“Why do you do this?”
“What?”
“For years you criticize everything I say or do. I can’t sit at a family table or provide my opinion without you laughing at how silly I sound,” I shouted into the other end. “Now you’re telling me I’m the smartest person in the room?”
“It was just an expression, stop being so sensitive.” My mother insisted, back in her usual cutting tone.
“Tell dad I miss him, I don’t think I’ll make it this year.”
“Elle, you can’t keep avoiding us.”
“I’m not. Tell dad I’ll call him later this week.” I hung up before my mother could get in her last words. The woman always had a way of making me feel guilty. And I’d grown tired of it in our last few calls.
“How about a movie tonight?” I called from the couch after dinner on Sunday night at Scott’s apartment. It was exactly one week before the Ballard event and I was on cloud nine. In just a matter of days, it would all be over, the lie—well, lies to be precise.
But hopefully Scott wouldn’t see it that way. He’d understand that all those other things were just a ripple effect of the first one, wouldn’t he?
I had to believe that.
The thought of losing him over this terrified me, it broke my heart a little each time I thought about it.
I loved the idea of cuddling up next to him while we watched a movie—any movie really, just to keep from being in a position to have to lie again.
I was so close. And with Scott going away for most of the week and my working round the clock on the event, we wouldn’t see each other until next weekend.
An innocent movie and falling asleep in his arms would be the ideal way to spend our last night together before I rushed back here to tell him the truth next Sunday night.
Thehilariousstory of how we met.
“Do I have to promise to sit through the entire thing?” He cocked his head at me from behind the kitchen counter.
I took the moment to check him out again. I loved him in his suits, but tonight, he looked incredibly irresistible in a faded olive-green long-sleeved shirt and worn blue jeans. And his just-washed hair screamed for me to run my fingers through it.
“I won’t blame you for falling asleep in the middle of it.” I flicked through the selection of channels that were overpopulated with Christmas romantic comedies. “Looks like our genres are limited this time of year.”
Scott strode over with a bowl of popcorn just as I paused at a selection.
“A Chance Meeting?” Scott drew back as he read the title of a movie I happened to watch many years in a row.
“Sure, why not? Cute couple,” I shrugged, “snowflakes falling around them, skating their hearts away on a frozen lake.”
“The only skating I’m interested in is hockey, a bunch of people roaming around each other in cold weather is odd and not a sport,” he commented.
“Okay.” I flicked past it, and pressed play at the next holiday romance.
“You want to watch a Christmas romance, I suggest Die Hard.”
“That’s not a Christmas romance.”
“Of course it is. It takes place during the holidays and I’m in love with it.” He shrugged and I laughed.
“Fine.” I started flicking through the row of movies. “Where is it?”
He snagged the remote from my fingers. “I’m kidding. I’m not going to make my girlfriend watch Die Hard when she clearly had her heart set on a romcom.”
I smiled and yanked the popcorn from him.
He used another remote to lower the lights and I leaned into him. Exactly how I pictured our evening.
