“I sure doloveyou,” Sam says.But itfeelslike she means she hates me, and that’s okay.Someone has to be the boss, and I knew it would be me.And when we go over numbers, she’ll be happy and relieved that we made a small profit this month, a profit we will all need to pay for our lives and our Christmas gifts for our loved ones.
Now that I think about it, Scrooge might have been misunderstood.
The world does not go around on its own.I mean,the worlddoes, thanks to gravity or science or other stuff I don’t understand.But our checking accounts don’t balance themselves, and someone has to take initiative or our Irish escape will become our Irish Flop, and that would be on me.
By the time everyone reaches my house to decorate gingerbread men, Sam’s in a better mood, thankfully.
“Is that a smile I see?”I arch an eyebrow.
“I finally showered.”But now she’s definitely smiling.“And those photos you sent over were really cute.I think Conor might actually like kids, as long as they aren’t wearing diapers and poking his eyes.”
I roll my eyes.It’s as close as she’ll get to saying I was right, and that’s okay.Vanessa arrives then, and the house explodes with the chattering sounds of children, the little ones running and squealing, and everything else I love about living near my best friends at the holidays.
Together, we make the ugliest gingerbread men I’ve ever seen.
“I am never buying those huge candy eyes again.”I tilt my head, but it doesn’t help.
“I like them,” Vanessa says.“Zombie gingerbread.”
“They look like aliens,” Samantha says.
“We can’t give those away,” I say.“They’ll scare people.”
“Only weak people,” Trish says.“It’s a cookie.How scary can it be?”
I laugh.“Fine.”
“We’ll keep the big-eye ones for ourselves and give away the others,” Sam says.“Aliens only for our cookies.”
The others are pretty ugly too, but that feels rude to say.
“Maybe we could make them some little spaceships,” Vanessa says.
“It’sChristmas,” I say.
“I was going to put wreaths on the spaceships,” Vanessa mutters.“Geez.”
Miraculously, we have the house mostly picked up, the kids in pajamas, and a Christmas movie turned on just in time for me to go on my date.Cillian’s office is having a holiday party, and I’m going with him.It’s the one break he’s had in the last ten days, and I’m pretty excited about it.
Vanessa’s sticking around to keep an eye on all the kids, since teenagers are not exactly always reliable, but that means she and Sam are still there to give me feedback when I emerge in my sparkly red dress.
“Va-va-voom!”Trish tries to whistle.It’s a little like the alien cookies in terms of execution, but the sentiment’s a sweet one.“You, my dear Natalie, are a smoking hottie.”
Vanessa, Samantha, and I all laugh.“Thanks, Trish.”
“If I looked half as good as you do in that dress, I would put it on and stroll up and down main street.”She shakes her head.“Oh, to be young and fabulous again.”
I love Trish.What other person thinks forty-one is young and hot?Hopefully Cillian will think I look presentable.One of the things women may not think about when they ogle hot men is that if the guy’s hotter than you, it’s a little hard to feel good about yourself around him.I’m always wondering whether people feel bad for him, or if they wonder why he’s with me.I need a shirt that says, “I’m rich.That’s why.”That would answer their question, at least, only, I suspect Cillian has a lot more money than I do.
There’s a knock at the door, and I poke my head around to see the driveway.Sure enough, his sports car’s parked there.With all the chaos, I didn’t notice when he pulled up.
“It’s GO time!”Trish squeals.
For some reason, when I open the door, Cillian looks nervous.“So, there’s some kind of mess over there, and I’m not sure...”
“Mess?”When I walk outside, I realize the stupid, confounded,blastedpig that’s staying in our back pen, because Mason had a work trip, has escaped, and is absolutely ravaging our small backyard garden.“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Blaine comes out and starts yelling, which doesn’t help.Pudge bolts, and she may not move very fast, but it’s faster than I can manage to properly follow in heels.I nearly catch her, twice, but when I leap at her, the dumb pig heads for the barn, and the gelding Richard gave Samhatesthe pig, like, more than giraffes hate turtles, and Rudolph bolts, literally runningthroughthe fence.Luckily, the fence wasn’t very strong there and the red gelding appears to be fine.
