“Whoa, Derek, look at this view!”

I force myself to wait 3 long seconds before casually looking over my shoulder at the girl whose face I could never get out of my mind.

Claire, of course, was not looking at me. She was standing on a wide, grey rock by the edge of the road that was carved into the mountain side, gazing excitedly out at the great expanse of valley between the mountain we were currently on and the one next to it that was significantly larger. Her light chestnut hair fell down her back and ruffled in a small breeze, reflecting the deep orange and purple colors of the slowly setting sun.

“Very nice.”

“Very nice?” she repeated incredulously as I walked up to her. I was careful not to look below the horizon, or anywhere near the bottom of the cliff. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“I’ve seen better,” I said, keeping my voice steady and making it a point to stare deep into her eyes. In my periphery I could see Raphael making gagging gestures, which I graciously ignored. I managed to hold her eyes for a second before she turned back to the view, absently brushing her hair away from her face.
“Whatever,” she said, completely missing my not-at-all-subtle effort to woo her. “It’s still gorgeous. I think you’re just-” She broke off as Lizzy’s shrill voice rang through the air.
“Guys!”
We turned around as Lizzy ran across the road from where our cars were parked, waving a map through the air, and joined Claire, Raphael, and I.
“Guys, I was looking through the map again, and you know how we’re on Sulphur Mountain right? If we just keep going down Mountain Avenue, we’ll reach the Banff Sulphur Mountain Gondola ride and we should totally go.” She looked at us each, satisfied with her find. My stomach dropped when I noticed the enthusiasm building in Claire.
“We should!” Claire exclaimed, jumping down from the rock. “I’ve never been on a gondola before.”
“Let’s do it!” Raphael said, grinning at me.
I scowled and turned to Claire, stuffing my hands in my pockets in case they started shaking. “We don’t have the time,” I told her. “We have to get to the hotel in Golden before nightfall and it’s already past 8.”
“Oh, come on, little brother,” Raphael smirked, and I wanted to punch it off his face. He was doing this on purpose. “Being an hour behind schedule isn’t going to kill us.”
I tried to keep my breathing even as my heart started racing. “What’s the big deal? They’re just mountains. Just look out your window and you’ll see all you need to.”
“We can’t come all the way to the Rockies and not go on a gondola ride.” Claire remarked, making me wince.
I made myself force out a little laugh and worked to make my voice light and teasing. “Sure we can. Besides, I hate driving at night.”
“Someone else can drive,” Lizzy insisted, looking at me with shrewd little eyes which instantly made me nervous.
I swallowed, starting to feel nauseous. “No one drives my car but me.”
“Not even the lovely Claire?” Raphael inquired. “Not even your own precious brother?”
“We’re wasting time, let’s just go,” Lizzy said, irritated. “Derek can just stay in the car if he wants to. I want to see some mountaintops.”
The slow churning in my stomach disappeared and I immediately felt better. “Fine,” I snapped, making sure to mask my relief under an air of annoyance.

We reached the gondola place in 20 minutes, my car following Lizzy's up the mountain as the sun started to sink in the sky. Raphael made sure to spend the ride telling me how much fun he'd have enjoying the mountaintop view with Claire, and I played a CD I knew he hated to drown him out. I ignored any comments he made regarding the height of the mountain we were driving along.
After parking outside of a long, grey-blue building, I went inside with them to the counter to get their tickets, planning to find some food for myself after they were gone.
While we waited in line behind an elderly couple, Raphael scrutinized a pamphlet of the gondola rides, and the girls made sure their cameras were on and working, and made me take some pictures of them until I started whining. Soon, thankfully, it was our turn.
"Hi there, could we get three adult tickets for the eight minute gondola ride?" Raphael flashed a smile at the employee behind the counter, a girl with pale blonde hair who looked around our age. A name tag pinned under her left shoulder read Emma.
Emma flushed. "Of course, just a moment please."
The eight minute ride took a four person gondola cabin to the summit of Sulphur Mountain, where the passengers were dropped off at the Summit Upper Terminal and could take another gondola cabin back down to the departure site after they were done looking around.
“Don’t take too long on the summit, we have to get going soon." I reminded Lizzy, who was scowling at the girl who was fumbling with printing out their tickets.
"I know," Lizzy snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
"It shouldn't take too long, Derek, don't worry,” Claire told me, laying a hand on my arm. It was colder than I expected and my skin broke out in goosebumps.
“That’ll be $113.25 please,” Emma said shyly, glancing up through her lashes at my brother.
“Sure,” he said, taking out his wallet. Raphael was the one in charge of our road trip funds.
“The next available three person gondola will arrive in 20 minutes. You can wait in our lobby if you like.”
I tried not to groan. 20 minutes. We’d never get to Golden before nightfall. I had complained about night driving before purely as a reason for us not to go on the gondola, and I didn’t really have a problem with it, but I didn’t exactly enjoy it either.
Emma noticed my discontent. “Um, if time is an issue, we have 2 seats available in a gondola that will depart in 5 minutes.”
“Oh, really?” Claire said, perking up. “That’s great, but only two seats? One of us would have to go alone... Do you have one with three seats?”
“Yes, but in 20 minutes. Um, there are also two more seats available in another cabin scheduled to depart in 10 minutes.” She smiled apologetically.
“Oh. I think we’ll just wait for a three person car. It wouldn’t be fun if one of us went alone.”
“Wait,” Raphael interjected casually. “If Derek goes, then we can all go in pairs.”
“What?” My heart started hammering. Please no.
“Oh, you’re right!” Lizzy said, turning to Emma, who was patiently waiting. “Make that four tickets please.”
“Wait, I– I’m not–” I tried to protest, my hands already shaking. What the hell was happening?
“Just come on the stupid ride, Derek,” Lizzy muttered. “It won’t be that scary.”
“Don’t be a wuss, little brother. We’ll be really late if we wait 20 minutes.”
“No, no, no, I’m not going, I was supposed to wait in the car, remember?”
“Um.” I could barely make out Emma’s voice, the blood rushed through my ears so loudly. “The cabin is ready to leave.”
“Please print out one more ticket, Derek will be going.” Lizzy told her, and I teetered, quickly grabbing the counter for support. My stomach was churning sickeningly.
Emma looked at me nervously and I saw her tapping away at a keyboard. I could barely hear the sound of the printer as it spat out my ticket.
“Um, that’ll be $151.”
Raphael quickly paid and Claire grabbed my sleeve, tugging me away from the counter. I stumbled along, working to keep my face neutral while my insides twisted. We walked around a corner and through a door that led outside, the night air cooling my hot skin. The old couple that was in line before us was seated in a large glass gondola cabin with a fire truck red paintjob, and a man stood outside of the open door, holding two tickets. There were two empty seats.
“Why don’t you two get on this one, and we’ll catch the next?” Raphael suggested slyly, gesturing toward Claire and I. I momentarily forgot about the terrifying aspect of the experience and looked at Claire, surprised. Claire and I? Together? Alone? It was stupid, and childish, but I was up for it.
“Are you sure? You can go with Derek if you’d like, Raphael, I can just go with Lizzy,” Claire told him, and I tried not to look like I was visibly deflating.
“No, no,” Raphael said smoothly, “you two go on ahead.”
“Yeah,” Lizzy interjected quickly, gesturing toward the old couple waiting inside the cabin. “Don’t keep them waiting, we shouldn’t take up too much time or Derek will have trouble driving.” I grimaced and opened my mouth to correct her, but she continued. “You two go together and we’ll get on the next one.” Lizzy gave Claire a meaningful look that I didn’t understand and Raphael didn’t catch.
There was a flash of intuition in Claire’s eyes, and she quickly nodded. “Sure thing, we’ll see you guys soon.” Claire gave the man by the door our tickets and she turned to me. “Come on Derek.” Claire reached for my hand, and settled for grabbing my elbow when she saw that my hands were buried in my pockets. Again, I had goosebumps.
My bemusement over their small exchange disappeared as soon as soon as she pulled me onto the gondola and I heard the sound my footsteps made on the thick-but-not-thick-enough glass floor. I managed to fall gracelessly into one of the two open seats and quickly ripped my hands out of my pockets so I could clutch the edges of the seat. I swallowed thickly as the nausea hit full force.
The gondola started moving as soon as the doors were closed and Claire sat down next to me with a thoughtful look on her face that I barely registered. I was glued to the spot, overwhelmed by the racing of my heart, and the floor of the cabin gently swaying beneath my feet.
“Lizzy and Raphael are nice together, aren’t they?” she murmured.
I tried to focus on what she was saying but the deadly pointed treetops I could see coming closer and closer, looking very eager to impale me were remarkably distracting. I made myself stare at her face instead, trying to only see her and not the view behind her. “What?”
“Lizzy and Raphael. They’d be a good couple.”
I groaned, momentarily distracted from the sickening churning in my stomach. So that’s what the look Lizzy gave her earlier meant. Oh.
“It’d be so great if they got together.” Claire sighed happily, confirming my suspicions that she was crap at reading people. How she thought Raphael’s pigheadedness would complement Lizzy’s impatience I couldn’t guess. Not to mention her astonishing blindness to my every romantic effort.
She turned to smile at me, and did a double take when she registered the expression on my face.
“Derek! Are you okay?”
I don’t know why I did it, but I blurted out, “I have a fear of heights.” I wanted to kick myself as soon as I said it, and probably would’ve turned away from her if not for the fact that her face was the only thing distracting me from the view around us.
Her eyebrows flew up. “What?”
I fought to keep my breathing even. “I’m not phobic or anything, but I don’t handle heights very well.”
“You…” Claire blinked, and then jumped out of her seat. “Holy cow! I can’t believe this, are you alright?! What can I do?”
Seeing her standing in the swaying gondola cabin made my head spin even more, so I grabbed her hand and pulled her back down to her seat.
“I’ll be fine, it’s okay.”
She looked at me with concerned eyes, and twisted the hand I was holding so that she could intertwine her fingers through mine. Stupidly, I glanced away from her face, and down at our hands where the glass floors were clearly visible.
“Oh, Derek!” She said when I swayed as the edges of my vision began to go black.
“I’m fine,” I gasped, squeezing my eyes shut, and gripping her hand.
“Yes! Just keep your eyes closed, and don’t look at anything, okay? You can’t get dizzy if you don’t look at anything.”
I kept my eyes closed, and nodded. It worked for a second, but I could still feel the swaying of the cabin.
“Just keep talking,” I told her breathlessly. “It helps my heart slow down.”
“Oh! Okay, I can talk. Okay. Um. Okay. What should I…? I mean… Wait! I can sing. I’ll sing something. Is that okay? Or is it better if I talk?”
I fought a smile, and said, “Anything you want.”
Oh, my love, for the first time in my life…
I knew she was a good singer, but it still took me by surprise when she started singing. I opened my eyes and stared at her as she sang through an old Beatles song that I didn’t think anyone listened to anymore. The old couple who had been politely ignoring us even stopped their sightseeing and watched her. We were all transfixed.
Everything is clear in my heart
I feel life, oh, I feel love
Everything is clear in our world
I didn’t even realize it when the song came to a finish, and was shocked when she stopped singing and silence filled the cabin.

“How’s the heart?” she joked, smiling at me.

I grinned, having entirely forgotten the gondola ride. “It’s just fine.”
She looked into my eyes. I felt her hand in mine, and my heart started to race for an entirely different reason.