“I don’t think I can breathe in this thing,” Lani said.
“Tough,” he ushered her back out to the staged area. “Breathing is not important when you’re in a Valor original.”
“It’s important to me,” she mumbled as he pushed her to the small stage they had constructed for the shoot. She took the step up and then realized she was in the perfect location for what they had planned. She was directly in front of the camera.
“Just stand there and try to look modelesque,” the photographer ordered. He said just stand, so she just stood there. “Well at least try to look like you’re enjoying the dress.”
She sighed. The things she did for her job—a job she needed in order to keep the bills paid and food in the refrigerator. Oh what she wouldn’t give to be rich. “I get paid for this right?” Lani Andrews worked free for no man—or woman for that matter.
“You’ll get the model’s pay,” she heard Derek’s voice. “And I still want the article, but maybe I’ll have that no talent Matthew Taylor write it instead. You’ll have other things to focus on I know.”
“I will?” She turned and posed as the photographer kept snapping photos of her in the hideous army green gown with far too many feathers that made her look like a diarrhea version of Big Bird. Although the dress was hideous she would admit there was something fun about striking a pose and getting paid for it.
“Don’t you remember St. Mary’s?”
“Wh—what?”
“A certain promise we made there,” he grinned. “You remember I’m sure. New Years Day isn’t that far away.”
So he did remember. Oh God, that was bad. She was so distracted by the horrific image of her saying I Do to that jerk that she didn’t realize she had nearly backed up to the point of stepping off the podium until one of the five inch heals she was wearing slipped off the back and down she tumbled with a loud “Whoa!” Followed by a rather loud, “Ouch!” And then a very unmistakable ripping sound.
“The dress!” the assistant yelled. “She’s ripped the zipper clear off one side of the dress. I told you she was too fat for it.”
Well, at least she could breathe now. She would leave the fat comments for another time. Right now she had bigger things to worry about. Right now she had to figure out how to fall in love before Christmas.
Chapter Three
“So, what do you have for me my good man? Friends? Family? Escort?” Lani shed her coat and tossed it onto the coat rack, pulled off her boots and left everything neatly in the same spot where she always left things when she went to Matt’s townhouse. He really did have his ducks in a row, so to speak. He had bought his place, not leased it, not mortgaged it, but bought it. He out right bought the place because he had been smart enough to actually save his money as a child and make small investments. She had tried to save. She had started a child savings bank account that came with a new coloring book—three pages of coloring—and a few crayons when she made a deposit. Of course she had a tendency to make a withdrawal four days later to buy something she didn’t need but highly wanted—like a book or a magazine. Her parents never forced her to save and she was thankful for that. She did chores and they gave her an allowance. It was an allowance she was relatively free to do with as she pleased and apparently spending her money pleased her more than saving it. If only she could get a do-over her finances could be much different. She could maybe own her own little place in the city. She wanted a house though. She wanted the one down by the lake, right off from the rolling hills that looked so beautiful whether it was covered with spring flowers and butterflies or winter snow and ice. That place had been on the market for about a month now and she would love to call it home next year. Unfortunately she didn’t have enough money to buy it. “I wish, I wish, I wish; my Christmas wish is this, that I may grow old in that cabin by the lake with someone I love who loves me just the same.” She had chanted at the meet and greet with Santa last week when it was her turn to sit on the fake Santa’s lap—work took her to the strangest places.
Sitting on Santa’s lap had been one of Derek’s mandatory coverage tasks. Why was she writing about Santa meet and greets? She still hadn’t figured out the answer to that question. The magazine was all about fashion so what was the point of covering fake Santa meetings? She figured Derek was going to try to find some minute way to use the coverage to cover over his lack of charitable donations. The old owner, Delvin Gibson always gave a substantial amount to the homeless shelter and the toy drive for the less fortunate children in the area. “Every child deserves a gift,” he would always say. Maybe what she should have been wishing for was for somebody to replace the donations those organizations weren’t getting this year because the Grinch was now running the magazine. Maybe Derek wasn’t that bad—he was just that greedy. Of course it was his company now and that meant he was free to do what he wanted with his money. She didn’t own the company; she just worked for it.
Matt laughed. “Like I’d ever think you’d fall in love with an escort in three weeks.”
“Two weeks now, Matt. You’ve had a week. And hey, I’m desperate. I’d fall in love with a horse if I thought it would save me from the St. Mary’s Curse.”
He laughed again so hard he had tears coming out his eyes.
“I’m glad one of us can find this funny.” She snapped. It wasn’t his future on the line here.
“You do realize that being in love isn’t the same as just saying you’re in love.”
“Why not? I could just think I’m in love for a few days right? I mean, that sounds good.” In her mind that would work just fine.
“I don’t think that would count. So, let’s see…who have you dated that you actually liked?”
“Nobody,” she admitted. Lani looked around at the art on the wall, the subtle shades of blue and silver of his décor, and the tile flooring he had installed which everybody thought was crazy because of how cold those floors would be in the winter. He, of course, had managed to add area rugs where they were needed. His place was cute and very perfect for him. Of course thinking about the fashionable design of his place wasn’t solving her problem. She needed to focus. She needed to be in love within two weeks and that was going to take some serious work. They hadn’t found anybody yet. There had to be somebody.
Matt looked over his crazy friend. She was beautiful, but this was the craziest thing he had seen her do—ever. If it weren’t for the fact that he, too, feared the St. Mary’s Curse he would have told her to let it go and forget about it, but given the history of that church and the promises made there he believed with confidence that something bad could happen to her if she didn’t go through with her promise she and Derek had made. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, and he certainly didn’t want her marrying their jerk of a child-hood nemesis turned boss.
“What about Jake?”
“He called you a buffoon.”
“And you broke up with him over that?”
“It was rude. Nobody talks down about my best friend like that.”
He nodded. Maybe he was a bit of a buffoon, but every time he got around Lani he seemed to have unavoidable accidents. He would either trip over his own feet, fall down two steps, knock a plate of food over on himself or spill his drink while he was trying to drink it. He had been that way since the first time he saw her. In fact, the first time he saw her he was the new kid in her school. He took one look at her while the teacher was introducing him to the class and the next thing he knew he had tripped over the trash can, tried to steady his fall by reaching his hands out, but instead of finding balance he ended up grabbing hold of the projector screen and ripping it clear out of the mounting device as he fell. Everybody laughed, including the teacher, but not Lani. Lani got up and helped him up before pulling him over to the empty desk two rows over from her. He probably looked like the biggest buffoon to the entire class at that point.
“What about Steven what’s his name? Steven…Steven…”
“York,” s
he supplied the last name for him.
“Yeah, what about him. He was smart—a doctor right?”
“He said your eyes were weird.”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?”
“Nothing at all. He said they were a weird shade of hazel to the point of almost being amber.”
“They are not!”
“Well, they are a little golden, but I think it’s cute. It’s like brown meets gold with flecks of green and blue. It’s different.”
He sighed. “So you broke up with him because of that?”
“No, I broke up with him because when I defended your eyes he told me it was either him or you. I don’t ditch my friends—especially not my best friend.”
He nodded his understanding once again. He had walked out of a couple relationships for the same reason…although nobody ever put Lani down. She was gorgeous. She had that light brown sugar color with big ash colored eyes. She was five seven, skinny, but curved in all the right places, and she was the most classy, eloquent woman he knew. Nobody could find anything negative to say about her that would be in any way close to being true.
“Daniel…you liked him.”
“He was okay,” she admitted.
“Let’s put him on the list then.”
“There wasn’t really any chemistry between us.”
“He seemed to really like you.”
“Let me rephrase that. There was no chemistry on my part. I just didn’t…I looked at him as a brother type.”
He scratched the name off the list. “We can’t have you falling in love with your brother.” He shrugged. “Lani, if you find something wrong with every guy we’re not going to have anybody to work with here. We only have a couple weeks.” He tapped his pen on the pad. “You know if you didn’t put things off until the last minute…”
“I don’t put things off until the last minute; I forgot about the stupid pact.”
“You put things off until the last minute, Lani. You put your stories off until they’re not even a day away from being due.”
“That’s not last minute. I have several hours before they’re due in.”
He grumbled. She knew exactly what he meant and he knew that. “Three weeks wasn’t enough time. And now that we’re down to two weeks it is definitely not enough time.”
“Make it enough time. You’re the guy who can pull rabbits out of hats…you know what I mean so don’t get all technical,” she admonished. “If I have to marry Derek I’m going to ask him to permanently make you his assistant. I swear it on St. Mary’s.”
He gasped. “Thank God that only works if you swear in the church itself. Since you hate the church now I’m sure I don’t have to worry about that happening.”
“I’ll step foot in there just to swear it.”
“Lani, you haven’t been to church in over twelve years!”
“That’s not the point. Misery loves company and best friends are supposed to share.”
“Please, don’t share,” he stressed his words. He did not want that on his plate.
“I mean it, Matt. Two weeks is all we have and I’m not going into hell without you. Well, two weeks and a couple days, but I won’t count those couple days. I need this and I need it now.”
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are; which is why I won’t leave you behind.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Just please don’t swear it on St. Mary’s because it might actually come true and you wouldn’t want to hurt me, now would you?” He watched her pout and he knew she wouldn’t do that to him. She loved him too much to do that to him.
“I have a friend you might like. His name is Bob. He’s a science and math geek, but he’s a good guy.”
“Great. Set me up.”
He shook his head just thinking about this crazy idea. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. If you weren’t my best friend I would have run screaming when you asked.”
She laughed hard. “Well thank goodness for strong friendships. You know if I didn’t believe in this St. Mary’s Curse thing I wouldn’t even be doing this. Seems rather unfair to be held to a promise I made when I was young and stupid.”
He shrugged. “We all make mistakes. Some mistakes are forgiven while…”
“Others are not,” she placed her hand over his. “Look, Heather was an idiot okay. You’re a great guy with a lot of love to give and she just couldn’t appreciate that. She didn’t deserve you. You make one lousy mistake and she bails on you…please; that is so stupid. Let her go, Matt, and move on. It was your life anyway and it was your right to not take your grandfather’s payoff. You shouldn’t have to give up your dreams just for him to leave you his estate.”
He nodded. Maybe he should have discussed it with Heather beforehand. Maybe that was a mistake, but honestly he didn’t see why he needed to tell her about the offer. “My dad gave it up to marry my mother. He scraped by penny for penny.”
“But he was happy while he did it. Look, you and Heather were serious, but you weren’t married and I can see why you didn’t think you would have to talk to her about the offer your grandfather made. Maybe it was a mistake, but it wasn’t anything so major that she couldn’t forgive you. I think she was just angry that she lost out on a huge sum of money.”
“True.” He had the feeling that’s all Heather was angry about too. She had only mentioned a couple times that he hadn’t consulted her first. The rest of her rant was about the fact that she wouldn’t be able to buy some designer handbag, shoes, vacation to Hawaii…he couldn’t even remember the entire rant, but he could remember that it was pretty much about her and what she could have bought with the money he would have received from his grandfather’s estate. Thankfully she didn’t know about his savings. It wasn’t anywhere near what his grandfather had to offer, but it was enough for him. His paycheck was enough for him too. Unfortunately it would seem that Heather wanted more, more and more. Nothing would have ever been enough for her.
“And look at you. You’re one of the most amazing editorial writers on staff.” Lani reassured him.
“I think you own the rights to that title.”
“I said one of,” she winked at him. “You rock, Matt. You deserve a woman who can see that. Hey, I’ll set you up with a friend of one of my married friends,” she smiled big. He knew that smile. She had a plan and it scared him. “We’ll double date. This is such a great idea.”
“How are you going to fall in love with the tag along couple?”
“You’re not a tag along, silly.” He watched her text her friend. “There, now I just have to wait for a reply. We are so going to go double dating. We haven’t done that since college.”
“That didn’t work out so well,” he reminded her.
“My date was an idiot and you were playing the knight in shining armor. You were so cute,” she patted his cheek.
“He gave me my first black eye.”
“He paid for that.”
“You broke his nose.”
She shrugged. “He hit my guy. Nobody hits you.” She pulled the notepad over to her and looked at the non-existent list. “But it was nice of you to try to make him keep his hands off my butt. I had no idea he was a drinker to that extent, but I’m glad I found out early that he was a total douche bag.” They were always standing up for each other, so when Grant Dempsey decided to try to paw her like a wild animal right there in the pool hall Matt came to her rescue, leaving his date behind so he could stick up for Lani. Lani had always told Matt that he really was a good guy and she couldn’t understand why women couldn’t see that. Maybe he just picked the wrong women, she had said.
“You do realize that finding a guy you like that still happens to be okay with our friendship is going to take a lot of work. I’m not sure you have time for that. You might have to ditch me to save yourself.”
“Not ever and you know that. There’s somebody out there. Keep thinking; maybe a name will come to us.” Keep thinking, that’s all they needed t
o do—that and pray for a miracle. “Until that point I’ll just have to see what happens with Bob.”
Matt shrugged. He didn’t want to see her with Bob, but better Bob than Derek, that was for sure. He studied Lani for a minute. Why hadn’t she looked at him as more than a friend?
“What?” She said as she acknowledged his constant and intense gaze upon her.
“You’re beautiful,” he said. Had he ever told her that before? Had he ever even tried to make a move? They were best friends and he knew she loved him, he loved her too. The difference was he was in love with her and she wasn’t in love with him.
“Thanks,” she looked at him as if she were in shock. “You have never said that to me before.”
“I haven’t?”
“No,” she shook her head. “We’ve never focused on looks with each other I guess.”
In Love Before Christmas Page 2
