Chapter Five
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Adalynn
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Iwant to gag.I maybe turning green.
“Me too, darling, me too,” Uncle Ralph says, sitting next to me.He pats my hand as if he can feel what I’m feeling.“I lost the bet, and your Uncle Jim gets to have Irish coffee in bed while I have to be here all romantic at this ungodly hour.It’s Christmas, for fuck’s sake,” he murmurs.
“Right?”I agree.
“So,” Ines says with great pride, “I went around to each of your beloved significant others, and I got them to write a little love letter to their partners.Isn’t it the best idea ever?”
She picks up a bright red basket and starts handing out pink envelopes with little pink fluffy bows on them.
I was absolutely right to hate where this is going.
The hair on my head stands straight up.My fried nerves leave me in disarray.I whip my head up to my mom and find her attention is already on me.
Her eyes are so wide, and her eyebrows raised so high up her forehead, they’re part of her hairline now.Panic makes me shift uncomfortably in my chair.
Okay, I need to think about this logically.Everyone has a letter, and since my fiancés are nonexistent, it makes perfect sense that I don’t have a letter.
Clearly, Ines had planned this a while ago.I just know in my heart she also planned this to rub it in my face that I don’t have someone significant in my life.I know her.
She loves rubbing my face in things, bringing up my scrolls of misdeeds at every chance she gets.But now, this is different.I have a fiancé, three fiancés, I remind myself, so her snub just falls flat.Does she know that?If she does, why is she smiling with such radiance?
My stomach drops even further.
What is my cousin up to?Intuitively, I know it’s something horrendous.Did she find out I had lied?I made sure to tell them we were keeping it a top secret, and if they asked anyone, they would deny they were engaged to be married to some unknown, mousy jewelry maker.
Even if Ines got to ask them herself—which would be impossible to do—I know this because I kinda tipsy-called their office one day and asked to speak to them to tell them how much I disliked them for replacing my perfectly good, very casual previous celebrity crush, whose name I can’t even remember now.Anyway, I was told in no uncertain terms they don’t take unsolicited calls from anyone.They certainly wouldn’t take a call from Ines either.
I’m still in the clear.Whew.
“Sorry, Adalynn, I didn’t get a note for you, so you can’t play, unfortunately.”
