12 Naughty Days of Christmas 2020

by Megan McCoy

  Monica stood up, dropped her napkin on the table and moved to leave the dining room, while everyone but Dominic and Tracy applauded, trying to coax her forward.

  “Monica, baby, I came all this way to tell you I love you. I get it, you needed to get one last fling out of your system before we get married. I will never understand why you would lower yourself to get with a waiter, but it doesn’t matter, because I know you will do whatever it takes to earn back my trust and forgiveness,” Joseph said into the microphone looking pointedly at Dominic.

  Quickly snatching the microphone from Joseph’s hand, Dominic passed it and the champagne to one of the servers standing close by, as he sized Joseph up, still glaring at him. “I don’t know what you intended to prove by coming here, but it ends NOW! The only thing, that is keeping me from beating the breaks off of your simple ass, is the fact that I refuse to let anything or anyone else ruin Christmas for her!” The whole room heard Dominic hiss, because he was still so close to the server holding the microphone and champagne.

  Monica turned to watch in horror as Dominic shoved Joseph off of the platform forcibly, pushing him towards the nearest exit. Her first thought was Dominic was going to lose his job because of her! This had to be a nightmare!

  “Is he fucking serious? How full of himself can this man be?” Tracy snapped, moving over and grabbing Monica by the hand. “EVAPORATE! Damn! Why are you even here? She didn’t want your ass in Colorado, she didn’t want your ass in Florida, and she damn sure doesn’t want your raggedy, controlling ass now, ruining her vacation and shit!” Tracy shouted over the loud whispers, before dragging Monica out of the dining room and away from the curious and judgmental glances being cast her way.

  Monica rode up to her suite in stunned silence, the look on Dominic’s face frozen in place in her mind. When they got to her door, she walked inside and went straight to the bathroom. She locked the door behind her, then broke down and cried.

  She hated Joseph, truly hated him! She wasn’t sure how to feel about her mother at the moment just yet, but hate had crossed her mind for her too. One thing she did know though, once she was calmer, Jackie Isaacs was about to get an earful, she had butted into her daughter’s love life for the last damn time, period!

  “You know good and well that you and Dominic are going to have good laugh about this later. Now he knows what a thirsty, delusional, control freak your dreaded ex is and why you dropped his ass months ago, so everything will be fine,” Tracy called out knocking on the bathroom door.

  Monica lifted her head from her knees, and crying even harder, she stood up and opened the bathroom door. “The look on his face, Tracy. He wanted to kill Joseph! I can’t get over the fact that it wasn’t enough for Joseph to come here and embarrass me, but he had to embarrass Dominic too? What in the actual fuck? This is his job, his livelihood! What if he gets fired because of all of this?” Monica sobbed, walking into Tracy’s waiting arms.

  “Shh, it’s okay, Mon, it’s okay. I seriously doubt he’ll get fired. I’m not sure most people even know he was talking about Dominic, so let’s not put that out in the universe. Besides, I asked Julius about the fraternization policy here when we first arrived, and he and I started hanging out. He told me getting involved with the guests is somewhat frowned upon, but not grounds for immediate dismissal. I guess there were a lot of instances where the guest pursued employees and when they were rejected, had them fired by saying they were coming onto them. So, they changed the rule to a case by case kind of thing,” Tracy explained as he walked Monica back into the bathroom and wet a hand towel. “Right now, you need to calm down and reach out to Dominic and make sure he’s okay. He knows none of this is your fault, so he’ll listen to what you have to say.” Tracy pressed the warm towel to her face.

  “I hate that man, I truly hate him! Why did he come here? Why did he have to come here like some crazy ass scorned lover and do all of this? Wasn’t it enough that I couldn’t go home for Christmas because of his ass? No, he just had to come here and ruin my Christmas here too!” Monica wailed, breaking down again.

  Tracy pulled her back into his arms and rocked her back and forth slowly and let her cry it out. “Here, why don’t you lay down and get some rest? I’ll be in the living room when you wake up. You can call out if you need me, okay? In the meantime, I’ll see if I can get hold of Julius and see how Dominic is holding up,” Tracy told her when her sobs were reduced to soft hiccupping sounds.

  “This is so fierce! Thank you, Monny!” Tracy said, putting the black and gold silk scarf Monica had bought him around his neck.

  After sending a message to Dominic, asking him to please let her know he was okay, and to consider meeting with her later so they could talk, she had cried herself to sleep, still not believing any of this could have happened to her and on Christmas! She had slept fitfully.

  Monica smiled weakly, sipping the cup of peppermint tea Tracy had made her when she woke up and suggested they open their gifts to each other. She still had yet to open one. Her heart just wasn’t in it. She had hoped what happened in the dining room was just a nightmare, but the sympathetic look on Tracy’s face the minute she walked into the living room, told her otherwise.

  “I saw you looking at it the other day, so I decided to make it your souvenir present. I think it will look really nice with that black Hugo Boss suit of yours with the gold pinstripes,” Monica told him, before looking out the window at the palm trees. It was actually cloudy and overcast for the first time since they arrived in Barbados, even the weather felt her pain.

  “Good looking out, Sis. Are you going to open your gifts or do you want to wait?” Tracy asked, taking her cup back to the kitchenette area. “I understand if you want to wait until later, you’ve been through a lot today and its barely freaking noon!”

  Monica looked at the tree and felt her eyes filling with tears again, Dominic’s family’s ornaments shined in the sun beaming through the balcony doors, the hummingbird at the top of the tree sent rainbows to various areas in the room. All of it reminded her of Dominic, and being in the room, after all they’d shared the other night, and not knowing where his head was at right now was too much. She felt that she needed relocate.

  “Tray, would it be okay if I moved down to your suite with you until we go back home next week? I just don’t want to stay in here by myself, especially with Joseph’s stupid ass hanging around,” Monica explained, picking up the wrapping paper Tracy had discarded on the corner of the table.

  Tracy stood in the kitchen, watching her with his eyes narrowed. “On one condition. You can’t use my suite as a place to hide out in for the rest of our time here. You have to talk to him, Sis,” he told her with a stern look.

  Monica nodded and sat back down still holding the wrapping paper. “I know I do, I have to give him back his ornaments,” she said with a shrug.

  Tracy’s eyes narrowed at her again and he opened to his mouth to speak, but then snapped his mouth shut. “Oh, hell no. I’m not fooling with you today, Monica. Give me like forty-five minutes so I can straighten up, and make room for your dramatic ass.” He shook his head and quickly left her suite.

  Monica had her small suitcase open on her bed, trying to decide which clothes she wanted to move down to Tracy’s suite and which ones she wanted to leave in her suite until she packed to go home. Her thoughts were all over the place and making it hard for her to think straight, plus she had a headache from all of the crying she had been doing.

  She had turned her phone off again, because her mother was once again calling her back to back. She knew if Celeste really needed her, she would just call Tracy like she had that morning.

  She leaned down on the side of the bed to reach the sandal she had kicked off when she came to lay down earlier, when someone knocked on her door. She stood up looking and feeling annoyed, she knew good and damn well Tracy wasn’t rushing her right now.

  She tossed her sandals in her suitcase before going to answer the door, pausing for a sec
ond when the thought that it could be Joseph crossed her mind. Well, if he was that stupid to come to her room after the shit he’d pulled that morning, then he deserved every angry word she was getting ready to toss his way.

  Monica snatched the door open with an evil look on her face, ready to get in Tracy or Joseph’s mix and came up short, her mouth snapped closed.

  Dominic was leaning on the doorframe with a small gift-wrapped box in his hand, a serious look on his face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t text you back, I was still helping out in the dining room. Then one of the dishwashers cut her hand on a broken glass, so I stepped in to help with cleanup after the party too,” he explained, walking in her suite without her really inviting him in.

  Monica let the door go and took a few steps backwards, trying to read his face: he wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t seem angry either. She wanted to rush up and hug him and explain everything, but she wasn’t sure it he would let her.

  He closed the door and walked towards the living room, he paused as he glanced in the bedroom. “Going somewhere?” he asked, looking at her while pointing to her open suitcase on bed.

  “Yes, I mean no. Well, with the dreaded ex lurking about, I was going to move down to Tracy’s suite just in case he decided to pop up,” she explained, with her heart pounding in her ears. She was so happy he was there, but she was still nervous about his reaction to everything that had happened and what he was thinking.

  “Oh, you mean pop up somewhere besides the dining room, in front of God and everybody, telling our private business?” he said evenly, giving her a resolute look.

  “Ouch. And yeah that’s exactly what I mean.” Monica moved past him and sat on the couch with her hands in her lap. “I’m so sorry he did that, I forgot about our Dropbox accounts being linked, and even then, I had no idea he would be stupid enough to show up here, cause a scene, and insult you or anyone like that.” She risked a look in his direction.

  He was still standing close to her bedroom door, looking down at the floor. “How much of what he said is true, Monica?” he asked, looking over at her, she could see his jaw working as he clenched his teeth with basically the same look he had given her in the dining room.

  “Other than us having a ten year relationship, none of it is. Our relationship has been over since May.”

  “Even the part about you lowering yourself to have fling with a waiter? And doing whatever it takes to earn back his trust and forgiveness?” he asked, his jaw still working, even though his expression had softened.

  “Especially that. I’ve never felt that way about you, Dominic, and I never will. I fell in love with you, not your occupation,” she stated vehemently, standing up and moving across the room to stand in front of him.

  “Then that’s all that matters. I don’t give a fuck about anything that idiot said. I just know I wanted to break his fucking jaw for embarrassing you like that! I still might, if I figure out where he went after I tossed him off of the property,” he snapped. Taking a deep, calming breath, he passed her the small box he had been holding. A shadow of his bright smile skirted across his face. “Merry Christmas, Monica.”

  Monica took the small gift and looked up at him, frowning a little in confusion. “I thought my hummingbird was my Christmas gift,” she said, turning the box over and over again in her hands curiously.

  “It was, at first, but then I found something else I just knew you had to have,” he said with a wink. “Open it,” he ordered, folding his arms, looking down at her.

  Monica slowly untaped the pretty, bright green wrapping paper. Unlike Tracy, who ripped into gifts with gusto, she liked to take her time and savor the moment. When she had it open, she looked from the gift to Dominic in shock and surprise at the velvet box in her hand. A diamond solitaire with a filigree design and a tiny hummingbird on one side winked up at her in the sun-brightened room.

  “Marry me. And before you start to argue the obvious, I need you to know I don’t care about any of that and I know deep down you don’t either. Sometimes love just happens when it happens and it happened with us. So, we are just going to roll with it and enjoy the ride,” Dominic said, taking the ring from the box and putting it on the ring finger of her left hand.

  Monica’s vision began to blur as she looked from the ring to Dominic with tears in her eyes. “I was so worried that after what happened this morning you’d get fired and it’s all my fault,” she tried to explain, until he reached out and touched her lips with his.

  “Never mind all of that. That idiot purposely tried to ruin your Christmas, and I wasn’t about to let that happen. This morning is over and it’s in the past. What matters is me and you right now. Will you marry me, Monica?” he asked, pulling her into his arms.

  Monica took a deep breath, and for once, thought about nothing but her own happiness as she slowly nodded. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you Dominic. I love you so much.” She put her arms around his neck.

  He picked her up off of her feet and kissed her softly. “I’m not a waiter, by the way. Or even a bartender, as a matter of fact,” he told her, when they broke apart and he gently placed her back on her feet.

  “Like I already said, I don’t care what your occupation is, all I care about is you,” she responded, looking up at him lovingly.

  “I get that, but I still think you might want to know what it is your future husband does,” he countered, kissing her softly on the forehead.

  “Fine, if you aren’t a waiter or a bartender, what are you, Dom?” she asked, smiling up at him, shaking her head. “I mean besides beautiful and amazing, of course.”

  “I’m a resort owner. I am a partial owner here and I own the resort my parents left me too,” he told her proudly, before kissing her again.

  “Impressive, and I still don’t care, as long as you are happy doing it. Now, when do you want to get married?” Monica asked when her lips were free again, really warming up to the idea of becoming Dominic’s wife sooner than later.

  “Is New Year’s Day too soon?” he asked her with a serious face.

  She smiled so big and bright, her cheeks instantly began to ache. “New Year’s Day is perfect, just like you are, Dom,” she answered bringing her lips to his.

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  Monica looked up as the bell above the door sounded, she was smiling before they even made eye contact. She knew it was Dominic, he was the only one who walked into her and Tracy’s office ten minutes before closing every day. They took their last patient at three and everyone on the island knew that after hour dental emergencies went to the clinic about ten miles down the road.

  Since they opened their practice a year ago, Dominic always made sure he was free to drive her home from work, because he wasn’t comfortable with her walking, even if they only lived fifteen minutes away. He was even more adamant about it since she’d recently told him she was expecting their first child.

  Shortly after they were married, Dominic had traveled back to the States with her so he could meet her family. Naturally, everyone was shocked that she came back from Barbados with much more than just a tan.

  Initially, her mother had thrown a complete fit and vowed she would never speak to Monica again; that lasted about six months. Now, two years later, Jackie was as captivated by Dominic as Monica was.

  Every time her mom and dad came for a visit, she would pull Monica to the side and whisper, ‘I get it’ in her ear, when she saw her daughter and Dominic together and felt the love between them.

  However, no matter how much her mother loved and approved of Dominic, old habits die hard, and her mother just couldn’t resist bringing up Joseph from time to time, and how he was doing. He quickly got over Monica and married his twenty-two-year-old dental hygienist and they now had two kids and were expecting their third. Monica always reminded her mom that she wished Joseph the best and harbored no ill will towards him. Honestly, she just wanted everyone to be as happy as she and Dominic were.

  Once she r
elocated to Barbados, she realized how much she missed dentistry. And even though she didn’t have to work, she got her license there and opened a practice near their house. It wasn’t too long afterwards that Tracy announced he had applied for a dual citizenship and was coming down to work side by side with his bestie. When he heard the news, Julius was even happier than she was.

  Celeste was the next to pack up and relocate. She’d finally found her calling in life. She was now helping Dominic run the family resort. She was so good in fact, that he was able to take a backseat from the day to day issues and work primarily behind the scenes.

  Every year for the last two years, they’d spent Christmas at Bougainvillea and hydro biked back to all of the caves and waterfalls that were the backdrop to their lightning-fast romance. It was a tradition they planned to share with their children, and hoped to keep as long as they were physically able to.

  “If you keep showing up here, people are going to start thinking something is going on between you and Tracy, you know that right?” Monica teased coming from behind the desk and putting her arms around his neck, her small protruding belly made it even more difficult than it usually was.

  “Let them talk. I love who I love,” he said, wrapping his arms around her, picking her up off of her feet, and kissing her before gently placing her back down on the ground.

  “I’m curious, who do you love again?” she asked, tapping her chin thoughtfully, looking up at him, her smile shining as brightly as ever.

  Dominic reached down and palmed her belly. “Only you, my beautiful Hummingbird, you and our wonderful family,” he answered, his warm smile causing his eyes to shine brightly.

  “I love you too, Dominic, today and always,” she answered, thanking God, and even Santa, yet again, for giving her everything she never knew she wanted for Christmas.