some way?”

The bulky person walked over to her window. “Thank goodness. I’ve been waiting for at least 30 minutes for a tow truck. Probably not coming. I’ve got a tow strap. How about you pull me out?”

She blinked. “Tow strap?”

“Where are you from, honey?” the human bundle asked.

“Manhattan.”

“Ah, OK then. Why don’t you get out and I can drive your car into place, then hook it up. You go sit in my car and keep warm.”

“Let you drive my car?” There was no way this was a good idea. What would Tanner say if she had to call because a little old lady stole her car in the middle of a snowstorm?

“Come on, now. I’m not getting younger.”

How could she refuse this woman? She must be seventy, or maybe eighty. It was the right thing to do, right? People in Vermont were friendly, right? She reluctantly opened the door and slid out. The suede pumps that looked so striking in a glass conference room in the city offered no protection or traction as they sunk into the snow. She held onto the hood of the car to keep herself upright and breathed a sigh of relief as she eased herself and her soaked feet into the woman’s stuck Subaru.

The bundle of elderly woman moved with efficiency. Once she’d positioned the SUV and attached the tow strap, she gave a thumbs up through the open window. 

“Hold the wheel straight now,” the bundle yelled. 

She kept a death grip on the steering wheel as the stuck car inched ahead and then surged forward as it cleared the bank. The bundle jumped out, wrapped up the strap, and moved Ashley’s SUV back safely to the edge of the road.

“Couldn’t have made it without your truck. Good strong one, this one. Thanks for stopping,” the old woman said as they switched back into their own cars. “I’m Rose, but everyone calls me Rosie. What’s your name, honey? And why are you out this late?”

“I’m Ashley. I’m coming up to visit the Evans family. And my flight was late and…”

“Pete and Carol? Ha. Isn’t that a coincidence? Well, gotta go get warm,” the woman said and waved her hand out the window as she drove off. “Thanks, again. And you take care on these slick roads.”

“Wait, what coincidence? What do you mean?” she yelled. But the red taillights receded into the dark. She climbed back into the SUV and turned up the heat on her frozen feet. “$300 in shoes down the drain,” she said to the air. The SUV clock read 11:36. She was officially beyond fashionably late. 

She put the SUV into gear and pushed down the accelerator, but her wet shoe slipped off the pedal. Sighing, she tried again, pushing harder, and this time the SUV leaped forward and crashed into the snowbank. She’d forgotten to straighten the wheel. Sighing again, she put the car into reverse. The rear wheels spun but the car didn’t move.

Shit. 

She turned off the engine and slid out of the car to survey the damage. Her car tilted to the right at an odd angle, its front half embedded in a snowbank. 

The darkness closed around her. A coyote howled in the distance. She jumped back into the SUV and slammed the door.

She pulled out her cell phone. Only 1 bar. Could she call Hertz or find a tow truck? Maybe Rose would drive past and haul her out? She waited five minutes. If someone came in five minutes, they could get her out. If they had the magic tow strap. Five minutes passed, then ten. Not another car. 

How embarrassing that she couldn’t even make it to Tanner’s house. She was used to doing everything herself. Job, apartment, taxes, hell, even helping little old ladies out of the snow. 

Wait! Tanner had mentioned chains. She slid out of the car again and waded through the snow to the trunk, her silk pantsuit legs soaked through and clinging to her legs. She opened the hatch and looked inside. Spare tire, wrench, flares, a gray, plastic box labeled ‘chains.’ 

She was saved! She pulled out the box and opened it to reveal pristine metal, gleaming like something holy. She lifted one out; it was heavy in her hand and clanged as the links settled into each other. Salvation.

Then reality hit. Somehow the chains had to go from her hands to the tires. No way was she going to get an instructional YouTube video with one cell bar. 

The snowflakes fell onto her head. They melted and dripped down her face, sending shivers through her body. Her pants whisked melted snow up to her thighs. She couldn’t feel her feet, and she had no idea how to get the car free. It was time to swallow her pride and make the phone call. 

She climbed back into the car and started the engine for warmth. The blissful warm air flowed and began to thaw her feet and hands. She dialed. And waited, watching the screen display “Tanner,” and then switch to ‘No connection.’ That can’t be right. One bar. It had to work. 

She tried again. ‘No connection.’ 

She texted him and watched the phone dots pulse. After a few seconds, the phone returned another dismal answer. ‘Unable to deliver.’

She reviewed her pitifully short list of miserable options. Sleep in the car with the engine on until it ran out of gas. Walk in a random direction and hope to find kind humans who would take pity on her. Try to figure out how to put the chains on before she froze to death. Not a good list. 

The worry of meeting Tanner’s parents now seemed trivial. Much more pressing was the prospect of frostbite or becoming a midnight snack for wild animals. She kicked herself for not letting Tanner pick her up from the airport. Sure, she wanted to save him the trouble, but she also didn’t want his help. She wanted to do it herself. She wanted to show him that she could be just as independent in the country as she was in the city, and would be a good match for his outdoorsy family. But there was no denying that here in the dark, with the snow swirling and hungry coyotes howling, she needed help. 

Tanner. She and he had spent almost every day together through summer and fall. His environmental engineering job and her banking career gave them plenty of money to enjoy City shows, dinners, and concerts. They didn’t live together yet, but she hoped to convince him to join her in the Flatiron loft she’d been able to purchase in a pandemic fire sale. But Tanner spoke often of his hometown in the Mad River Valley of Vermont, and as the winter weather started, he worked remotely from his family home more and more. She missed him. 

His blue-gray eyes and solid build imaged in her head. He was kind. Smart. But he was quiet and didn’t share his feelings easily. The visit this weekend was a big step for them, perhaps even a test to find out if the relationship could be a forever one. And as nervous as she had been, she was looking forward to it. But it was hard not to think that getting stuck before she could even make it to Tanner and his parents might just possibly be a bad omen.

She shivered and checked her phone again. Still no signal. Grasping for something she could control, she again took stock of her situation. OK, at least I can take off some of these stupid, wet clothes. She reached behind the seat, grabbed her travel bag, pulled out some socks and a pair of dry pants and laid them on the seat next to her. Then she wriggled out of the wet trousers and folded them up onto the dashboard, and pulled off her wet stockings and threw them onto the floor mat. The warm air started drying her wet skin. 

As she was reaching for her dry pants, headlights glared on her windshield. A car! She was rescued! She opened the car door, jumped out, bare feet sinking into the snow, and frantically waved her arms to get the driver’s attention.  

It worked! The car stopped. The door opened. 

Her bare legs shimmered in the headlights. Pants! I need pants. She backtracked toward her car to grab the pair on the seat, but a deep, familiar voice stopped her. “San Diego beachwear in Vermont?”

“Tanner! Thank God you’re here!” Relief became an instant friend.

“My dad’s here, too.” He laughed.

“Your Dad? In the car with you?” she groaned as she shivered in the cold and tried to cover her bare legs with her arms. “Oh, please, just shoot me now.”

“Sorry. Can't do that. It’s not hunting season anymore.” He chuckled again. He walked through the headlight beams toward her and placed a heavy down coat around her. As he zipped it up, she pushed him away to zip it herself, but he caught her hands and held them. “Just let me help. You need help.”

She nodded and when she was zipped up, he carried her back to his truck, sliding her into the front seat of the cab. 

“Nice to meet you, Ashley,” an older man with gray hair said. 

“Mr. Evans. I’m so sorry. I had an entire speech prepared and some lovely tarts from the City for you and Mrs. Evans and…”

“Happens to the best of us,” he said. “I already know you have a good heart and that’s the important thing.”

She wrinkled her brow in confusion.

“Rosie told us how you stopped to help a stranger on a dark, dirt road. She thought you were following right behind her and got worried when she never saw your car show up.”

“Rose?”

“Our next-door neighbor.”

Ah, the coincidence. “I almost didn’t stop, actually, thinking about The Shining, Misery, Fargo…” 

“You need to stop watching scary movies,” Tanner interrupted.

“Rosie can be pretty scary,” Tanner’s dad said. “But, as I already said, I know you have a good heart. Why else would my boy fall in love with you?”

What? Tanner told his parents he loved her? A new level of warmth flowed through her body. She reached for Tanner’s hand and squeezed it hard. It was warm and strong. He squeezed back and her heart pumped even faster.

“But I might get Carol to take you shopping. I know you city folk have different ideas about fashion, but here in Vermont people usually wear pants, especially in winter.” Pete’s eyes sparkled with humor.

Her eyes smiled back at him, even as they misted a little.

“So what did happen?” Tanner asked.

“I had no idea how to make the chains work,” she said, leaning into Tanner. Would he say he told me so?

“I’m just glad you’re safe.” 

He didn’t.

He kissed the top of her head. “Now, let’s get you and the SUV out of here.”

She proudly shared her new knowledge. “I think you are going to need a tow strap.”

(Photo credit: Canva AI)