Another day filled with cold and ice. It was so hard for Charlotte to have a cheery outlook on life when everything she saw was so bland and unanimated. Outside her window children were playing, laughing as they built a snowman and knocked him down together. It felt nice to hear some hint of happiness in the air. She watched them as they ran and pelted each other with snowballs- a small part inside her wished she could go and play with them.

“Char! Charlotte? Are you okay?”, her coworker Annette asked interrupting her daydream as she peaked around the corner into her office.
“What? Oh.. Yeah. I’m fine, just watching the kids play.”
“You’ve been so out of it lately. When you started here you used to be so fun to be around, but now you just hide away by yourself. Where’s the fun friend I met?”
“I don’t know. If you find her, let me know?”, Charlotte said sadly and turned back to her computer to get to work.

“Listen Char, it’s a long weekend coming up. A group of friends and I are going on a little weekend vacation and I wanted to invite you along. What do you say we skip out of here early and go have find some trouble to get into?”
Finnish Independence Day was coming up and there would be a lot of celebrations. Charlotte thought of all the children and families out enjoying the sun despite the cold and snow. It had been so long since she had spent time with people outside of work as it was, she couldn’t remember the last time she ate a real meal with an actual person and not just the TV.

She looked outside one last time at the snow-covered ground and instead of seeing the frigid, hard world she saw before- she saw the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the snowy winter. “Sure. It sounds like a lot of fun,” she finally replied.
“Great! I’ll go get my stuff and I’ll meet you downstairs in 30 minutes. The boss will be out for lunch then so we’ll be able to get away before he even notices,” Annette said with a childish smile on her face and ran down the hall.

The next half hour was a foggy blur to her. She finished the email she was typing before the children distracted her outside and shut her computer down. While she gathered her lunch and briefcase, she thought of what kind of things they would do this weekend, who Annette’s friends were and if they would like her, and just how much trouble they would be in for leaving work early. She decided she didn’t care.

Charlotte wished they would be escaping to somewhere nice and warm. She would love to feel warm sand between her toes and a couple drinks would definitely help her unwind. She missed the warm, humid nights of Savannah.

She looked down at her watch and realized she was five minutes late for meeting Annette downstairs. She grabbed her things and ran to meet her. She and Annette briskly walked outside and decided to meet up at Annette’s place after Charlotte went home to pack. Annette gave her an uncomfortable little hug as she ran to jump in her little green car and sped off with a huge grin on her face. Charlotte started to regret saying yet, but thought to herself, “Stop bitching already! You’ve got to get out of this rut and some girl time would be a great way to start it.”