Page 5 of Merrily You

“You’re worse than my mom,” she muttered under her breath.

“Yeah, and what happens when I don’t tell you to check your car before you go somewhere?”

“That was one time!”

“Yeah, because of me, it was only one time.”

Holiday’s eyes narrowed. “Fine. Me and my perfect eyebrows will see you at the diner.”

I was about to head to my own car when she honked the horn.

“Seriously?”

Holiday grinned at me. “Thanks for helping me keep my shit together. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Oh, and your hair looks great today. And that sweater is a perfect color on you.”

Oh, she was giving me compliments now. I was surprised to feel my cheeks getting pink and it wasn’t just because of a sudden burst of cold air.

“See you at the diner, H,” I said. She gave me one more smile before cranking her music and driving onto the street in front of our apartment complex.

I followed after her, but quickly lost her when a light turned red. I’d see her soon.

Chapter Three

Holiday

“And extra whipped cream,” I informed the server at the diner. Danny and I stopped here every year and got a massive breakfast to fortify us for the marathon ahead. It was an essential part of surviving.

Danny looked at her phone and frowned.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Oh nothing. Just my parents wondering if I’m going to die alone under a pile of cats. As if there’s something wrong with being single and happy and owning cats. They got upset when I reminded them that statistically the happiest people are single women. Now I’m being message lectured. Same old, same old.” She rolled her eyes, but I knew it hurt her. Being compared to her siblings was something she’d dealt with her whole life.

“I’m sorry.” She sipped her coffee and waved me off.

I glanced at my phone and saw that Mom had sent me a picture of the mistletoe she hung up every year, suggesting that I should kiss Danny under it.

Same old, same old.

I rolled my eyes.

“You know, since our families are so convinced that we’re together, we should just lie and say that we are. Then they might actually leave us alone.”

I’d said it as a joke, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I dropped my fork and almost screamed.

“That’s it!”

People at the tables around us stared for a second before going back to their own meals.

Danny rolled her eyes. “H, be serious.”

“No, I am. This would solve all our problems. We’re already comfortable with each other. It would be so easy. Just pretend we’re together to get everyone off our backs and then we can say we went back to being friends in January or something.” We could cross that bridge when we needed to. Right now, our main mission was dealing with our families and this was the perfect solution. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before.

“Danny, this could work!”

Why wasn’t she jumping up and down with me? Not that I was jumping, but I was definitely bouncing in the booth.

Danny kept staring at me as if she was waiting for me to say I was joking. I wasn’t.

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