by Janae Keyes
“I found the part that isn’t working, I luckily have one left in my kit, and I’m trying to work in there,” he explained.
Hunter’s sleeves were rolled up, his strong, appealing forearms in view. I bit my lip as an aching spread through my core. He was irresistible, yet unattainable. I was sure he would be going home to some adorable blonde wife who baked him cookies.
“That’s great news. I guess I will let you get back to work,” I said happily. He gave me a smile before he turned his attention back to his work. It was apparent that he was eager to get home, and who wouldn’t when you had a family to get back to on Christmas Eve.
Leaving him alone, I headed back up the stairs. My phone let out an alert, and I scanned the screen to see I only had 5% battery left. I hurried back upstairs eager to plug my phone in only to remember that wasn’t going to happen as long as the power was out. I let out a grunt and continued into the sitting room.
Curling into my chair, I glanced at the photos above the fireplace. The biggest of them stood out like a sore thumb, Raymond and me on our wedding day. I looked and felt like a princess that day in my designer couture gown and perfectly done hair and makeup. No expense was spared on our big day three years ago.
I’d spent three years pretending, pretending that I was charmingly happy. Honestly, I was alone. I’d learned about other women while Raymond and I were engaged. He promised me that there would be no others, that was a lie. On our honeymoon, he was texting with one of his many mistresses and pretending it was all business. That first night he’d accidently left his phone while heading down to the hotel bar. She’d texted him.
The screaming and yelling that erupted that night wouldn’t be the last, but the first of many fights over him being unable to keep his dick in his pants. That was the first night he’d threatened me, threatened to ruin me and leave me with nothing. He’d convinced me that I was nothing without him and for three years I believed him. I was snapped out of my delusion with my latest miscarriage. He’d been showing me his true colors all along, but he let them fly that night.
Laying in bed, curled into a ball, crying my eyes out, while I bled and cramped something mad, he stood over me spewing his nasty words.
“Fucking whore, you have one job, and you can’t even do that!” he yelled down to me. “Just stand there, look pretty, and have a damn baby. Can’t even do that, useless.”
I fought his words from my head, I would no longer allow myself to be a victim of his emotional abuse. I left with my head held high, I might be homeless when I returned, but for once I would be happy, and I’d never feel that sense of emptiness again.
The lights flickered on at once, shaking me from my thoughts. It seems Hunter had managed to get the part in place and working.
BANG! The house fell into darkness once more. I scurried off the chair and jogged to the entrance of the basement. I could smell the smoke in the air.
“Shit, Shit, Shit!” I could hear Hunter shout over the sounds of sparks.
I didn’t have light as I attempted to hurry down the stairs. Reaching the final step, I tripped over something, but in seconds strong hands grabbed me and held onto me.
“You okay?” a deep voice asked. That voice belonged to Hunter. I adjusted my eyes in the dim light and stared up into his face. He appeared concerned as his blue eyes studied me as best they could.
“I’m fine, are you okay?” I asked him right away, worried that he may have gotten hurt.
“I’m good, I’ve had worse happen, but I think this part is shot,” he acknowledged as he helped me back to my feet and started back to where he was working. “Fuck, yeah, I’d have to get another part along with another replacement, but that means heading down to the shop.”
“Oh,” was all I managed.
He began up the stairs, and I followed him. Arriving in the entrance way of the house, he pulled out his cell phone and cursed under his breath.
“Battery is dead, do you have a phone I can use?” he asked me. I nodded and hurried off to where I’d set my cell phone down. I grabbed it and handed it to him. The moment he touched the screen, it lit up and began to power down.
“Shit, my battery was dying and now it’s dead,” I told him as the screen went black.
“Got a landline?” he inquired, and I shook my head.
“Damn, I’m going to head into town and to the shop to get the pieces I need,” he said, and I nodded in response. He was too nice to be doing this for me all on Christmas Eve, I’m sure he had a family to get back to on this snowy and festive night.
“I’m sorry you have to go through all of this,” I mentioned while I watched him put on his coat, hat, and scarf.
“No problem,” he muttered as he headed towards the front door.
“Tell your wife I’m so sorry for keeping you out on Christmas Eve, I’m sure you want nothing more than to be home with your family,” I mentioned kindly as he began to open the door.
“No worries, there is no wife waiting for me,” he said as he swung the door open.
I gasped. In front of my door was a tremendous wall of snow. It had been coming down much quicker and thicker than I’d expected. Hunter pressed his gloved hand into the snow, but it was like a wall that was preventing him from leaving.
“You can try the patio door,” I commented as I began towards the den where there was a sliding glass door. Hunter followed closely behind me as I felt my way into the den.
Once in the den, we got a rude awakening as the sliding glass doors were also covered with a great wall of snow, there was no leaving this house, mother nature had made her call and snowed us in.
I turned to Hunter, nervously biting my lip. We had no electricity and were stuck in my large house. I hadn’t expected guests for my Christmas alone, but it seemed my friend mother nature had other plans for us tonight.
Chapter 4
Hunter
I’d decided that I would convince myself this wasn’t happening. I’d never seen the snow come down like that before and I grew up here. I swore I’d only been working for an hour. This wasn’t my plan for the evening or my Christmas.
With a huff, I turned in the direction of the beauty whose house I’d been marooned in. She’d mentioned apologizing to my wife, I only wish I still had a wife. I missed those days of coming home to my sweetheart, my girl. The moment I walked in the door after work, there was Katheryn, humming a song and cooking dinner. She was always happy, there wasn’t a moment that there wasn’t a smile plastered on her beautiful face.
“This is unexpected,” Melanie commented as she shifted on her feet nervously. I glanced down at the floor to not laugh at the woman in front of me. She didn’t quite know what to do with herself. “Want something to drink?”
“Got a beer?” I asked as I began to remove my coat and hat. It looked as if I would be staying here for awhile and comfort was needed.
“No beer, but I have champagne,” she suggested. I looked up at her, she was completely serious.
“Were you going to have some sort of solitary celebration?” I asked of her as she turned from me and started towards the entrance way. I placed my coat and hat on the coat rack near the front door before following her.
“You can say that. I filed for divorce today, celebration was in order,” she said with no irony in her voice, this chick must have been through something because she was cold about it.
“I guess so,” I said as she continued through an archway and into a kitchen that was bigger than my entire apartment. Everything you needed could be found in one place it was amazing.
Though the room was mostly dark, Melanie knew her way around. She used the counters as a guide. She opened the fridge that appeared to be mostly empty except for a few items. Pulling out a bottle of champagne, she placed it on the counter before blindly searching through a cabinet.
She produced two champagne flutes and placed them on the counter along with the bottle. I couldn’t quite read the label, but it was something expensive
, I could tell. Taking hold of the bottle she worked to open it. Only moments later a POP filled the room. Melanie poured the liquid into the two flutes expertly.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed me one of the two glasses. “Cheers!” she added before drowning down her glass, that I hadn’t expected from her. Melanie appeared to be a classy lady and not one to drown down a glass of expensive alcohol. I took a sip of my rich drink while she poured herself another glass.
“So,” I began. “What do you do?”
“As in?” she questioned.
“You’ve got to have a fuckin’ good job to afford a place like this,” I commented as I looked around the room. All of the appliances were stainless steel, and the counters high-end marble. The cabinets were obviously custom and handmade from the best wood, no expense was spared in building this place.
Melanie let out a laugh. “What do I do? I married into money, the worst decision of my life,” she said honestly. I’d never experienced such honesty before. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to spill my stuff like that.”
“No problem, we all have a story,” I mentioned before taking a gulp of the bubbly drink, I needed to drink my story away as much as she did.
“You ever been married?” she inquired as she leaned against the counter sipping her champagne. I nodded. “I take it you are no longer married?”
“No,” I said plainly before taking a deep breath. “She died, ten months ago.” I rarely said any of that out loud. Strangely, I found it therapeutic to admit what happened fully and in front of another human being. Katheryn was dead, there was no bringing her back and I needed to accept that fact.
“I’m sorry,” Melanie instantly said, her hand over her mouth. I shrugged. “This time of the year can’t be easy. I’m truly sorry for your loss.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “It has been a long ten months without her.”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking…” her voice trailed off.
“How’d it happen?” I questioned, finishing her sentence. She nodded in response, I allowed a sigh free. “Car accident. I lost control of the car on a patch of black ice. Car went right for a tree on the passenger side. Katheryn, my wife, died instantly.”
There was no response from Melanie. She stood, perhaps too shocked to speak. There was a possibility that she couldn’t find the words. I understood not finding the words. Death was a hard subject to navigate. Nobody wanted to say the wrong thing, and the right thing was hard to come by.
“Tonight, I just wanted to sit at home with a cold beer and drink away my pain and hope that in the morning I’d wake up with it no longer there, festering and lingering. I’ve spent ten months allowing the guilt to haunt me, I’m over it now. I need it to leave me and let me free,” I mindlessly spoke out loud. I didn’t care if Melanie was actually listening or not, the act of recognizing my true feelings, oddly, was breaking the chains that drew them to me.
I spotted Melanie, finishing off her glass and nodding with my words. It was apparent she was trying to free herself from her own demons of emotion that were haunting her. Our hearts may have been broken in entirely different ways, but two hearts stood broken in that kitchen. I didn’t say anything more and allowed the silence to linger between us.
“So, that husband of yours must be a real asshole to lose a gorgeous girl like you,” I mentioned as I too finished off my drink.
I shook my head at myself. What was I doing? There was no doubt that I was fucked up in the head. I couldn’t stand here calling her gorgeous after I’d just told her about my dead wife. Though, if I retracted my statement, I’d be lying. Melanie glanced down at the floor, her eyelids hooded. She had a grace and sophistication about her that shone through. She was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever come across.
“He was the king of assholes,” she acknowledged as she sat down her glass and began to play around with the end of her long hair. “But I’m moving on, there is a silver lining in this somewhere, I just have to find it.”
“Positive thinking, you sound a lot like my wife,” I paused. “My late wife.” It was a harsh reality. As much as Katheryn was my wife, she wasn’t anymore. I thought about what she always would say, “Life isn’t worth living unless you are having fun.”
I used to have so much fun with Katheryn, we were always having an adventure. Even when we weren’t being our crazy selves and all was quiet, I enjoyed the still as she lay in my arms.
“I’ve learned that positive thinking is all the currency I need right now. Moving on is going to be difficult, but keeping the mind optimistic, I think, is the key to my survival.” I liked the way Melanie thought. I needed optimism like that in my life again, it truly did get me through some tough times in the past.
I smiled, something I rarely did these days. What was there to smile about? I’d never deemed anything worth smiling about in the last ten months, but I caught myself smiling at her words. Her words resonated with me in a way that nothing had over the last months.
“Hungry?” she asked.
“Starving,” I answered.
“I made some homemade soup, it still might be at least warm. I also make a pretty mean sandwich,” she offered. I never pegged her as the homemaking type, but I’d been known to judge a book by its cover and be completely wrong.
“Soup and sandwiches sound fucking good right about now,” I commented, feeling my stomach rumble in agreement.
“Soup and sandwiches coming right up,” she cheered happily. There was something about the joy that laced her voice. There was a possibility that she hadn’t gotten to be this girl for a long time and now she was getting her chance, a chance to be herself.
Chapter 5
Melanie
As promised, I whipped up some sandwiches. Hunter and I decided it would be best to eat in the sitting room as we would have the fire in the rapidly cooling house. I hadn’t expected a guest for the night, but having another body there and having that person understand loneliness and heartbreak was endearing.
Hunter took a spoonful of soup that was, amazingly, still quite warm. I watched the light of the flames brighten his cream skinned face and dance in his eyes as they widened. Instantly, I was afraid that my soup might be disgusting.
“Don’t tell my mom, but this is the best damn soup I’ve ever had,” Hunter hummed, a look of satisfaction written across his rugged face.
“Wow, thanks. If I ever get the pleasure of meeting your mom, I promise to not tell,” I beamed before giving him a wink. What was with me, I’d only filed for divorce over twelve hours prior, and I was already flirting with another guy. I blamed it in the champagne, making me loose.
“And these sandwiches aren’t too bad either. Maybe getting stuck here wasn’t such a bad idea, I was going to have two-day-old pizza for dinner,” Hunter said with a shrug. I frowned at his words. He seemed like a great guy, obviously very caring, and the thought of him having old leftover pizza on Christmas Eve saddened me.
“It’s a good thing you’re here then. Getting a semi-proper meal,” I noted knowingly. He gave me a soft smile before continuing with his sandwich.
I continued to eat my food while relishing in the heat of the fire. The rest of the house might have been rapidly cooling, but this room was as toasty as could be, Hunter’s presence didn’t help.
Most of the windows were covered in the rapidly accumulating snow, and our vision to the outside world had been cut off. Here we were, two people with seemingly nothing in common except our scarred hearts.
“So, have you always lived up here?” I asked in attempt to make small talk. I was going to be spending the foreseeable future with him, I at least figured I should get to know him a little more.
“Born and raised, where are you from?”
“I’m from Oakland, but I’ve lived in San Francisco for the past five years or so,” I noted as I thought of the years I’d spent in the gorgeous city I called home.
Reality struck me, upon returning, there was a good chance
I would no longer call my Nob Hill townhouse home. Raymond would have me out on the street, and I would find myself back at my mother’s in Oakland Hills. What a Christmas gift to receive, having everything stripped away.
My reality sounded bleak, a 27-year-old divorcee. Though I knew I’d rather be a divorcee than living another moment in a miserable marriage.
After a few moments of silence, I sat my empty bowl on the table as I glanced back towards Hunter, who was finishing the last bite of his sandwich. As much as my life was in ruins, I was grateful I could do something for him. He’d lost his wife and would be spending his time alone eating leftovers. I was able to provide him with a meal and company. There was no use feeling sorry for myself when I still had the opportunity to help others.
“When I think about a year ago, I would have never imagined this year to be anything like this,” I mentioned with a nervous chuckle. A year ago, though still miserable in my marriage, I was determined for it to work out. I fought long and hard, but eventually, I realized my efforts were for nothing.
“Same here. Last year, I remember laying in bed with Katheryn. We’d decided that once the new year hit, we’d try for a baby. She’d been in school at the university in Reno and had finally graduated with a Master’s Degree. We figured as she was finished, we could try and expand our family. I’ve always wanted to be a dad.” I heard the anticipation in his voice, it was also laced with sadness.
I glanced away from him and over to the crackling fire. A family of my own, something I always wanted. Raymond wasn’t the ideal candidate for a father, but he was who I had, he was my husband after all. I sniffed back tears, yet one escaped and fell down my cheek. I wiped it away quickly in hopes Hunter wouldn’t notice me crying.
My ears suddenly caught the sound of footsteps. I looked to see Hunter coming my way. He sat himself next to me on the floor where I sat. He didn’t say anything right away, and I spent the silence watching the flames dance in his irises.
