A Dream for January (Short Story)

Today is the day.

Today is the day. Today, July the ninth, two thousand and twenty-five, I am officially tired of my short stories collecting virtual dust on Google Docs. Today, I’m making a Substack account, and I’m going to start sharing them. I am also planning on making YouTube videos of myself reading them, so stay tuned. I love to write, and I accepted that fact during my senior year of high school in a creative writing class when I wrote “A Dream for January,” a love story about two young people with different dreams. For an assignment, we were required to submit a short story to a local writing competition, so I tried my hardest to make something worth reading. After two class periods and a little bit of editing, I was finished. After reading the finished product, I believed in myself a little bit more, and I believed I may have something to offer this world after all, in the form of writing. I was not expecting to win first place. When I did, and I got paid for it, I was in. I kept writing, and I’m still writing. Below is the piece that started it all. Grab a coffee, and enjoy.

A Dream for January

by J. Will Cairns

February

I met January in February. She was skiing at Jake’s Mountain. She only had a day pass and I knew she was not a regular. When I saw her sitting alone at the coffee bar, I decided to help her out, trying not to think about how she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

“I don’t think you want the regular coffee from this place,” I said to her.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” she said shyly.

“Two cappuccinos, please,” I said to the barista Jake (no relation).

“Oh, you don’t have to–” she started to say.

“Trust me, it will change your life,” I interjected, taking a seat.

Jake set the mugs in front of us.

“On the house,” Jake said with a smile. I ignored him, handing him a 20.

“What’s your name?” she asked me.

“Jack,” I said, “They named the mountain after me, they just spelled my name wrong.”

She laughed, flashing a beautiful smile.

“I’m January,” she said.

“What made you decide to ski alone?” I asked her.

“My friend canceled on me at the last minute, but I still wanted to come. I’ve only been skiing a few times.”

“Well, January, I happen to be skiing alone too. Would you like to join me when we finish our coffee?”

“I’d love to.”

May

By May, I knew I loved her. We were shopping at an outdoor mall in the city she lived, about an hour away from my house.

“You know you don’t have to drive down here every time, Jack,” January said as she took a bite of her pretzel.

“You know I don’t mind,” I said with a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to feel bad, it’s a nice drive. Plus, I wouldn’t want your car to break down. With all the problems it’s been having—”

She kissed me. “Thanks,” she said, smiling.

I grabbed her hand and we kept walking.

“You only did that so I’d shut up,” I said jokingly.

She laughed and squeezed my hand, pulling me into a perfume store. She wanted me to help her by picking out a scent that I liked. I didn’t know where to start, so she narrowed it down to about 8 for me to pick from.

“That one,” I said on the fourth one I smelled.

“Try the other ones just in case.”

I tried the others, but the fourth one was the one.

“Ocean Dream,” I said, reading the label out loud.

“Thanks, Jack,” she said as she started to walk up to the counter to pay.

At that moment, something occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of asking her before.

“Wait,” I said.

“Yeah?”

“What’s your dream?” I asked her.

“What?”

“If you could do anything, what would you do?” I clarified.

“I want to own a beachside restaurant in Florida.”

“Have you ever been to Florida?” I asked.

“No, but if I could do anything, that’s what I would do.”

“That sounds nice.” I smiled.

She held eye contact with me for a few more seconds, and then went to buy her perfume. I didn’t even try to buy it for her because I knew she wouldn’t let me.

I was glad she didn’t ask me what my dream was.

August

“This place is amazing,” January said, admiring the beachside view.

“It will be yours one day,” I promised.

She had still never asked me what my dream was. Even if she did, I didn’t know if I would tell her the truth.

“Do you know what you want?” she asked, watching the waves crash on the white beach.

It took me a second to realize she was talking about the food. “Uh…Oh, the Cuban sandwich sounds good,” I said.

“Two of those,” she said to the waiter.

January kept staring at the waves, mesmerized. I kept staring at her eyes, mesmerized. She looked back at me and blushed.

“I feel like a celebrity when you look at me like that,” she said, still blushing.

“You are to me,” I said, trying not to sound corny.

She laid her hand on mine from across the table, grabbing it tight. It was her way of saying You too.

The waiter brought the food out, and we enjoyed it as the sunset turned the waves to gold. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I remember feeling more alive than I ever had.

I could live like this, I thought.

March

I married January in March. We decided on a pretty small ceremony on the beach in front of our new restaurant, with our closest friends and family. My parents flew down from New Hampshire, and hers from Massachusetts. It couldn’t have been better.

My dad said something to me at the reception that I will never forget. “You’re doing it right, son,” he said. I don’t think he knew how much that meant to me.

January and I were the last ones there. We had already decided we would clean up the next day. After all, it was our beach.

We were walking down the beach together, and her wedding dress was glowing in the moonlight.

“What’s your dream?” she finally asked me.

“I used to want to own a ski lodge,” I admitted.

“That sounds nice.”

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