Page 4 of A Christmas Mystery

If he can’t appreciate who I am, then he’s the only one it affects. I won’t let it bother me anymore.

“Okay,” I say, more glibly than I normally speak. “It was lovely to see you again, but Tee and I have to get going. Have a good day and a merry Christmas.”

He kind of grunts. Maybe that’s an answer. But it’s clearly all I’m getting from him.

I take Tee’s arm and maneuver her out of the shop before she decides to cause any trouble.

“A very shy young man, I believe,” Tee says when we’re out on the sidewalk.

I gasp and shoot her a surprised look. “Shy? No, not really. Rude is how I would describe him.”

Tee gives a funny little laugh. “Is that what you think?”

“Of course that’s what I think. He’s always been that way with me—even back in school before I started dating Chris. It’s not just that he didn’t think I was a good match for his friend. He simply doesn’t like me.”

A memory hits me then of the first time I remember Theo existing. I was in the sixth grade, and he was two grades above me in the same class as Chris. I didn’t know either of them back then. I had a few friends but was never popular since I was new in town, my family wasn’t wealthy in very wealthy Green Valley, and most people thought we were kind of odd.

But one afternoon some boys in my class were being mean to me, making fun of my clothes and that I spent every spare minute scribbling pictures in a notebook. One of them took my notebook from me and flipped through it, laughing meanly about my drawings.

Theo was striding by just then, and he elbowed the boy without even glancing over at him. The notebook dropped, and one glare from Theo, who was big and broad-shouldered even then, sent the other boys running.

He picked up my notebook and handed it to me. I smiled at him, shaky and touched and confused by the incident.

I did manage to say thank you, but he only shrugged and stared at me. I waited because it seemed like he was going to say something, but he never did.

He eventually shrugged again and walked off.

Over the years, I thought about that encounter, trying to fit it into my larger understanding of him. I tried smiling at him a few times after that. I wasn’t flirting—definitely not—just trying to be nice since he’d helped me. But he never smiled back and never tried to talk to me.

When I started dating Chris in my sophomore year of high school, he finally began speaking to me but never in a friendly or genuine way. More like an unpleasant duty because of my connection to his best friend.

All I’ve been able to come up with in terms of an explanation is that Theo isn’t a bad guy. He’s a decent man who wants to help people who need it. He went to law school, and instead of taking a high-paying job, he became a public defender so he could help the people who need it the most.

That’s probably how he viewed his rescue of me all those years ago. I needed help, so he helped me.

But that didn’t mean he liked me then, and he definitely doesn’t like me now.

I don’t know why, but it’s a fact of life that is clearly never going to change.

It doesn’t matter. Other people like me. My life isn’t defined by the one person who doesn’t.

So Theo Humphrey can fade into my past. I’m not going to let him distract me from my otherwise enjoyable day.

He simply doesn’t matter anymore.

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