you had me at brrrr

Neron

PREMISE: 

- Sunjata runs the local small town bar that's fallen on hard times
- Neron is running for mayor and trying to climb his way up the ladder. They both are dating sisters, but don't know it until they arrive for a multi-day family holiday in a ski lodge. Neron is hoping to win over the wealthy family, but Sunjata seems to be the one effortlessly charming them, so they might be able to strike a deal for success, or find maybe they're with the wrong partners all along. 

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PART 1: MEET-CUTE

The heavy doors to the ski lodge close like a sigh behind him as he steps out into the crisp night air, fairy lights twinkling though the glass and framing the cozily decorated reception area within. Having excused himself from the welcome festivities - rounds of spiked hot cocoa and marshmallows, niceties that sound vacuous with each repetition, smiles that start to hurt the cheeks with insincerity - to use the restroom, instead Neron takes himself around to the side of the lodge porch, reaching into his dark coat for the pack of cigarettes he'd promised his girlfriend he'd quit two weeks ago.

He'd not expected it to be this difficult, honestly. Politics is a role he'd been born to play, and that extends to most social areas, but no more so than when he's putting on his best performance to woo the upper crust before election day. They don't appear all too interested in him, though. No, they're more invested in the poor barfly (bartender? bar owner? he doesn't know, he wasn't listening) and his stories, and gods if Neron hasn't had enough.

There will be more days to come, he knows, but for now he just needs a little something to take the edge off. His gloves and a breathmint after will cover the evidence of the bad habit, he hopes, and it's to the distant sound of sleigh bells from a group walking by and the faint tune of baby it's cold outside that he sparks his cigarette and draws deeply on it.

i am mine
before i am ever anyone else’s