Page 14 of Christmas By The Shore

“I know what you like.” Cat got out of the car and headed inside, going straight to the chip aisle. Both she and McKenzie had a weakness for potato chips, but she also picked up some healthy snacks in the form of mixed nuts and an apple. Her arms were full of goodies and cold drinks by the time she was done shopping. She turned to go check out and nearly ran directly into someone who had been approaching her.

“Oh!” she yelped with alarm and then saw who it was. “Oh my god, Chris?”

“Hey, Catherine. I thought that was you.” Her ex-boyfriend casually smiled, like he wasn’t surprised to see her. “I was wondering when we were going to run into each other. You know what people say, Boston is a small town in a big city.”

“Do people say that?” She’d never heard the phrase, but she understood what it was trying to convey. It wasn’t incorrect.

“I might be messing it up,” he admitted, “but it’s something like that. Anyway, it was only a matter of time, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I—uh—I heard you moved back to the city. How do you like being back?”

“I love it. Monica misses a lot of her friends back in Chicago, but I know once the baby comes, she’s going to be happy to be around family.” He winced. “Oh—wait. McKenzie did tell you that Monica was pregnant, right? I didn’t mean to just blurt it out like that, but?—”

“She told me,” Cat assured him. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. It was a bit of a surprise, but a happy one. But hey, what about you?” He reached out and touched her arm like they were old friends, even though they hadn’t seen each other in at least seven or eight years. The last time, which Catherine remembered vividly, was when they crossed paths at a work conference at the Marriott. There were too many people around for them to talk privately, so Cat escaped without having to discuss anything real with him and spent the rest of the weekend avoiding him at all costs. But here he was, acting all jovial and familiar. It was very off-putting.

She forced a laugh. “What about me?”

“McKenzie said that work has been going really well. That’s great.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “I’ve been publishing books left and right. I have a lot of irons in the fire for next year, so that’s exciting as well.”

“Amazing!” He sounded genuine, which made her feel even more uneasy. It wasn’t that she expected he would still have hard feelings over their breakup, but he could at least do her the favor of seeming alittleuncomfortable with this unplanned encounter. “I’m so happy for you.” He looked at all the food in her hands. “Are you on your way to your parents for Thanksgiving then?”

“Actually,” she said, standing up a little straighter, “I’m going to be staying in Cape May through the end of the year. My parents are on a cruise, so McKenzie and I offered to watch their house. It’ll be nice to get away from the city, and have a vacation.”

He rocked back on his heels and whistled in a way that gave Cat a sense of pride. She knew this had impressed him. “You’re taking six weeks off from work? Really?”

“I’ll work remotely.”

“Still—that’s a big deal. I know how you feel about remote work.”

“I don’t necessarily feel that way anymore,” Cat said, referring to the fact that she used to think remote work was just an excuse for people to put in about half the effort but get paid the same amount. “A lot of my colleagues stayed remote even after the pandemic, and they’ve been able to keep up with everything, so perhaps it just depends on the person.” She glanced over her shoulder and saw McKenzie sitting in the driver’s seat on her phone. It would appear she was done pumping the gas.

“But, uh, I should really get going,” she said, moving past him and towards the register. “We’re trying to beat the traffic.”

“Of course,” he said. “I won’t keep you. It was good to see you, though. We should get together for coffee sometime when you’re back in the city. I’d love to catch up some more.”

“Sure, yeah,” she said noncommittally. “I’ll contact you.”

“Sounds good!”

She dumped all her stuff on the counter, and the man working the register began to ring up her items. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a blond, pregnant woman standing by the ice machine and talking on the phone. Even from this angle, Cat knew it was Monica. She kept her head down and grabbed the plastic bag the second she paid with her card. On her way out the door, she hung a sharp right and took a strange route around the parked cars to get back to her own without being caught by herex-boyfriend’s pregnant wife. The second she shut the passenger side door, she could feel McKenzie’s eyes on her.

“Is that?—?”

“Yup. That’s Monica, and Chris is inside.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“For a second.”

“And?”

“And—” Cat pushed her shoulders back into the seat and sighed heavily. “I just want to forget that conversation happened and get on the road. I’ll tell you everything later. For now, I have to distract myself with work and copious amounts of potato chips.”

McKenzie saluted her. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

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