by Zuri Day
“What would happen if—”
“Jonathan Michael Joseph, if you don’t stop acting like you’re a sugar cane plantation worker with a family who doesn’t care about you and not a multimillionaire, I’m going to take you over my knee. Can you please make up with your wife and stop acting like a scared little boy. If you haven’t noticed, we’re not struggling anymore.”
“How did you know that’s what I’ve been wrestling with?”
“I’m your mother. And, Jon, when I worked myself to the bone, it was because I had to. You’re doing this because you think you have to prove something to people. Baby, you don’t need anyone’s approval.”
“You’re right,” he said. “I’m going to make things right with my wife.”
“You better. Now, I’m going back to sleep. Merry Christmas.”
After hanging up with his mother, Jon headed into the grocery store and bought the contents for a special Christmas dinner—spaghetti, marinara sauce, and a crusty loaf of bread. Jon wasn’t shocked by the strange look he got from the cashier when he checked out. Heading to the car, he turned his phone off and made his way back to his wife.
Lola dried her eyes and cursed herself out quietly for not keeping a landline in the house. She needed to call Jon. What if he’d gotten in an accident? It wasn’t as if he knew his way around Asheville. Suppose he’d gotten stuck in a ditch or something. She refused to let herself believe that Jon had left her. She wasn’t going to allow the thought that her husband actually chose business over their marriage enter her mind.
“Oh, Nona,” she whispered. “What am I supposed to do? I love him so much and I just don’t understand what’s going on.” Lola closed her eyes, as if she expected to hear her grandmother speaking to her. Silence. She stood up and headed outside. At least she had her snow.
Lola had only been outside for a few minutes before seeing the rented SUV coming up the street. Her heart quivered when she saw Jon pull into the driveway. But what was she going to get when he got out of the car?
“Lola,” he said, then rushed over to her. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her cold lips. “I’m an idiot and thank you for staying with me when you could have and probably should have left.”
“Jon, I was never going to leave. I just . . .”
“Deserve to be treated better than I’ve been treating you lately.”
“I’m sorry about the whole phone thing. You’re right, your mother—”
“My mother is fine and you were right, the world didn’t stop spinning because I was out of pocket. Let me get the groceries out of the car; then we’re going to get those trees.”
“And gifts, heartfelt gifts.”
He kissed her again. “If I have your forgiveness, then that’s all the gift that I need.”
“Let’s forgive each other and just start over,” she said.
“And burn those divorce papers?”
“Yes,” she said with a smile. “We’re going to burn those divorce papers.”
Jon patted Lola on her behind, then dashed over to the SUV and grabbed the bags from Earth Fare. Lola opened the front door and led Jon to the kitchen. As he unloaded the groceries, she couldn’t help but smile.
“Christmas dinner?” she said.
“Taking it back to our roots,” he replied with a toothy grin. “So, where are we getting these wonderful trees from?”
“Sandy Hollar Farms. I hope they are still open and there is a selection available.”
“I know, it is kind of last minute, but we’re going to find trees if I have to buy an ax and cut them down myself.”
“That,” she said with a laugh, “I’d like to see.”
“Don’t think I wouldn’t,” he said. “But there’s one thing I need before I live out my Paul Bunyan fantasy.”
“What’s that?” she said, stifling a yawn.
“The same thing you need. Some sleep.”
Lola nodded in agreement. “Yes, let’s go to bed.”
The couple slept for a few hours before heading to the tree farm. Lola felt refreshed and excited and Jon was just happy to see his wife smiling again.
It took about forty minutes to drive out to the farm. When they arrived, there was a man at the gate of the farm looking as if he was about to lock it up. Jon rolled the window down. “Sir, how are you?”
“Good,” the farmer said. “You made it just in time, I was about to close things down. Weatherman calling for more snow.”
“Please tell me you have at least two trees available,” Lola called out.
“I have one six-foot Fraser fir available.”
Jon looked at Lola. “One is better than none,” he said. She nodded in agreement.
“You want it?” the farmer asked.
“Yes,” Jon said. “Just let me know where I need to pull up.”
“Just head left to the guest shop,” he said, then pulled the walkie-talkie from his hip and told someone to get the last tree ready.
“Are you going to be okay with one tree?” he asked while they waited.
“It’s time for new traditions, right?”
Jon winked at his wife. “Next year, we’ll plan ahead. Two trees and all the lights you want.”
She smiled brightly. “I like the sound of that.”
After the tree was loaded and tied to the top of the SUV, they headed back to Asheville and Lola directed him to downtown Asheville.
“No mall?” he asked when he pulled onto Lexington Avenue.
“No, you really don’t want to be in the mall today. Besides, there are some wonderful shops around here. Very unique.”
They got out of the SUV and headed into the Tupelo Honey Cafe after both of their stomachs started rumbling when they smelled the aromas of food wafting from the place. Holding hands, Jon and Lola felt as giddy as newlyweds. Her heart swelled with warm feelings of love and happiness as they walked down the snow-covered sidewalk.
“This is a cute place,” he said when they were seated.
“I’ve always wanted to come here,” she said. “When I saw this place on the Food Network, I was so proud to be from Asheville.”
“I feel like Asheville is a magical place,” he said as he reached across the table and took her hand in his. Just as he was about to bring her hand to his, his phone rang. Lola felt her stomach turn to lead. Was this going to be more of the same? Or was he serious about changing?
“Just let me make sure it isn’t important,” he said as he pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID display. “It’s Langston. I’m going to put him on speaker.”
She nodded and smiled as Jon answered the phone. “What’s up, bro?” he asked.
“Did you and Lo make up?”
“Yes, we did,” Lola said. “Hey, Langston.”
“Great, glad y’all are there together—that way I won’t have to repeat myself.”
“What’s going on?” Jon asked, his brows furrowing in concern and confusion.
“I think I’m in love,” he said. “I mean, you know that sappy-ass feeling you said you got when you first met Lola? I guess it’s real because when I look at Tash, I—”
“Tash?!” Jon and Lola said at the same time.
“Langston,” Jon said. “You can’t be serious.”
“And,” Lola added, “you can’t treat my friend the way you treat women!”
“Trust me,” Langston said. “I know she isn’t like any other woman in the world. She’s special, I know this.”
“How do you know that?” Jon said. “And like I told you when we arrived in Aspen, she’s not going to fall for your charming ways.”
“And she didn’t. Had the nerve to kick me out of the suite after giving me the most amazing kiss I’ve ever had.”
“Oh my God,” Lola groaned, remembering Tashmir’s Christmas fling edict. “Langston, did . . . ?”
“No, we went to dinner and talked about how insane you two are. Then we had a few drinks and—”
“Stop,” Jon said. �
�Save the details.”
“There are no details. I just thought this must be that silly feeling you had when you saw Lola in Orlando. Why have y’all been keeping this woman away from me? She could be the one.”
Jon looked at his phone again to make sure he was really speaking with his brother because the man on the phone sounding like a lovesick puppy could not be Langston “love ’em and leave ’em” Joseph.
“Are you guys back in Miami? I mean, we need to have a dinner party or something so that I can spend some more time with her.”
“Where is Tashmir now?” Lola asked, wishing that she had her phone so that she could call her friend. She needed to hear her side of this love story Langston was spinning.
“She went back to Miami. Lola, you have to give me her address.”
“No!”
“Come on, sis. I flew across the country to help your man win you back. Can’t you hook a brother up? It’s Christmas.”
“If she wanted you to have her address, she would’ve given it to you, Langston,” Lola said. “Why didn’t she?”
“Something about my reputation,” he said with a sigh. “Come on, man. I need to see her again and if you don’t help me, I guess I’ll do it on my own.”
Jon looked at Lola and shrugged. “This is not the Langston I know,” he said.
“Jon, please tell her, this ain’t me. I’m sitting up here buzzing like a bumblebee because that’s the kind of effect she had on me. Not only is she beautiful, but she’s smart and sexy. I didn’t think they made sisters like her.”
“Let me talk to her and find out . . .”
“You know I have your phone,” Langston said. “And if I was another type of dude, I’d just get her number out of your phone and call it a day.”
“My phone is locked.”
“Your passcode is your wedding day, Lola. You might want to change that.”
Jon and Lola laughed, since that was his passcode on his phone as well. “Langston!” she said.
“I’m just saying, you and my brother have this great love, why is it so hard to believe that I want the same thing?”
“Because you’re the one who said you never wanted our corny existence!” Jon said.
“And didn’t you say I’d meet someone who’d knock me off my feet one day? Well, that day has come. Do I need to call Mom?”
“Whoa,” Lola said. “He’s playing the mama card. This must be serious?”
Jon shook his head and fought back his laughter. “Hold on, Lola is going to have to check things out and maybe we’ll call you back.”
“Maybe? I will blow up your phone until you do.”
“I’m turning my phone off,” Jon said.
“Wait. What? You’re turning your phone off?”
“Yes, I’m spending Christmas with my wife and I don’t want any interruptions.”
Lola beamed at Jon’s declaration. “I’ll give Tash a call and text you,” Lola said. “But let me give you the warning you gave me when I married your brother. If you hurt her, there will be hell to pay.”
Langston chuckled and Jon looked dumbfounded. “You threatened my wife?”
“Yeah, and? I’d say it worked, didn’t it?”
“Goodbye, Langston.” Jon hung up the phone, then handed it to Lola. “That dude.”
“He loves his brother. But this thing with him and Tashmir, I’m shocked.” She dialed her friend and waited for her to answer.
“Hello?”
“Tashmir, what have you done to my brother-in-law?”
“Oh. My. God! Lola, keep that man away from me!”
“Why?”
“He scares me. I know he’s a player, I know he is everything I said I was never ever going to deal with again, but every time I saw him in Aspen, all I wanted to do was make naked snow angels with him and I don’t like snow. By the way, are you and Jon over your insanity?”
“Yes, but we just got a call from Langston and he’s coming for you.”
“I can’t do it,” she said. “I-I . . .”
Whispering, Lola asked, “Did you sleep with him?”
“God, I wanted to. But, no, that’s why I came back to Miami. Which was stupid because he’s back, too. Rachel said he has been in the café all morning asking about me and when I’m coming in.”
Lola scratched her forehead. Rachel, one of Tashmir’s employees, was a beautiful girl who Langston would’ve been all over in the past.
“Wow. You know that’s big, right?”
“I don’t get it. You’ve said this guy has women all over the world, why should I take the chance to get my heart broken again?”
“What happened to your Christmas fling, Tashmir?”
“You know I was full of it!”
“I think you should take a chance and see what happens. At least have dinner with him.”
Jon shook his head and reached out for the phone. “Jon wants to talk to you,” she said.
“Hey, Tash,” he said when he took the phone from Lola. “I don’t know what you did to my brother, but keep doing it. His nose is wide open. Lola’s going to give him your number and then we’re turning the phone off. You and Langston can work this out between the two of you. I’m cheering for you. Bye.”
“Did you just hang up on my best friend?” Lola asked when he put his phone in his pocket.
“Yep, and”—he took the phone out of his pocket and shared Tashmir’s contact information with Langston—“the text has been sent. We’re done with that. Now, let’s eat, then go decorate our tree.”
“I think I like this side of you,” she said.
“What side of me?”
“You not trying to micromanage everything,” she replied, then leaned over the table and kissed him.
After eating sweet-potato pancakes, eggs, and turkey bacon, Lola and Jon headed out into downtown Asheville to buy lights and ornaments for their tree. Jon was impressed by the trendy and artsy shops in the area. He could see why Lola loved this place. And when he walked into a boutique that sold women’s clothing and funky jewelry, he saw a wooden bracelet with a heart carved into it. He immediately saw Lola wearing it—and nothing else.
“Hello, sir,” the clerk said when Jon picked up the bangle. “That’s a nice piece, right?”
“It is. One of a kind, just like the woman who’s going to wear it.”
“Yes, it is one of a kind. The artist who made it carved it from a tree that used to be at the Biltmore but during a storm last summer, that hundred-year-old oak was toppled. It was the first tree that had ever been decorated as a Christmas tree at the estate.”
“Really?” Jon’s eyes lit up. This bracelet would give Lola the Biltmore tree that she and her grandmother always had. “Can you wrap this up for me?”
“Of course.”
Across the street, Lola placed Jon’s gift in the bag with the Christmas decorations and smiled. She couldn’t wait until he opened it. But they needed to get back to the house and put up the tree. It was amazing to her, the way things had turned around. She thought her Christmas was going to be full of tears and sadness, now she and the man she loved more than life were in Asheville. And there was the snow—real snow. She had to smile, since this was the second time he’d given her the white Christmas that she loved.
“Hey,” Jon called out from across the street. “Want to spend Christmas with me and eat spaghetti?”
“Mmm, sounds like a good idea? Got a tree?”
“And coffee!”
“I’m sold,” she said as she rushed over to him. Jon took her bags from her hands and placed them in the back of the SUV.
“Merry Christmas, baby.”
“Merry Christmas.”
Lola woke up in Jon’s arms with a smile on her face. Last night had been amazing. They’d decorated the house like a couple of twelve-year-olds, tossing tinsel at each other, stringing the lights haphazardly across the tree.
“This looks like a bigger Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” Jon had said with a l
augh when they’d finished decorating.
“Nona always said I had a knack for that.” The tree had been leaning a little to the left and when Jon went to straighten it, the whole thing toppled over. Lola laughed as Jon struggled to push the tree upward. She’d crossed over to him and gingerly lifted the other side of the tree. Looking at him covered in tinsel and pine needles, she wished that she had her camera. “Aww, you’re cuter than the tree.”
“Come here, woman,” he’d growled and pulled her against his chest. Jon nibbled at her bottom lip and slipped his hands underneath her blouse.
“Ooh, that’s itchy!”
He stroked her again, leaving little green flecks on her skin. “That’s just dirty!” she exclaimed.
“Then let’s get clean. I peeped that claw foot tub upstairs, so old school.”
“First, you have to get all of this Christmas debris off,” she said. She’d tugged at his sweatshirt while he unbuttoned her jeans.
“You know, I hate skinny jeans.”
“What?”
“Oh, they look great, but they are hell to take off,” he’d said with a wink. Once he’d stripped her down, Jon quickly kicked out of his pants and tossed his sweatshirt across the room; causing a trail of glitter and tinsel to shoot across the room like a rocket.
Then, Jon scooped up his wife, clad in black lace underwear, and bounded up the stairs. To Lola’s surprise, the tub had been filled with water, and candles surrounded the claw foot tub.
“Wow,” she’d said. “This is nice.”
Jon smiled and stepped into the warm water as Lola peeled off her underwear. “You are so beautiful,” he said as her drew her into his arms when she stepped in the tub. Kissing her lips gently, he slipped his hands between her thighs and stroked her wet valley. Her lips puckered as his fingers danced against them. And when he’d slipped his index finger between her wet folds of flesh and pressed against her throbbing bud, Lola howled in delight as Jon seemingly wrote his initials on her most intimate part. Trickles of desire streamed down her thighs as Jon dropped to his knees and replaced his finger with his hot tongue. Lick. Suck. Nibble. Lola gripped his head and thrust her hips forward. Her orgasm came in quick waves, her knees shivered and quaked so badly that she could barely stand. Backing away from her and sitting in the tepid water, he pulled Lola on top of his erection. “Ride me,” he moaned.