“That’s so cute.” I let out a long breath, relaxing off all the tension I hadn’t even realized I’d had. “All right. Two secret girlfriends. We’re on the same team.”
“And Seth is definitely on the other team,” he said. “Just… be careful around him. He’s really upset Lisette is spending all her time around you, and at this rate I won’t be surprised if he starts accusing you of actually stealing her away romantically.”
And then, as if on cue, my phone rang. I grumbled, pulled it out of my pocket, and my heart jumped when I saw it was Lisette. “Sorry, one second,” I said, answering. “Lisette? Are you okay?”
“No,” she said, and my stomach dropped. “I… can you come pick me up?”
“What? What happened?” My hands felt cold, even the one holding the hot cocoa. “Christ, never mind, I can guess what happened. Uh… my car isn’t here. Are your keys—”
“Dammit, I forgot. I have my keys on me. I’ll… get an Uber or something.”
“Do you need my car?” Henry said, and I almost dropped the phone.
“Wait, wait.” I pulled the phone away and turned to Henry. “Could I? Lisette needs a ride.”
“I could drive if you wanted, or you could just take it.”
“Oh, bless your heart, Henry, you’re an angel.” I lifted the phone back up to my ear and said, “Lisette? I can get you. Henry’s letting me use his car.”
“Henry?”
I shifted. “Uh… yeah, we’ve been bonding, made a pretty quick friendship over here. That doesn’t matter. Where are you?”
“What are you doing with Henry?”
“We’re not flirting, if that’s what you’re worried about, sweetheart. You know I only have eyes for you. Now, where are you?”
Henry laughed quietly. I heard Lisette swallow.
“I’m at the Macy’s. Thanks. Oh, and… Alice?”
“Yeah?”
She sighed. “You were right. I should have listened to you.”
My heart sank. I was really hoping I wouldn’t be right. “Don’t worry about it, Lisette. I’ll be right there for you.”
I hung up, and Henry was holding out his keys once I put the phone back in my pocket. “I have a feeling you want to pick her up without me there,” he said. “Never liked being a third wheel.”
“Henry, I don’t know how to thank you enough for this.” I took the keys. “I’ll fill your tank.”
He waved me off. “It’s an electric. But don’t tell my parents, they’d call me a hippie and flip out. Just watch the range.”
∞∞∞
Thankfully, the range was plenty. I pulled up into the Macy’s parking lot, still completely not used to the way it accelerated and decelerated, and I texted Lisette. She came rushing out before long, and I got out of the car and caught her in a quick hug before letting her in.
“I…” she started, once we were both sitting in the car, the heat running full blast. “I don’t know what to say. To say it went badly would be an understatement.”
I sighed. “I understand why you did it, but…”
“I’m just scared of people finding out about us!”
I flinched. Lisette didn’t normally raise her voice. “Lisette—”
“And now Henry knows too?” She shook her head. “I guess everyone’s going to know before long. How did he even find out?”
I reached over, put a hand on her arm, but she just stiffened more. “Lisette, it’s okay. Henry was wonderful about it. He just…”
“He just what?”
I swallowed. “He said he’s never seen you so happy around someone else.”
She cycled through surprise, guilt, and embarrassment before she looked down. “I… I’m sorry, Alice.”
I leaned across the center console to pull her into a hug. “C’mon. We’re both a part of this. We’re both trying our best. I want to fight for you.”
“It’s so stupid we have to fight. And that sometimes trying to fight for us takes us in the wrong direction.”
“I know. I know.” I ran my hand down her back. “But we’re going to make it work. What did Seth do?”
She looked down. “I ended up telling him I was seeing this guy at my university, and that I’d never told my family because they wouldn’t like him. He started grilling me for details, told me I should be with him instead of that guy. You know, all those things you said he would do.”
I sighed. “I’m not proud of knowing how that guy works. Are you okay? What happened from there?”
She blushed. “I… got mad.”
“You got mad?” That was something I’d never seen before.
“I threw my drink on him and walked out.”
I choked. “You did what?”
She looked away and didn’t say anything. I broke down laughing.
“Lisette,” I gasped between laughs, tears forming now. “You are the best.”
“That is not—I lost my temper!” She straightened her back. “I don’t like it! It is not the best!”
“You know he deserved it. Oh my god, I wish I could have seen the look on his face.”
“Stop it,” she mumbled, and I sat back into my seat, trying to kill the laughter.
“I wish I had the guts to do something like that.”
She sighed, looking out the window, and for once I actually had the presence of mind to feel bad. I pulled the car back out, back onto the road, everything silent. The engine was too quiet in this thing.
“Sorry,” I said after a minute. “I shouldn’t have laughed at something serious for you.”
“I hate that I have such a volatile temper.”
I shook my head. “He was provoking it. I can only imagine you were doing everything in your power to not get mad. And that he was doing everything in his power to get you mad.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I feel awful.”
I reached over, lay a hand on hers. “I’m sorry, Lisette.”
“I’m sorry it happened like this.” She hung her head. “That I didn’t listen, that I came out here anyway, and in the end I needed you—”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Still, she was quiet all the way home. I couldn’t help the gnawing feeling in my gut, the feeling I’d done something wrong myself, but I didn’t know what. What I was even supposed to do.
Chapter 14
Lisette
I was in a mess the whole evening. I felt like I could barely even look at Alice.
I’d made a stupid decision and screwed it up, gotten her involved, and made her feel bad about it too. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be with her, and I was wasting it being… like this. At least it’d be a first if I was the one to drive her away, instead of me getting bored and moving on from someone.
I was just terrified that one day I’d lose my temper with Alice. And god, if I was willing to do anything to avoid that.
We fell asleep in awkward, uncomfortable silence, not touching each other, but when I woke up Alice was clinging to me from behind again, and honestly it was a relief.
I don’t know how long I lay there, but I relished it. The feeling of Alice’s arms around me, her chest rising and falling against my back. My girlfriend. My sweet, precious girlfriend I wasn’t good enough for.
Eventually, I realized I had no idea how I’d talk to her when she woke up, so I slipped out of her arms and got up, taking an extra-long, extra-hot shower. I felt like a cooked chicken getting out and putting on one of my nice dresses again, spending longer than I needed to on makeup, and heading down to the kitchen, where I ran into Alice’s dad, a big rectangle of a man who didn’t have much hair left, and I think was named Derek?
I knew he was more of a family guy, so I expected a couple quiet good mornings, but instead he lit up like he’d just been plugged into the wall.
“Lisette! Well, a very good morning to you. This is such a surprise!”
I blinked fast. He had the same excited speech as Ali
ce. “Good… good morning, Mr. Richmond.”
He grabbed the coffee pot like it was a long-lost friend and poured so hard it sloshed. “Oh, please. You can just call me Derek. I never get a chance to talk to you. Don’t tell me. It was milk, with a little bit of chocolate syrup, right?”
I stared. “I… I’m sorry. Did I meet you before and forget about it?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. Nothing like that. But I’ve practically been best friends with you secondhand. You know, my baby girl Alice just never stops talking about you.”
I did my damn best not to blush, but I don’t know how well it turned out. “She—really?”
“So, did I get it right on the coffee?”
I nodded slowly. “What…”
He had my coffee ready in record time, going so fast he got chocolate on the counter and, after stirring the coffee, threw the spoon across the room into the sink so hard it bounced back out and landed on the counter, but he didn’t even notice, flying across the room to me with my coffee in hand and thrusting it into my hands.
“Here! And a great morning to you. You know, normally it’s Alice down here in the morning. And you know what we do, normally we sit and talk about you.”
I was blushing now. I’d lost. “I—you just talk about me.”
“You know, that girl, she’s normally a little ball of fire. Doesn’t get too close to anyone. Something special about you, Lisette. Think it’s great you and she have gotten so close. She’s brightened up so much she’s actually talking to her old man in the mornings.”
I looked down at my coffee and back up at him. “I don’t know if I’ve really done too much—”
“Now, don’t be modest. You’ve done something to make my daughter comfortable here, and I’m really grateful for you. Let me make you some breakfast, too. What’s on your mind, anyway? You look glum. I’m a pretty good listener. How do you like your eggs?”
I was starting to see where Alice got her ideas of how many thoughts should be in a sentence. I took a while to sort out everything he said before I said, “Sunny-side up. Thank you. It’s—”
“Is it about Alice?” He was already making eggs, cracking two of them at a time.
I winced. I wasn’t sure where to go with that. I just don’t think I’m a good girlfriend to your daughter? I didn’t think that would go over well. I sank slowly into a seat. “I guess so. I just… I have a temper sometimes. And I lost that temper with someone yesterday, and when Alice tried to help me, I treated her unfairly, and I just… don’t know how I’m supposed to be better.”
I had no idea why I was talking about this. Was I really sitting here trying to get relationship advice? From the guy whose daughter I was secretly dating?
“You know, Lisette, I think that’s wonderful,” he said, putting down a plate of eggs and toast in front of me. My mind boggled. How had he even cooked them that fast? Sure enough, they were done perfectly. He sat down across from me with his own plate, which was even more concerning that he’d made two plates in that time, and only then did I realize what he’d said.
“Wonderful? That I snapped at Alice for trying to help me?”
“That you showed her some of your bad side, and you acknowledge it was wrong, and now you have a chance to make it right and improve things between the two of you.”
I squinted. “And that’s wonderful?”
“Of course! I can tell you two are for life already. It was inevitable at some point you’d show some of your flaws, and the fact that you got it out of the way now is a great thing. And she still likes you anyway, doesn’t she?”
I pursed my lips. “I guess so. She’s kind of too good for me.”
That was not the right thing to say. That was something you said about a partner. But he just smiled softly. “Lisette, you should hear the way that girl talks about you. Everything she says is Lisette this, Lisette did that, Lisette and I were going to do this, I hope Lisette is interested in that. She thinks you’re exactly the friend for her, no matter what you think.” He gazed off into the distance, a nostalgic look on his face. “You know, you seem closer than my buddies way back when, too. You seem like the kind of friendship that only comes along once in a lifetime. You two almost seem more like me and my wife. There really is a lot of love there.”
I focused intently on my food, hiding my reaction with a mouthful of toast dipped in runny egg. “I-I guess.”
“I was really scared she wasn’t going to be happy at this event,” he said suddenly. “She never seemed to fit in right at our family Christmas parties. I thought this would just be worse for her. But she’s been so happy with you. You know, I see you being like a daughter to me, too.”
God, I swear he was doing this on purpose. “You know… thanks, Derek. I really appreciate the talk. And the food.”
“I’m a pretty good cook, huh?” He thrust his chest out. “Used to be hopeless, let my wife do all the cooking, but one time she got sick and had to spend two weeks in bed recovering, and I had to whip myself into shape not to starve. Turns out all that motivates me is eating.”
I found myself laughing in spite of myself. “I think Alice could be more like you. She never eats enough.”
“See? I knew you were a good friend for her.”
I bit back a laugh. Good friend. Right.
∞∞∞
“Shall we?” Alice said, holding her hand out. She’d been waiting outside the studio, and she offered me a radiant smile as I stepped up to join her.
“You seem excited today,” I said. I still felt wary—I hadn’t talked to her, really, since the aborted date yesterday.
“Always excited for another dance.” She took my arm and led me in through the studio doors, and stopped at the sight of all the kids arrayed around in a half-circle just staring at us.
They were waiting for something. It was honestly creepy.
“Good morning,” Alice said, closing the door behind us. “I see you’re waiting for a prank. What is it? I wanna see the worst you’ve got.”
Some of them kept glancing up. I looked up and I almost jumped at the sight of mistletoe hanging directly over the door.
“How did you even get that up there?” I asked, looking at the girls. They giggled, and Alice looked slowly up until she found it.
I scanned the crowd until I found Rhys, who was wide-eyed. She shook her head when I made eye contact with her.
Seriously? If Rhys wasn’t behind this, then how many of them were catching onto us? Kids were dangerous.
Alice laughed. “Oh my god, that’s the cutest prank. But how did you get it up there? You all had better have been careful.”
“I’m sure they know, mom,” I said, and some of them giggled.
She spun me around and took me by my hands and I felt my heart soar. “Well,” she said, “you know what this means.”
My stomach dropped. “Wait—”
She leaned in suddenly and gave me a big, exaggerated kiss on the cheek, and no matter how much of a played-up joke it was, I still felt my insides flutter at the feeling of Alice just suddenly kissing me in front of a crowd. The kids cheered, and for my own sake I just did my bloody well best not to go red.
“There,” Alice said, pulling me out from under the mistletoe. “Now, who’s next? Hope you didn’t think I was going to let you just pull this on us. Who’s going next? There’s going to be a lot of kissing in here today!”
I felt the tension melt out of me as Alice drove the kids into a giggling fit, and before I knew it the studio dissolved into chaos, people chasing each other every which way. There were a few little cheek-kisses here and there, and before long we were all flush from running and laughing, settling back into our places.
“You’re okay now, right?”
I turned to the voice—there was Rose in her frilly little red dress, looking up at me with her hands clasped to her chest.
“You aren’t fighting with Alice anymore, right?” she said, and I knelt to her level, dropping my vo
ice.
“It’s okay. We… we weren’t fighting. There were just some other things and we were both a little frustrated, but we weren’t fighting. We understand we have things that are hard sometimes.”
She nodded, her eyes still wide.
“So,” I started, “was the mistletoe your idea?”
“We all love how much you and Aunt Alice love each other so I thought maybe if you kissed and made it better—”
“Are you talking about me?” Alice loomed over us and Rose jumped. “I’ll have you know, if there’s gossip, I want in.”
“There’s no gossip between me and Rose, Alice,” I said, standing up.
“Oh, sure. I know how devious you can be.” She laughed, slapped me on the arm, slipped her hand down to mine and pulled me in close. “Now, let’s start dancing.”
So we danced, and so did the other pairs. There was giggling every time someone passed under the mistletoe, and more than one time someone would stop their dance to kiss and get back to dancing, rushing to catch up.
I couldn’t help it any longer, so I whispered while we were dancing, “Alice, I’m sorry about yesterday—”
“You already apologized. I don’t hold it against you.”
“I mean, I shouldn’t have acted so closed-off after you picked me up. I just—I’m afraid.”
She went a couple more steps before she said anything. “Afraid of what?”
“I’m afraid I’ll end up losing my temper with you at some point… like that. And I’m scared I might say something awful and hurt you at some point.”
She laughed. I wasn’t expecting a laugh, of all reactions. “I doubt that, Lisette. Do you really have a problem with irrational anger, or do you just have a problem with sometimes all the walls you put around your emotions come down and you actually show the way you’re feeling?”
I frowned. “You think I’m closed off?”
“Not necessarily…” She twirled around me, closing her eyes as we moved to the music. “I think that sometimes you feel like you’re supposed to be closed off. Like the emotions you feel aren’t allowed into the world.”
“Do you think I’m… unemotional?”
The Christmas Ball Page 10