Amos stood too. “I’d better head out before Sage starts worrying.”
I wanted to grab his hand and ask him to stay.So much for waking up together.At least I wouldn’t have to make a serving of oatmeal tomorrow night.
“Sure, yeah. Okay.” I was nodding too much, but I couldn’t stop.
I walked them to the front door and pulled it open. The blast of cold air fit my souring mood.
Amos gave my hand a brief squeeze as he passed me.
“Thanks for dinner. Your cheese was delicious, as always.”
Bo’s eyes widened as he gave me a questioning look.
“I appreciate you letting us know, Bo. This will be great.” Hopefully, my smile was more believable than I thought.
Judging by his grimace, it wasn’t.
After closing the door behind them, I collapsed onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t predict the future, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d had a taste of something great and let it slip through my fingers.
MAPLEWOOD MATTERS BLOG
DECEMBER 12
The Holiday Hoopla is officially underway! It kicks off tonight with the Maplewood Tree Lighting Ceremony. There’s a full schedule of performances from local choirs and bands, plus a vendor fair. What event are you most excited about?
TWENTY-TWO
AMOS
The Holiday Hoopla had officially begun. The festive atmosphere was in full swing at the Maplewood Tree Lighting Ceremony. The Maplewood elementary, middle school, and high school choirs took turns singing Christmas classics, and the tree, lit minutes ago, cast a warm glow over Maplewood City Park. With the ceremony over, the attendees moved to the other side of the park to the two rows of vendors open for the rest of the event. The performances were scheduled to continue on the amphitheater stage for two more hours and kids’ craft stations were set up under canopies near the playground.
Traffic at the Sparky’s booth had been a steady trickle before and during the tree lighting, but now we had a line forming for the hot food we were selling.
“Mom! I found Prancer!” A kid bundled in a thick coat and knit cap jabbed his little finger at the laminated reindeer cutout taped to the pole holding up the canopy over our food booth.
“You sure did! Good job. Want me to stamp your postcard?” I offered.
He nodded eagerly and passed me the paper with a box for each of Santa’s reindeer. It was a cute idea to encourage kids—and their parents with money to spend—to visit each of thevendor booths, find all the reindeer, and collect corresponding stamps to win a prize. While I stamped his postcard, Sage processed the mom’s order for sliders and fries.
I’d texted Mickey to ask which reindeer Red’s had been given, but I hadn’t heard back yet. Like a lovesick teen, I’d kept my phone face up on the table in case it lit with a reply. After passing the postcard back to the kid, I snuck a quick glance toward the Red’s booth across the way and one over from ours.
It was killing me to have to pretend like we didn’t mean anything special to each other when all I wanted to do was sidle over to the Red’s booth and flirt with the man occupying most of my waking thoughts. I’d barely slept since Bo showed up at Mickey’s the other night. I wanted to go back to how right it felt to lie against him on his bed, spent and happy.
“Two slices of pie,” Sage called.
I slid the slices into cardboard boats, added whipped cream and a fork, then passed them over to the waiting customers. Our line seemed to grow with people craving pie and burgers. It should’ve kept me busy enough to keep Mickey from my thoughts, but I would hear his voice or laughter, and start thinking of him all over again.
We’d gotten together with Bo yesterday to strategize about what needed to change in our plans now that the show was coming for the Christmas Eve dinner. Meeting at Bo’s office had taken away some potential for awkwardness because we had to keep everything completely professional. I couldn’t quite tell if we were just busy and it was simply bad timing, or if things had taken a nosedive since Bo opened his damn mouth and basically asked us to stop seeing each other.
I couldn’t even be mad at him. He was doing his job while also being a concerned friend. Odds were, Mickey or I would end up breaking the other’s heart, even unintentionally. Isn’t that how things ended for most relationships?We’re not evenin a relationship. My heart and mind weren’t quite aligned with reality.
It probably didn’t help that I’d made a quick escape from his place like a chicken. We still texted like we had been before, but neither of us had talked about what happened between us, what it meant, what Bo said, or where we should go next. We also hadn’t brought up getting together again. I couldn’t shake an unsettled feeling.
“Hey, Sage! Is it true thatGood Morning, USA,is coming to town to feature Sparky’s? Can I get a seat at the counter? I’ve always wanted to be on TV.” Dave, one of the older regulars at the diner who came in for coffee at least once a week, asked while passing Sage cash for his order.
“They’re coming for the Christmas Eve Community Dinner, which is sponsored by Sparky’s and Red’s. I’m not sure if they’re going to film at the diner,” Sage hedged.
Bo had warned us they planned to film at each diner, but we didn’t have any specifics yet, so we didn’t want to get people’s hopes up. But that was almost impossible with the rumor mill in this town.
