A Christmas Date

by Camilla Isley

  Julia has been uncharacteristically quiet, but I don’t mind. I’m too tired for conversation. Even if I got up super late, I’m still experiencing the after-effects of a sleepless night. And I might be unable to stop smiling, but the bags under my eyes are blossoming. I hope we didn’t make too much noise. What if my parents heard us?

  Another yawn turns to a half-smile as a memory from last night plays in my head.

  Enough, Nikki.

  Right, I need to concentrate on the practical tasks and stop reliving every second of my night with Diego. Not that what I’m doing requires any extent of brainpower. Right now I’m busy revamping the leftover coleslaw by adding more sauce and transferring it into a serving bowl. I’m sprinkling a generous amount of sauce over the vegetables when Julia bangs a metal spoon on a platter, making me jump.

  I turn toward her. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing. It’s only the third time I’ve asked you to pass me a wooden spoon.”

  Someone is cranky today. I grab the biggest spoon from the utensil jar on my side of the kitchen island and hand it over. “This one okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  Julia snatches it rather violently.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing’s wrong with me,” she hisses.

  I set aside the coleslaw for a second and turn to face her. “You have a problem?”

  “Why would I have any problem? Relax. You can keep smiling and humming under your breath, not caring about anybody else but yourself.”

  “Is it a crime to be happy now?”

  “No, but you could be a little less selfish.”

  “Why? What did I do?”

  Julia brutally mixes her mashed potatoes as she answers. “The fact that you can’t even see it should tell you enough.”

  “See what?!”

  “That just for once.” She drops her spoons and points at her chest. “This Christmas was supposed to be about me. About my engagement. About introducing my fiancé into the family. But, of course, you couldn’t let me have that. No, you had to bring a new boyfriend home and steal everyone’s attention.”

  “Me. Me. Me. Oh, pooh-pooh, poor Julia had to share the attention with someone else, what a tragedy. You sound like a five-year-old. Grow up!”

  “And you sound like a bitch.”

  “Better a bitch than a brat,” I snap, satisfied to get the last word in.

  I get back to the coleslaw, but as I’m unloading a generous serving into the new bowl, the spoon slips from my grip and cartwheels in the air. I dash to catch it mid-flight, but as I grip the handle, a big glop of coleslaw flies away and lands on the side of Julia’s face.

  Startled, she brings a hand to her neck. “You didn’t.”

  “I’m so sorry!”

  I’m so focused on finding a rag for her to clean up with that I miss the mashed potatoes projectile headed for my face. It hits me in the right temple, sliding down my hair.

  “Are you crazy?” I glare at her. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “You think I’m stupid?” Julia screams, and reaches for the mashed potatoes again.

  “Don’t you dare,” I threaten.

  She ignores me and—squish!—I’m hit near the collarbone.

  After that, it’s mayhem. I grab the first thing within my reach on the table—cranberry sauce—and throw it at her. She retaliates with a greenish vegan slop, and we keep going until we’re both panting hard and drenched head to toe in goo.

  “Can you tell me why you’re so mad at me, really?” I ask.

  “Maybe because I find it strange that a boyfriend no one had ever heard about suddenly appeared the day after I told you I was engaged,” Julia yells, still panting. “And it’s even stranger that he just so happens to look and act exactly like the fantasy man I told you about when I came up to your office!”

  “You said you wanted someone dark and mysterious, someone dangerous. I don’t see Diego that way.”

  “I also said he would have to be tall, with smoldering green eyes, and full lips… Ring a bell? I said I wanted him to speak Italian, and to ride a bike. That he would have to be some kind of struggling artist, someone who lives paycheck to paycheck. And who buys cheap rings. That’s basically Diego’s identikit. You really failed to notice?”

  “So what if I did? You’re just jealous I stole the attention for five minutes, preventing everybody in the family from drooling over your one-carat ring the entire time.”

  “Oh, so now I’m the jealous one?” Julia brushes a slab of muck that’s dripping down her forehead away from her eye. “That’s rich, coming from you!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “That at least now you can stop being jealous of me dating Paul.”

  The accusation hurts like a slap. “Why would I be jealous of you dating Paul?”

  “Oh, please. I’ve always known you had a thing for him.”

  I freeze at that. My first instinct is to deny it, but an irrational rage takes over and, calm as a snake before it attacks, I hiss, “So why did you go out with him if you knew?”

  Julia lowers her eyes, looking momentarily guilty, before her usual flippancy is back. She shrugs, and says, “I liked him.”

  That could be it: she saw something she liked and took it, no matter whose feelings she had to trample in the process. But that fraction-of-a-second guilty stare gave her away.

  I narrow my eyes at her. “Did you go out with Paul specifically to piss me off?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” She waves dismissively, but I see how she flares her nostrils, like she does whenever she’s lying.

  “You’re lying.” The realization hits me in the gut like a sucker punch. “You knew I liked him, and that’s the only reason you went out with him.” My voice goes up a notch. “You’re such a bitch!”

  Blind fury takes over again, and I make a grab for the first offending substance I can find—chocolate pudding—and throw a handful at her, aiming for her face. I miss and hit her below the shoulder.

  “Aaaaargh!” she screams. Not even trying to clean herself, Julia grasps a bowl full of whipped cream and slashes it in my direction, covering my entire torso in white slime. “I hate you!”

  “You hate me? After what you did? Why?” I fling a saucer filled with cold gravy at her. A brown, shoulder-to-hip, gooey welt appears on her clothes. “Why would you do something so mean on purpose? What did I ever do to you?”

  “You’ve always looked down on me!” Julia shrieks. “But now I realize you’re just a loser who spent the past two years drooling over her younger sister’s boyfriend. How pathetic is that?”

  “At least I don’t think Paul is plain and boring and without imagination. And I’m not marrying someone only to spite my older sister. Now, that’s pathetic!”

  “Is that what you really think of me?” a male voice asks.

  Both our necks snap to the kitchen entrance, where Paul is staring at Julia with an unreadable expression on his face.

  “No, of course not!” Julia hastens to say, panic written all over her face.

  “And what about the rest?” I’ve never seen Paul so eerily calm. “Did you go out with me just to get back at her?”

  “Paul, I can explain.” Julia wrings her dirty hands. “It’s not… I’m not…”

  Paul lifts his hands to stop her. “I don’t want to hear it.” His gaze shifts to her clutched hands. “Keep the ring, take it off, I don’t care… We’re not getting married.”

  Then he turns on his heel and marches out of the kitchen.

  “Paul, please.” Julia runs after him.

  Two seconds later, the main door bangs shut. Julia reopens it and screams Paul’s name again and again, until everything goes quiet. She walks back into the kitchen, her tear-streaked face red and blotched, her hair wild, and her clothes all dirty from the food fight.

  “He took the car.” Julia throws me a witheri
ng look. “I hope you’re happy now.” She looks like she’s about to add something, but a sob makes her whole body shake, and she runs up the stairs crying without sparing another look in my direction.

  I stand in the kitchen breathing heavily, still shocked by everything I just learned. A blob of whipped cream slides down from my forehead to land on the island, reminding me I’m covered in food. I make a quick dash into the guest bathroom, removing my pants and sweater and washing the slime out of my hair and face the best I can. All the while, my brain keeps racing with contrasting thoughts.

  Part of me thinks Julia got exactly what she deserved. She stole Paul from me willingly and knowingly, and now she deserves to suffer, to have her wedding canceled, to try being the single sister for a while and see how much she enjoys it. But there’s another, protective piece of me that feels guilty for what happened. That wants to fix the situation for her. No matter how or why her love story with Paul started, I know her feelings are real now. Julia’s stupid complaints are irrelevant; she didn’t mean any of them. She and Paul are perfect for each other. But taken out of context, the conversation Paul overheard could really ruin their relationship forever if not set right.

  I have to find him and bring him back home.

  My mind set, I crunch my dirty clothes in a ball and hurry out of the bathroom wearing only a tank top and panties to go get a fresh change of clothes from my room. I freeze at the bottom of the stairs. Diego is sitting halfway up them, and when he sees me he throws me a stare pretty much equal to the one Paul used on Julia.

  “Hey,” I say tentatively. “I’ve made a mess.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard,” he replies, his tone glacial.

  Worry wraps around me. “How much did you hear?”

  “All of it.”

  “Diego, I can explain everything, but not now.” I find the courage to climb up the stairs and walk past him and into my bedroom.

  The moment I walk in, the door clicks shut behind me.

  “Sorry,” Diego says. “I want answers now.”

  “Well, now I can’t.” I drop the dirty clothes in a plastic bag and open my luggage to find new ones. “I have to go find Paul.”

  “Paul, right.” Diego snarls. “Last night you swore you didn’t have any more secrets.”

  “And I don’t.”

  “Oh, so you just forgot to mention that I’m basically a product of your sister’s imagination? When I asked you why you picked me for this job, you said it was because you liked me. How many other lies have you spun me?”

  “None.”

  “Really? First, I find out you’re in love with your sister’s fiancé. Then, that you’ve chosen me to be her secret dream guy. What did you do? Did you put all her requisites in your agency’s search engine and wait for the best match to pop up?”

  My face goes on fire. That’s exactly what I did, but I don’t think confessing it to Diego now would do any good.

  I squeeze into a clean pair of jeans and button them up. “It’s not like that.”

  “So you say. Why should I trust anything that comes out of your mouth?”

  Socks, I need socks.

  “Because you can. Ask me anything you want later, but now I have to go.”

  “Because you have to run after Paul.”

  Shoes… where are my boots? Ah, there under the bed. “Yeah, I have to find him and talk to him before it’s too late.”

  I pull a knit sweater on, barely hearing what Diego says next.

  “Guess now he and Julia are no longer an item, everything’s changed. Was this your plan all along? To bring me here to break them up?”

  What did he say? I don’t have time to ask him. I search for the car keys, finding them under a T-shirt on my desk. I need to go and fast.

  “Listen, I know you’re upset.” I stop a second to look at him. “But right now I need to find Paul and bring him home. Then we can talk all day if you want.”

  Diego is still blocking the door, so I wait for him to step aside. He doesn’t.

  “Please don’t go,” he says.

  “I have to.”

  Without another word, he steps out of the way, leaving the exit free. I pause on the threshold and turn back toward him. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Diego says nothing. He doesn’t even look at me as I walk out of the room.

  Twenty

  Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

  Outside, it has started snowing. I trudge my way to the rental car and start the engine to get the car warm while I rid the windshield of ice. There’s a pit of anguish in my stomach. Partly for the mess I’ve created with Julia and Paul, but mostly for the hurt look on Diego’s face as he begged me not to go.

  I wish I could’ve stayed and talked to him, or listened to what he was saying, but right now finding Paul has to be my priority. Diego can wait for an hour; he’s already so mad at me, it won’t make much of a difference. I’ve screwed up, big time. But even if I haven’t been one hundred percent honest with him, he must know how I feel about him after last night. Once the initial shock has passed, he will forgive me.

  If how Julia and Paul started dating isn’t relevant, the same is true for Diego and me. Feelings matter; the rest is dust in the wind.

  When the windshield is clear enough, I hop in the car and pull off the road, not sure where I’m headed. Where did Paul go? He could’ve gone straight back to New York, but knowing him, I doubt it. Paul isn’t that impulsive; I don’t see him driving away to the city without a word to anyone. He must’ve gone searching for a quiet place to think and I know exactly where to look. No point in calling him, he wouldn’t pick up.

  Driving slowly in the sudden blizzard, I head for the coast. I pass a few panoramic pull-over spots without success, before spotting Paul’s gray SUV sitting alone in the parking lot overlooking Harvey’s Beach. I pull up next to him, get out of the car, and knock on his passenger window.

  Paul turns toward me, startled. He must recognize me even through the condensation-covered glass, because he leans forward to open the passenger door for me. I hop in, glad to escape the biting wind that’s whipping the coast.

  “How did you find me?” Paul asks.

  “The ocean. You always come near the water when you have to think. At NYU, I could always find you by the Hudson after a breakup.”

  Paul snorts. “Julia had no clue where to go, did she?”

  “That’s not fair, Paul, I have ten years of knowing you on her.”

  He stares back out the windshield at the dark sea. “Why are you here?”

  “To bring you back home. You and Julia need to talk… Clear things up.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you love each other, and a stupid argument shouldn’t—”

  “No, why are you here advocating for her?” Paul asks. “After what she just told you.”

  “She’s my sister.”

  “Yeah, and half an hour ago you were throwing food and yelling how much you hated her.”

  “So, we fight. Doesn’t mean we don’t care for each other.”

  “Is what she said true? Were you really into me?” Paul turns toward me. “Are you?”

  I look at him, imagining how differently this conversation might’ve gone only a couple of days ago. “I was for the longest time,” I say, surprised at how sure I am of my words. “But not anymore.”

  “I never knew. You never said anything.”

  “Paul, you were my best friend, and the timing never seemed right. Either you were dating someone, or I was, and then you moved to Chicago. Then you came back to New York…”

  “And started dating your sister.”

  “Exactly. Until that day, I’d always thought something was bound to happen between us, eventually. But after you and Julia got together, I knew it would be impossible. Didn’t… didn’t the thought of us being more than friends ever cross your mind?”

  Paul smiles an enigmatic s
mile. “It did… But I never thought you were interested, and when you introduced me to your sister, I took it as my final answer. You didn’t see me that way, and never would…”

  I stare into his blue eyes, into the life that could’ve been… Paul and I, we would’ve made each other happy. That much, I’m sure of. But that thread of destiny has been lost forever; it was never meant to be. It’s another man who makes my heart beat now, Diego. And another woman who Paul loves and wants to marry, Julia. I just have to remind him.

  “Maybe we should think about working on our communication skills.” I chuckle. “Which brings us back to Julia. Paul, you have to forgive her.”

  “I really don’t understand how you can sit here defending her after she’s told you the only reason she and I are together is that she wanted to hurt you.”

  “Because she didn’t want to hurt-hurt me—bug me a little, yes, but that’s all. I’m sure Julia didn’t realize how much I cared for you, or she wouldn’t have done it.”

  “Are you sure you no longer…?”

  “One hundred percent,” I say firmly. “I’m in love with Diego.” The ease with which the words came out of my mouth surprises me. Not a doubt in my mind about their truth. “And you’re in love with my sister.”

  Paul scoffs. “Yeah, for all the good that will do me. Seems clear she doesn’t really love me; that our entire relationship is a big, fat sham.”

  “Paul, it doesn’t matter how it started. If Julia really only wanted to annoy me, she would’ve slept with you once and dumped you the next day. She wouldn’t be marrying you.”

  “Great, that makes me feel so much better about my future wife.” Paul sighs. “I’ve always known she could be a little spoiled, but I never imagined her to be so mean and petty.”