by Brynn North
“Great,” Sebastian approved. “A holiday movie is perfect. Puts me in the Christmassy mood.”
“Yeah? What are you doing for the holidays?” Luci hoped she didn’t too wistful. Now that she and Alex were fighting, she had no idea what she would do that day. His parents loved Luci, and would always welcome her, but she didn’t want to be awkward around Alex on his favorite holiday.
Sebastian adjusted a throw pillow behind his neck. “Heading back out to LA to see Nan and Grandpa. They have a big Christmas Eve party every year, invite all the people they know. It’s a blast. I can only visit for a couple of days, though. Gotta get back to work. You?”
“Not sure yet.”
The look on his face must have told her what he needed to know. “I’ll be gone for so little time, it doesn’t even make sense to invite you to the party, but maybe we catch a Christmas play, once I know my schedule?”
Joy shot through Luci. They had Christmas plans! Plans made more than the day in advance! This was getting serious!
Just then she noticed Sebastian’s arm around her shoulder dipping lower till it encircled her waist, and he pulled her closer onto his lap.
“I like your hair like this,” he said in a husky voice, running his hands through her hair, which fell in loose waves around her shoulders for the first time in ages. “And this is interesting.” His hand traced the open shoulder on her shirt.
“Thanks,” she said breathlessly, the movie forgotten behind her. Not like she even cared to watch it in the first place anyway.
Sebastian’s hands moved behind her neck and he started kissing her, more intensely than ever before, and she groaned, sinking into the sensation, leaning into his every movement. One hand traveled under her shirt until it reached her bra, caressing her nipples over the lace, drawing her shirt up to her neck.
“Oh!” she gasped, half hoping she’d shaved her legs, half hoping she hadn’t. She wasn’t sure at all how she wanted this evening to end. Sex was good, right? It meant he liked her, wanted her. But then again, she wasn’t sure she wanted to get into it when she wasn’t sure what they meant to each other.
Sebastian was just reaching toward the button on her jeans when he stopped. “Do you have anything?”
Anything? She wondered. Oh, wait. A condom. No. It had been so long she didn’t need them around her apartment. They probably would have expired anyway.
“No,” she answered reluctantly. Maybe. Maybe this was her chance to pump the breaks. She didn’t need a marriage proposal or anything before sex, just somse kind of hint at least that that he wasn’t sleeping with her and five other women, too.
“Ah,” he withdrew. “I do at my apartment, but…”
But Alex was there, was the unfinished sentence they both knew. And as much as Luci wanted Sebastian, she did not want to have sex for the first time with Alex listening in through the walls. She couldn’t believe it. A virtual sex God was on her couch, and she was turning him down.
“Want me to grab some and come back?”
She shook her head, glancing at the clock. Somehow it had gotten past eleven. She needed some time to clear her head and figure out where this was going.
“Next time,” she whispered thickly.
He nodded and got up. “I’m beat after a long day at the hospital. Should we raincheck?”
Luci screwed up her face. “I’m going to miss you,” she said playfully to hide her disappointment. “We didn’t even talk about the party.”
Sebastian was already heading toward the door. “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
Feeling stupid lying on the couch half naked, she got up and crossed her hands over her bra. Sebastian paused to give her a kiss. “See you later, doll.”
With that, he left. And her apartment felt empty all of a sudden.
7
Alex walked around the mall, wondering why his mother was so damn hard to shop for. What do you buy the woman who has everything? Hell if he knew.
A snakeskin printed tote bag caught his eye through the window. His mom enjoyed going to the library. She loved fashion too. This might work out.
Inside, he whistled at the price tag. Two hundred bucks for a few pieces of leather stitched together? Seriously? Public middle school teachers weren’t exactly rolling in the dough.
“You like? We’re offering free Christmas wrapping for the holidays.”
Weighing his options between continuing to wander around the mall for another hour or just biting the bullet and buying an overpriced bag, he went with the lesser of the two evils. He could spend less on his dad. Thank God his dad firmly subscribed to the philosophy of “happy wife, happy life.”
“Sure, I’ll take it.” At least the excruciating task of shopping would be over for another year. that alone had to be worth a hundred bucks. Briefly, he thought of Luci. Usually, they would go shopping together, pick out some outrageous things for his nieces, then have a drunken lunch at their favorite pizza place before collapsing on his couch at home to watch a Christmas movie. His chest tightened up as he thought about previous years. He missed that tradition. If it wasn’t for Dani dumping him, then Sebastian needing to move in, all this would have never happened, he fumed.
“Doesn’t look like you have much holiday spirit,” the saleswoman observed.
What was this woman, some amateur psychologist? A psychic maybe? The problems in his life sure as well weren’t her business.
“I’m a middle school teacher and kids are going crazy this close to winter break, I got dumped last month, I have a new roommate that’s a complete Dr. Douche, and my best friend went mad for him then got mad at me when I warned her about him.” Ok, fine, maybe it felt good for someone to actually notice his troubles for once. It felt good to get it all out.
“Your best friend’s name isn’t Luci, is it?”
His eyes narrowed and, for the first time, noticed the business cards on the counter bearing the name Maria. “Wait, are you the person responsible for her makeover?” he spat. “She was perfect the way she was! You ruined her!”
Maria’s face said she didn’t like him or that he had some serious dog shit on his shoe. “Honey,” she said, speaking slowly to him like he was a child. Couldn’t blame her, he certainly was acting like one. “I told her the same thing the first day I met her. Hell, the first thing I told her is that she needed to change to feel good for herself not for some man.”
“But you still sold her some sexy clothes,” he argued. “Expensive as hell too.”
Maria shrugged. “The woman needed a change in her life. When a woman looks good, she feels good. And one day she will realize she’s better than some dickhead that isn’t all that just because he volunteers with some old people. And when she realizes that, she’ll still have all that confidence she found.”
Hell if Maria didn’t have a point there.
“She still hates me though,” he argued. “I warned her against Dr. Douche and she went off on me.”
“For now. She won’t forever. Soon enough, she’ll realize you were right. And she’ll realize that even though your communication about it was shitty, your heart was in the right place. And she’ll forgive you.”
“You think?” Alex softened, hoped against hope that Maria was right.
Maria gave him another look. Alex was suspecting that he really did have dog shit on his shoe. That, or the woman was right and Alex was just a clueless, stupid man. Whatever it was, he knew one thing. Maria had some serious intuition.
He gave in. “Sorry I went off on you. You made this complicated situation sound so simple.”
Maria shrugged and handed him his mother’s present, wrapped with a bow on top. “That’s because it is simple. You’re in love with her. It’s obvious.”
Alex went completely still. Holy shit, Maria was right. Years of regret and guilt for treating Luci so horribly kept Alex’s real feelings under wraps. He loved Luci back then, and still did now. While he had loved and cared for Dani, he ultimately couldn’t mo
ve forward with her because he knew deep down she wasn’t Luci.
Alex cracked a beer and casually leaned up against the wall between the kitchen and living room. He had hightailed it home from the mall, despite only having half his list done. Fuck it. The rest of his family would have to live with whatever he could order off Amazon.
Sebastian took no notice of Alex as he thumbed through his phone, which buzzed with notifications every thirty seconds.
“Lot of DMs, huh?”
“Too damn many.”
How in the hell Sebastian could keep up with so many women while working crazy hours was beyond Alex, and he said so.
Sebastian snorted. “Nobody can. But who tries anyway?”
Jolted, Alex asked him what he meant. Was that son of a bitch chasing not just Luci but every other woman in the metro area? “So you’re just playing Luci and all these other women too? Is that your game?”
“I’m not playing anyone. I’m not asking for commitment and not promising it either. Totally no strings attached, eh?” Sebastian gave him a knowing smile. “Wouldn’t hurt for you to give it a go. How long have you been broken up with your girl? A month now?”
Alex bristled, thinking of poor Luci, so hopeful that her and Sebastian might turn into something. “Total dick move in my opinion.”
Sebastian just shrugged. “If they asked, I’d tell them.”
“So you expect these women to be mind-readers?”
Sebastian finally put down his phone and turned to face at Alex. “What’s it to you, bro?”
“I don’t want to see Luci get hurt. She’s fragile. A wonderful woman. Top of the line.”
Sebastian smirked and reached back for his phone. “Sounds like you’re into her. Don’t worry. It’s over between us. Yours for the picking.”
Alex went still. This was news. “You broke it off?”
Sebastian gave a little half-shrug, eyes not moving from the screen. “Not much to break off. She didn’t want to take it further, so I gave up. She’s all yours.”
Alex left the room before he said things he couldn’t take back.
Down the hall and one floor down, Luci was balled up on her couch, wiping her eyes. “Fucking bastard. I knew he would never actually like me.” A carton of half-melted ice cream threatened to drip on her pajama pants as she held her silent phone.
Text after text to Sebastian…with none answered. And she knew he was home too. From her window, she’d seen him pull up into the parking lot and walk through the door. Over an hour ago. Four fucking days and he couldn’t call her back or find five seconds to send a text? Four days since they’d almost had sex.
Ghosted.
The only thing she wanted to do was call Alex and cry on his shoulder, but she couldn’t even do that, not the way she insisted he was a major asshole and she pretty much kicked him out of her apartment. Who was the asshole now?
Sighing, she cast a look around her living room. Usually neat and tidy, it was covered with blankets, food cartons, and littered with clothes. The stack of letters, untouched on her table, caught her eye.
Fuck.
8
Fuck fuck no no no no. Every bad word Luci knew and then some ran through her head.
How in the hell could she have forgotten the letters? Drop the ball so badly? Yanking her phone off the table, she looked at the date. December thirteenth. The party was in exactly one week.
One week. Luci buried her head in her hands. What was she going to do? She would have to own up to Steve, tell him she wasn’t manager material. That she couldn’t be trusted to put on an event for the company to look good for the community. That she couldn’t even complete a major project that wasn’t her usual work.
A tear slid down her face, the first time all week that it wasn’t about a man. Hell, she would lose everything she had worked for over the last three years for a man.
“A man who didn’t give a fly fuck about me,” she muttered angrily. “Turn him down for sex, and he lost all interest. Thank god I didn’t have any condoms on me, otherwise, I’d just be another notch on his damn bedpost.”
Just then, she thought of all the people at East Village, excited for the party, and the tears started flowing even harder. Who gave a crap about a job? It was just a paycheck. Some of those people didn’t have any holiday plans outside the party, and here she was, ruining it for them. The one thing they were looking forward to.
Molly. Howard. Even quiet Evelyn. They all seemed to be excited about the fun, and now they’d have a big fat nothing. Thanks, Sebastian, she spat in her mind. Thanks for stringing me along, promising to help, and doing jack shit. Easy for Sebastian to do this. He already had it good with the group, helping them out. She would look like the major downer.
Luci laid on her couch, feeling more and more sorry for herself. Just then, she glimpsed herself on the TV. Her hair, usually shiny and fresh these days, was knotted up in tangles. Mascara ran down her cheeks, and she wore her rattiest sweatpants.
In short, she looked like Alex did when Dani dumped him a month ago.
Well, fuck that. Luci straightened up, just barely catching her melted ice cream before it hit the carpet. Alex had every right to be depressed, he ended a two year relationship. All she was ending was something that was bigger in her mind than her reality.
She had to do something for the people at East Village. Didn’t matter what, she couldn’t just let them go down to the party room next week and see a bare room. There was no way in hell she would pull off the shoebox gift boxes a week away, but she could at least put on some kind of party for them, right? Right?
Reaching for her laptop, she started punching in last-minute catering into the Google search bar.
“Mr. Garcia, what was the fourth Amendment again?”
Alex snuck a glance at the countdown app on his phone before he answered to see exactly how many days and minutes were left until Christmas break. 5 days, 3 hours, 14 minutes. Teachers were more eager than students for winter break, Alex firmly believed. They only had to put up with one of themselves; he had to put up with a full twenty-eight of them. There was nothing more he wanted than a solid two weeks off work to recoup from all the shit he’d gone through in the last month.
“Any more questions, class?” he asked clapping his hands after going over it again, hoping against all hope they’d say no.
He wasn’t going to be so lucky. He never was. “Mr. Garcia, can we skip the test and do something for extra credit instead? It’s the holidays.”
He raised an eyebrow at Tyler. “But if you did ok on your test, you wouldn’t need the extra credit, right?”
Unfortunately, the idea caught on, and Alex was bombarded with twenty-plus students pleading for him.
“It’s Christmas, man!” One particularly loud guy in the back yelled out.
He broke. “Fine. Let me figure something out, and I’ll tell you tomorrow. But this does NOT get you out of the test. We’ll just turn it into a quiz. Memorizing the constitution is extremely important.” Even he didn’t believe that last sentence as it came out of his mouth. If they actually ever needed to know the constitution, they could just Google it like everyone else. At least the kids doing a fun project would get his mind off of Luci.
Luci. Alex momentarily closed his eyes. “Something wrong, Mr. Garcia?” bellowed a kid in the back, and he was jerked back into the moment. Five more days until winter break, he repeated in his mind.
After school, he stopped by and see Maria, see if she had any insight for him.
“Has she been in?” Alex asked Maria casually.
“Why don’t you just call her if you want to talk to her?” Maria replied, eyeing him, already knowing the answer.
“Because I’m a wimp. Too damn scared.” May as well spell it out for the psychologist-slash- saleswoman.
She slapped both palms down on the counter between them. Marble, Alex noticed. No wonder the place had to charge the prices they did.
“She’s hella depresse
d, trying to get everything done for the party in the next few days. Stopped by to get an outfit to wear, but I think she just wanted to talk. Said the only thing that will go well is the food and activities. No shoebox gift presents for the seniors, that didn’t work out, I guess. The decor will be pretty minimal. Sad.”
No presents? That was the first idea, the main draw! She was so excited about the little gifts to give to them...
An idea was forming in Alex’s head. But how in the hell was he going to pull it off?
He glanced at his watch. “I gotta go.” He bolted out the door, Maria watching him with a little smile.
Alex skidded into his apartment with twenty minutes to spare. Sebastian was already dressed in scrubs and rummaging in the fridge for a snack to bring to work. Thank God he had a new apartment to move into on the first of January. Alex wasn’t sure he could take much more of living with Dr. McGorgeous.
“Hey, I need your help.”
Sebastian turned from the fridge. “That’s a hell of an entry, considering the last way you talked to me.”
“Yeah, well you deserved it,” Alex countered. Shit. He didn’t have time to get into this.
Sebastian’s smirk was almost epic. “What do you want, anyway? I gotta get to work.”
“The UPS guy will be here anytime, and Luci orders from Amazon pretty much daily. I need you to distract her when she comes down to get her packages.” Alex shot Sebastian one of Maria’s looks. “Personally, I’d suggest doing it by apologizing.”
“Apologize? For what?” Sebastian’s voice was incredulous, sealing Alex’s opinion that he was nothing but an asshole.
“For leading her on. Wanting her for sex. Ghosting her.” Leaning close to Sebastian, Alex went on. “Thing is, I need her out of her apartment for ten minutes. And you owe me and her. So distract her.”