Ah, winter's first snow. It's both captivating and agitating.

Even though Izzy is a wonderful kid, getting her up extra early in the morning is as if I've summoned the devil himself. To top it all off, there was a layer of ice and snow I still needed to remove from my windshield and I had to drop her off at her preschool before going to work this morning. Not to mention, I absolutely despised driving in the snow. The weatherman predicted that it wouldn't even snow for another week, but by now, I should know better than to trust the man on the news that always stutters on the word precipitation.

"Isabelle James quit playing with your food! We need to go in fifteen minutes if I'm going to get to work on time and you still need to brush your teeth and put on your socks, shoes, and big coat." I huff as I try to grab all of her strewn-about toys from last night that I was too lazy to pick up before bed.

"I don't want to go to school today." She whines, stabbing her eggs with her fork repeatedly.

"Too bad!" I yell from my bathroom with a mouth full of toothpaste before spitting it out into the sink, "Mommy has work."

She groans out angrily, but when I pop around the corner ready to scold her for her little attitude this morning, she jumps in her seat with tears forming in her eyes. Before I can say anything to her, we hear a knock on the door that puts a pin in the whole conversation.

"You got lucky just now, little girl. Eat your eggs. I'm not going to tell you again. Do you understand me?" I demand on my way to the front door.

"Yes ma'am." She sniffles as she begins to shove as much food into her mouth as she can without choking.

"Who is it?" I call out, trying to look through the peephole, but don't see anyone.

"Uh, it's your neighbor from the floor below you. Andrew."

Opening the door, he stands back upright from fixing his boot and smiles at me. His icy blue eyes were bewitching against his almost black shade of hair peeking out from under the hood of his down coat.

I had seen him a few times over the years of living here. Most of the time, our conversations were short, although pleasant, and he was always nice enough to help me carry my grocery bags to my doorstep if he was around. Beyond that though, we never really interacted much and I think my confused expression gave him a clue as to what I was thinking.

"I know it's early, but I had scraped the ice and snow off of your windshield when I did mine. I, uh, just wanted to let you know." He smiles as he kicks some more snow off of his boots.

"Thank you, Andrew. That was very nice of you." I return a smile to him before looking back at Izzy who's furrowing her brow at me.

"Yeah, no problem. I know you have to get your little girl off to school and go to work and since I was already out there, I thought it may help if I did yours, too."

"Definitely did. We appreciate that." I nod, my brows raising as I wonder why he's still standing here after I already said thank you to him.

"So, um, I had been wondering for a while now, but would you maybe want to go out with me? This weekend if you're free?" Andrew nervously stares down at me waiting for my reply.

"Well, I'd need to find a sitter, but if I find one, I can text you." I pull my cell phone out of my trouser pocket and hand it to him so that he could add his number as a contact.

"Okay," He chuckles cutely as he passes me back my phone and takes a couple of steps back, "I'm off to work, um, see ya later."

"See ya. Thanks again!" I call out to him as he reaches the steps before I shut the door.

Izzy stood behind me, now with brushed teeth, her snow boots on, and trying to put her coat on over her sweater. Her face was still scrunched up in either confusion or disapproval as she looked up at me.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I amuse as I grab her beanie and gloves from the coat rack.

Squatting down to her level, she narrows her eyes at me, "Do you like him?"

"I thought you said Andrew was nice?"

"He is nice, but Tae Tae is more nicer." She argues as I zip up her coat and wiggle her hat onto her head.

"Mommy can have more friends than just Tae, baby. You don't even know Andrew yet." I state while I help her put her tiny, chubby hands into her gloves.

"I know Tae Tae."

After taking a moment to look at her, I kiss her forehead and smile, knowing exactly what could persuade her mood, "How about I ask Tae Tae to come over to hang out with you while I go hang out with Andrew?"

She thinks about it for just a second before nodding her head agreeably, "Deal."

"Deal." I smirk as I stand up to grab my own coat and the car keys.

With us both bundled up and ready to brave the harsh temperatures, I grab her little hand and take slow steps down the flights of stairs in hopes that neither one of us would end up slipping on some unforeseen ice. By the time we reached the bottom floor, the snow was already up to our ankles, steadily coming down even harder and my windshield had since collected another layer.

Digging through my purse and struggling to grab onto my keys with my gloves, I see a familiar car pull up in my parking lot, putting a smile on my face and making Izzy quite literally jump for joy.

"Heard through the grapevine you don't like driving in the snow." Taehyung yells out after rolling down his passenger side window.

"Whoever told you wasn't lying." I smile at him in gratitude as I walk around to the back door of my vehicle to pull out Izzy's car seat to put it in his car instead.

After dropping her off at school, we drive towards the middle of the city where snowplows have been at work all morning to keep the roads as clear as possible in the first winter storm of the year. Having lived in this area my whole life, it wasn't a surprise that schools and businesses remained open. If the city closed down because of snow, we'd be out of business for far too long.

Pulling into the parking garage and driving around to the elevator entrance, Taehyung temporarily puts his hazard lights on while I gather everything I need from his floorboard and look over to him before I exit out of the car, "Thank you for driving us this morning. I guess you're my savior today."

"Any time. You literally work across the street from me. I don't know why we don't carpool more often. You know, for the environment or whatnot." He smirks as he reaches up and straightens my fuzzy winter hat.

My phone dings with a text message and I struggle to turn on the screen with my glove-covered hands, eventually just passing it over to Taehyung with a silent plea for help.

"Looks like your boss doesn't want to open the office today." He reads the message out loud, "She said for everyone to just enjoy a free day off."

"I mean, that's nice of her and all, but I wish she could have sent that message a little sooner. Ugh, I'll just go hang out in the main lobby until an Uber can arrive. Sorry." I reach for the door handle, but I'm halted when Tae softly touches my shoulder.

"How about I call off today? You know, the roads are in such bad condition at my place, I don't think it'd be safe to drive." He tests out his excuse to call off of work on me while he scrolls through his contacts to dial his boss.

Repeating the same lie of an excuse in order to get out of work, Taehyung hangs up with his boss and grabs my things to toss into the back seat, "So I take it you're free to hang out today?"

"I guess so." I chuckle as I put back on my seat belt.

"Good because I need your help figuring out what to get your mom and Aunt Gigi for Christmas." He states as he begins to drive in the direction of the mall.

The large three-story shopping mall wasn't as busy as I expected it to be during the holiday season. Mainly senior citizens and stay-at-home moms seemed to be the majority of the shoppers this morning while Taehyung and I were a little too dressed up for a simple shopping trip. Looking over to him in his all-black suit, black button-up, and tie, and then down at my own business casual attire, we definitely stood out amongst the plethora of skinny jeans and snow boots walking around us.

"Do you think Aunt Gigi would like this?" He stops to point at a charm bracelet, "Or is it a bit too much?"

"Still crushing on my aunt?" I quirk my brow at him.

"I was eight!" He wraps his arm around me, "You know that crush went away as quickly as it came."

"Your Aunt Gigi is so pretty. Your Aunt Gigi is such a good cook. Your Aunt Gigi is so funny." I mock him playfully.

Pulling me into his chest to pretend to smother me to death, we both laugh at the old memories of when he was obsessed with her. Sure, it only lasted maybe a week, but I'll never stop teasing him about it whenever he brings her up.

"I'm just kidding. I think it's a great gift and I can buy her some charms for it. Win/win." I hold my arm up to get the salesman's attention, noticing that Taehyung hasn't removed his arm from around my shoulders. Mindlessly, he slowly moves his thumb up and down as we wait to be assisted. I look up at him when I feel my heart begin to flutter again, "Are we just going to stay like this for the rest of the day?"

Quickly removing his arm, he stuffs his hands into his jacket pocket and clears his throat, "My bad. It's, uh, cold. You're not cold? I'm cold."

"I'm good." I furrow my brow with an amused smile, "What's gotten into you?"

"Huh?" He looks away as fast as he can and I crane my neck to try to look at his face, "Nothing. Quit being weird."

I open my mouth to reply in the way we normally do when we're joking around, but pause when the man in a suit and tie approaches us, "Hello you two, what can I help you with? Christmas present? Engagement ring, perhaps?"

"What?" Taehyung glances down at me before looking back up at the salesman, "No, uh, we just need this charm bracelet, and where are your charms?"

"Sure thing." The gentleman pulls out the charm bracelet we agreed on and motions for us to follow him to another section of the fingerprint-free glass display case.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I whisper as I walk behind Taehyung.

"I'm fine. Promise." He plasters on a smile that would look genuine to anyone else, but conspicuously unrealistic to me. However, I didn't want to push the topic any further. I know him well enough that when he feels like discussing it, he will.