44
Matt
You shouldn’t have asked her out, I harangued myself as I walked over to meet my siblings later that evening.
She was probably put off because you were being such a weak piece of shit about Hensley.
“There’s the proud father,” Jonathan called as I walked into the ice café. “Have you and your girlfriend settled in with your new 500-pound baby?”
I shoved Jonathan, and he slid off the block of ice he was sitting on.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Eli told Liam that she was your rebound,” Jack said, taking a sip of his vodka out of a glass carved out of a block of ice.
Was she? She didn’t seem all that interested. She wouldn’t even come have a drink with me.
“It’s not like that,” I said, accepting the drink Owen handed me.
“You need to climb back in the sleigh,” Jonathan instructed.
“Are you talking about that reindeer?” Olivier asked as he and Belle approached our table.
“It’s a little warm in here, isn’t it?” Belle remarked, taking off her thin sweater and leaving her arms bare. Everyone else in the ice café was bundled up in big puffy coats, boots, and gloves. They kept giving my siblings and me horrified looks.
“I know,” Owen said, looking up at the ceiling. It and the walls were completely carved from ice. “I’m worried that the whole place is going to melt and collapse.”
“Like Belle and Greg’s relationship?” I said, willing to take the hit if it meant I didn’t have to talk or even think about whatever the fuck was going on, or not going on, with Merrie.
Jack choked on his drink.
“Punch him!” Oliver told Belle.
“You are such a suck-up,” I snapped at him.
“It’s just you and Greg weren’t trying to kill each other at the meeting today,” I said hastily.
She didn’t say a word—just sipped her drink.
Owen winced, and Jack looked like he wanted to duck under the table. Now I was concerned.
“Rest assured, boys, there is nothing going on with Greg.” Her mouth turned down.
“Oh, so are the rumors true?” Jonathan asked.
“What rumors?” my sister said sharply.
“That he’s dating one of the superhero-movie actresses,” Jonathan said.
“Is that so? Well, good for him,” she said, her jaw clenched. She slowly took a sip of her vodka, but I could see her hand itching to reach for her phone.
“I’ll get the lowdown from his brothers,” Oliver assured Belle. “Whoever he’s dating is nowhere near as great as you.”
“Such a suck-up.”
Later that night,after leaving my siblings, I walked Kringle in the cold, lost in my thoughts.
What would I do if Merrie ended up with someone else, some other man that wasn’t me?
