Page 78 of Pity Present

Francie opens the box before sliding the frame out. “Just hit the power button on the side of the frame,” I tell her.

As soon as she does, pictures of yesterday start popping up. Tears immediately stream down her face. This is my cue to leave, so I quietly stand up and walk away, giving this little family some privacy.

As I walk across the room toward the lobby, I can’t help but feel grateful and humbled by how beautiful life is. No family deserves the kind of heartache that Ben’s family is experiencing, and yet they’re doing their best to really live in the moment and make the most of each other. I wish people would do that before there was a crisis.

Then, as though some kind of horrible magic has occurred, I look up and watch as my sister Ellen walks through the front doors. What in the world is she doing here?

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

MOLLY

I cannot believe my eyes. Running across the lobby, I call out, “Ellen?”

She looks up and spots me. “Molly,” she says sternly like she’s mad at me.

“What are you doing here?” I demand.

“I’m here to get my money back,” she replies heatedly.

I feel like I’ve landed back in the middle of one of my crazy dreams from last night. “What money? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about my Christmas gift to you. It turns out it’s a dud.”

“What Christmas gift?” I’m so confused right now.

“I bought you a spot at Trina’s singles’ event.”

My head starts to spin. “No, they had a cancellation, and I was asked to fill in as a replacement.”

“That’s the excuse Trina and I concocted because I knew you’d never come here otherwise,” Ellen announces.

“But I’ve been hired to do a job here.”

“The job is for real,” she says. “Trina just scheduled you for it at the same time as her singles’ event to get you here.”

“So, what?” I ask skeptically. “This was some kind of pity present or something?” I don’t know whether to be mad or happy. I mean, things have turned out spectacularly well for me, so I should be feeling a world of gratitude. But at the same time, I really hate that my sister has been feeling sorry for me. Or worse yet, convinced that I could never find someone on my own and rooked someone else into her matchmaking shenanigans.

“I wouldn’t call it a pity present,” Ellen says. “It’s more like some outside help to get you back into the land of the living. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.”

“But it did,” I tell her. “As much as I can’t believe you did this, I met a really nice man.”

“A barista …” she hisses like he’s a freeloader or a bum.

“Oh, my god, Ellen. You are such a snob.”

“I just want to make sure that whoever you wind up with is your equal,” she says. “Now, are you going to show me to our room or are we going to stand here all day?”

“You’re stayingwithme?”

“You told me I could.” She reminds me, “On the day you left, you invited me to join you.”

“Yeah, but you were going to be with Henry …”Shoot, I temporarily forgot about Henry.

I take her suitcase from her and start to roll it in the direction of the elevator. We walk side by side in a cloud of frustration and anger. I’m frustrated with Ellen and she’s so angry at me.

Once we get to the second floor, I lead the way to my room. Opening the door, I walk in and declare, “We’ll have to call down and see if they can send up a cot.”

“If you want to sleep on a cot, then call them,” she says challengingly. “But I’m sleeping in the bed.”

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