Page 9 of Mistletoe Mischief

“Fine by me,” Pike said while writing down their ideas. “Food trucks. Holiday baking contest. Best sculpture. Hockey championship. Winter relay race. Snowball toss competition.” Pike’s mind was now racing with ideas. “Anything else?”

“I think that’s enough to send to Merry and get her final input,” Anthony said.

“Then the committee meeting for the first annual Mistletoe Winter Games is concluded.” Pike held up his beer bottle, waiting for his friends to tap theirs to his. “Now, what should we do?”

“I don’t know about the two of you but we,” Nick said, climbing to his feet, “are going home.”

“We are?” Noel asked.

“Yeah, we have that thing to do, remember?” Nick waggled his eyebrows, and Noel’s face lit up.

“Right, that thing.”

“Y’all are so obvious,” Anthony muttered.

“Nasty,” Pike agreed.

“Says Single-Dee and Single-Dum,” Noel said, sticking her tongue out at them. She got to her feet and gave them a little wave. “Enjoy your bromance, my dudes.”

“You are a couple of smug, married assholes!” Pike yelled after them as they headed for the door. Nick and Noel laughed, and Pike shook his head as the door shut behind them. “Can you believe those turds? Flaunting their happiness in our faces and mocking us?”

Anthony chuckled. “Come on, man. They’re newlyweds. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t be doing the exact same thing if the roles were reversed.”

“You know I would, but that’s not the point. I don’t like it when it’s done to me.”

“Well, too bad.” Anthony got up off the couch, and Pike scowled.

“Are you going to ditch me, too?”

“Man, I am tired and sore, so yeah, I’m going home to take a long, hot shower.”

“That’s fine.” Pike sniffled. “I’ll just sit here, alone in my apartment, letting loneliness overtake me.” Changing up the forlorn tone for a cheerful one, he added, “Or maybe I’ll text Delilah, too. Set up our first date.”

Anthony grabbed his coat off the back of the chair, but Pike could have sworn he was frowning. “Whatever floats your boat.”

“Hey, don’t be all gloomy!” Pike slapped him on the back with a grin. “Remember, we’re about to be featured on Excursions. Millions of listeners. Exposure and advertising. This is going to be big.”

Anthony returned his smile. “That is pretty cool, man. Thanks for taking the chance.”

“I’m glad it paid off. Did you happen to look at those ornaments I sent?”

His friend scowled. “Yeah, and we are not shelling out fifty bucks per ornament. If you want to do the Festival of Trees, you better find something cheap. I’m not saying that the Excursions thing isn’t going to be amazing, but let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.”

“Understood.”

“Night,” Anthony said, ducking out the door.

Pike locked it behind his friend and started cleaning up, putting the boxes of leftover pizza into the fridge. He dumped out any remaining beer down the sink before tossing the bottles in the recycle bin. Flipping off lights as he made his way back to his bedroom, he considered heading out to Brews and Chews for a little bit, but Pike hated going to the bar alone.

He sat on the edge of his bed and sent Delilah a text. It was only nine, so it’s not like she’d mistake it for a booty call.

Hey. I hope you had a good day. Let me know what your schedule looks like. I’d love to take you out.

He stared at the message for several minutes, waiting for her to read it, but finally set his phone aside and stripped down. Pike went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, thinking about what his friends had said about settling. Just because he finally felt like the age difference between them didn’t matter and that they were in a good place to start something up didn’t mean he wasn’t truly into Delilah. Everything he’d said about her was true and then some. The fact that she’d been into him for a long time made it better. Less of a chance for him to get hurt.

Pike climbed into bed and checked his phone again. She still hadn’t read it.

Is this what lonely feels like?