“Kris?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re at the Bayshore Mall in the food court.” Celeste’s line became muffled and when she spoke again her voice was a whisper. “I gotta go. See you soon.”
Celeste was restless,eyeing the various faces that passed by our table.
“The faster you eat, the faster we can do some retail therapy.” Normally she ate her food relatively quickly, but today she was savoring every french fry. Dipping each fry in a pepper and salt mix before swirling it in ketchup and slowly chewing.
Sitting in silence only gave way to me second guessing myself.Did I overreact? Should I have given Kris the chance to explain? Was I really okay with just walking away? And if I wanted to fix it, could I just return to the Kringle home and pretend none of this happened?I’d listened to Kris’s phone calls, which mostly consisted of him saying how sorry he was over and over. I was sorry too.
The night before, I fell asleep while seriously considering if we should name our first son Kristoff Kringle, Jr. And less than twenty-four hours later, I was toying with the idea of never speaking to the father of my imaginary kids again. But in my defense, we’d agreed no more secrets, granted I rarely ever had any earth shattering news to share, but still we’d both agreed.
He knew then he would be moving to California. That would have been the opportune moment to bring up the topic. Did he think introducing me to his family would make it harder for me to walk away? If that’s what he thought, he didn’t know me very well. Walking away from things I really wanted was second nature to me. I’d opted to stay local for college, forgoing my acceptance into NYU. I avoided avocados even though I loved them because they broke me out in hives. No avocado toast for me, although I imagine it’s delicious.
My feelings for Kris were strong and the possibilities seemed endless with him. But I wasn’t moving to California. And it was shitty of him to get me comfortable with having him around and making my body melt like cheese all warm and gooey, only to move damn near two thousand miles away.
Celeste held a french fry midair, a broad smile accentuating her round cheeks.
“What?”
“Don’t be mad at me.”
“I could never be mad at you.”
Her body finally relaxed for the first time in the past thirty minutes as she pointed to something behind me. I turned to find Kris with his hands in his pockets and his normally square shoulders rounded into a heap. Next to Kris were Irene and Rayna, most likely in tow for moral support.How’d he find me?Maybe that was a stupid question, he was a tech guy for all I knew he could have triangulated my position using cell towers and simple math. Great, not only was he a liar, he was also stalking me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Ahh—”
“That’s why I asked you not to be mad. I called him.”
I pushed back from the table, standing. “You what?” When we were at the airport, Kris gave her his number so she couldcall either him or me if we got separated. I guess she was just following instructions.
“You like Kris and he likes you. And you’re being stupid.”
My head jerked back at the stupid label. “I am not.”
“Can you two just talk? You never want to talk. You refused to talk to Aiden.”
Aiden cheated. A fact I hadn’t shared with her. For Celeste everything was black or white, right or wrong, good and bad. Unfortunately, relationships were more nuanced than that. But she was right. I didn’t talk to Aiden because he betrayed my trust and after some reflection it became clear his love came with conditions. Kris wasn’t Aiden, so why was I treating him like he was? He deserved a chance to explain, and I was owed the truth. I may not like what he had to say. And it would probably fix nothing … but still. Rolling my shoulders away from my ears, I relented. “Okay, I’ll listen.”
Irene reached for Celeste’s hand. “We’ll look after Celeste while you two talk.”
I offered Irene and Rayna a smile of gratitude.
“Do you want to head that way to try to get away from the crowd?” Kris pointed left.
“Sure.” Turning to Celeste, I assured her I wouldn’t be gone long before walking away from the food court. We moved through the mall in silence past shoppers who were having a much better day than either one of us. Kris who was usually all smiles and could find the levity in the most solemn of moments, wore a grieved expression. “Bringing your mother wasn’t really fair.”
He nodded. “My mom is mostly here to drive me home after you break my heart.”
I slowed my stride, stopping in front of the unmanned Christmas display. The Santa chair was vacant, and the workshop was dark. But the tree stood tall, illuminated as abeacon of refuge. “Breakyourheart? I’ve been nothing but one hundred percent with you. Can you say the same?” I pinned my arms over my chest, preparing myself for the bullshit.
“I’ve always been real when it comes to how I feel about you.”
“You just lied about everything else.”
