Page 81 of Christmas Comeback


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He pulled back and bore into me with his gaze. “Soon.”

Back in Bren’s apartment—magnificent in the quirky way only older apartments could be—she and Chase listened as I relayed my history with Will.

“I knew I recognized him from somewhere!” she exclaimed. “That fucking night at Musicbox. Man, that makes me feel so much better. It’s been driving me crazy.” She ran her hands through her light brown locks. “But what a dick move not to tell you he was engaged. Even if he didn’t know at the time, even if he just thought that Rosalyn chick was his girlfriend, he still should have said.”

“Word,” Chase agreed.

“I should have known something was up when you landed in the hospital. That whole thing about it being a mistake or nerves about your new job was total bullshit,” Bren continued, now pacing.

“You never would have gotten it out of me. I was too embarrassed, too caught up in proving I was the type of girl who would never let a man get under her skin.”

Bren frowned. “You were never that girl, though. Not really. And I’ve known you since college. You could have told me the truth.”

“No, Bren, I couldn’t have. I wasn’t being honest with myself then, let alone with you.” I sat down on the couch, watching her move back and forth across the carpet. Chase stayed thoughtfully quiet, his usual mode, listening as I told them, “When I met Will, I was coming off a tough conversation with my mom, where she admitted some mistakes she made when I was a kid.

“Looking back, I think the reason my mom talked to me wasn’t because she wanted to ask my forgiveness. It was because she saw the kind of person I was becoming. She wanted to warn me not to keep holding everyone at arm’s length. The problem was, right after that, I met Will and got burned. It made me doubledown. But even if the lesson took so long to learn, I’m glad she told me. Because I still hear her in my head. And I know the fact I’m finally making good decisions now is because she’s still in me. Imperfections and all.”

Bren stopped pacing. “And Will is a good decision?”

“I think so.” I pulled her down to sit next to me, both of us flopping back against the cushions.

“Are you saying you see a future with this guy?”

“It’s murky, but yes.”

“Why murky?”

“Because what do you do once you’ve let someone in? I’ve never done it before.” I exhaled. “Also, Will and I are going to have some challenges.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, Bren.” I offered a sad smile.

The following morning, Bren remainedshocked by my plan to move back to Coleman Creek.

After I’d broken the news, we spent the night catching up and watching cheesy 2000s rom-coms in front of the Christmas tree. I’d missed her the past few months. It was nice having someone to talk to who appreciated the story of me giving Will a shower.

“Alright, I give you my permission to go forth and figure out if he’s worth it,” my best friend declared. “Especially since it’s been more than a year since you’ve gotten laid.”

After a breakfast of cereal and toast while we finished hanging the last of the ornaments, she sat on the couch scrolling through her phone, passing time until her shift at the bar.

“Oh my god!” she yelled suddenly as her hand flew to her mouth.

I paused in my task of sorting clothes for either donating or bringing to Coleman Creek. “What?”

She shoved her phone in my face. “Look! Stone Caseman just recommended your video on his social media.”

It took me a minute to process. “Stone Caseman? That jackass who got famous doing crazy stunts on the Internet?”

“Yes. That jackass withthree millionfollowers. And since he got cast in a movie with Naomi Butler, his numbers have gotten even more huge. And he told them to watch your video!”

Bren stopped on a reel and hit the play button. Stone appeared on screen, looking high and happy, speaking in a slow, slurred voice, like a generic-brand surfer.“Yo. My people. I need you all to check out this clip from this chick I found online. You know how sometimes you’re just sort of awake at three in the morning and start going down the YouTube rabbit hole? Well, I was feeling some kind of way about Christmas lately—mainly that I haven’t had much time to celebrate because I have this movie coming up later—and, yo, it’s gonna be a banger so don’t forget to catchPanic in First Classwhen it opens next year—Anyway, I found this cool video of this girl talking about her hometown at Christmas, real small-town shit, so I was expecting, like, you know, snow and lights and grandmas in rockers sitting next to candles—and it’s kind of like that—but then, it’s also, like, a normal little town, you know, not a postcard. And there are teenagers who are mad at the world, and this little kid who hates hot chocolate, and another kid who plays the guitar like a master but keeps giving the camera fuckin’ lewks—like, this shit is raw, man. So real. Anyway, if you want to see a little bit of—”He looked off to the side as though talking to someone, nodding before turning back toface the camera.“If you want a little bit of, like, Christmas in America shit, you should check this out. It’s dope.”

He’d attached the link to the Coleman Creek video. I clicked over to my channel to discover it had over two hundred thousand views.

“Two hundred thousand!” Bren exclaimed, confirming what my disbelieving eyes saw. “That’s insane.”

“Do I dare look at the comments?”