Page 7 of Flown in for Christmas

“I have to go.” I hang up the phone before I say something I’ll regret. None of his excuses are going to make me feel better anyhow. This is so typical Emmett Bell. I should’veknown.

My parents finalized their divorce in the middle of the holidays eight years ago. I had just turned seventeen, while my brother, Emmett, was nineteen at the time. The holidays haven’t been the same ever since.

My favorite time of the year simply became chaotic traveling and who-goes-where and who-wants-what. It went from a time of love and family to one of inconvenience and distance.

My father took a job in New York, while my mother stayed in California and remarried within the year to start a new family. It was a shock to the system you could say when she announced she was expecting.

Emmett stayed in California, close to where we grew up so he could pursue his dream of becoming a director, while I headed off to college in Texas for advertising. We’ve tried our best to remain close since we rarely see each other anymore, but it seems my big brother doesn’t have the same family drive as I do.

None of my family does.

Tapping my phone in my hands, I think for a minute. I’m in LA with nowhere to stay four days before Christmas. Hotel prices are ridiculous. Airbnbs are full. Icouldask Emmett if I can still stay at his place, but I’m so angry with him right now, I know we’d just be fighting the few seconds he bothered to grace me with his presence. It’s not even worth it.

There’s only one other person I know still in California, though. So I make the call. It takes three rings for my mom to pick up the phone. “Hello?”

“Surprise!” I laugh, feeling delirious from the lack of sleep. “I’m in LA visiting Emmett, and I was wondering—”

“Madison, don’t pull your sister’s hair,” she calls out in the background. “Sorry, what did you say?”

I bite my lip, feeling shockingly uncomfortable talking to my mother for the first time in months. “Um, I’m in town. So, I thought—”

“Oh, you should’ve called, Joy. Dan and I took the girls to Disney for Christmas. We won’t be home until the twenty-ninth.”

I could throw up right now. “Oh.”

There’s a faint commotion on the other end, then crying. “Sorry, hon, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Merry Christmas,” she pushes out before the line goes silent.

I lean against a pillar in the middle of baggage claim as the tears fall.

I feel so stupid right now. So, so stupid. Stupidandalone for Christmas.

And you know what’s even worse? My luggage is nowhere in sight.

“There has to be something you can do,” I say to the desk agent. “My luggage is god knows where, my flights have been either delayed or canceled. I’ve been stuck here forhours. There must be a connecting flight somewhere, anywhere, to get me back to Dallas.”

The woman shakes her head, smacking her lips. “Sorry, dear, there’s nothing to Dallas until tomorrow night. I can try to find you a hotel, but with the holiday season…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Everything is full.” I bite my lip as I try to think.

“Hey, lady, are you done?” a man waiting impatiently behind me snaps. “Some of us have planes to catch.”

I sigh, utterly defeated. “Right, sorry.” I grab my carry-on and move to the side, letting the next person in line go.

I suppose I could just wait…In the airport overnight?Even the thought has me cringing.

I need a flight home. Or hot shower and a bed, at the very least.

My phone rings and I quickly fish it out, hoping it’s someone calling to tell me a seat opened last minute on an earlier flight—but it’s not. It’s my boss of all people.

Deep breaths, Joy, deep breaths.

I answer. “Mr. Davis, hi—”

“Joy! Fuck. I’ve been trying to call you for the last half hour,” he pushes out in a single breath.Did he just use my first name?“Where are you right now?”

He sounds a little panicked, but I don’t want to point that out in case it’s just my exhaustion getting to me. “Is everything okay, Mr. Davis?”

“I need you to come to Wisconsin. How soon could you be on a flight to Green Bay?”

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