Page 59 of Christmas Coffee

Nova

Celyn suggested I spend the day with my sister, which wasn’t a bad idea because when I don’t show up first thing tomorrow, she’s going to be pissed. It’s Christmas Eve and we always spend Christmas morning together, even when Ben was around. I’d run over first thing and he’d catch up later. It’s a standing tradition that I’m okay with skipping this year. The thought of waking up on Christmas morning with Celyn in my arms is too much to pass up. Heading over there today gives me a chance to tell her. Celyn wants to pick me up at her house and take me to his place tonight. Since the roads are crap, I agreed.

When I get to Tinselly’s picture perfect house and approach the steamy glass door, I pull it open and am delighted to hear twin-sized chaos. “No! No! No!” They shout in unison, almost singing it with glee.

“Tinselly?” I call out to my sister and step inside the warm house. A fire is crackling in the brick fireplace. When I walk into the living room, Tinselly is standing with her hands on her hips staring down at two little boys who are buck naked and covered in red and green glitter smears.

Tinselly turns toward me in slow motion, not blinking, her face glazed over with horror. She’s two ticks away from stroking out. Not only are the kids a mess but the entire room looks like a unicorn was murdered. There’s glitter and glue everywhere.

I shout to her husband, “Lucas, you better get out here!”

Tinselly’s left eye twitches so I go straight to the liquor cabinet after ushering her to a seat. She’s speaking softly, with her palms up, explaining to the air, “They were making the place cards for tomorrow. I had the entire house clean and it seemed like a good idea.” She looks up at me as I mix a strong mimosa. “It would have been cute. I put the glue and glitter out, turned around, and when I came back—”

Lucas walks into the room at that moment and flinches. “This isn’t good.” His eyes travel to the boys who are rolling around on the floor, smearing glue and glitter everywhere—then he glances at his wife. “Boys, what would Santa say?”

One of them, I can’t tell which on account of the massive amount of glitter, says, “Santa loves glibber—mommy says.”

His brother nods in unison. “Mommy says.”

Tinselly mutters, “Mommy says. I says that.”

I repress a smile and hurry to her with the drink. “I’ve got this, you get that.” I point toward the boys. “I’ll help with the glitter later when her eye stops twitching.”

Tinselly frowns, “It is not.” When she tries to stop the tick, it just gets worse. She swears and grabs the glass from me, downs the whole thing and stalks to the sunroom on the back of the house.

I get her a refill as Lucas wishes me good luck and chases his naked children, corralling them toward the tub.

I hand Tinselly a second drink. She holds it and rants, “I had everything done. All of it. The decorations, the tree, the food prep, and the last thing was the cards. I was going to sit down in front of the fire and read a book.” She glances up at me, her eyes wide and weary. “Do you know how long it’s been since I had time to read a book? I haven’t sat down for four days.”

I point to her drink. Tinselly puts it to her lips and drinks this one slower. Her eye twitch slowly fades and she looks at me, I mean really looks at me. Her dark brows furrow and then a smile forms on her face. “Nova?” She asks as if I have something to tell her.

I’m ready to burst and it all rushes out. Everything from the time I took the job until last night. I leave out the homeless part, because that’ll freak Tinselly out and make her eye twitch more. When I’m done with my story, I’m smiling so hard my face hurts. “I did what you said and made sure he knew. I kind of hated you for a little bit there, because he freaked out and nearly bolted. If the door wasn’t covered in ice…”

“But it was,” Tinselly’s features fill with happiness. She comes over and wraps her arms around me. “Will you bring him by tomorrow?”

I give her a look. “It’s our third date. He’s not meeting my family. He’ll run the other way.”

“Hey, he will not.” She plops down next to me on the couch, drink in hand. “And if you guys want to come, he’s welcome here. You don’t have to show up until dinner, since I’m assuming you have better things to do in the morning. Like him.”

I swat her with a pillow and giggle. “Thanks for understanding. And just to be clear, never say anything that raunchy again. You’re Miss Prim and Proper. I’m the crass one.”

Tinselly tips her head back and honks a laugh. Finger raised, pointing toward me, she agrees, “That’s true. And to show you how great of a sister you truly have, I’ll even buffer him from Mom and Gran if you guys come. Please, please, please.” She begs, hands clasped together, as if she were praying to her mimosa.

I blanch. “Oh God, Gran. Can you imagine?”

Tinselly giggles. “She’ll be asking for his sperm count before he leaves.”

I grimace and then Tinselly and I start laughing again. We tell the old Christmas memories of our favorite times. I retell my favorite, “Remember when we were snooping through the presents when I was eight years old?”

Tinselly nods, a huge grin on her face. “Yeah, mom tried to hide them in the attic that year thinking you were too afraid to go up there. Then I found you with the stairs pulled down and half way up.”

“Yeah, I nearly fell off the ladder when you yelled at me. I thought you were Mom.”

Tinselly smirks. “You were always so afraid of getting caught. I couldn’t believe you had the audacity to pull the stairs down, never mind actually go up there.”

“Hey, you followed and then trapped us up there.”

Tinselly snort-smiles and points her glass at me. “Only to save your ass from Mom. I heard the car door slam.”