Page 7 of Snowed In

It took Adam a second to realize Magnus was asking him to do a check. “Oh. Uh, it looks fine to me. Maybe cook it tonight because it might not last, but yeah.”

Magnus smiled and set two of them in the cart. “How did the clouds look when we got here? I should probably stock up on a few things before I get snowed in.”

Adam grimaced. The clouds were getting thicker and fatter and greyer. It was going to be a bad one. He was likely going to miss the huge blizzard so long as he left directly after dinner, but Magnus would be stuck there.

Alone.

He was pretty sure that was the man’s holiday plan, but it still made his chest ache.

“You could come with me, you know,” Adam said as Magnus began to inspect what was left of the potatoes.

He lifted his head, his eyes squinting, ever restless behind heavy lids. “To the university?”

Adam scoffed. “You don’t have to go in with me. You don’t even need to talk to anyone. You can hang out in the hotel room and then we can have a sad little Christmas together.”

Magnus’s face softened into a smile as he set a bag of potatoes in the cart and reached for Adam’s arm again. “That’s kind, but I’ve never really celebrated holidays. When I was little, yes, but it wasn’t big in my family.”

“Is that a…you’re Swedish, right? Is that a cultural thing?”

Magnus laughed. “Yes. And no, it’s not a Swedish thing. It’s that I was at a residential school for the blind, and sometimes it was just easier for everyone if I didn’t come home for the holidays. The schoolalways tried to make it special, but it was hard to care when you were alone like that.”

Adam swallowed heavily. “I’m sorry. That’s super shitty.”

Magnus laughed as he followed Adam toward the dry goods aisle. It was a small boutique supermarket, so the offerings weren’t huge. But he liked that. It was intimate and quiet, and the aisles were small, so it let him have a reason to keep Magnus close.

“It’s not something I let myself feel bothered about. I’m very comfortable on my own.”

“Yeah, but sometimes you just want company. Or, well,Ido.” He felt loose-tongued and comfortable in ways he hadn’t ever before. And he knew it was just Magnus, but he wasn’t embarrassed like he might have been with anyone else. “It’s pathetic of me, I know.”

Magnus used his free hand to pull the cart to a stop. He was so close, Adam could smell what was left of his soap. It was floral and earthy—like lavender. He took a deep breath of it. “Do you really think that about yourself?”

Adam had almost forgotten he’d spoken, and it took him a second to come back to himself. “Sometimes, yeah. I mean, I’ve always been that kind of nerd, you know?”

A smile played at Magnus’s mouth. “I don’t know. Explain it to me.”

Adam groaned and shoved at him playfully. “Don’t pretend like you didn’t have nerds in Sweden, Magnus. Being made fun of for liking science. People misquoting Star Wars at you, then making fun of you when you correct them—or when you tell them Star Wars isn’t sci-fi, it’s space fantasy.”

Magnus’s smile got wider. “I’ve never seen a Star War.”

Adam’s gut clenched with how fucking endearing this man was. “Okay. We have to watch it. Or well…shit.”

Magnus’s face fell, and it looked like he was about to argue, but Adam didn’t want to fuck this up.

“I don’t know if it has audio description. They’re super old and I have them downloaded on my laptop.”

Magnus’s face did something complicated that Adam didn’t quite understand, then he reached for him and squeezed his arm. “Let’s try it, yes? If you don’t mind me asking questions.”

“Oh God,” Adam said, “that’s a terrible idea. If you get me going, I might never stop.”

They made it through the store, loading up on more supplies than Magnus wanted, but Adam refused to back down. He’d seen what storms like this could do and he didn’t want Magnus on his own without food—especially food that he could eat if the power went out. He also snuck in a few emergency items—like bottles of water, matches, and a shitload of batteries which Magnus wrinkled his nose at, but Adam was a stubborn bastard when he wanted to be.

“I have an electric blanket that runs on batteries,” he explained as they headed back to the car. The air had a vicious bite to it—the sharp, snappy cold that said snow was just on the horizon. And so were the clouds. They were fat and dark and threatening. He was starting to realize he might not make it out on time. “That’ll keep you warm if the storm fucks the grid.”

Magnus sighed but he didn’t bother arguing anymore. He just helped Adam get all the bags into the trunk, then climbed into his seat and buckled up. Adam said very little as he navigated his way back to the rental, and just as they pulled up, fat flakes began to drift down.

“It’s snowing,” he said.

Magnus sighed. “I could feel it. How bad does it look?”

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