New Year's Kiss

by Lee Matthews

  “It’s not stupid,” Lauren said. “I think it’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done.”

  “Really?” I said, and couldn’t help smiling.

  “Well, today’s the last day of the year,” my grandmother informed me, as if I wasn’t already very well aware. “Have you completed it yet?”

  I shook my head and speared the tiniest pancake. “There are still three things left on there.”

  Loretta put her spoon down and leaned in, giving me a conspiratorial grin. “Then we’d better get to it. Where do we start?”

  I was about to pull the list out of my bag when a shadow fell over the table. We all looked up, and my jaw dropped. It was Tarek and Damon. Tarek looked determined, and Damon was staring at his feet.

  “Tarek?” Loretta said. “Is everything all right?”

  “No, it’s not, Mrs. Sachs,” Tarek said. “And I’m sorry to interrupt your family meal. But there’s something Damon wants to show you.”

  * * *

  • • •

  It was a video. That much Lauren and I got before Loretta shut the office door in our faces and we were forced to sit outside with Frank while she met with Tarek, Damon, and her lawyer.

  “What is going on?” Lauren asked. “Why is the lawyer in there?”

  “Um…yeah. There’s something I should probably tell you,” I said, and sat down on the small couch.

  By the time I was done with the story of Christopher’s accident and his accusations against Damon and the lawsuit and the fact that Christopher had bailed and wasn’t speaking to me, Lauren’s jaw was on the floor.

  “I knew it. I knew there was something about that kid that I didn’t like,” Lauren fumed.

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, then blinked. “Wait. Which kid?”

  “Damon!” she said, throwing a hand toward the closed office door.

  “You thought he was cute! You thought I should make out with him!”

  “Yeah, but I also thought he was shifty.” She narrowed her eyes.

  “Okay, remind me never to trust your taste in guys,” I said.

  Then the office door flew open, and the lawyer came striding out, cell phone to his ear. “Yes, I’d like to speak to Phillip Mosure, please. It’s about the Evergreen Lodge case.”

  We were still smelling his aftershave when Damon shouted, “You’re firing me?” from inside the office.

  “Yes, I’m firing you,” Loretta said. “We’ll mail you your last paycheck in the new year.”

  Damon muttered something else, then stormed out, walking right past me and Lauren without so much as a glance. A couple of seconds later, Tarek came out, looking sheepish, and stepped over to Lauren.

  “Sorry about all this.”

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re not fired, too, are you?”

  “No. At least, not at the moment.” He looked chagrined. “I gotta take Damon home. Call you later?”

  She nodded, and he gave her a quick kiss, then left.

  “Girls! Come in here, please!” Loretta called out.

  We exchanged a wary look, then went inside.

  Loretta was behind her desk, looking shell-shocked.

  “Ummm…what just happened?” I asked.

  “What just happened was Tarek and Damon showed me video of Damon shoving your friend Christopher clear off one of our trails and laughing when Christopher slammed into a tree,” Loretta said, somehow keeping her voice completely even. “He has been fired, and the lawyers will hopefully come to a settlement. One that, if there’s anything they can do about it, won’t bankrupt this place.”

  “Oh my God, Loretta. Is that even possible?” Lauren asked, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth.

  “It’s possible. But I’m hoping cooler heads will prevail. This is unbelievable. Truly.” She turned her back to us for a moment and her shoulders shook. Was she crying? My chest felt so tight I could burst.

  “You know this isn’t your fault, right, Loretta?” Lauren said.

  When Loretta turned around again, her eyes were wet, but her makeup was intact. “It is my fault, Lauren. The people who work for me…I’m responsible for them. I stood up for Damon. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. But now, well, he’s been proven guilty.”

  “What made him show you that video?” I asked.

  “He’s had some issues, it seems, with acting out. Tarek said something about his parents being away all the time.” Loretta shook her head. “Maybe this is his way of trying to get their attention. It’s a shame. I feel sorry for the boy.”

  “For Damon?” I blurted out.

  Loretta looked me in the eye. “Nothing is black and white, Tess. And appearances can be deceiving. You never know what’s going on in a person’s life unless they tell you themselves. Remember that.” She gathered her purse and took a deep breath. “Well. Shall we?”

  “Shall we what?” I asked, confused.

  “We still have your list to complete, Tess,” she said. “And I believe I just made a promise to you girls to spend more time with you, did I not?”

  Okay, was she out of her mind? She just had a huge bomb dropped in her lap and she wanted to go get my hair cut?

  “Loretta, no. You’re going to have so much to deal with. We don’t have to—”

  “Nonsense. There’s nothing I can do at the moment but wait for the lawyers to call me. In the meantime, I will need a distraction.”

  “Seriously?” Lauren and I said at the same time.

  “Seriously,” Loretta replied, giving a nod toward the door. “Now let’s do this thing.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Chunks of hair fell on my shoulders and back, then slid off the slippery black cape I was wearing and tumbled to the floor. The stylist had turned my chair away from the mirror when I’d gasped at the first snip, and hadn’t turned me back since, but I could still feel it happening. And, though I was mostly keeping my eyes squeezed shut, every now and then I’d sneak a peek at the floor. There were mountains of hair all around the chair. Mountains. How could all of that possibly have come from one person’s head? From my head?

  “This is amazing,” Lauren said, forcing me to open my eyes and look at her. I immediately wished I hadn’t. She had my phone, and was training it on me, walking from one side of my face to the other.

  “Are you filming this?” I demanded, distraught.

  “Trust me. You’re going to be so glad I did,” she said with a laugh.

  My cheeks burned. Was that a mocking laugh? Or a delighted laugh? Which was worse? I mean, mocking would be bad, but maybe she was delighting in the fact that I was going to look like a freak when all of this was over.

  “Would you please stop?” I asked.

  She must have heard the desperation in my voice, because she did. She sat down in the chair next to Loretta’s a few feet away and started scrolling through the pictures on my phone. Loretta wasn’t currently in her chair, though, because she was busy in the next room, alternating between socializing with Marika—the older and very retro-looking woman who owned this chic salon—and speaking urgently into her phone. I could only imagine she was consulting with her lawyers.

  “Excuse me, but that’s my phone,” I said to Lauren.

  “Yeah, and you’ve taken more pictures in the last week than you have in the last month,” she said, not even looking up. Her finger kept flicking away. “Guess that’s what happens when you get a life. Aw! Look at this one!”

  She turned the screen toward me, displaying the selfie Christopher and I had taken after our successful paper airplane experiment. There was an acidic feeling in my stomach.

  “Oh, he’s cute,” said Glen, my stylist, pausing momentarily in his work. “Boyfriend?”

  “Um, no,” I said.

  “Christopher should be her
e for this,” Lauren said. “And I’m sure he’d want to hear about the whole Damon-being-fired thing. I still can’t believe that jackass.”

  “Have you heard from Tarek?” I asked, half wanting to know and half wanting to simply change the subject. “Do you have any idea why he showed Loretta that video?”

  “He didn’t tell me. But he seemed pretty pissed off at Damon after the whole toilet paper incident.” Lauren shifted in her seat. “And I may have told him how Damon shoved you to the floor.”

  “You did?”

  “Uh, yeah I did. You’re my sister and he should know his cousin’s a jerk.” She stopped scrolling on my phone momentarily. “But you know what? He didn’t seem all that surprised. Just mad. My guess is he forced Damon to come clean somehow.”

  “Wow. Kinda harsh, making your own flesh and blood turn themselves in,” I said.

  Lauren grinned. “Tarek has a good moral compass. It’s one of the reasons I like him.” She blushed, and it was almost too sickening to witness. It hit me that I was jealous. She had an actual relationship happening, and I had zip.

  “So…what exactly happened with Christopher?” she asked. So much for changing the subject.

  “I told you this morning,” I said. “He left. He went to visit his cousins yesterday and he’s not coming back.”

  “Are you sure he’s not coming?” Lauren asked.

  “That’s what his parents told me.” I was going to lift my shoulders, but worried that would result in my ear getting clipped by the shears. “I think he’s mad at me—for going skiing with Damon. And I got the feeling he wasn’t exactly comfortable hanging around the lodge while his parents were suing the place. I guess he didn’t like me enough to stick around.”

  Lauren gave me a You know better than that look.

  “What?” I said.

  “Um, please. That boy is totally smitten with you, Tess. It was written all over his face every time he looked at you.”

  “That sounds promising,” said Glen, resting a hand on my shoulder.

  “Well, even if he did like me, I’m never going to see him again.”

  “That’s a shame, because with this haircut, you’re going to look like a supermodel,” Glen told me. Then he put down his shears and picked up a blow dryer, effectively cutting off any further conversation.

  And my sister started to scroll on my phone again. I decided to close my eyes and pretend that none of this was happening.

  After a few minutes of blowing and using some sort of weird gel stuff to muss my hair, Glen stepped back to look at his handiwork.

  “Amazing,” he said. “A complete transformation.”

  Lauren looked up, and her jaw dropped. She stood up, lifted my phone, and snapped a picture, then did the same with her phone.

  “Loretta! You have to see this!” she called.

  My grandmother appeared at the doorway, her phone against her ear, and her free hand went up to cover her heart. “I have to call you back,” she said into the phone, and ended the call.

  “Is it that bad?” I asked.

  Glen tsked.

  “You look gorgeous!” Loretta said. “Glen, turn her around so she can see herself!”

  Glen spun my chair, and there I was. Except it wasn’t me. It was an older me. A more sophisticated me. A me with cheekbones and incredibly stunning blue eyes. Where had those come from?

  “He’s right, Tess. You look like you could be in the pages of Vogue.”

  Then Lauren started to tap away at my phone.

  “What’re you doing?” I asked, panicking.

  “I’m sending the picture to Christopher,” she said. “He should know what he’s missing out on.”

  * * *

  • • •

  “Where shall we go for lunch?” Loretta asked once we stepped out onto the sidewalk. My whole neck felt cold and tingly, and I turned up the collar on my coat. I was going to have to become a scarf person with this haircut.

  “Is there a Japanese place nearby?” I asked.

  “Yes! We can go to Yuki. And it’s so close we can even walk there.” Loretta turned and started to walk down the hill. Lauren and I fell into step behind her, Lauren basically gaping at me the entire time.

  “Will you stop?” I asked, trying not to smile.

  “I’m sorry. It’s just…it’s amazing. You look like an entirely new person.”

  I took out my phone—noticing that there were no messages from Christopher—and turned the camera so I could see myself. My reflection was really going to take some getting used to. It was unbelievable how much the shape of my hair had changed the shape of my face.

  “You should FaceTime Mom. She won’t even know who you are.”

  “Oh my God, you’re right. Let’s do it!”

  Loretta paused at a street corner, waiting for a light to change, and I quickly called my mother, holding up the phone so she could get the best view of the new me.

  “Hi, Tess. What a lovely sur—”

  She stopped and her face froze. For half a second I thought the call had dropped. But then she screamed.

  “Oh, my goodness! You cut your hair!”

  “I did! What do you think?”

  “Sweetie, you look beautiful!” my mother cried, tears in her eyes. “Oh, honey, you look so much older.” She covered her mouth with her free hand. “Oh, I wish I’d been there.”

  I felt a pang, but tried to shove it aside. “I know. I’m sorry. I just felt like if I didn’t do it today, I was never going to do it.”

  “You don’t need to apologize. Was this on your list?”

  “Yep!”

  My mom waved a hand in front of her face, trying to fan the tears away. “I just love it so much. I can’t wait to see it in person.”

  “Well, you will in a couple of days,” I reminded her. “Thanks for giving me the confidence to go through with it,” I added, my heart full.

  “Anytime, kiddo. Boys are going to fall all over themselves for you with that haircut.”

  “Whatever, Mom,” I said, and rolled my eyes with a laugh. Loretta had already crossed the street and was waving us over, standing in front of the Yuki sign. It was the corner restaurant on the opposite side, and I could see the long counter where people lined up to select their sushi rolls, just like in a movie. “I have to go. We’re going to try sushi!”

  “What!? No, you are not.”

  I was crossing the street as my mother said this, and Lauren shot me a confused look at my mom’s alarmed tone.

  “Don’t even joke about that,” Mom said.

  “Wait…what do you mean?” I asked. “Joke about what?”

  “Tess Sachs, you cannot have sushi.” My mother’s face was pale and stern. “You’re allergic to shellfish!”

  “I’m what?”

  I looked at my grandmother. “Well…of course you are, dear,” Loretta said, stricken. “I assumed you wanted to come for some chicken teriyaki or something like that. You can’t have fish. Or, at least, any fish that might have come into contact with shellfish.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Lauren grabbed the phone from me and looked at my mother. “Are you seriously telling me that Tess is allergic to shellfish? How do I not know this?”

  “Forget you! Why do I not know this?” This was insane. My mother wasn’t with me twenty-four hours a day. What if I had tried lobster at a friend’s house? Or eaten the gross crab cakes at school?

  “Why do you think we never, ever eat fish? Never go to seafood restaurants?” my mother said. “You girls know this.”

  “But we’ve had fish sticks…right?” Lauren asked, looking completely confused.

  “Yes, but only ones that are safe for shellfish allergies,” Mom said, clearly exasperated.

  Lauren and I locked eyes over the phone. I threw up my han
ds and she shook her head.

  “Mom, neither of us knew this,” Lauren said.

  I grabbed the phone back again.

  “Okay, will you girls stop doing that?” my mother said, hand to her forehead. “You’re making me dizzy.”

  “Mom, I am sixteen years old. How have I gotten through my entire life not knowing I’m allergic to shellfish?”

  “I honestly have no idea. You really don’t remember that time you ate a lobster roll on vacation and your whole face swelled up and you could barely breathe? We had to give you, like, a bottle of Benadryl before you even started to go back to normal.”

  “That was because of the lobster?” I asked.

  “What did you think caused it?”

  “I don’t know, Mom! I was six!”

  She took a deep breath and let it out. “Well, I’m sorry if the message didn’t get through to you, sweetie, but you absolutely cannot have sushi. There’s no way to guarantee there’s no cross-contamination. I’m so glad you called me.”

  “I wouldn’t have let her eat it, Abigail!” my grandmother called out.

  “Thank you, Loretta!” my mother replied, but raised her eyes to the heavens on the screen. “Tess. Go get a burger for lunch,” she told me. “And call me later so we can say Happy New Year.”

  I swallowed hard against a suddenly dry throat. “Okay, Mom. Love you.”

  “Love you, too, kid. And you really do look beautiful.”

  “Thanks.”

  I hung up the phone and shoved it away. Every muscle in my body sagged. I trudged to the nearest bench and sat down heavily. Both Lauren and Loretta walked over to stand in front of me.

  “Well, that’s it, then,” I said. “Even if I gave myself a pass on number five, I can’t finish the list. I can’t try sushi.”

  “Can’t you simply revise the list?” Loretta asked.

  I unzipped my backpack, slipped the list out, and handed it to her. “It’s laminated.”

  “But the list really only exists in your mind, doesn’t it?” Loretta asked. “Why not just come up with something to replace numbers ten and five? Which, by the way, I disapprove of mightily, I might add. Whyever would you want to make out with some boy you barely know?”