Page 1 of In a Pinch

Prologue

Addie

The cold air hits my face, and if I thought I was freezing my tits off in Colorado, I had a whole other thing coming to me here in Maine. The moisture in the snow makes the snowflakes stick to my face like glue. It comes down in big, heavy flakes, coating the ground.

Traffic buzzes around me as I wait for my Uber. Apparently, I'm not the only one getting an early start, never mind that it’s the literal ass crack of dawn. My plane boarded at 2 a.m. last night. Or would that be this morning? I don’t know. I’m too tired to form coherent thoughts.

Isla better love me extra after all this effort on her behalf. Not even the sun is up for her yet, but here I am, up and on the go. Her leading man, Cal, being the planner he is, arranged for anUber to pick me up. A 6 a.m. Uber was not on my Christmas wish list. But here we are. I don’t even want to know what Cal is paying for this. An hour Uber must be at least $200. He is the epitome of" if he wanted to, he would."

Once I’m settled in the Uber, it feels like the blink of an eye before I am pulling up to Cal and Isla’s new complex. Probably because I may or may not have passed out. The puddle of drool I left on the window is a clear indicator of that. Oops.

I have been here one other time, which was shortly after they first moved in together, and it is fun to see it now decked out in Christmas garb. Little Christmas lights lead the way to the door as I quietly make my way from the car. It’s before 8 a.m., and I am fairly confident that Isla won’t be poking her head out anytime soon. So, I don’t feel like I need to be playing super spy but I'm going to play it safe anyways.

Shooting a text to Cal, I stay close to the building’s side just to be safe and out of view.

I see Liv, Cal’s sister, pop her head out of the front door. “Come in, but be quiet. She is still asleep.”

“Thanks so much for coming,” Cal whispers as he grabs my bag and purse off my arm before giving me a small side hug. “I am going to hide these in the laundry room, and I’ll wake up Isla once we get you hidden. I think if you stay in this closet, you will be fine.”

He leads me down the hallway before I can really even greet the rest of his family. The faint sounds of voices chatter and the white walls of the condo blur past us as we make a mad dash.

Cal’s shoulders are so tense, they’re practically at his ears. Poor guy needs a chill pill. He opens the door, and I see a small trash can, brooms, and mops. A cleaning closet. Really? Like the laundry room wouldn’t work? But I keep this particular question to myself because I can see the man is already sweating bullets.

“What is with you two and cleaning closets?” I say, laughing to myself. “You better have done a spider check before you came up with this grand plan.”

“Oh, hold on, let me look.” He turns on the overhead light in the world’s smallest closet. “No spiders seen. Sorry, this is the best bet for you to still be closest.”

“Did you make sure the door doesn't squeak?”

“Yes, I sprayed it down with WD-40.” He points to the can.

“Okay, great. Now, hide the can and I will hide in here. Go get our girl, Cal.” I close the door in on myself, when a thought bubbles up. Shit, I don’t know my cue. “Cal, what’s the code word?” Can’t go through all this effort to surprise her and then ruin the moment.

“I’ll mention something about a present too big to wrap, or something like that.”

Super vague, but I guess I will roll with it. I give him a thumbs-up and retreat to my little hole.

I shit you not, I’ve been in here for a freaking hour. They ate first. Not only did I get placed in a closet, but I also have to smell delicious cinnamon rolls, which are my absolute favorite thing in the world. Cal owes me so big. Fighting the urge to bang my head against the wall, I hear them all move to the living room to open presents.

Freaking finally.

“Well, now that we have all our presents, I want to start with one that isn’t wrapped,” Cal says.

Shit, is that my cue? I stumble while getting to my feet and knock my head into the wall, bouncing off it.

Pushing through the doors, I make my way to the kitchen. “Surprise!”

Isla stumbles to her feet, more gracefully than I did, and runs to me.

“Did you do this?” she asks, looking back at Cal.

“He sure did. I am surprised neither one of us spilled the beans. I thought when I accidentally mentioned taking off time to go on a trip, you would have figured it out.” I smile at her. The good news is, Isla runs off good vibes only and didn’t put a second thought into me going on a trip. She was just happy I was going somewhere.

So far, all my PTO has been spent coming out here, which is nice. It’s like how our Hawaiian vacation should have been, if my douchebag ex hadn’t unplugged my phone so I would miss my plane. Apparently, he was the jealous type and didn’t want me parading around in a bikini. Totally a good reason to make your girlfriend miss her flight and make her best friend go on a two-week trip alone, right? Ugh, I’m still so mad about that.

While Isla and I chat about how long I’m here for and how this all came about, someone interrupts us.

“Can we get back to our regularly scheduled programming?” A voice I don’t recognize floats from the other side of the room. A rude-ass interruption, accompanied by a look of complete disdain.

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