New Year's Kiss

by Lee Matthews

  “I don’t know. Maybe. I might have other plans,” I said, feeling awkward.

  Lauren barked a laugh. “What other plans? You literally never have plans.”

  I glared at her. Honestly. Could she be more humiliating? “That is one hundred percent untrue.”

  “Well, I’ll be there,” Carina said, breaking the tension as she glanced at her phone. “Meet back here at nine? Whoever’s going?”

  “Sounds like a plan!” Tarek said. He knocked Damon in the chest with the back of his hand, and Damon backed away from me slowly.

  “I hope you make it,” he said to me earnestly.

  “Um, yeah. Okay. I’ll try.”

  Then he turned and followed his cousin out the door.

  “Well, I need a long shower,” my sister said, stretching her arms above her head. “See you later, Carina.”

  “Bye! Thanks for letting me tag along!” Carina gave us both a wave and headed off down the hallway at the back of the lobby—the one that led outside to the private cabins. She must have been staying in one of those with her father.

  As soon as everyone was gone, I felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. It was nice to know—or suspect, anyway—that Damon was interested in me, but it also felt like a lot of pressure. Especially since I didn’t really feel the same way. Yes, he was cute, but I didn’t get the smooshy feeling around him that I got around Christopher.

  Christopher.

  My heart did a funny little pitter-pat thing as I pulled my ski hat from my head and tugged off my gloves. I held them all between my hands and pivoted on my heel, grinning as I crossed the lobby to find him.

  Hey…we need to talk, I practiced.

  No. That’s what people said when they were about to break up.

  How was your day?

  Um, no. We weren’t an old married couple.

  Christopher, I’m totally into you.

  Ugh. Okay, maybe the throwing myself into his arms option was the best plan.

  I came around the corner by the fireplace, which was roaring with a perfect fire, as always, and stopped in my tracks.

  There was a girl sitting in my chair. A girl who was not me. And the not-me girl was talking to Christopher. Making him laugh. In my chair. So apparently he wasn’t bored out of his mind.

  “No way!” Christopher exclaimed, literally slapping his knee. “There’s no way that actually happened.”

  “I swear it’s true!” the girl replied in a high, nasally voice. “He had third-degree burns inside his nostrils.”

  Okay, ew. What the heck were they even talking about? And why were third-degree burns funny? In the midst of his latest bout of uncontrollable laughter, Christopher happened to glance up and spot me hovering. His face fell, and he looked at my hands, which I realized suddenly were clutching my hat and gloves in front of my chest as if in prayer. I dropped my arms immediately.

  “Oh,” he said coolly. “Hi, Tess.”

  The girl turned around to look at me. She was, annoyingly, pretty. She had big brown eyes and ridiculously long lashes, plus that kind of curly hair that bounces whenever the person who has it moves. She wore a low-cut lavender T-shirt and a white puffer vest. A gold nameplate necklace that read Kacey dangled just above her cleavage.

  “Hi!” she said, though her confused eyes betrayed her peppy greeting. “I’m Kacey!”

  “Tess,” I said. “Nice to meet you.” I glanced over at Christopher, who seemed very interested in the floral pattern embroidered on the back of the couch. He was picking at a tiny string with his thumbnail, avoiding eye contact with both of us. “Are you staying at the lodge?” I asked, mostly to fill the awkward silence.

  “Yeah, I just got here.” Kacey looked down at her phone. “Oh, dang. I gotta go. My mom wants me to watch my little brother while she goes to the spa.” Kacey got up and shoved her device into the back pocket of her tight jeans. “I’ll see you later?” she said to Christopher.

  “Oh, definitely,” he replied. “You know where to find me.”

  That stung. This was where I knew to find him. Not some random girl with bouncy hair.

  “Nice to meet you, Tess,” she said. Then she twiddled her fingers at Christopher and strode away. Even after she was gone, Christopher still refused to look at me.

  “Well. She seemed nice,” I said tersely.

  “Why do you have to say it like that?” he snapped. “She is nice.”

  “I’m sure she is.” What was I saying? Why was I saying it? My skin felt hot all over and my eyes prickled with frustrated tears.

  “Well, I’m glad to see you survived skiing with Damon,” Christopher said. “I guess when he wants to hook up with someone, he’s a little more careful on the slopes.”

  Oh. My. God. Did he actually just say that to me? I mean, Damon did kiss me, but still. Christopher didn’t know that.

  “He wasn’t just careful,” I told him hotly. “He actually saved my life.”

  Christopher scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

  “He did! I totally decked up there and was about to slide face-first into a wall of rock, but he threw himself in front of me,” I said.

  “Whoa, really?” Christopher’s expression shifted to one of concern. “Tess, are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” I said, taking a deep, shaky breath. “But only thanks to Damon.”

  I just wanted him to back off the guy. Maybe Damon had done something stupid when he was skiing with Christopher, but he wasn’t all bad. Clearly. Besides, I wanted to move on with the conversation, which was so not going the way I’d daydreamed it would go.

  “He was probably just trying to get in good with Loretta so he wouldn’t get fired,” Christopher muttered.

  “Wait…what? Is he getting fired?”

  Christopher looked away. “No. I don’t…Forget I said anything.”

  “No, tell me,” I said, suddenly remembering the conversation we’d had about getting whoever did this fired. “Christopher, what’s going on?”

  He huffed a sigh, clearly uncomfortable. “My parents…they’re pretty pissed about what happened. They demanded Loretta fire Damon.”

  I blinked, confused. Normally, my grandmother toed the “the customer is always right” line pretty closely. If someone demanded an employee be fired, especially after an egregious offense, she normally listened. It’s not like I wanted Damon to lose his job, but I knew how Loretta would see it. He was just another dude serving coffee, and there were always local kids lined up to take jobs here. Although, she’d probably never used the word “dude” in her life.

  “So…why hasn’t she?” I asked.

  “Because her lawyers told her not to, apparently,” Christopher said. “They said it would be like admitting guilt.” He shot me a fleeting look and turned even redder. “I don’t know the details. My parents don’t tell me everything, so you’d have to ask her. I probably shouldn’t even be talking to you about this. They’d probably say I was sharing confidential information or something.”

  My stomach was doing this awful clenching and unclenching thing that I really did not like. “I’m sorry…sharing confidential information?” When had this become an episode of Law & Order? “Christopher, why are there lawyers involved?”

  “Can we talk about something else?” Christopher asked, shifting in his seat. “So, you did it, huh? You skied a black diamond. Have you checked it off your list yet?” He was forcing this odd, fake-chipper voice, and it just made me feel worse.

  “Christopher, are you…are you suing my grandmother?”

  “No! No. We’re just…suing the resort.”

  “That’s the same thing!” I cried.

  “No, it’s not. The resort is a company. We’re suing the company.”

  “My family’s company!” I replied, maybe a touch too loudly. A few people
relaxing in the lobby turned to look, and my throat tightened. “This place could go bankrupt,” I said, lowering my voice. “My grandmother would lose everything.”

  “Tess, calm down. It’s not like this was my decision,” he said. “It was my parents’. And there’s no talking them out of something once they decide to do it.”

  “You have to tell them Damon didn’t do anything,” I said.

  He went very still. “But Damon did do something. He ran me off the trail. He even laughed about it.”

  “How do you know it wasn’t just a reaction to seeing you fall? I mean, not the greatest reaction, but still. Some people automatically laugh in the face of tragedy, you know,” I informed him. “How do you know for sure you wouldn’t have broken your leg anyway?”

  “Oh my God,” Christopher said. “You really don’t believe me.”

  My face was burning and I was starting to truly sweat. “And you want to put my grandmother out on the street.”

  “That’s a little dramatic, Tess.”

  “No, it’s not! It’s the truth. This place is all she has. These people are her family.” I threw out my arms as if to encompass the entire resort. “This is my family.”

  “Wow.” Christopher’s face had gone stony. “It’s all about you, isn’t it?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He pushed his hands into the couch at his sides and shoved himself up straighter. “My leg is broken, Tess. I’m in constant pain over here. I’m going to miss an entire season of basketball. But do you even care? No. It’s all about you and your parents and your list and your grandmother’s hotel. Well, guess what? One of her employees injured me. On purpose. And the reality is that the hotel is liable. And instead of caring about any of that, you’re running out the front door to go skiing with the guy who did this to me!”

  “You were the one who told me I had to start doing more things for myself. Isn’t that how this whole thing got started?” I shouted, rousing an older couple from a couch nearby. “And now you’re calling me selfish? What do you want from me, Christopher?”

  “Nothing,” he said flatly, his jaw clenched. “Okay, Tess? I want nothing from you.”

  My heart sunk all the way into my frostbitten toes. I couldn’t believe that, mere minutes ago, I’d been daydreaming about kissing this guy. “Fine,” I replied. “Then I guess I’ll just go.”

  And then, I did.

  I went right to Loretta’s office. Her assistant, Frank, looked stressed out when I walked in, but he managed a smile. The door behind him—the one that led to Loretta’s room—was closed.

  “Hi, Tess,” he said. “She’s on the phone right now, but I’ll let her know you’re here.”

  “Thanks.”

  He typed something quickly into his computer, and it dinged a second later.

  “She says to send you right in.”

  My whole body was jangling with nerves as I pushed open the door. Loretta stood up from behind her desk, hanging up her phone as she did. I was still trying to figure out exactly what to say, when she spoke first.

  “Did you just get into an altercation in the lobby?”

  Her voice was tense, and it wasn’t until I heard it that I noticed her whole face was red.

  “How did you—”

  “I have staff who tend to alert me to these sorts of things,” she reminded me. “This isn’t like you, Tess. First the incident at the pool and now this. You know better. When you’re here, you’re a representative of this family, of this resort. You have to be on your best behavior.”

  I was so taken aback I didn’t know what to say. Here I’d been about to ask her about the lawsuit—to try to help—and she was attacking me.

  “Did they tell you who I was arguing with?” I asked.

  “That’s hardly the point, Tess.”

  “No, actually, it is the point,” I told her, shaking from the effort of having yet another argument. She was right. This wasn’t like me. And I didn’t like it. “I was arguing with Christopher Callahan. You know, the person whose family is suing Evergreen Lodge?”

  Loretta paled. “How do you know about that?”

  “Because he told me!” I cried. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Her lips twitched, and she stood completely still. “Because it is none of your concern.”

  “How is it not my concern?” I demanded. “You knew I was hanging out with him. You could have told me. Do you think I don’t care about this place? Maybe I can help. Maybe I can—”

  Loretta barked a laugh. A not-at-all-kind laugh. “Tess, I appreciate that you feel passionate about this, but you need to stay out of it. You and Christopher shouldn’t even be talking about this.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because you are a minor,” she shot back. “And so is he. And there are a hundred nuances involved in this matter that you couldn’t possibly understand. This is the type of thing that needs to be left to the grown-ups.”

  My jaw dropped open, but no sound came out. I felt so insulted I wanted to scream.

  “Now go to your room,” she said, dismissing me like I wasn’t just a child, but a small one. A child she couldn’t bear to be around any longer. “And don’t talk to that boy about this again, do you understand?”

  I didn’t move. I still couldn’t speak.

  “I said, do you understand?” she said slowly.

  “I understand,” I whispered.

  I slammed the door to our room so hard, the wall sconces rattled. Lauren was still in the shower—I could hear the water running and her off-key singing echoing off the walls. I let out a groan and paced over to the window, stripping out of my ski jacket and sweatshirt and kicking off my boots. The cool air hit my sweaty skin, and I immediately shivered, but felt maybe one percent better.

  I couldn’t believe Loretta had spoken to me that way. I mean, she’d never been the warmest person, but for half a second there she’d looked like a villain out of some horrible kids’ cartoon. Didn’t she understand I just wanted to help? And she’d dismissed me like I was nothing. I hadn’t even had the chance to ask her how much money they were suing for. If it could ruin the business. And had she talked to my father about it? Had she asked for his advice?

  Honestly, I was still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that it was even happening. Christopher’s family was suing the resort. Okay, yes, businesses got sued every day. My father was legal counsel for a resort chain, so I knew. I knew the kinds of things people would get litigious about. They sued over food poisoning. Over falling down in the lobby while the floor was being mopped. Over there being no gluten-free options on a menu. Sure, someone might sue over an employee injuring their son. But this was my family. And it was my friend who was suing us.

  At least, I’d thought Christopher was my friend. Couldn’t he have told me about this the second he found out Loretta was my grandmother? Shouldn’t he have? Maybe I could have talked him out of it. Or at least talked to Damon and tried to figure out what had actually happened. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding, and I could have helped figure it out.

  I sat down on the bed and took a deep breath. But then, everything else came rushing back at me. Like that girl, Kacey, for starters. Did Christopher really like her? What had they talked about while I was up on the mountain? Had they talked about me and my list? Had they laughed about it? And also, he seemed so pissed off that I’d gone skiing without him. Or was it really the fact that I’d gone skiing with Damon? Or was it both? Because if Christopher had wanted to be at my side for every single thing I accomplished on my list, then he should have spoken up when I’d added the black diamond slope the other night. I could have thought of something else. Something we could do together.

  But honestly, was it really my responsibility to keep him entertained all day? Whether or not Damon had been
involved, Christopher had a broken leg. There was no getting around that. He would have been stuck in that lobby whether Lauren and I had ever shown up here or not. He had no right to blame me for wanting to get out of the lodge for a bit and have a little fun. I mean, hello? This was my vacation.

  The second that thought hit me, I stopped pacing. Because it didn’t sound like me at all. My whole intention when I’d arrived here was to spend the entire week on my butt reading books and watching videos. If I was being honest, that’s what I would have done if not for Christopher suggesting I get out of my comfort zone. If not for his help making the list.

  Why did everything have to be so complicated all of a sudden?

  I groaned again and flopped back on my bed. My phone jutted into my hip, and I pulled it out. Damon had sent the video of me skiing the black diamond, which there was no way I could watch right now. I wasn’t sure I could take the humiliation of watching myself fall on my butt. There were also half a dozen texts from my dad, asking what we were up to and requesting photos. He’d also sent me a picture of a misshapen tomato that looked like a heart that made me smile. I felt like I’d been neglecting him, so I sent him a couple of skiing pics Carina and I had taken. A text popped back almost immediately.

  Who’s the girl?

  New friend. I skied a black diamond today.

  No way! Congrats! So proud. And I’m glad you’re making new friends. No boys though right?

  I sighed and rolled my eyes.

  Yes there are boys here. It’s not Mars.

  LOL but not a particular boy?

  I hesitated for half a second. Did he know about Christopher somehow? Had Lauren clued him in? Doubtful. She wasn’t really speaking to our father at the moment, just like I wasn’t really speaking to our mom. Maybe Loretta had called him and told him about the paper airplane–flying incident? That I was flirting with the kid whose family was suing the resort? I blushed just thinking about that moment Loretta had interrupted, and irritation twisted my gut. Was that really just yesterday that I had felt so close to Christopher? That we’d almost kissed?