Page 3 of The Hat Trick

I raise my eyebrows at her. “You don’t mean…”

She nods. “That’s right. Get ready.”

2

Over the course of the day Audrey has done everything possible to keep me distracted. It’s worked for the most part. What has also helped is that Audrey took my phone away so I wouldn’t be tempted to look at social media.

I may have begged for it back a couple times, but that’s beside the point.

Now, we are at one of those ceramic painting places. But this one serves wine and the ceramics are for adults. So, I’m painting a mug that says,Wake the fuck up.

After this, we are going to this Christmas village that Audrey found when researching things to do that we haven’t done before.

“I think I’m done,” I say, examining my artwork. Which looks like it could have been done by a five-year-old, but I tried.

“Me too.” Audrey holds up her own mug. Hers is painted much better than mine, and it’s probably because she was more meticulous in her painting. Unlike me, who would drink a half a glass of my wine and slap some colors on. Then repeat the process.

We leave our mugs and are told to pick them up in a couple days before heading downtown to where the Christmas village is. Audrey drives us through streets that always stress me out. Downtown Denver is chaotic, and I hate navigating through the crazy drivers and people who just decide to walk across the street like there aren’t cars coming at them.

After a few close calls, me screaming at Audrey to watch out, closing my eyes and finally accepting my fate, we park and I take a deep breath.

“You’re so dramatic,” she says, rolling her eyes at me.

“My safety isn’t dramatic.” I narrow my eyes at my friend.

She just chuckles, while we both get out of the car and find our way to where the village setup is. Her phone said it was just down the street, but all we’ve seen is buildings, and can’t figure it out.

“It says it should be right here.” She points straight ahead to a large office building.

“Are you sure this place even exists? Maybe we were scammed.”

“I don’t think we got scammed.”

“Maybe if you give me my phone back, I can—”

“Not happening.”

I groan as we continue walking to find this hidden village, I have now convinced myself doesn’t exist. We trek through the city streets until we finally see some lights that indicate that could be what we are looking for.

“See, I told you we’d find it,” I say while lightly smacking Audrey’s arm with the back of my hand.

“You are such an ass,” she grumbles.

The entrance to the village has an arch that is covered in tinsel, and a sign at the top that says, ‘Holiday Village’. There are string lights decorating the sign that also look like they line the entire plaza. We walk through the arch and see all the different vendor stalls that line the outside, including food carts and shops with Christmas items. There are decorated trees, and statues of nutcrackers people are taking pictures with. It does feel like we walked into a Christmas wonderland. Minus the snow. Even though it’s early December, we haven’t gotten any snow yet, which I’m very disappointed about.

We explore the area, and Audrey eventually gets drawn into one of the stores that is selling decorations. She’s a sucker for that type of stuff.

“I’m going to go get us some hot chocolate,” I tell her because if I have to tell her which wreath I prefer one more time I might gouge my eyes out.

“Extra marshmallows for me please.”

I go toward the stand we walked by earlier that sold hot chocolate and fancy donuts. The line doesn’t take long, and I order Audrey her drink with extra marshmallows, and a peppermint hot chocolate for me. I also get us each a frosted donut I couldn’t turn down.

It’s a struggle to balance everything, and I regret coming over here without Audrey. I scan the area for a place to sit down and wait for her when my eyes connect on the worst thing possible.

Jay.

And his fiancée.

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