by Cassie Rocca
“You seem to forget that in less than one hour she might well be with someone and not sad at all.” Eric tried to be positive, but added. “However, I’m still not sure it was a good idea to go along with his plan.”
“Of course! For you no man ever deserves a second chance!”
“And for you, on the contrary, they all deserve a second, a third – even several chances!”
“She just left.” Liberty’s voice on the phone interrupted their argument. “She said she was going straight home, but she may change her mind, I can’t predict it. And yet, on the other hand, you deserve to wait in the snow for a long time!” She listened to a brief answer and said, with a half-smile, “Good luck, then.”
“What did he say?” Zoe asked curiously.
“That freezing under the snow is the thing that scares him the least at the moment.” Liberty shrugged. “Well, we did our part. Now we can only wait and hope all goes well. Let’s go home.”
Zoe nodded and grabbing her coat, with a naughty smile asked Eric, “Do you have plans for tonight? My family reunion will be deadly boring without a friend.”
*
The taxi was moving slowly in the snow, but inside it was warm and the driver friendly. On a different occasion Clover would enjoy the situation and would chat to this nice man, but this evening she wasn’t in the mood to enjoy being sociable.
Despite her everyday efforts to look positive and cheerful, she couldn’t find one single reason to smile sincerely. It wasn’t the first time she had spent Christmas Eve by herself, but usually she was able to invent something fun to help with her loneliness. But in the last two weeks her melancholy side had taken over… blame it on Cade Harrison!
She had known from the beginning that it couldn’t work between them. Yet, even if her rational side was convinced of it, her heart still had a different opinion.
Silly, romantic human muscle! She thought.
She needed to do something to change herself, to stop being so naïve. Hope, daydreams, Christmas magic… they were all wonderful things, but completely insubstantial. She had to become more realistic. Every year she hoped for something that never happened. Yet she couldn’t give up her optimism. How many more shattered illusions could her heart still endure?
She thought of Cade’s beautiful face, illuminated by his deep, blue eyes. After he left, her heart had broken into a million pieces. Further illusions? Not any more.
The notes of Christmas – Baby, Please Come Home, coming from the radio, made her sigh. The sensual voice of Michael Bublè seemed to echo all her thoughts. Christmas, the snow, the lights and the music, all lost their magic without that special loved one. Her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t want to cry in front of the taxi driver. Actually, she didn’t want to cry at all…
Walking slowly along the path, towards her gate, she thought, is it possible to fall in love in such a short time? Given how intense her emotions had been with Cade and how painful the abandonment felt, her answer was yes. Her days with him had been unique. Moments that had suddenly given a deep meaning to all her past hopes and daydreams. She thought that it was exactly what she had waited for her whole life. For the first time she had felt a sense of fulfilment.
Now she knew what love was. Just to be brushed by it had filled her with joy. It would be hard to find hope, enthusiasm and optimism again, but she couldn’t give up. She had another year before next Christmas. Maybe by that time she would be ready for a new wish.
“It was wonderful while it lasted,” she told herself, lifting up her face to the snowflakes. She would keep these memories, as something precious and rare. After all, Christmas too is brief, lasting only a few days, but we don’t love it any the less for that.
She looked at the soft lights around her windows and pushed the gate, too deep in thought to realize it was already open. She had almost arrived at her front steps, when a figure suddenly appeared in front of her. She jumped with fright and immediately thought he was a burglar. She had just read in the paper that robberies were very common during the Christmas holidays, and she was a woman living alone.
“Go away or I’ll call the police!” she shouted. Then suddenly her anger made her reckless. Blindly swinging her purse at the figure, trying to deliver some heavy blows, she cursed, “Damn it! It’s Christmas! Don’t you have anything better to do? As if it wasn’t already hard enough to go back to an empty house. You could have saved yourself some bruises, you won’t find anything valuable in my house!”
“I’m sorry, but you’re mistaken. There’s you.”
Two strong, warm hands held her wrists to stop her. But it wasn’t necessary, since that deep and slightly amused voice had already calmed her down.
“I knew I took a risk coming back here. But I sure as hell didn’t expect to be attacked!”
With her heart racing, Clover tried to distinguish his features in the dark.
“Cade?”
He moved closer to the light in the window so she could see him, “Yes.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I was waiting for you.”
Incredulous and emotional, Clover stared at him, then she mumbled, “I had plans to be out for dinner tonight. You were risking being out here in the cold for hours… maybe all night!” Then she saw the amusement in his eyes and suddenly understood. “Liberty!” She exclaimed. “You made a deal with her… right? I will kill her!”
“It hasn’t been easy to convince her. Believe me.”
“Convince her of what?”
“To leave you alone on Christmas Eve, so you would come home…”
“To find you on my door step scaring me to death!” Clover moved back. Yes, she was incredibly happy to have him in front of her. It seemed as though her immense desire had somehow made him materialize in her garden. But at the same time, she was also deeply confused. She didn’t want any more illusions.
Cautiously, she asked, “Why are you here?”
“For many reasons, but I don’t know how to begin…”
Clover crossed her arms, “Begin with the most important.”
“I love you.”
She remained completely still, open mouthed.
“I wanted to tell you this last, but if I have to follow things in a certain order of importance…”
“Do you… love me? Are you sure?” She stuttered, feeling a roar in her ears.
“I would like to say yes. But honestly I’ve never felt like this before, so I don’t know what I should feel… I trust my instincts.”
“You’ve never felt like this… like this, how do you mean?”
Cade bent to pick up something on the ground, and then, all of a sudden, everything lit up! Every tree, fence, and walls all around shone with thousands of tiny colored lights.
“Like this!” Cade’s voice was breaking with emotion. “You light my life up, Clover O’Brian.”
Clover was without words. She kept looking around, amazed, all those lights reflecting in her big eyes. She felt a lump in her throat.
“I hope this gives you some idea of how I feel… When my mother suggested that I do something – something concrete to show my feelings for you, Christmas lights were the first thing that came to my mind. I know that you don’t trust my words.”
Clover bit her lip. “I’m sorry for what I said that day. I was out of my mind… I couldn’t think straight.”
“I couldn’t think straight either, when I tried to diffuse the gossip from that stupid article. It was just an attempt to protect you. Believe me.” Cade took her chin in his hands to look into her eyes. “Everything was so new and exciting between us. I just wanted to enjoy our feelings without anyone getting in our way. You told me you hated this part of my life, and I tried to keep the paparazzi away from you. I didn’t want to diminish you and what was happening between us.”
“It doesn’t matter any more…”
“It does matter. I should have reassured you immediately, but when you got so angry, you tu
rned into a wildcat! It’s hard to stop you. Your words hurt me more than you can imagine. I was confused and I didn’t react quickly enough.”
“I didn’t believe a single word of what I said.”
Cade caressed her face, looking at her with an intense, deep gaze. “Also when you said that it couldn’t work between us?”
Clover hesitated and Cade came closer to her. “I believe it will work. I have had a full, eventful life, but I’ve never felt so real and complete since I met you. I want to have you by my side all the time. I know that my life is difficult and chaotic, but I will do everything possible to make things easy for you.”
“Wow…” Clover swallowed, with tears of joy in her eyes.
He seemed to misinterpret her reaction, and pulled her even closer. “Please, trust me. I’m not acting.”
“I believe you… it’s that… it’s too good to be true.”
“But it’s all true. Ask my mother!”
“Your mother?!”
“Yes… she lectured me like she never has before! She couldn’t see me staying home like a hermit, feeling sorry for myself. She even threatened to send you Zack as a gift, if I kept being so stupid…”
Clover giggled, somehow pleased to feel jealousy in his tone. “I should take that offer as a compensation for the two weeks of hell you gave me!”
Cade held her hands behind her back pulling her towards him, and before kissing her, he said, “I won’t leave you any time to think about it!”
Clover opened her lips slightly as she melted into his kiss. She still couldn’t believe it. She was afraid she would wake up from one of her daydreams and find herself in the snow, hugging a tree! But that warm strong body, that familiar scent, and the taste of those lips were too real to be just a fantasy.
They both opened their eyes at the same time, as they looked at each other. “You’re the most unexpected gift I could ever ask for,” she whispered to his soft lips.
Cade pretended to feel relieved. “I’m glad to hear that, since I didn’t have time to find a real present for you! I just arrived this morning and started to organize everything… but I have a little thing for you,” he put a hand in his pocket and took out a snow globe. Clover looked at it and burst out laughing. Inside the globe there was a Santa Claus in a bathing suit surfing big blue waves surrounded by green palms. On the wood base was written, Merry Christmas from Los Angeles.
“You didn’t forget,” she whispered, holding the souvenir to her heart.
“I haven’t forgotten anything, Clover,” he embraced her tightly. “However, I promise, I will soon have a real gift for you.”
Clover smiled, looking again at the thousands of little Christmas lights all around her. “Ok, this time I will forgive you!”
“There is another thing I need to tell you…” Cade pointed at his friend’s house, where he was a guest just two weeks ago. “Philip had his alarm activated and we are under the surveillance of the security camera. It has filmed everything.”
Clover widened her eyes, “Everything?! Do you mean all my embarrassing slip-ups, my horrible look in the morning when I bring the trash out…?”
Cade laughed. “No! I asked him to activate it only for tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because this recording, if you agree, will end up in the hands of the journalists.” Cade’s voice became husky, “I want everybody to know the woman I want for my partner, to share my life. It’s going to create some major chaos, I warn you. There will be paparazzi lurking here every day and we will be followed for a while. Yet, gradually, they will lose interest and their curiosity will fade away – then we’ll be able to have an almost peaceful life. I promise you.”
“Oh my god! I love Cade Harrison and he loves me… I think I’m going to faint.”
He went over to her to kiss her again. They remained in an embrace for a long time, surrounded by colorful lights and snowflakes. They could hear the bells chiming from afar.
Clover was over the moon. After all, the magic of Christmas hadn’t disappointed her. Cade was in love with her and he would announce it to the whole world. She would pinch herself later to be sure she was really awake!
Then, all of a sudden she remembered something. “Cade?”
“Yes?”
“We need to edit out a part of the surveillance video before sending it to the papers,” she buried her face on his shoulder.
“Why?”
“You’re not going to let the whole country know that I beat you up with my purse, right?”
Cade’s laugh resonated through the quiet snow-covered street.
Epilogue
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT AT CHRISTMAS!
This time is official: Cade Harrison is in love!
News has just arrived here at our newspaper this morning by the way of a surveillance video sent by an anonymous resident of Staten Island. The short film shows the Prince of Hollywood and the beautiful personal shopper swearing eternal love to each other!
The actor confesses to our readers, “At the beginning I was trying to divert the attention of the media so that Clover and I could have a little more time. We wanted to understand what was happening between us. She is not a woman hunting for publicity or fame, and I wanted to protect her. My success sometimes can make things difficult, especially at the beginning of a new relationship. Therefore, I hope that readers and fans will understand our desire for privacy and intimacy.”
However, judging from the video, Ms O’Brian seems to be pretty good at defending herself, even when armed with just a purse… “She didn’t expect to see me there! She thought I was a burglar and she acted accordingly.” Cade Harrison laughed, recalling the episode. “Anyway, I think I probably deserved those blows. If nothing else, because I waited for two long weeks before confessing that I love her.”
So, the most desired and courted Hollywood bachelor seems to have become unavailable. He is the forbidden dream of enthusiastic fans and gorgeous celebrities… how did the charming, red-headed girl-next-door succeed where all the others have failed?
Harrison gave us an answer: “Clover is a unique person. She is the most beautiful, sweet and honest woman I’ve ever met. She is an outspoken and funny creature who makes me laugh like nobody else does. I hope to make her happy for the rest of our lives.”
While Cade Harrison has spoken openly and without restrain about his feelings for the mysterious red-head, Clover O’Brian’s discretion and sense of privacy made our work more difficult. Yet, after following her for several days around the streets of New York, we succeeded in obtaining a comment about this romantic encounter.
“Cade’s love is the most magnificent Christmas gift I could ever receive,” Ms O’Brian said, as she kept on walking. “It still feels impossible that he has really chosen me. My wish is to live our love without interferences and I hope it will last forever. And… since you are here,” she added, before running away, “Please, write and tell everyone that from now on I would prefer that no fan would expose her butt to be signed by him. Thank you!”
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Acknowledgements
I’ve imagined this moment for half of my life, and now that I find myself here, in front of the fateful page of acknowledgements… I don’t know how to begin! So, I’m not sure I will follow a hierarchy of importance. Please, don’t get offended if I don’t follow the right order or if I forget someone.
The biggest thank-you goes to everyone who has been close to me throughout this adventure. People who never laughed at me with disbelief when I expressed my desire of becoming a writer. On the contrary, they have always encouraged me to try. I know, there is still a long way to go, but this boo
k is a first and very important step towards that direction.
I thank my sister, Stefania, who has always read my work with objectivity. She has never been a fan of the genre; the first romantic novel she has read is mine. The fact that she read it several times, like the Harry Potter series, has given me great satisfaction!
Thank you to Luca because, when my dream began to take off, he was with me. For years he has shared all my doubts and anxieties, but he has never given up his support and belief in me. (You did want public praise for your patience? Here it is!)
Many thanks to Battina, who helped me contain my paranoia for so many years. (They will make you a saint!)
A thanks from my heart to all my virtual friends on Facebook. You have been so sweet and supporting! (A special thanks to Maria – from my hometown – who kindly answered my many rookie questions). And a warm thanks to the girls of my favorite blogs – La mia biblioteca romantica and Immergiti in un mondo… Rosa! – who, with their positive comments about my first short stories, have given me the courage to jump in the mix.
Thank to everybody who purchased the first digital version of my book. If I am here now, it’s because of you.
A huge big thanks to Newton Compton, especially to Gabriele, Martina and Alessandra, for your trust, patience and availability, and because you taught me a lot.
And thanks also to all those who didn’t like, accept and sustain me. Perhaps without you, I wouldn’t have understood how wonderful it is to take refuge in dreams.
About Cassie Rocca
CASSIE ROCCA is a writer of Sicilian origin who has lived in Genoa since the age of three. In everyday life she is a child-minder, a job which gives her plenty of ideas for her modern fairy tales.
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