The Weather Girl by Amy Vastine

computer and looked up information on glass igloos in Finland. Ryan’s bait was too tempting, given the circumstances. Brian walked past her desk a few minutes later and wished her good-night.
    “Have a good one,” she replied with a weary smile. She shut down her desktop and grabbed her stuff. Rachel and Travis were laughing together, giving her a much-needed push out the door. “Good night, y’all,” she said, getting Travis’s attention.
    “Summer, wait. Let me walk you to your car.” Travis pulled his jacket out from behind Rachel.
    She didn’t need to be escorted to her car. It wasn’t like Richard was going to be waiting in the parking lot to take her out. She was about to refuse when Rachel chimed in. “Pete can walk her to her car. Right, Pete?” Summer hadn’t even noticed the tech engineer lurking in the shadows. Pete didn’t look too keen on walking anywhere with Summer.
    “I got it,” Travis said. “Have a nice evening.” He scurried to catch up to Summer.
    The elevator arrived and Travis held it open so she could walk in first. The doors closed, and even though there were only two of them, the space felt smaller than usual.
    “Did you know that in the winter months in the northernmost parts of Finland, the sun doesn’t rise for fifty-one days?”
    “I’m making you nervous, aren’t I?” Travis asked, almost apologetic.
    She shook her head, though the gesture was a lie. Lately there was this gentle pull when she was near him that was followed by a much bigger desire to run far away. He was more complicated than she’d first thought, and that made him interesting. She didn’t need interesting men in her life. Especially not when Ryan was tempting her to fly the coop earlier than she’d planned.
    They made it downstairs without any other weather facts escaping her lips. The parking lot was nearly empty. Some clouds had rolled in, but they didn’t hold any rain. Summer hadn’t felt rain since Sunday.
    “Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day,” Travis said as they approached her car.
    Summer sighed and started searching the bottomless pit that was her purse. “If today is any indication of what I have to look forward to, I’m not sure I’m going to like being the face of the station.”
    “It’s one heck of a face,” he said. “One of the prettiest in Texas.”
    She froze for a moment, wondering if she’d heard him right. “If you’re trying to get more weather facts out of me, it’s not going to work.”
    He shook his head and grabbed her bag from her, reached in and pulled out her keys effortlessly. He didn’t bother hiding his grin. “Good night, Weather Girl.”
    She snatched her keys from his hand, got in her car and drove home. Summer couldn’t wait to get into bed and put this crazy day to rest. Storm greeted her at the door as if he’d been waiting for her for days. She took him out back and let him run around under a perfect crescent moon. Her head fell back as she gazed up at the twinkling stars set against the inky backdrop. Summer loved the endlessness of the Texas sky. It reminded her that there was so much more world out there for her to discover. People in Finland looked up at the same moon, but she couldn’t help wondering if there would be different stars to wish on over there.
    Back inside the house, she quickly changed out of her work clothes. Washing off the studio makeup helped her feel better. She stared at the reflection in the mirror. Somehow she’d become the face of Channel 6. Mimi was going to love that title. She ran her hands over her cheeks and thought about Travis and what he’d said. Did he really think she was pretty? Her eyes looked tired. Her bottom lip was too big compared to her top lip. The dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose always made her feel like a kid, but that wasn’t the way she’d felt when Travis looked at her tonight.
    She turned up the air-conditioning so she could sleep under the covers comfortably.