Chapter Two
––––––––
Adalynn
––––––––
My life is a joke.
My mom gives me an apologetic smile, as if she fought to have me sit with the grown-ups and lost.
Every year, my family has a stylish Christmas Eve dinner.Dress code: black tie.At least last season, I paired up with my cousin Lauren.Even though she was engaged, her fiancé, trapped somewhere in Alaska or something like that, couldn’t make it.They got married just before Ines did, which means this year, I am the odd one out at the Christmas Eve dinner.
“Will you be okay with that, pumpkin?”My mom asks softly.
I mean, I get it.They want me to sit with the kids, so I don’t throw off the seating arrangement.Even numbers and all that.
But heat flushes up my skin and burns right down to my toes.I’ll be sitting with the children in the kitchen, eating an hour earlier than the grown-ups.Go me.
“I guess winning the Apple Lake pageant means nothing after all,” Ines says with a superior smirk.
Oh, right.At least once every six months, Ines brings up what I call the AL Event.I didn’t even want to take part, but Aunt Jessica twisted my mom’s arm—as usual.I would lose, of course, to her lovely Ines, Aunt Jessica had said, but at least it would give me some confidence, being the mousy child that I was and clearly still am.
Through some uncanny turn of events—I think the judges were drunk or high or both—they crowned me queen and Ines my princess.Nothing made my mom happier, which made me happy, which of course made Aunt Jessica and Ines extremely unhappy.I’m still living down that win to this day.
“You don’t mind, do you, Adalynn?Sitting with the kids?Unless you’re hiding a man somewhere in here?”Ines laughs in that mocking tone of hers, and her mother joins in.Sophie laughs awkwardly.My mom offers me a strained smile.
Crap, I’m so flustered that my insides turn hot.I hate this.I hate this so very much.For the last couple of years, I’ve gone through the same thing.
But the only thing worse than sitting with the kids for Christmas Eve dinner is sitting with the kids for Christmas Eve dinner because I’m single, with not even a glimpse of a boyfriend in sight.
Think fast, Adalynn.
I could hire someone.How much would that cost me?I haven’t had the best year, and it’s taking its toll on my bank balance, which is pitiful right now.
Also, can I, an introverted person, spend three nights and four days with a complete stranger who has to pretend to be my boyfriend?I can just imagine how disappointed the actor unlucky enough to need the money from this gig would be when he sees what I look like and hears how absolutely boring I am.
Poor man, he’d probably want to go drown himself in a lake.I mean, he’d first have to break through the ice to get into the water, what with the weather being so brutal, but he won’t be lacking motivation, that’s for sure.
Great, in the span of two minutes in my head, I hired an unsuspecting actor and drove him into a lake.I wish I could blink hard enough to snap myself into next year already.
No, I will not give Ines and my aunt the satisfaction they’re seeking.
“Actually,” I say, and everyone in the room looks at me in dead silence.Starting an answer with “actually” is definitely loaded.Can’t stop now.
“Actually, I’m engaged.To be married.”In case there was confusion over which engaged I meant.
“What?”Ines and Aunt Jessica shout.My mom jumps up from the sofa and almost lifts me off the floor when she hugs me.
Sophie slides her butt off the sofa and waddles toward me, throwing her arms around me.
