To save my nipnips from frozen doom, as Ria would put it, I quickly had to take my leave to change my clothes. I hung my previous ones to dry over the central heating system so I could throw them in the washing bin later. With a new shirt and a comfy red hoody thrown over my body, I made my way back downstairs.

There our guests had already been seated in the tea-room, a couple of blankets thrown over them and the fireplace roaring with flame. They were enjoying some hot chocolate I’d asked Ria to prepare before we left.

“Phew, that’s better. If you two want to have some new clothes, I’ve got plenty that should fit you.” I commented as I positioned myself behind the couch Em was sitting on for the moment.

“No, we are fine, we didn’t really get wet, and we are already warming up. Thanks again.” Claire smiled.

“The blankets and the fire are definitely helping too.” Anya smiled as well.

“Good. Once you are warmed up, we can maybe start bringing out the snacks.” Em continued.

“Talking about food, did you get the meat platters?” I asked.

Em smirked. “Damn sure I did. Want to see?”

“They are rather impressive.” Ria nodded.

I tilted my head. “Are they?”

Ria nodded once more.

“Huh, then I would definitely like to take a look.”

“Can we come too?” Anya asked.

“Yeah, sure, you can take the blanket with you if you want.”

And so, Claire and Anya followed along as Em walked me to the fridge in the kitchen. She probably had stashed it here temporarily before moving it one floor up for the gourmet itself.

When she opened the fridge there were three chonky meat platters neatly stacked in place, one of which was familiar as it was the one I had bought myself, but the other two were the new ones that Em had bought. She took them out for a moment to show us what kinds of meats were layered on top of them.

“Wew.” Calire whistled. “That’s some quality meat.”

“The butcher really wanted me to take these, as he really didn’t want these expensive meats to go to waste. Apparently there’s even A5 Wagyu on here.”

“There sure is.” Claire at the very marbled meat on the dish. “We are not going to need oil or butter for that plate with that kind of marbling.”

“Why are the meats so small?” Anya asked.

“Are they? This seems like the regular size for gourmet to me.” I tilted my head and gave the meat one more look-over.

Anya still seemed a bit confused by my reply.

Claire turned her head towards her girlfriend. “Have you never done gourmet before?”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with it.” She shook her head.

“Oh.” I vocalized. “That explains it. Want a small rundown on what we are going to do?”

“Yes please.” Anya nodded.

“So basically it’s comparable to some kind of indoors barbecuing, but instead of a grill we will just use a hot plate. You will see the hot plate we will use later, it should be plenty big for all of us. We set that up in the middle of the table, and we put the meat platters on the table too. Then everyone picks their own meat and cooks it for themselves.”

“It’s very much a more social kind of cooking.” Claire continued.

“Ah so there’s small pieces of meat so you can pick and choose?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yeah, exactly. We will have plenty for all of us, even if a couple of people really prefer the same kind of meat.”

“And you can also roast a bit of bread on it and put garlic butter on it too!” Ria replied.

“Or veggies.” Em nodded along.

“That does sound fun.” Anya nodded happily. “I’m looking forward to it.”

Claire seemed pretty happy with her girlfriend’s reaction. It was already hard enough of an evening for the two of them, so the more happiness we could bring, the better.

We let our friends finish their hot drinks, after which we were now ready to bring out the snacks. For the snacks as well we had to prepare more than we had planned but luckily, because I’m always overstocked for Ria, we had plenty of that to go around too, together with some creative snack making that Em had arranged.

“Would you like to eat your snacks here or in the living room upstairs?” I asked. “I’d suggest the living room because that’s a bit more cozy than this room. In my humble opinion.”

“Well, you are the host, Aurora.” Claire chuckled. “We shall help carry the snacks upstairs. It’s the least we can do.”

“Thinking about it now, we should probably have prepared the snacks upstairs already.” Em laughed. “Now we have to do twice the work.”

“It’s my fault too, as I stocked up the fridge beforehand.” I replied. “It would also have been rather stupid to move all the supplies upstairs too before starting to prep them.”

“I’m just happy we can eat more snacks.” Ria stated matter of factly. “They are all very tasty.”

“Taste tested them all, Corelia?” Claire asked.

“Of course, any good chef tastes the food they prepare.” Ria looked very smug at her reply, as she should be, because it’s also the truth.

“That’s very true.”

And with that we all went to our little kitchen to get our snacks upstairs. I’d come back down a bit later to get the meat platters, they could sit in the fridge for a while longer. It was New Year’s eve after all, no one was going to bed early, especially not me. No need at all to hurry. It’s not like our guests needed to leave, either.

When we reached the living room on the second floor, Anya started talking to me. “You do have a very nice house.”

“Thank you.” I smiled. “Your girlfriend kind of helped to pick it out.”

Anya smiled. “I know, she told me.”

“What kind of house do you live in, Anya?” I asked as we got comfortable in the sofas.

“In a large mansion in the woods. It’s a very nice place but also rather far away.”

“A bit like Em’s house?”

Anya looked over to Claire for confirmation.

“When it comes to the size, it’s comparable.” Claire nodded. “It’s a lot more modern, though. But the area is really much more in the middle of nowhere. Quite beautiful though.”

Anya smiled and nodded along.

“Is that where you were going to celebrate New Years?” Ria asked, already munching on some of the veggie snacks with dip.

“No.” Anya shook her head. “We were going to celebrate at my uncle’s house.”

“We were invited for a family party. Her uncle’s house is not as far away and rather easily reachable by train… if they run at least.”

“I don’t think anyone can blame the railroad company for this one, though.” Em added. “Even though their punctuality isn’t great at the best of times.”

“Definitely not, no one expected this snow storm to come out of nowhere. And to the railway company’s credit, they immediately shot into action to give us all the comfort we needed.”

“There were quite a bit of emergency personnel there too.” I pointed out.

Claire nodded. “There were many people who didn’t have any place to go. I heard there was talk about sending people to hotels nearby, but they got field beds ready too.”

“Well, you won’t have to sleep in a field bed today, that’s for sure.” I replied.

“Thanks again.” This time it was Anya who thanked me.

“No, thank you for calling. I would have felt really badly if you didn’t and I heard about it afterwards. I’m glad you are safe and close by. And now we can all celebrate together.” I stated.

Em smiled and took my arm, while Ria did the same from the other side. “That’s our Auro for you.” Em said.

Ria nodded enthusiastically. “That’s just the way she is. And Em and I would have felt sad too.”

“I know.” Claire replied. “But still, I’m very grateful for it nonetheless.”

“And so am I.” Anya added.

I smiled once more. “Why don’t we keep that positive energy, turn on some music and some background tv noises, and then continue chatting and eating our tummies full with snacks? Or at least a bit, considering we have to save space for some premium meat.”

“That sounds like an idea, but it will be very hard to do so with all these tasty things in front of us.” Claire took one of the cocktail sausages and dipped it in some mustard.

“Just spread it out, we have a long evening still. That way you can eat more.” Ria commented with her expert opinion.

“That’s true, we can also open up a window so that the cold makes us burn more calories while we are at it, too.” I feigned as if I was about to get up and walk towards one of the windows.

“Let’s not.” Anya was quick to reply, though. “Please.”

“Well, Auro, if you want that, we can also shove some more snow down your hoodie.” Em smirked.

“....” I quickly crossed my arms. “No, thanks.”

We all started laughing because of our little sketch. The ambiance was in a very good place right now.